The Sinner: The 10 Saddest Things About Harry

In The Sinner, it is never clear who the villain is until viewers have followed Harry Ambrose (Bill Pullman) for long enough. He just doesn’t look at the evidence like the rest of the police.

Ambrose enters the lives of the suspects and gets so involved, they become a part of him. Audiences can’t help but feel sorry for the seasoned detective as he gets obsessed with each murderer at first, but in the end, the truth comes out, and everyone is happy. His pain becomes evident in each season as he relates parts of his own troubled life with that of the killer he is trying to understand.

10 His Troubled Childhood

The second season of The Sinner came with a unique approach of taking detective Ambrose back to his childhood when he started a fire that seems to have ruined his mum’s life. Starting the fire wasn’t just his fault, though. He developed PTSD from the torture he was exposed to.

Having to deal with “monsters” every night and an abusive mother was a tough way to grow up. He was sent to a group home at one point, and the experience wasn’t any easier. The guilt stemming from childhood events have haunted him ever since.

9 His Lonely Lifestyle

Harry Ambrose doesn’t have any true friends except maybe Brian Morris, his captain, who hoped he could play golf with him when he retires. His loneliness is either caused by his job, or it is the reason why he is so deeply involved with his job.

No one seems to really understand Harry, and even when he is suffering, he doesn’t have anyone to share it with. Harry is also in denial and has, to some extent, descended into depression which he is not willing to get help for. At work, he relates the events of the crime scene to his own life.

8 His Obsession with Work

Brian Morris was right when he said Harry should have retired from his job a long time ago. He has obviously given the better part of his life to the job, but he just can’t let go. Whenever he gets a case, he gives up on his own life and even family.

It almost feels like he lives his entire life waiting for the next mysterious murder to be dropped at his feet. His addiction led to his wife throwing him out of the house when they seemed to be making progress with the therapy. His attachment to Jamie (Matt Bomer) also led to his daughter stopping him from seeing his grandson.

7 His Broken Marriage

In the first season, Harry has taken an interest in sadomasochism. This made mending his marriage all the more challenging, but he was willing to give it a try. His wife and the therapist didn’t try enough to understand him, though.

He was going through a hard time dealing with a demanding case which meant he needed an understanding spouse. His wife felt rejected when he abandoned her on their walk to check out a clue from his session with Cora (Jessica Biel); that was pretty much the end of his marriage.

6 The Affair

The first season of The Sinner started while Harry was already seeing a dominatrix named Sharon. It is not clear when or why he started the affair, but it wasn’t helping his complicated life in any way. Harry was trying to get back together with his wife, but his demons kept coming after him.

Sharon obviously started as a paid sex worker but ended up being his shoulder to cry on. She didn’t make things any easier for Harry, though. She knew his weaknesses and kept pressing them, which prevented Harry’s return to his marriage to some extent. He obviously regretted every moment of the affair but just couldn’t control himself.

5 The Cold Treatment From His Daughter

It was great to see Harry with some actual loving family in season three, but even that one didn’t last. His daughter was hoping he would be there for them when they came to visit, but he chose work over family as usual. His daughter wouldn’t cut him a slack either; she obviously doubted his ability to create lasting bonds with family.

Things fell apart when Jamie came to the house and fought with Harry in front of her son. She stopped him from ever seeing her son again, dooming Harry back to his lonely life. His daughter’s treatment was the reason why he had the time to get so engaged with Jamie.

4 Being Ignored By His Bosses

Harry’s skills as an investigator are never in question, but they don’t go well with his bosses. Everyone hates it when he gets too close to the suspects he is supposed to be convicting, and it makes his life difficult. All his bosses want the murderers Harry deals with to be punished and not to be treated as potential victims of mental or physical trauma. As a result, Harry ends up being treated as the bad guy at the precinct all the time. Most of his clues are ignored until he can prove everyone wrong by going the extra mile.

3 His Emotional Struggles

So far, every season of the show has revealed a new face of emotional trauma that Harry is going through or went through at one point in his life. From an abusive childhood to a traumatic work experience, Harry has never lived a normal life.

He is always dealing with something that most people find difficult to understand, so he deals with it by hurting himself. He wouldn’t use painkillers to help with his injured leg because allegedly, the pain helps him concentrate on his work. He also sought the services of a dominatrix just to have another source of pain to distract from his actual mental suffering.

2 Getting Manipulated By His Suspects

Harry always gets to the truth but not without obstacles, some of which can be very dangerous, like in the case of Cora and Jamie. While Cora wasn’t manipulative, the same can’t be said about Vera and Jamie. The two preyed on Harry’s personal fears and tried to use them to their advantage.

Vera was trying to manipulate him into freeing Jamie without knowing the truth, while Jamie tried to recruit him as a partner in his deranged criminal activities. Each time, Ambrose is forced to face his greatest fear and always nearly falls over the edge.

1 His Obsession With Death

Hardly anyone would agree to be buried alive for eight hours, but Harry hates himself for one reason or another, and whenever he thinks about himself, he fantasizes about his death.

He always imagines what it would feel like to just end it all, which makes him a danger to both himself and those around him. He has managed to survive the first three seasons of the show, but he may end up being a sinner himself one day.

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