Rebecca Ferguson-starrer Silo, Apple TV’s critical and audience hit, is dropping the first episode of Season 2 on November 15 and we can’t keep calm. Here’s a recap of the first season of one of the best sci-fi shows in recent times, and what to expect from season two.

What is Silo?

Based on the Silo trilogy (Wool, Shift and Dust) of novels by Hugh Howey, the web series Silo is about a dystopian apocalyptic future where a community of 10,000 people live in an underground silo, a subterranean city with 144 levels that act as class segregators. There are no records of a time before the silo. Silo residents believe that the world outside the silo is barren and the atmosphere toxic.

The silo is bound by strict rules and regulations, the cardinal rule being that anyone who expresses a desire to go outside has to follow through. The act is called ‘the cleaning’, where the person is sent outside into the barren land and toxic atmosphere that can be seen through the only sensor outside the silo and has to wipe the sensor clean. And it usually means sure death.

Who are the main characters?

Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson): An engineer who works on the generator in the ‘Down Deep’, the lowest levels of the silo. Born in the ‘Mids’, she leaves her home after her mother and brother die. Romantically involved with George Wilkins, an IT guy who runs a repair shop and collects forbidden relics from the past, she stumbles upon the secrets of the silo while looking into George’s death. She is appointed Sheriff of the silo by her predecessor who was helping her.

Holston Becker (David Oyelowo): Silo’s sheriff and husband to Allison, Holston expresses his desire to “go outside” and as his last act nominates Juliette as his successor. He was looking into George’s death after learning that his wife Allison, who had gone outside to ‘Clean’, used to work with him.

Allison Becker (Rashida Jones): Holston’s wife and an IT worker who becomes suspicious of the history of the silo and how it is governed after she discovers that her failure to conceive is because they didn’t actually take out the implant. She used to work with George and later requested to go outside and ‘Clean’.

Robert Sims (Common): He is the head of security of the Judicial and is tasked with enforcing the Pact and Judge Meadows decrees, confiscating relics and maintaining order in the silo.

Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins): The head of IT-turned-interim Mayor after the mysterious death of Ruth Jahns. He is later revealed to be the person who is actually in charge of the silo and responsible for the deaths of many people and frames Juliette saying she asked to “go outside”.

Martha Walker (Harriet Walter): An electrical engineer, Martha runs a workshop in the lower levels and is a parental figure to Juliette from the time she made it to the Down Deep. Martha has not stepped out of her workshop for 25 years and helps Juliette as much as she can.

Lukas Kyle (Avi Nash): An IT worker, Lukas spends his free time in the level-one cafeteria watching the “lights” (silo dwellers have never seen stars) outside through the window that shows what is out there. He befriends Juliette and shares his thoughts with her.

Paul Billings (Chinaza Uche): A former Judicial Administrator, Billings is appointed chief deputy under Juliette. He is a rule follower but helps investigate George’s death and arrest Sims. He is afflicted by the ‘Syndrome’, a disease that he hides because he would lose his job.

How did Season 1 end?

Juliette finds a video of a past cleaning that shows a lush green landscape outside the silo and broadcasts it before it is shut down by Bernard. Juliette escapes to Mechanical and talks to Walker before being arrested. She is forced to go outside and sees the same lush green landscape before she trips over something, triggering a glitch that shows that it is actually a desolate place as seen on the screen in the silo. With Martha arranging for her heat tapes to be of a better grade, Juliette doesn’t die. She gets up and walks over the crater’s rim. A panicky Bernard runs to the server room, opens a key with ‘18’ written on it and disables Juliette’s display. When Juliette climbs out of the silo’s crater, she sees a ground littered with dead bodies and many other craters with entrances to other silos and a ruined city in the distance.

What do we know about Season 2?

From the Season 2 trailer, we know that Juliette lives. And it seems like some people in Silo 18 are not buying Bernard’s lies any longer. Rebellion is brewing even as Juliette struggles to survive outside. A new character played by Steve Zahn, probably in another silo, is seen threatening to kill Juliette if she opens the door. There are a lot of underwater scenes, maybe to find the door underwater that George had told Juliette about.

So, we expect the 10-episode season (each episode will drop weekly) to follow Juliette outside Silo 18, the people who are left behind inside it, and maybe explore some of the other silos as well.