You know how a show is good? It gets you invested in the fate of a PEZ dispenser.

Not just any PEZ dispenser, mind you — a battered, rubber duck-topped one that doesn’t even have any candy in it. You see, in the first two seasons of “Silo,” Apple TV’s phenomenal adaptation of the science fiction dystopian novels by Hugh Howey, said PEZ dispenser just kept popping up at critical moments. We didn’t know why, but it was obvious the little device was important to this story. It even served as a visual needle drop in the Season 2 finale.

And throughout Season 3 — a near-perfect 10 episodes of thrilling drama and dramatic thrills that begin streaming on Apple TV on Friday — the device is an unexpectedly potent reminder of what makes “Silo” so great: It gets you invested.

For those unaware, “Silo” is about the story of a 144-level underground structure where about 10,000 people have lived for centuries to escape the ravages of a poisoned outside world. It’s also about the stories we tell each other and, more important, ourselves. Whereas the first two seasons asked questions in the pursuit of truth — Why are we here? Who built the silos? What’s actually outside? — Season 3 pursues a different kind of truth: the truth of who we are.

It’s a riveting pivot, and made all the more interesting because Season 3 is told through dual narratives, set centuries apart. At the end of Season 2 — let’s call this the Present Time — protagonist Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson, once again turning in a stellar performance) had returned to Silo 18 after being the first person to survive going outside. That season finale also took us back in time, to a time when you could see sunlight and trees and the stars with your own eyes. (Let’s call this the Before Time.)

Across 10 episodes, Season 3 perfectly weaves together a story that answers many of the questions we had in earlier seasons while brilliantly introducing new ones. (Keep track of how many times that PEZ dispenser pops up!) In the Before Time, the story focuses on U.S. Rep. Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman, whose expressive eyes are a story all their own) and journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick, a smirky, sarcastic delight in a show full of scowls and tears) and how they become involved in a conspiracy surrounding the creation of the silos. In the Present Time, the story contends with Juliette’s return and a silo teetering on the edge of destruction.

To say more would risk spoiling one of the best seasons of TV I’ve watched in a while, and it deserves to be watched with as little foreknowledge as possible. (Though, if you’ve read the books, Season 3 tracks pretty close to “Shift,” the second arc in the series.) But I will say this: Its examination of memory — how it forms us, and how it can be corrupted — is superbly fascinating and deeply unsettling, masterful in how it makes you question everything that’s happening. And the way it expertly bounces between the two timelines, always answering one question just as it posits another without overwhelming or boring you? Chef’s kiss.

Not everything is perfect, though: A storyline involving Sheriff Paul Billings (a disappointingly underutilized Chinaza Uche) as he investigates a murder often interrupts the excellent pacing, and its payoff doesn’t quite feel worth how disruptive it was. And some of the rules that governed the first two seasons, particularly when it came to sharing secrets, seem to have flown out the window (not that any of the windows in the Silo open to the outside).

But it’s so easy to forgive those slight transgressions when everything else, including Atli Örvarsson’s claustrophobic and isolating score, is so fantastic. The writing, the acting, the lighting, the costumes: It all comes together to make something unforgettable, which is ironic for a season so focused on what’s remembered — and what’s not.

The fourth and final season of “Silo” officially wrapped filming in March, and I’m willing to bet money that the final scene of the final episode will be of that PEZ dispenser. And I’ll be waiting with bated breath until then because I need to know how this all turns out — for those in the present, those in the past and one battered, rubber duck-topped device.

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'SILO' SEASON 3

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: On Apple TV July 3

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