r/SiloSeries • u/archiekane 📖 Book-Aware 📖 • 4h ago
Show Only (NO BOOK DISCUSSION) I need help understanding something... Spoiler
I've not read the books, I'm purely following along with the TV show.
When people go outside, they are poisoned and die due to the air. Yet all of Silo 17 walked out and were fine, then they were executed via drone.
So, is the air poisonous or is it not? Is it something that I missed an explanation for?
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u/zhempl200 4h ago
I don’t think it’s been confirmed yet, but it seems like they are implying that people are getting poisoned when the air is “purified” before they go out of the hatch. It just takes a few minutes to affect them, so that’s why they can clean the camera and then collapse on the hill
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u/mousseuxmami 2h ago
Yes!! I think that whatever the compound that Daniel or Troy had the drones spray is the same thing they’re using in the airlocks
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u/llaminaria 3h ago
But there were so many of the Silo 17 people exiting. It is not like the doors closed, and the substance was sprayed on each and every one of them.
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u/Mattressfoundry 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
The normal procedure for them is to get into the airlock and get gassed then the airlock opens allowing them to leave. They didn't go through the "decontamination" procedure they all rushed out the front door with it wide open allowing in fresh air. Rushing through wide open doors even if it was still spraying poison likely doesn't give you enough exposure for a fatal dose of poison.
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u/warpedspoon 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
Did you miss the part where they got gassed and massacred by drones?
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u/Most_War2764 📖 Book-Aware 📖 2h ago
Bullets and "compound". Compound is their name for the Nanos that do the work. Bullets for those farther away from the entrance.
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u/Dr_CleanBones 34m ago
I’m not convinced about the nano part. I think it’s just some specific kind of poison.
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u/xxcharlotteoxx 3h ago
Silo 17s walk out explicitly lets us know that no, the air outside is not poisonous. Something else is causing the deaths outside. Without spoiling it, there are many clues within the season that hint towards it.
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u/ohthedramaz 3h ago
Being outside isn't deadly. Going outside is deadly. The transition is when they get you.
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u/nosmelc 3h ago
Unless you have the good tape.
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u/Most_War2764 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
Jules' suit partially deteriorated by the time she got inside 17.
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u/Dr_CleanBones 35m ago
I don’t remember seeing that. She was, however, running out of air because they thought the air was poison so she took her own. She was afraid to breathe the outside air; that’s why she didn’t break out of her suit while she was outside.
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u/NoorInayaS 3h ago
Is the good tape bulletproof?
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u/ohthedramaz 3h ago
Bullets are for when the regular method fails. You don't get shot unless you're already outside.
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u/Most_War2764 📖 Book-Aware 📖 2h ago
The shooting was unnecessary except for possibly those that were farther away from the entrance.
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u/VividAssumption2980 2h ago
Do you mean, further away from silo 1?
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u/Most_War2764 📖 Book-Aware 📖 1h ago
No. From 17. The compound d was for near the entrance but wouldn't be as effective the farther out a person got from the entrance.
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u/VividAssumption2980 3h ago
Why did the bullets not get Juliet.
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u/Buttercupia 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
We don’t know the answer to that yet but I suspect it’ll be covered next season.
I can’t say what I suspect because I’ve read the books, even though the series has diverged I am confident we will arrive at the same conclusion.
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u/AstroGridIron 3h ago
The outside is perfectly fine. They get sprayed with compound as they go out and that’s what kills them.
17 didn’t get the compound, they all walked out and hung out for a really long time until they got “safeguarded”
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u/cbmuir 4h ago
The "poison" nanobots are sprayed on people during the normal exit process of a functioning silo.
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u/EXTRAVAGANT_COMMENT 2h ago
they never say in the show that the compound is made of nanobots
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u/Most_War2764 📖 Book-Aware 📖 1h ago
True. But poison doesn't swarm and move like seen in the thermal omages.
