Written by Silo season 3 has increasingly made it difficult to separate characters actually trying to save the world from those willing to destroy its freedom in doing so. The Apple TV sci-fi series began as a post-apocalyptic series about people residing inside a massive, subterranean bunker since the surface is uninhabitable. As the show moves between Juliette’s (Rebecca Ferguson) Silo 18 and the Before Times, the biggest revelations continue to complicate things. The season is superb, and critics agree (98% on the Tomatometer). FandomWire’s M.N. Miller also gave it 9 out of 10 in his review.
This is even more patently clear in Silo season 3 episode 7. Juliette attempts to destroy Judicial, even though that could kill around 1,000 people. The Before Times storyline, though, shows Per Stensen’s land purchase and the drilling machines that seem to be connected to the Silo project. Here, we rank the 10 most evil characters of the show, but they are ranked from least to most redeemable. Some of these may not qualify as ‘evil’ in the traditional sense, but as Hannah Arendt famously argued, “evil is banal because it has no root.”
10. Senator Thurman Built a World Where She Could Play God
Senator Thurman in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
Senator Rosalind Thurman (Laura Innes) is, by far, the most evil character in Silo, and the primary antagonist (at least of the Before Times timeline). She runs the Iran Committee with absolute command of the room. She corners Daniel Keene and Helen Drew in a secluded hangar and asks whether they would like to help ‘save the world’.
She is, of course, recruiting them into the Silo project that would cage humanity underground. She’s an evil human being, but she may not know it. This is the worst kind of evil, wherein the character is convinced that her intentions are benign. In the books, at least, she (or he, as she is a man in the books) and her co-conspirators caused the apocalypse.
9. Per Stensen Put His Own Survival Above Humanity
Per Stensen in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
Per Stensen (Colin Hanks) is the world’s richest man in the Before Times. And he uses his wealth to make sure he will be well-prepared for the coming catastrophe. He was in cahoots with Senator Thurman and her massive infrastructure project before the end. The newest episode gives us a reason not to trust him at all. He purchased 300,000 acres of land and has enormous drilling machines operating. The episode doesn’t confirm whether the machines are building the Silos, but it doesn’t need to.
8. Dr. Victor Crnkovich Turned Medicine Into a Weapon Against Memory
Dr. Victor Crnkovich in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
Dr. Victor Crnkovich (Matt Craven) is also part of the Before Times storyline. And he is one of its most disturbing aspects. A medical doctor, he turns his skills of helping people into a method of controlling them. He uses his memory treatment to remove traumatic memories. And as we know from pop culture (like Prime Video’s Julia Roberts-led Homecoming), that never goes well. The moral problem here is not the treatment, exactly. It is the notion that memory is something that has a form and can be edited whenever the truth is inconvenient or too much to deal with.
7. Anna Thurman Sacrificed Humanity to Satisfy Her Own Obsession
Anna Thurman in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
Anna is a little harder to place than her mother. In the books, she’s incredibly manipulative and obsessed with Donald Keen. In the show, the seeds for this are planted already. She is deeply involved in the effort surrounding Charlotte’s treatment and is absolutely willing to defend the use of memory manipulation. Her most disturbing quality is her willingness to treat Charlotte’s memories as something that can be “managed”. She does not factor in the rights Charlotte might have to her own memories.
6. Douglas Trumbull Used Judicial to Destroy Innocent Lives
Douglas Trumbull in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
The way Douglas Trumbull (Henry Garrett) acts ensures that the corruption in Judicial cannot be overlooked anymore. He arranges the murder evidence against Patrick Kennedy, which makes him an easy scapegoat for Judicial and ensures the safety of his institution. Robert Sims eventually kills Trumbull before he can be captured, and Trumbull takes the blame for killing Sam Marnes and Ruth Jahns.
5. Judge Meadows Used Mercy to Keep the Silo Under Control
Judge Meadows’ (Tanya Moodie) character is more complex in that she does not appear ruthless like some of the other individuals above her. Even though she realizes that the system is cruel, she remains within it and uses the power of Judicial to dominate those who disrupt the system. She is more redeemable than those who invented the oppressive machinery, so there’s that. But she is still an integral part of an evil organization.
4. Robert Sims Was Willing to Kill Anyone Who Threatened the Silo
Robert Sims stands in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
Robert Sims (Common) is the head of security for Judicial. A violent man, he uses his strength in enforcing the rules of the system. Like many in the list, he is not purely evil. But he has been a ruthless, intimidating enforcer for most of the show. He is ready to end any threat to the current system. He may be coming around, though, as season 3 presents him in a different light. He is torn between the system and the people he wants to protect.
3. Camille Sims Erased an Entire Silo’s Memories
Camille Sims in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
Camille (Alexandria Riley) is one of the prime examples of the aforementioned banal nature of evil. She believes her actions are not really evil and is merely following the orders (Algorithm’s, in this case). She adds the memory-suppressing chemical to the water supply. This means thousands will unknowingly consume it. Then, they will be more ‘pliable’ and will not question the system they live under. Imagine: so many people forgetting who they are, and the woman who caused that thinks she is acting for the greater good.
2. Bernard Holland Protected the Silo Even After Learning the Truth
Bernard Holland in the show | Credits: Apple TV
Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins) is one of those indifferent and uncaring bureaucrats that we all have encountered at one point or another. He is almost a tyrant, but then he turns. While he stops short of redeeming himself, he is at least trying to be a better person. In the latest episode, he presents Juliette with an impossible choice: destroy Judicial so the memory-suppressing chemical could be stopped from spreading, but that could kill 1,000 people. But for Bernard, the alternative is worse.
1. Paul Billings Let Innocent People Die to Protect the Pact
Paul Billings in Silo | Credits: Apple TV
Paul (Chinaza Uche) is introduced at the beginning of season 3 as the new sheriff, and he proceeds to begin the process of rewriting the Pact, implying that he does not wish to merely preserve the system that sustained them. He becomes increasingly inclined to challenge that system by taking an interest in Juliette’s discovery regarding the murder of George. Rather than turning Juliette over to the authorities, he covers up for her, rendering him a much more redeemable character than others in similar situations.
Do you agree with our ranking of Silo season 3’s most evil characters? Which character would you rank higher or lower? Let us know in the comments!
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