For a couple of years now, Silo fans have been speculating about the significance of a Pez Dispenser. And while the Season 2 finale provided a bit of an origin story for it, Episode 2 of Season 3, “It’s All Good”, seems to have revealed its true significance. It’s all part of the fiction’s weaponization of memory, a potential false-flag dirty bomb, and, I expect, the nanobots that were ambiguously introduced in the Season 3 premiere.
Tying everything together takes a bit of effort. But I do believe that we have the majority of the pieces we’re going to need to put together a proper theory on what is happening and how an everyday household object can become a “relic” of special significance. Let’s break everything down as best we can.
The Weaponization of Memory
In the flashback sequences of the most recent episode, Charlotte Keene found herself under the specialised care of Dr. Crnkovich, a controversial figure who had developed treatments that could wipe out traumatic memories and essentially reprogram people with more amenable recollections. Through Helen, we learn that his work was tested on prison populations before being used to wipe the slate clean for traumatized combat veterans on behalf of the Department of Defence.
Thanks to Senator Thurman, Crnkovich is now in control of rebuilding Charlotte’s memory. Based on his own tragic backstory, the method was presumably devised as a way to provide a psychological escape hatch from traumatic memories. But in the right hands, it’s clearly a powerful tool of control.
In Silo 18, the Algorithm explains to Camille that there have been six separate “resets” of the population, including Silo 18 itself, 140 years prior. It seems quite obvious that through Crnkovich we have been introduced to the “origin” of the drugs that are being used to control Juliette in the present day – and that, perhaps, are going to find their way into the water supply.
Mirror Match
Silo Season 3 isn’t being subtle about how it’s mirroring Charlotte Keene and Juliette’s respective bouts of amnesia. We’re seeing how the same process plays out hundreds of years apart. Even though the precise circumstances are a little different, what we’re seeing is two women trapped within the same oppressive architecture, with their own memories being used against them.
Charlotte has been trapped by her government. Her mind has been wiped, presumably deliberately, and her memories are being rebuilt under the guise of healing by certain pre-approved people, notably Crnkovich and Daniel. Meanwhile, Juliette has also been trapped by the “government” of the Silo, namely Judge Robert Sims and his wife, Camille, and is being gaslit into believing a false reality fed to her through doctored video recordings and false testimony.
In both situations, memory has become compromised, and the truth is being manipulated to suit a wider agenda and normalise a false narrative. As the Algorithm points out to Camille, though, the drugs can only erase the past. For Juliette, and presumably for Charlotte, there’s no plan for keeping her on the rails if she disbelieves the official narrative. At that point she becomes surplus to requirements, more trouble than she’s worth, and has to be removed.
What Needs to Be Forgotten?
Given the circumstances, it’s fairly obvious that, in the past, it was important for Charlotte to forget everything she knew about the conflict with Iran. Helen reveals to Daniel that she was already suspicious about the retaliatory strike, since it seems like the U.S. government staged the dirty bomb attack that served as a pretext for it.
In the present day, the Algorithm needs Juliette to forget about the existence of Silo 17 – and potentially many others – and that the world outside is much safer than people have been led to believe. The status quo has to be maintained, and Juliette’s knowledge is a direct threat to it.
In both cases, the powers-that-be are deliberately controlling memory to obscure their own activities. The Iran cover-up suggests that whatever apocalypse that wiped out mankind was deliberately orchestrated, and thus that the creation of the Silos, and their ongoing function as maintained by the Algorithm, was all part of the plan.
The Significance of the Pez Dispenser
With everything we’ve learned about the nature of Dr. Crnkovich’s work and how the Silo continues to weaponize memory as a form of control, the Pez dispenser takes on an additional layer of significance. Previously, it just seemed like an example of how a random everyday piece of tat could take on mythologised significance centuries later. But given how we’ve established that physical objects can be used as triggers to regain specific memories, it has become a potential totem for holding onto the truth.
Naturally, it also implies that Helen was once a citizen of Silo 18, and that she took the Pez dispenser with her. She was likely one of the people, like Juliette, for whom the memory suppression drugs don’t always work, and it could quite easily be that the Pez dispenser allowed her to hold onto some of the knowledge from the past that the Silo was trying to erase.
This is why it’s so important for the Algorithm to destroy the relics and why being in possession of one carries such a steep penalty. They’re not just a reminder of the past but, in some cases, a direct tether to it. They represent the boundary line of the illusion that the Silos have to maintain to function.
