Silo had a strong start on Apple TV+, and out of the gate, the second season is just as enthralling. The sci-fi dystopian drama is based on the Hugh Howey set of novels, Wool, Shift, and Dust. The story follows a group of survivors who live in a community underground. The 144-level silo has a hierarchy just like the current world with the top brass on the upper levels and the menial workers down below. Everyone is warned that the outside is a vast wasteland and asking to “go outside” results in almost immediate death. A camera pointed outdoors proves just that, leaving residents fearful and obedient.
When an engineer from the lower level named Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson) starts questioning and investigating to uncover the truth, however, the result is devastating when she’s forced to go outside herself. But against all odds, she survives thanks to a very specific modification to her suit. Season 2 explores what happens next, but fans have burning questions about that mysterious heat tape.
How Did Juliette Survive, and What Is Heat Tape?
Like every other person who has requested to go outside, Juliette is outfitted in a head-to-toe suit, complete with helmet. A ritual for anyone who goes out is to pick up a cloth and clean the camera lens pointed to the wasteland outside, a process aptly called “cleaning.” But Juliette refuses to do so, dropping the cloth in front of the camera for everyone to see in protest.
She continues walking, further and further, yet doesn’t collapse, leaving everyone looking on from inside bewildered. When she reaches the top of a hill, she looks down to see streams and streams of other silos, realizing they aren’t alone. There are other survivors out there living just as she has. This is the cliffhanger ending for season one.
Most important, however, is the question of how Juliette managed to survive so long in the first place. The answer to that lies in heat tape. Martha Walker (Harriet Walter), Juliette’s close friend in mechanical and a mother figure to her, was devastated to learn of Juliette’s fate. Though she hadn’t ventured outside her office for 25 years, she makes a difficult trip to visit her ex Carla (Clare Perkins), who works as head of supplies.
Martha arranges to have the heat tape on Juliette’s suit swapped with proper heat tape from the mechanical room. She knows this is the better tape that actually works versus the shoddy tape that is typically used on the suit for those sent to clean. The swap is successfully made, unbeknownst to anyone. And this is effectively what saves Juliette from the toxins outside. It only lasts so long, of course. But it’s long enough for Juliette to discover another abandoned silo with an open door, find a way in (through some amazing engineering feats) and get herself to a safe place where she can breathe again.
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The Heat Tape Almost Caused a Rebellion
Back in Juliette’s silo, they are dealing with the fallout of her going outside and refusing to clean. Residents are reeling from a video she had played for everyone from the hard drive she found, showing a lush, green landscape outside. Combined with the fact that they didn’t see Juliette die and that she refused to clean, and residents are upset.
A rebellion is afoot, and Bernard is beside himself as to how to handle it. While he’s head of IT and mayor, he effectively runs the silo from the shadows. It doesn’t take him long to figure out what happened, but Martha and Carla refuse to confess. Even if they did, this would implicate him and prove that the heads of the silo were intentionally failing to adequately protect people who were going outside.
In a genius move that proves Bernard is the perfect politician, he gets in front of the silo to deliver his speech in hopes of calming the storm. He concocts a story that IT had been developing a new type of tape and Juliette bravely agreed to try it out on her journey to the outside. Lo and behold, it worked! They’re on the road to developing the technology to go outside, and they had a breakthrough! He not only hides the truth, but takes credit for her survival.
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If the heat tape is the issue, the question is why IT was outfitting the suits with the bad heat tape when they knew proper heat tape existed in mechanical. This suggests they want people who go outside to live long enough to clean but not long enough to get too far. They always perish and there’s seemingly no intention of ever letting anyone leave successfully.
Season 1’s Foreshadowing
Keen-eyed viewers will recall that this was foreshadowed in an early Season 1 episode when Juliette is appointed the new sheriff. Bernard doesn’t like her and accuses her of stealing heat tape from the IT department. She laughs at the accusation, noting that she’d have no use for their heat tape. It’s bad quality and wears off quickly, so it would be useless for mechanical’s needs. Carla even says at one point “why do they care so much? Your tape is way better than theirs.”
Juliette doesn’t figure it out in this moment, but in hindsight, it was clear that Bernard was afraid she had. He thought that she either stole the IT version of the heat tape to inspect it or stole it for another purpose and would eventually realize how bad it was.
What Is Heat Tape?
When the Season 1 finale streamed, fans were furiously Googling heat tape to reconcile what had happened. Heat tape on the show is a form of tape used to wrap around the wrists of the containment suits. Its intention is to protect the wearer’s skin from the toxins outside, covering potential gaps in the suit at the wrists and ankles.
In the real world, heat tape is used to protect things like pipes during cold weather. Wrap it around the pipes to prevent them from freezing, expanding, and potentially rupturing. Along with adding insulation, many people who live in cold climates use heat tape to further assist in regulating the temperature, providing supplemental warmth to the pipes. Actual heat tape isn’t sticky, adhesive tape but rather thin wiring with heating elements. For the purposes of the show, however, the heat tape used resembles duct tape. It is more than likely just heat-resistant tape.
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Interestingly, some fan theories believe that the air is not toxic at all in the outside world, and it’s actually the steam of air that puffs on the person sent to clean right before they walk out the doors that delivers the poison. If that was the case, the faulty heat tape would still let this poison in, and the cleaners would die regardless. But that’s a completely different discussion altogether.
For now, it seems that people can indeed go outside with a proper containment suit and the heat tape from mechanical, at least for short periods of time. Juliette lasted long enough to inspect her surroundings and travel to the next closest silo, then jimmy her way in. But by that time, the heat tape, even the better kind, was starting to wear off. In one moment, for example, she sees it dangling from her arm and knows she only has limited time left.
But the heat tape, for all intents and purposes, saved her life. And she has Martha and Carla to thank for that.
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