For those intrigued by AppleTV’s adaptation of Hugh Howey’s novel series but find its deliberate pacing and hushed tones too off-putting, I have potentially good news. In Silo Season 3, the slow-cinema of post-apocalyptic science fiction streaming series puts some pep in its step. No one is breaking into a sprint, but it has learned it can jog when the situation calls for it.

As in season 2, the show splits its attention between two focal points. That previous effort, much to this reviewer’s delight, sometimes slowed things down even further. This time around, that split fuels the series’ increased sense of movement. The reason is deceptively simple. By flashing back to the world before, Silo Season 3 suddenly has so much more space to play. People can go outside with no preparation. They can move across wide expanses of land rather than just up and down. There’s weather. And so on. After two seasons of little more than dirty metal, concrete, and random pools of water, the sheer increase in square footage would be enough to make things feel different.

That isn’t the only thing Silo Season 3 switches up. The past plot is far less concerned with incremental advances than the “current” situation facing Juliette (as good as ever Rebecca Ferguson). The former sheriff-turned-Silo hero and Mayor struggles to regain her memory and with the ongoing vast conspiracy. Meanwhile, the past is just starting to make the mistakes that will lead to that sclerotic mess. It starts with Air Force pilot Charlotte Keene (Jessica Brown Findlay) urging her congressman brother Daniel (Ashley Zukerman) to join a new Congressional committee on Iran. Given the series’ usual pacing, one might imagine this would be the entirety of this portion of Season 3. But things moved faster in the before times. Soon, Keene finds himself enmeshed in a much larger situation.

I enjoyed Seasons 1 and 2 to the tune of over 9 scores for both. Still, there is a marked increase in narrative confidence. Perhaps with the finish line more in view than ever, the creative team, still led by series creator Graham Yost, feels more comfortable with letting secrets surface sooner. For instance, the moment the show reveals how Keene got elected—off the back of a plan that saved New Orleans—audiences will know exactly what’s coming. But Silo Season 3 neither obfuscates it nor declares it. Instead, it is tossed off in a bit of dialogue. That suggests that while the show still rejects the “second screen” mentality that plagues so many streaming projects, it has become less possessive of its mythology.

In the present, the world of Silo 18’s slowly increasing heat has become a roiling boil, and everyone is acting accordingly. Past allegiances are cast aside. Entrenched beliefs re-evaluated. Improbable new heroes and villains emerge. Here, Silo Season 3 loses none of its thoughtfulness. It just pairs it with a new sense of purpose and momentum.

As has been the case since the beginning, so much of the series succeeds on the actors’ ability to sell their realities. Zukerman proves a strong counterpart to Juliette in the show’s flashback plotline. He makes Keene’s steady transformation into accidental truth seeker feel earned. Jessica Henwick as journalist Helen Drew is strong as well, an interesting foil and ally who, despite initial appearance, might actually be the one with feet of clay.

In the present, Camille Sims (Alexandria Riley) takes to her new role in IT with the vigor of the converted. Riley does an excellent job with the seemingly rapid switch, making Camille read as recognizable even as she embraces the nastier aspects of Silo leadership. She’s mirrored by another character, whom I don’t want to give away, except to say it is an equally effective and believable evolution. Chinaza Uche builds on his turn last year despite having less screentime, becoming an increasingly frustrated moral center.

Visually, it remains impressive how the show can still, three seasons in, find new ways to capture the silo’s strange mix of vastness and claustrophobia. While I often criticize other works for having a poor sense of geography in their settings, I actually think it is to this show’s benefit. It serves as a thematic choice. Life underground involves constant misdirection, deliberate acts of obfuscation, and incidents—accidental and otherwise—that force changes in how people move around the space. The show’s refusal to definitively give viewers an idea of exactly how the place is laid out puts the audience in a similar mindset.

This series still isn’t built for speed. It remains a thoughtful, methodical piece of science fiction more interested in institutions than action. But Silo Season 3 proves it doesn’t have to sprint to build momentum.

Silo Season 3 explores new territory on AppleTV starting July 3.

Silo Season 3 Trailer: