{"id":614677,"date":"2026-08-01T05:55:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/614677\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T05:55:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T05:55:29","slug":"silo-season-3-episode-5-inside-the-pez-dispencer-reveal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/614677\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Silo’ Season 3, Episode 5 \u2014 Inside the Pez Dispencer Reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The first time viewers see the duck Pez dispenser in Apple TV<\/a>\u2019s \u201cSilo,\u201d<\/a> it\u2019s presented as an inconsequential keepsake \u2014 a gift from George (Ferdinand Kingsley) to Juliette (Rebecca Ferguson<\/a>). But the battered (and cute!) trinket gradually becomes a key narrative plant, a symbol of suppressed memories and a reflection of one of the show\u2019s central themes: that even the smallest relic can reshape an entire society. The end of Season 2 gave us our biggest glimpse into its deeper significance.<\/p>\n

Created by Graham Yost<\/a> and adapted from Hugh Howey\u2019s trilogy of novels, the series chronicles humanity\u2019s last remaining survivors who are confined to a massive underground city. In the closing moments of Season 2, however, we jump back to a time before the apocalypse in Washington D.C., where Congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman) and journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick<\/a>) share a \u201cdate,\u201d discussing past accolades, politics, and dirty bombs, before Keene leaves her with an unexpected gift: an unopened duck Pez.<\/p>\n

\"Javier<\/a> \"'The<\/a> <\/p>\n

The scene set them up for Season 3 (and Season 4), where Daniel and Helen\u2019s adventures in more contemporary times offer clues to the Silo<\/a>\u2019s existence. \u201cI wish I could say we planned it all from the beginning,\u201d Yost told IndieWire of the Pez dispenser\u2019s importance. \u201cBut there have been so many developments in the writing of the show, you\u2019ve got to sort of moderate or modulate your Pez usage, or it\u2019s going to be too much.\u201d<\/p>\n

What has been moderating the early events of Season 3 is Juliette\u2019s memory loss, thanks to Camille Sims (Alexandria Riley) giving her \u201cmedication\u201d designed to make people forget \u2014\u00a0aka the forgetting pills. But in the third season\u2019s fifth episode, \u201cMemory,\u201d writer Katherine DiSavino and director Aric Avelino weave between past and present, revealing how Juliette\u2019s rescue changed the Silo while she (and everyone not named Camille) races to recover the memories to prevent a catastrophic threat of poison that could kill everyone inside.<\/p>\n

Below, star Rebecca Ferguson<\/a>, showrunner Graham Yost<\/a>, and ep director Aric Avelino unpack the emotional decisions behind Juliette\u2019s transformation and how the Pez dispenser grew into \u201cSilo\u2019s\u201d biggest narrative revelation.<\/p>\n

\"BehindBehind the scenes of \u2018Silo\u2019 Courtesy of Apple<\/p>\n

The Performance<\/p>\n

For Ferguson, who is also an executive producer, she had to conceal two seasons of carefully laid character development and plot points to pull off the performance of a Juliette who\u2019s lost her hold on herself. But it was also a bit of a gift to play a familiar character through a new lens. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s interesting is, you can wipe memory, but there is something embodied. It\u2019s like people who have been in a car accident and their body will have a memory of the crash. It\u2019s the same with Juliette. You can start wiping her memory, but there\u2019s a DNA in her that will conquer. That is her constant curiosity. It doesn\u2019t matter how much you reverse and take away from the before time with her; she will still question why something\u2019s off, even in the new,\u201d Ferguson told IndieWire.<\/p>\n

However, translating those ideas into performance demanded a more grounding connection to the character. \u201cOne of the first days we were filming was me as the Mayor, and I was in my dress, and they put heels on me. I started walking in the outfit, and I had to cut myself. I was like, cut, cut, cut. This is not right. I wouldn\u2019t do this. I asked if [the camera] could see my feet? They were like, \u2018No.\u2019 I was like, \u2018Great. Can you get my boots? I need my boots because my boots would kick me into character,’\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

