The Sinner: The Main Characters, Ranked From Heroic To Most Villainous

“I had to pull the pipe. You had to believe you were gonna die. Nick did the same for me.” Jamie told Harry this after digging him out of the grave. It was one of the most horrific tests Harry Ambrose had ever faced in The Sinner. Not all the killers Harry Ambrose met in the show were villains though, some like Cora were actually heroes.

There is no way of knowing what drove someone to kill in the show without getting close enough to understand them which is why Harry Ambrose’s work is so hard. Some of the suspects he has investigated only got worse and even became a threat to him. He still tries to help everyone that commits a mysterious murder though, even the evilest of them.

11 Harry Ambrose

When Harry was called to lead the investigation into the murder of Frankie Belmont, he didn’t treat Cora as a villain, although she was the killer. He is himself the victim of trauma from his childhood which gives him dark thoughts and makes him feel suicidal sometimes, so he understands what it means to suffer emotionally.

He tries to help every disturbed suspect he meets by understanding their state of mind at the time of the murder before trying to get the courts to consider their side of the story. His approach to crime saved Cora Tannetti and Julian Walker from spending life behind bars. When it came to Jamie, a serial killer, Harry still did the necessary thing and saved the world.

10 Cora Tannetti

Cora was raised by zealots who blamed her for her sister’s sickness, which was not her fault. The mother abused her physically and emotionally while her sister Phoebe used Cora’s love to manipulate her. Phoebe used her to live her own malicious fantasies until she got into trouble. Cora had sacrificed everything to help Phoebe get some happiness, even when it hurt her.

Cora had to live with the horrific memory of her sister’s death amidst a forced drug addiction in a bid to wipe her memory. Somehow, with all that suffering, Cora was a great person. She stood up for her husband and her son and even protected her sister’s memory from her abusive mother. She was a true survivor.

9 Vera Walker

Vera would be any child’s dream mother and anybody’s dream friend. She came to Mosswood to treat her own emotional suffering but ended up as a victim of Lionel Jeffries’ abuse. She turned the commune around and started protecting the members including Marin (Julian’s mother) from Jeffries.

She then took Julian when Marin abandoned him and nursed the little boy, protecting him from both his mother and the commune’s disgraced leader. She was so much like Harry, always willing to help and save other people even when it put her in trouble. She was even willing to become a criminal for Julian’s sake.

8 Heather Novack

Heather Novack is the best partner Harry Ambrose ever had in the first three seasons of The Sinner. She tried to help Marin, but she had been through too much abuse from her mother, and being sexually assaulted by Jack became all-consuming.

When Heather discovered that Marin was Julian’s mother, she fought for him as her own son. She was the only other person apart from Vera that cared so much about the little boy. It was so sad that her father was the cause of all that mess. Heather wasn’t able to save Marin in the end, but she ensured that justice was served on her father and that Julian had the best care he could get.

7 Mason Tannetti

J.D was a dangerous criminal, but Mason still took him on alone while trying to understand what had happened to Cora. He was trying to save a woman he had watched stab a man to death on the beach, something many spouses wouldn’t do.

He fought for Cora to receive a fair judgment and stood by her even after she was taken to prison. He also promised to bring their son to see her in prison in spite of all that had happened. He was Cora’s hero in her darkest moment.

6 Sonya Barzel

Sonya knew that Jamie was coming to kill her but still stayed, hoping she could get to him and convince him to stop the murder spree. She had just survived an attempted murder by Nick earlier but just wasn’t afraid. She was the bravest woman Harry had ever seen. She also understood what it meant for someone to suffer emotionally, which is why she tried to help Harry and even Jamie. She was a hero in her own small way.

5 Julian Walker

Julian Walker committed the most gruesome murder in the show, but it wasn’t all his fault. He was a young boy that had grown up in a cult being taught that a person that lied was dead, so there was no harm in killing them. He also thought the couple was kidnapping him, which is why he killed them.

When Harry came to his aid and helped him understand his mistake, Julian was willing to face the truth and do the time. Julian also stood up for himself when he was bullied at the group home and later in prison. He was a great gentleman at such a young age which was just amazing.

4 Leela Burns

Leela chose her baby’s safety over Jamie after he killed the fortune teller. He had hidden his dark past from her, and when it caught up with him and started hurting his family, Leela was caught in the middle. She wouldn’t let her baby suffer because of him, though.

She tried to help him when she thought it was only Nick’s death that he was dealing with, but things got out of hand faster than she had expected. She then chose to save the whole world by testifying against him to the police. She still loved him, though, which is why she allowed him one last moment on the window before he died.

3 Phoebe Lacey

Phoebe was in pain all of her life but she wasn’t a nice person. Her parents convinced her that Cora was the cause of her suffering. She turned that lie into a living hell for Cora, manipulating her to do every evil thing Phoebe imagined in her mind.

She was the person that drove Cora into J.D’s hands and later forced Cora to take her to the club, knowing very well that she could die. She never did anything to protect Cora when their mother punished her for Phoebe’s mistakes. In the end, she died, and Cora committed murder because of the horrific memories of her death.

2 Jamie Burns

The first two seasons of the show had first-time killers that didn’t enjoy hurting people and who regretted their actions. In the third season, Harry had to deal with a serial killer who didn’t show remorse for his actions. He had controlled himself from Nick’s influence all those years, which is why his inability to control himself after his death couldn’t be blamed on Nick.

Harry and Leela tried to help Jamie stop hurting people, but he turned them down. He even tried to recruit Harry to become his partner before going after his friends and family. Jamie was the most dangerous man Harry met in the show, and his death was a relief.

1 Nick Haas

The very memory of Nick nearly drove Jamie to kill his baby and later made him kill two people. Every appearance of Nick Haas in the show was just pure evil. He gave in to his own darkest thoughts and wanted to bring the whole world down with him.

His philosophy of people being happy only when they are living on the brink of death was dangerous, which is why it turned Jamie into a monster. He didn’t kill anyone himself, but he was going to start with Sonya before Jamie crashed the car, killing him. If he had lived any longer, he would have turned into a serial killer worse than Jamie.

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