‘Silo’: What Happened to Juliette’s Brother & Mother?

One of the things that we’ve learned so far about Juliette Nichols is that she comes from a pretty unconventional background. She is from the upper floors, and her father is a doctor, and generally, once someone is born up top, there aren’t that many reasons for him to move to the Mechanical and the bottom floors of the Silo, which are generally considered to be unsightly. In Episode 4 of the first Season of Silo, we’ve seen glimpses of Julie’s past and how she ended up in Mechanical. Let’s see what happened to Juliette’s brother & mother.
Juliette’s younger brother died of respiratory failure because the breathing machine malfunctioned. Following this tragedy, Juliette’s mother committed suicide. Juliette swore that she would never allow this to happen to anyone else, so she dedicated her life to fixing things. She abandoned her father and, ultimately, lost contact with him. However, he proved to be an important character throughout the books.
Now that we’ve covered what happened to Juliette’s family and what led to its ultimate downfall, it’s time to analyze the details. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!
A terrible tragedy marked Juliette’s youth
In the previous episode of Silo, we saw that Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes did a background check on Juliette, and they found out something that surprised them. Juliette was born in the mids; she was a child of Dr. Pete Nichols, and despite that, she ended up in the Mechanical down at the bottom of the Silo. Such scenarios are often unlikely, as Silo, despite the population’s general situation, does have some social hierarchies and structures in place, and people in Mechanical and lower levels of Silo are generally looked down upon.
Juliette failed to provide a clear answer to their questions. She merely said that she was doing the most important job of all in Mechanical. She is maintaining a generator which all of Silo depends upon. And it’s true, to some extent, as the failure of the main generator could have catastrophic consequences for the whole Silo.
In the latest Silo episode, we’ve seen several flashbacks to Juliette’s childhood. We found out that her brother was sick. Fast forward to another flashback, Juliette and her father are alone, her brother and mother are deceased, and she is forced to take their stuff to recycling.
So what happened in the meantime?
Juliette’s brother died out of respiratory disease, and her mother committed suicide
Juliette’s brother was suffering from some kind of respiratory illness, and despite having treatments available, there was no cure. He was heavily reliant on incubators and similar assisted-breathing machines, and during one emergency, the breathing machine failed, which led to her brother dying.
Following this terrible event, Juliette’s mother committed suicide, unable to cope with what happened. Juliette and her father were left alone, with Juliette blaming her father for what happened since he couldn’t help his own son.
She became obsessed with fixing stuff and was quite frankly good at it from a young age. This is why she made her way to Mechanical. She considered that her maintenance job was doing far better than even her father’s job.
Walker was Juliette’s first friend in Mechanical
When Juliette descended to Mechanical, one of the first people she met was Walker. Yeah, the batty old lady that never leaves her workshop. Even though Walker will have a massive role later in the series, she also plays a massive role in Juliette’s past.
Walker accepted Juliette after her father allowed her to move to Mechanical permanently. Even though Walker was skeptical about Juliette at first, eventually, she started looking at Juliette as if she was her own flesh and blood. And she will, ultimately, save her life. But we’re not going to spoil anything here.