The boots \u2014 bigger and heavier than heels \u2014 helped Ferguson walk a certain way, which helped her wordlessly maintain something of the core of who Juliette is, even when she can no longer consciously access that same sense of self. \u201cThat was one thing I really had to focus on a lot was to stay true to who she was,\u201d Ferguson said.<\/p>\n

Those hints are important, because Avelino told IndieWire that a lot else has been stripped away from the Silo\u2019s greatest engineer. \u201cJuliette is missing the empathy that she has for these other people, but the other people have it for her. It puts her in a fish tank, and the places where she would normally stride in no longer feel familiar,\u201d Avelino said. \u201cBut then what helps the audience is, you have everybody else looking at Juliette like she\u2019s an alien, but it\u2019s like, \u2018No, this is your place. You love this place.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BehindBehind the scenes of \u2018Silo\u2019 Courtesy of Apple<\/p>\n

The Setup<\/p>\n

As Episode 5 alternates between Juliette\u2019s rescue from death in the past and security chief Robert Sims\u2019 (Common) discovery of the fact that Camille\u2019s placed Juliette on memory-suppressing drugs to better control the Silo. This puts the series\u2019 resident heel in a bind. Sims, his family (especially his son), and the show\u2019s best leather jacket he wears could stay in control, or triggering Juliette\u2019s suppressed memories could save the Silo.<\/p>\n

Yost mentioned Sims\u2019 arc as a father was baked into the story from the start. \u201cWe landed pretty early that what unites Camille and Robert is their love for their son, in this hope for a dream that he could live outside someday,\u201d Yost said. \u201cThe big turn in Season was motivated by a sense that they are no longer operating on limited information.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of that newfound information arrives when it\u2019s revealed that former mayor Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) is still alive; don\u2019t ask \u2014 and has been in hiding thanks to Sims. In a defining scene, Bernard tells Sims and Martha (Harriet Walter), Juliette\u2019s mechanical wiz mentor, that relics might unlock Juliette\u2019s forgotten memories. The camera intercuts between the characters, lingering on Sims as he realizes Bernard has been keeping secrets about the Silo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s happening in that moment between Bernard and Sims is you have these two guys who have worked with each other for years, and one of them has been devoted to the other. But Robert is finding out that there\u2019s so much more that was not told to him by the person he\u2019s been in service of, which is a bit of a painful reveal,\u201d said Avelino. \u201cSo if you look at the eye lines while Bernard is telling the story, it starts with Martha, then goes to Sims because it\u2019s kind of a confession saying, \u2018Yeah, I knew a whole lot more than what I had been sharing with you.\u2019 And so that moment hangs in there, in part, because there\u2019s this almost like an apology from Bernard to Sims.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reveal found its rhythm on the cutting room floor. \u201cIt is important that we are able to sit in these moments with the characters and our editor Jamie Alain has wonderful instincts,\u201d Avelino said. \u201cOne of the things that we talk about in the edit is the idea of withholding, which is when you\u2019re editing back and forth on dialogue and you\u2019re giving the audience exactly what they want when they want it. So the idea is to hold a little bit on one person because you\u2019re waiting desperately to see the reaction of the person on the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Juliette\u2018Silo\u2019 Courtesy of Apple<\/p>\n

The Bait and Switch <\/p>\n

By the high point of the episode, the reaction that the residents of the Silo are desperately waiting to see is Juliette\u2019s. Brought down to mechanical, with all her trusted friends present, she\u2019s placed in front of a small box full of relics that might help trigger her memories. She pulls out a wind-up toy, a small stuffed animal, pictures, and brochures, each triggering her past\u2026 but not, alas, her memory. It\u2019s a very tricky scene both for the people present in that room and the baffled woman who\u2019s unable to give them what they want.<\/p>\n