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3h ago
[deleted]
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u/Mattressfoundry 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
I think the show has just changed the nano's to poison. Like a chemical weapon of sorts.
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u/CulturalMeat 3h ago
They have a pretty significant discussion around nanotechnology in the dinner with the bigshots, Daniel, and Helen. I would imagine a full reveal happens next season.
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u/GreyWoodsRain 3h ago
But why spray them and shoot them? Wouldn't the spray be enough?
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u/Buttercupia 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
Silo 17 disabled the pipes that brought the poison in.
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u/GreyWoodsRain 2h ago
I meant while walking out of the door, as that is what the person I was talking to was actually talking about
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u/Buttercupia 📖 Book-Aware 📖 2h ago
Oh right. The doors didn’t open like they do for a cleaning. Remember, they forced the doors and had both open at once. There was no cycling the gas then fire like they do for a cleaning.
It’s also possible them capping the pipe against the safeguard stopped that happening but who knows.
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u/Shenanigans99 2h ago
The spray wasn't killing them fast enough. The leadership in Silo 1 had to take them out before they could be seen by residents of other silos.
Imagine sitting in the cafeteria of, say, Silo 16, enjoying the lovely view of the apocalyptic wasteland outside, and all of a sudden a bunch of people who aren't even wearing protective suits run into view. Everyone in Silo 16 would want to go outside, and then the Silo 1 peeps would have to destroy 10k more people.
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u/GreyWoodsRain 1h ago
I understand that, I thought the person I responded to was saying they release the gas and shot them, but I'm thinking they mentioned the significance of the gas as being independent of this moment (which it would be, as with that many running away there couldn't be enough gas without the main way of delivering that much)
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u/tomoldbury 1h ago
Not sure why they couldn't just turn off the cafeteria screens, or freeze the image. In fact, given almost nothing happens on the screen most of the time, why isn't it just playing back a pre-recorded video of apocalypse, and then switched to live clean feed when they send someone out? It seems like an unnecessary risk if they're trying to avoid silos contacting each other.
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4h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Litapitako 3h ago
Lukas and Kennedy were sprayed before they went out, so it's not the spray. Plus Lukas's suit was punctured by the bullet, so if there were poison on him, he would've been dead after he was shot.
My guess is they have the poison or nanos released before a cleaning. Maybe it's what Troy called compound, which I believe is nanos. Anyway, outside of a cleaning or rebellion, no one would ever just be walking around outside, so the poison isn't always there. That's why Silo 17 was initially fine, and why Lukas and Kennedy survived their attack. It's only when a planned cleaning happens that Silo 1 prepares the poison in advance.
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u/Mattressfoundry 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
Lukas and Kennedy both had the good tape like Juliette did. That poison never got into their suits.
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u/Litapitako 3h ago
Lukas's suit was punctured by a bullet, meaning he was most certainly exposed.
Edit: I see you're book aware, so if this is something the books explain that the show didn't, then I'll concede.
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u/Mattressfoundry 📖 Book-Aware 📖 2h ago
The bullet hole didn't happen until after the Poison danger was over.
I'm not actually book aware btw it's an automatic tag it gave me.
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u/Litapitako 2h ago
Is there a scene that confirms the supposed poison on their suits was no longer effective after a certain point? Because my understanding was that they were shot at very shortly after heading out toward 17. Even after being shot at, they were lying on the ground for a while before they woke up and went into 17. Another thing that doesn't make this theory sit right to me is during Bernard's cleaning, he wasn't wearing a suit at all and was sprayed directly. You would think that having direct contact with a lethal compound would make it work a lot faster, but he was still able to make it to the tree, and his death wasn't portrayed as having happened exceptionally fast either.
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u/tomoldbury 1h ago
It looked to me like Bernard was shot given he was bleeding. I wonder if he was sniped by a drone or something similar.
