In Season 3, Silo has flipped the script on the power structures at work within Silo 18. It has been three months since the Season 2 finale, and in that time, the sinister, inscrutable Algorithm has been working behind the scenes to maintain order. An amnesiac Juliette is now the tokenistic mayor, but the real string-puller is not Robert Sims, as he likes to pretend, but his wife, Camille, who is liaising with the Algorithm directly and following its instructions.
The internet is awash with theories about the Algorithm’s true nature and ultimate intentions, so we’ve rounded up most of the major talking points to provide more of a shape to what might really be going on (and how it might connect to the nanobot problem).
The Algorithm Is In Charge
Putting aside any lingering questions about the Algorithm itself, the Season 3 premiere makes it very clear that it’s running things in Silo 18. It also stands to reason that it was also running things back when Bernard was, and presumably all the way before that. But its tactics and hiring mentality are pretty curious.
Robert Sims seemed like the go-to guy to be in charge of Silo 18 following Bernard’s death (at his hands, it turns out), but the Algorithm didn’t want anything to do with him. Instead, it settled on his wife, Camille, for reasons that we can probably figure out with a bit of thought.
It’s at the Algorithm’s instruction that Camille is feeding Juliette memory suppressants disguised as vitamins, and by the end of the premiere, the Algorithm has instructed that she double the dose to prevent Juliette from having any more minor flashbacks. I would hazard a guess that Billings’s rewriting of the Pact is also happening under the express instructions of the Algorithm, though probably using Camille as an intermediary.
Why Has the Algorithm Chosen Camille?
While this is a question with many potential answers, I think the likeliest are also the most obvious. Camille is easily manipulated, since all it takes is threats against her family to make her play ball. She doesn’t have any ambitions for leadership of her own, unlike Robert.
There’s also the possibility that the Algorithm is learning as it goes, and that it has learned from prior experiences that men don’t make great leaders. This was evidenced by Bernard’s failures and the Algorithm’s rejection of Robert. But Juliette also supports this idea, since she’s the only person to ever be sent to clean and subsequently return, which completely upends the fiction the Founders cooked up to keep everyone in the Silos.
The Algorithm’s Purpose Might Be to Kill Everyone
There are many theories about the nature of the Algorithm itself, but the most compelling are variations on the same idea. It’s obviously designed to keep the occupants of the Silos alive, but it also has specific safeguards in place designed to kill them all in huge numbers. If you remember, Juliette and Solo figured this out in Season 2.
Not only does the Algorithm have this feature, but it knows it has it and will use it to threaten citizens into acting on its behalf, as with Lukas Kyle. But why does it have the capacity to kill everyone? Popular theories suggest that it is a way to eradicate the populations of Silos that get too close to the truth, and also that it’s a way to kill off Silos that are deemed unworthy of repopulating a cleaned Earth, which is the prevailing theory about why the Silos exist in the first place.
This theory radically reshapes the idea of the Algorithm in general, since if all the Silos are not intended to survive, then the Algorithm is not their keeper, as it sometimes postures as, but their executioner. It’s a much more sinister contour and could perhaps explain why anyone who has discovered this truth seems to have been driven partially mad by it.
The Algorithm Connects All the Silos
There’s nothing specific about the Algorithm as it relates to Silo 18, so the most logical theory is that the same program monitors all 50 siloes at once. It monitors everything simultaneously and is designed to stamp out signs of rebellion, such as removing evidence of the hidden tunnels. In the worst case, it deploys the Safeguard to wipe a Silo out.
This also suggests that the Algorithm is probably stored in a kind of central hub location, possibly Silo 1, and is either an interface through which the still-living descendants of the Founders communicate or a fully autonomous AI program, perhaps one comprising the nanobots (that we’ve discussed elsewhere). Is the Algorithm operating solely according to the Founders’ instructions, or has it gone rogue?
These are big questions to be addressed down the line. In the meantime, though, the only thing we know for certain is that the Algorithm, through Camille, is definitely running things in Silo 18. At least, that is, until Juliette gets her memory back. Then all bets are off.