Ferguson pulls us into the moment with a look of apprehension. \u201cWhen it comes to her blankness, I think if you just take away any idea of recognition, you are blank. And if you constantly have a feeling of, \u2018I\u2019m not comfortable. Why am I not comfortable? What are these scars? Do I like the person in front of me\u2026\u2019 Even the smallest of characters would mean something for her or not. She would keep searching the person, and it would become, \u2018I don\u2019t know but I trust you,\u2019\u201d she said of developing her performance across the five episodes.<\/p>\n

But the key moment of the sequence is the reaction Ferguson has to a watch, also a gift from George, that she\u2019d thought to be lost, finally returned to her with some affirming words from Officer Hank (Billy Postlethwaite). \u201cWhat\u2019s so special about the moment is where she turns her head away. She couldn\u2019t stay looking at him because it was too much,\u201d said Avelino. \u201cIt happens as a result of two people trusting each other and Rebecca allowing herself to be vulnerable enough in that moment. She\u2019s this character who\u2019s so fragile that she can\u2019t hold eye contact.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u202fDespite the emotional impact of the sequence, the watch doesn\u2019t prove to be the correct memory trigger, either. This is classic storytelling misdirection, though, as even in the writers\u2019 room, Yost knew it would be way more fun (and\/or torture to the audience) for the answer to come from a less expected source. <\/p>\n

\u201cA friend of mine had this line working in half-hour that you\u2019re always looking for the treacle-cutter [the term to describe when a joke immediately follows a serious moment],\u201d Yost said. \u201cThere\u2019s so much emphasis on the watch in the first two seasons; we knew the watch would be important. But boy, wouldn\u2019t it be great if that\u2019s not the key?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Close\u2018Silo\u2019 Courtesy of Apple<\/p>\n

The Key<\/p>\n

When it seems all hope is lost, Sims and Juliette are walking the stairs to Camille. Sims stops; first apologizing, then telling Juliette he\u2019s been hiding something. \u201cThe more Bernard talked about artifacts being able to trigger someone\u2019s memory, the more I convinced myself that this thing would help my son remember me if Camille released the Vitamin D. Like it was going to perform some kind of magic or something. But it wasn\u2019t mine to keep. It was yours,\u201d Robert said to Juliette.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s plenty of beauty in the performances between the lines, and in finding them, Ferguson said they laid out the emotional groundwork. \u201cWe always have conversations so that everyone in the room feels like they\u2019re on board with the DNA of the scene and then we can go wherever we want to from that,\u201d she explained. \u201cWe [Common] work so well together. We also talk about scenes on days we\u2019re not shooting the scene. We were constantly living in the world and how can we make the little small shifts interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Sims hands Juliette the duck Pez dispenser \u2014 \u201cWas it important?\u201d \u2014 it flashes through her memories: the first time George gives her the relic, the forbidden hard drive, the outside, her escape to Silo 17\u2026 Avelino leaned on his editor again to find the beats. \u201cI give Jamie all credit. That\u2019s something he cut together early because it\u2019s the one thing I couldn\u2019t envision because it felt too big. We have to catch the audience and Juliette up on all the things that happened. And what he assembled in his very first edit is almost identical to what\u2019s in the final cut,\u201d Avelino said.<\/p>\n

Coming out of the flashback, Juliette and Sims are looking directly at each other, breaking the fourth wall; the camera playing their perspective. \u201cThere\u2019s something about getting eye contact from someone you love watching and them peering into your soul. And so being on their eye line, I think really allowed us to share that moment,\u201d noted Avelino, who slowed down the intercutting shots for extra punch. \u201cHow do you show Juliette getting her memory back in that moment of realization? I didn\u2019t want to miss that, and that idea ended up being a very special and powerful thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Season 3 of \u201cSilo\u201d is airing weekly on Apple TV. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first time viewers see the duck Pez dispenser in Apple TV\u2019s \u201cSilo,\u201d it\u2019s presented as an inconsequential…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614678,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[265],"tags":[593,18,117,259320,19,17,67866,197211,128],"class_list":["post-614677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-apple-tv","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-graham-yost","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rebecca-ferguson","tag-silo","tag-tv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117018711965133675","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614677"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614677\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}