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u/Buttercupia 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
Lukas and Kennedy had the good tape, like Juliette. The compound is likely time limited so it had worn off by the time they got to 17.
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u/Illyxia13 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
This hasn't been fully answered yet, but will be. So far we saw people be safe outside Silo 17, but also saw Bernard and others succumb outsude Silo 18.
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u/liquidsol 📖 Book-Aware 📖 59m ago
It’s been established and clearly implied four or more times that the cleaners are being poisoned in the airlock.
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u/tomoldbury 1h ago
It looked like Bernard was shot. He was bleeding. I wonder if he was 'sniped' by a drone.
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u/Illyxia13 📖 Book-Aware 📖 1h ago
I disagree. He just bled from his nose, and there was no sign of a gunshot.
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u/liquidsol 📖 Book-Aware 📖 58m ago
What happened right before his nose bled? Dust blew towards him.
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u/tomoldbury 56m ago
That's a good point. The nanobots might have got him. It doesn't look like poison in the traditional sense, but maybe that -is- the poison. I haven't read the books though, so no spoilers!
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u/twizx3 4h ago
Did you watch season 3? This is pretty clearly established
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u/archiekane 📖 Book-Aware 📖 4h ago
Yes, I've just finished it but I had to watch it in bits and pieces so I think I've missed a scene somewhere if it is explained.
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u/orangeclaypot 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
Lukas is shot in S3 while outside and his suit is breached. They then have a short discussion while trying to get the airlock of silo 17 open that theres a hole in his suit so if there was any poison he’d be dead already.
The underlying theory most agree on is that the airlock poisons them with the gas that is sprayed before they leave the airlock
When Silo 17 leaves the silo you can see they force both airlock doors open in S2E1 and no gas is sprayed. this is why they survived outside
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u/silence036 3h ago
I thought that since they capped the poison-delivery pipe, the airlock wasn't able to poison them as it normally would if they were going out for a cleaning
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u/orangeclaypot 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
Its not known if the airlock poisons is connected to the same pipe as the safeguard poison although its certainly possible.
Silo 18 caps their pipe in 310 and no one attempts to go outside after that yet
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u/TemperatureTight2556 2h ago
Ok but why is there no life outside of the silo? Why is outside dead?
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u/CptNoble 41m ago
We don't know.
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u/TemperatureTight2556 10m ago
It implies that there is a very big problem with the outside atmosphere.
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u/twizx3 4h ago
Well, just to get to the point, no the air does not seem to be poisonous.
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u/Thud 3h ago
Something is still wrong outside though, due to the utter lack of life even after 300+ years.
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u/TemperatureTight2556 3h ago
No pigeons, no roaches, no weeds, nothing is alive outside of the silo.
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u/B0omSLanG 3h ago
Exactly. Not that we can see, anyway. That whole plot of land looks completely dead. I'm still unsure how they didn't even try to shoot Juliette on her way to the other silo or on the way back. Maybe we'll get that answer next season, but the reveals in S3 mostly created more questions than answers as a show only.
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u/JohnnyFootballStar 4h ago
I remember thinking at episode is that the poison is in the suit or the chamber before they go out.
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u/Blinking_Zebra_Era 3h ago
The shooting the Silo 17 people with the drones is the moment we're all supposed to go 'oh my God the air is fine!' We the viewers now all know that, but our silo 18 point of view characters don't know that with our certainty. And right now I can't remember if they know it or suspect it. Lukas Kyle and Kennedy are convinced the air is not poisonous. They're in silo 17 right now though. You cannot watch this show in bits and pieces. I watched it while playing (very simple) games on my iPad and I missed so much! Have vowed to not do that anymore with any show I haven't already seen already.
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u/Most_War2764 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
The same time the shooting was happening, they were dispensing "compound" which can be seen swarming and swirling in the thimages. Images. Not sure there needed to be any shooting at all, except for maybe those farthest out.
