Silo has been renewed until the end — so how will the show budget the books?

Throughout its run so far, Silo has been marked by taking its time. Throughout the first three episodes of the series, we jumped from one main character to the next. The first season finale ended partway through the first book of Hugh Howey’s Wool series (which Silo is adapted from). And in its second season, Silo has slowed down to stretch out the last chunk of the book even further.

But apparently the Apple TV Plus show won’t be moving so slowly for long: On Monday, Apple announced it was green lighting Silo for a third and fourth season, and would be ending the show after that. “As we look to seasons three and four of this ambitious, character-driven sci-fi series — which will conclude Juliette Nichols’ journey and complete Hugh Howey’s epic trilogy of novels,” Matt Cherniss, head of programming for Apple TV Plus programming, said in a statement. “We can’t wait for everyone to experience more of the show’s powerful performances led by the incomparable Rebecca Ferguson, as well as the unexpected twists, turns and surprises that we’ve come to expect from this very human story.”

So with promises in hand to finish the series: Is Silo going to have to move at a clip? It basically all depends on how this second season goes.

[Ed. note: This post contains light spoilers for season 1 of Silo, and early season 2 plot setup.]

If season 2 ends where the first book did, stretching out the rebellion in Juliette’s silo as well as her own struggles to get out of Silo 17 with the help (or lack thereof) of Solo, it’d certainly make sense as a finale spot. That book leaves Juliette and her crew in a clear place of setting up for what comes next, and it’d be a logical place to leave an adaptation.

But given that Silo kinda zigged in season 1 in this regard, it’s possible that season 2 pulls in plots from Shift, the second book in the series, and starts working ahead a bit. It’d be a tad unorthodox — I’ll leave it to you to figure out what the best cliffhanger you can pull from that book is — but then again, it paid off handsomely for Silo season 1. With the reveal that Juliette was not only wrong about the outside air, but a bunch of other silos she didn’t even know existed, Silo left her in the best kind of lurch, even if it wasn’t the natural pause point of the book. Season 2 could find a similar cliffhanger, pushing past (or even just partially adapting) Juliette’s conclusion in Wool finding something a bit juicier to leave the second season on.

At the very least, it seems important that they are emphasizing “finishing” the series in this announcement, and promising to deliver on the many unknowns of Silo’s world. ““With the final two chapters of ‘Silo’, we can’t wait to give fans of the show an incredibly satisfying conclusion to the many mysteries and unanswered questions contained within the walls of these silos,” showrunner Graham Yost said in a statement. With a list of questions as long as the silo staircase, hopefully seasons 3 and 4 come through with some real answers.