Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for the Silo Season 3 finale.

By the finale’s last half-hour, we finally get that answer. The Algorithm isn’t some all-powerful machine calling the shots from somewhere beyond Silo 18. There is actually a person behind it — and, as showrunner Graham Yost tells Collider in a Signature Q&A, that reveal changes how we can look back at everything Bernard (Tim Robbins), Camille, and the silo have been up against since the Apple TV show’s first episode. As Bernard puts it in the finale, “It’s a person. It’s human, and people can be beaten.”

And that person is Victor Crnkovich (Matt Craven), the doctor from the “Before Times” specializing in memory recovery and erasure at the Heidi Stensen Clinic. As Yost explains, the idea is that “it’s been the same voice all the time,” even if there has been “a different person speaking” throughout the history of the Silo Project. In other words, the seemingly untouchable force controlling Silo 18 has always had something very human behind it.

But it also puts Season 3’s focus on memory into a new light. Juliette isn’t the only one whose identity is taken from her; Charlotte (Jessica Brown Findlay) loses her memories, too, and eventually so does Daniel (Ashley Zukerman). Yost says the writers realized that “control of memory” was always part of how the people behind the Silo Project kept everyone in line. But as “Troy” gives us some of the biggest answers Silo has offered yet, Yost says the question heading into the fourth and final season is still a simple one: “Why?”

With Silo 18 having beaten the Safeguard and the truth finally starting to crack open, the fight is far from over. In fact, Yost teases exactly where all of this is headed: “Here comes war.” Collider spoke with Yost about the Season 3 finale’s biggest reveal, how it reframes the Algorithm, Victor’s tragic role in the Silo Project, and what “Troy” sets up for Silo’s final season.

Graham Yost Teases What’s Coming in ‘Silo’ Season 4

After Juliette spent Season 3 reclaiming herself, Yost says there is still plenty left for Silo to reveal in its final season.

Image via Apple TV

Image via Apple TV

COLLIDER: have to tell you something: I’m not a huge fan of sci-fi, but I love this one. I feel like it’s so much more than sci-fi. This season specifically feels like it’s the thesis that argues that it’s a story rooted in humanity, and I just love that you’ve done something so beautiful, and now we’re going to get the final season. What’s something that you’re so excited for people to see when we get to Season 4?

GRAHAM YOST: Well, we’ve always talked that in the various silos, the musical silos are five, six, seven, eight, so the fourth season is all music. It’s singing and dancing. No, I’ll say two things about Season 4 that are not spoilers. One is that we’ve given a lot of answers in Season 3 to some of the big mysteries: how it started, who started it, all of this stuff. There’s still some stuff to come out — and there’s some stuff that doesn’t come out until the final episode, I’ll say that.

But the other thing is Season 3, because we needed to do something with what Hugh [Howey] gave us in the middle book, which had no Juliette in it, so we came up with this other story; it took a while for Juliette to reclaim herself.

I already got goosebumps when you said that because I love Juliette. Rebecca Ferguson is an amazing actress, and the way she brings Juliette to life in this season specifically, kind of relearning everything that she had to get back to who she was. Talking about that finale, though, it does reveal that Victor has essentially been the man behind the curtain, like the human intelligence behind what everyone in Silo 18 has been understanding as the algorithm. What did you want that reveal to recontextualize about everything we’ve watched Camille and Bernard do this season?

YOST: That was the whole thing. When Bernard has that moment with Camille where he says, basically, “It’s a person. It’s human, and people can be beaten. We can beat people.” I thought that was a great moment.

You get a sense of it because there’s that last bit where it’s Troy, formerly Daniel, who was talking to Juliette, and it’s the same voice. So it is that sense that they figure out it’s been the same voice all the time, and they can kind of project back and imagine for the entire run of the silo project, it’s been the same voice. It’s just a different person speaking. And so, there’s more of that in Season 4.

Yost Explains Why Memory Became a Weapon in ‘Silo’ Season 3

Yost says the writers planted parallels throughout Season 3 to hint that Victor’s connection to the Algorithm ran much deeper than it seemed.

We spend… memory as a form of control…

YOST: Yes… control of memory…

Them we thought… Colin Hanks…

What Beating…

Victor’s final moments show…

(…) YOST: Well… they’re following… but then they went out…

(…) Bernard’s advice… what question do you want…?

(…) Helen Drew is critical… what happens…

Yost Defends Camille’s Choices…

Yost says Camille “really was saving people…”

(…) I have to ask about Camille…

(…) YOST: Well… she really was saving people…

Daniel and Helen’s Story…

YOST says Daniel and Helen’s story…

(…) It’s a love story…

(…) Silo Seasons 1–3 are now streaming on Apple TV.

(…) This interview has been abridged for length…