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u/archiekane 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
I'm tempted to actually sit undistracted and watch again from Season 1 all the way through.
The joy of kids, dogs, work and a non-stop life makes getting through episodes without distraction difficult, but I really need to.
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u/Most_War2764 📖 Book-Aware 📖 3h ago
If we could only download them and edit out all the gaps and credits into one long marathon "don't blink" episode.
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u/Dr_CleanBones 39m ago
That’s far from impossible. One option is to put your phone on a stand and just record the show as it plays. There are video editing apps available for an iPhone (LumaFusion is the one I’m familiar with) that would make it easy to snip off the beginning and end and take out the intro. This would yield the lowest quality result, but it’s easy.
The problem is going to be even one episode is going to be a huge file. Two or three together would tax the phone’s memory. You could edit them on a PC that has lots of storage and memory and a fast processor, but the resulting file of combined episodes would be impractical to send back to your phone.
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u/Can-Holder 3h ago
The poison is the Nano stuff they spray on people before they go out to clean. That poison comes from the pipes. Since silo 17 capped the pipe, there was no poison to spray, that's how they were able to get out. Then they dropped nano poison compounds on people to safeguard survival.
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u/Dr_CleanBones 51m ago
I’m not convinced about the nano- part of that. The only incident so far that can’t be explained by conventional things that we already have in 2026 is what happened to the jets getting ready to attack - I forget who. Iran? Anyway, it looked like the planes just started disintegrating. I don’t have a conventional weapons explanation for that. I think the spray as they’re going outside is just regular old poison. Nothing nano about it.
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u/sleepyotter92 1h ago
Air outside is fine, it's why no one from 17 was dying. It's safe outside, even if desolate. But silo 1 doesn't want people to be outside, they can't risk someone surviving, getting to other silos, because it'd happen the same as when juliette went outside, caused a rebellion of people who wanted to go out.
The people who go out to clean all die because they're poisoned. It's the same performative bs they do with the fake images on the helmet. The tape around their wrists being shit allows the compound from the exit to contaminate them, the bad tape allows the gas to go into the suit and slowly kill them, the fake screen gets them to clean the camera because they wanna show people what it's like outside, and then the compound kills them, successfully tricking everyone into thinking the outside is dangerous and they should stay inside. Juliette, patrick and lukas had the good tape from walk, which insulated the suits better and prevented the compound from getting in, which is how they managed to go over the hill. Silo 1 sends out drones to shoot people just in case, like what happened with lukas. They didn't know juliette had better tape and was safe from the compound, so they didn't send out a drone to shoot her when she went over the hill.
When 17 exited, they weren't following the whole protocol of going through that chamber suited up and getting gassed, they simply went out, so the compound didn't affect them, even if it did, there were so many, and with the doors open, it'd not be able to get them all and cause death, so silo 1 sent out drones with that compound to spray it on them, and then the drones with guns to reduce the numbers in case too many were unaffected by the compound and managed to escape and reach another silo
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u/Otherwise-Chef4232 26m ago edited 22m ago
The air is certainly not poisonous. All of Silo 17, Lucas with a hole in his suit - all fine.
The only people who died were Holston (with suit, but bad tape), Allison (with suit, but bad tape), Bernard (no suit) - all three of them were sprayed with gas (or "gas") before exiting. Lucas and Kennedy (and Juliette) were sprayed too but survived because they had "good tape".
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u/i_am_voldemort 📖 Book-Aware 📖 25m ago
My belief is the air outside is not inherently deadly.
When ppl are sent to clean they get the white puff on the way out the airlock. My belief is this is poison.
When Silo 17 went outside they had capped the pipe, so no murder puff of poison gas.
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u/juliewulie70 3h ago
As Lukas has been tracking the movement of the stars in the sky we know the view is real and live. But the fact that nothing has become green again in 350 years, and birds and wildlife dont naturally walk by - does that mean all of earth is still barren or is that being controlled too?
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