Warning: This article contains spoilers for Apple TV+'s Silo.Silo's action-packed episode 3 ends with a disturbing cliffhanger that leaves viewers in the dark about Mayor Ruth's fate. Beginning in one of the bottommost levels of the Silo, episode 3 walks through all the trials and tribulations Juliette and her team face while working the complex machinery that runs the underground sanctuary. When the Silo's main turbine shows signs of damage, Juliette and her crew race against time to fix it before it completely disrupts the functioning of the entire subterranean city.
Towards the final arc of Silo episode 3, Juliette fixes the turbine by overcoming many pitfalls with her engineering forte and leadership skills, proving she deserves to be the next Sheriff. However, just when it looks like episode 3 is about to end on a positive high note, Deputy Marnes finds Mayor Ruth on the ground, coughing blood. This closing scene in Silo episode 3 suggests that Mayor Ruth is dead, and a bigger underlying conspiracy is at play.
Bernard Likely Killed Mayor Ruth In Silo Episode 3's Ending
Tim Robbins' Bernard makes a few brief appearances in Silo episode 3. However, every time he shows up, he either expresses his dissatisfaction towards Juliette being nominated as the next Sheriff or his disapproval of cutting off the Silo's power supply to fix the turbine. Since Mayor Ruth is in charge of all these decisions, she ignores Bernard's suggestions and reminds him that it is not his job to elect officials. Considering how Mayor Ruth seemed fine throughout Silo's episode 3 and only fell extremely sick towards its closing moments, it seems likely that Bernard poisoned her because she refused to comply with his demands.
While the episode does not reveal how Bernard actually did it, the fact that the Mayor feels ill moments after she drinks water from supplies suggests that Bernard hired someone to poison her canteen. Bernard's motives, too, remain shrouded in mystery. However, it is possible that his dire actions were either driven by his ego and desire for control or his willingness to do anything to ensure that the Silo's forbidden history and secrets stay away from the eyes of its naive citizens.
What Ruth's Murder Reveals About The Silo's Power Structure
Ruth's murder establishes that although the Silo follows a formal leadership system, where the Mayor holds the highest power, corruption runs rampant behind the scenes. Powerful immoral citizens like Bernard are always vying for control and even willing to resort to extreme measures to silence those who stand in their way. Ruth's murder in Silo episode 3 also proves that as peaceful as the city's exterior may seem, its interior is full of cracks and holes of politics and deception that could easily break under pressure and crumble down the entire city.
If Bernard did play a role in Mayor Ruth's murder, his ability to execute an assassination of this scale shows that the Silo's hierarchal system is flawed and fragile to a degree where the ones with questionable morals eventually pull all the strings. It also hints that other than Bernard, there are other powerful forces inside the Silo's walls that secretly dictate how its common virtuous citizens think and make their day-to-day decisions. With so many revelations in its one-hour runtime, episode 3 further nails down the idea that, like The Matrix, Silo reimagines Plato's Cave Allegory.
New episodes of Silo release Fridays on Apple TV+.