'Silo' Creator on Why Memory Is Key to Understanding the Series

Information has always been a form of power in Silo. But in the third season of the Apple TV series, another tool of control becomes even more important: memory.

In an exclusive interview with Omelete, creator and showrunner Graham Yost explained why remembering who we are—and especially where we come from—is at the heart of the story. 

“If you can control memory... There’s a line from Victor in the second episode of Season 3 where he asks himself: ‘Who are we without our memories?’”, Yost recalled.

The question takes on different meanings throughout the season. Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) has to rebuild part of her own identity, while the population of Silo 18 faces a system willing to manipulate even their memories to preserve order.

• 'Silo' Creator Says Season 3 Finale Is One of the Works He’s Most Proud Of

For Yost, our identity is built precisely by what we live through: “The stories we tell ourselves about ourselves define who we are”, he explained. 

And taking those stories away from someone can also turn them into a completely different person. “If that is taken away from us... well, you can control people and turn them into whatever you want, because they no longer know who they are.” 

It’s worth remembering that since the first season, relics from the past have been forbidden, books and historical records have disappeared, and the population knows very little about the people who built the silos or the world that existed before them.

And in the third season, the series turns forgetting into something even more concrete. Discovering the past stops being just a curiosity about the origin of the silos and comes to mean recovering an identity that was deliberately taken from their inhabitants. 

And with a fourth and final season confirmed, knowing who controls that memory may be just as important as discovering what exists outside. 

Everything you need to know about Silo

Created by Graham Yost and based on the books by Hugh Howey, Silo follows a society of around 10,000 people living in a massive underground structure, unaware of humanity’s true history or what made the outside world seemingly uninhabitable.

Rebecca Ferguson plays Juliette Nichols and also serves as an executive producer. The cast also includes Common, Harriet Walter, Alexandria Riley, Ashley Zukerman, Jessica Henwick and Tim Robbins.

The first three seasons of Silo are available on Apple TV. A fourth season has already been confirmed and will bring the series to a close.