Silo season 1’s ending is the best kind of sci-fi promise

polygon.com:

From the very start, Silo has been a mystery show. What was the Silo government doing with its birth control? What did they know about life beyond the door to the outside? Who was behind all these murders? What could Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) do about it?

Season 1 ends with some resolutions. But ultimately what season 1 ends with is a lot more questions — and frankly, that’s for the best. The arc of Hugh Howey’s Wool series promises a lot more sci-fi intrigue than we got in Silo season 1. And the ending of season 1 promises a much bigger, more complicated season 2.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for the end of Silo season 1, and some discussion of the first book in the Silo series, Wool.]

In a certain light, Silo season 1 is burdened by all its conspiracies. Luckily (or unluckily, for her), Juliette manages to untangle most of them in just a few weeks as sheriff. The government has been effectively controlling the population by keeping some people sterile. Robert (Common) and Judicial have been surveilling the Silo and controlling the citizens through a mix of espionage, brutal force, and bureaucratic nonsense. George’s death was actually suicide, trying to escape Judicial’s clutches. And the new mayor Bernard (Tim Robbins) has been colluding with Robert to keep the Silo population placated and in the dark.

But the full extent of their control isn’t something Juliette, or the audience, fully understand. After all, we get hints that the denizens of the Silo might be getting drugged so they forget the outside world (explaining why no one remembers what “stars” are, even after just a little over a hundred years underground). It’s not something Silo really gets into — yet — but it seems in line with the