The Silo Plot Hole That Ruined the Whole Show Has Been There Since Season 1

Silo has kept viewers on the edge of their seats for two seasons now, and it’s safe to say that world building and gripping storytelling are part of its success.

It would seem that with such high quality work from the writers, there should be no room for plot holes.

However, Reddit user maxx1993 found a huge discrepancy that only gets bigger the longer you think about it:

“If I'm not fundamentally mistaken, the founders basically doomed the silos to fail with their design.”

And this is an observation that really undermines the whole logic of the silo structure.

Cleaning the Lens Is One of the Punishments for Silo Inhabitants

We all remember how the first season of Silo ended. Juliette is put into a protective suit, and when she leaves the bunker, she sees a beautiful world, but she suspects that it is all a hologram.

According to the Mayor's plan, the woman will die from the poisoned air. Previously, he had given the people damaged suits, but this time the trick did not work: Juliette's friends sealed the holes with duct tape.

The woman survives and gets to places where no one has been before. The hologram turns off and Juliette sees a withering world and many bunkers.

Although we have been shown the punishment process more than once – which includes cleaning the lens – the Season 1 finale with Juliette revealing the deception makes you wonder. Why would the silo administration deceive people doomed to die, and what is the purpose of cleaning the lens?

Why Would People Think That Cleaning the Lens Would Change Anything?

The inhabitants of the bunker see the image of the lens all their lives – it is a lifeless desert. It can be assumed that people who come to the surface clean the lens so that those who remain underground can see the "real image" – greenery and blue sky.

Do people who have been looking at the post-apocalyptic landscape for years, and who have repeatedly observed the process of cleaning the lens before, suddenly begin to believe that it is the dust and dirt accumulated on the lens that prevents them from seeing what is really happening on the surface?

This seems to be the main motivation for those who clean, but it is hard to imagine that even a person who has lived underground for decades would suddenly come to such a conclusion.

Deceiving the Punished Is a Pointless Risk for Bunker Leadership

In addition, the deception with the hologram creates unnecessary risks for the leadership of the silo. If the punishment process goes wrong, as it did with Ron Tucker, who wrote the word "Lie" on the lens, then the entire stable structure of the bunker society is at risk.

All it takes for a rebellion is a small spark, and by deceiving those who come out, the leadership literally risks destroying the entire population of the silo.