Who Is Bernard Holland in ‘Silo’? What Happens to Him in the Books?

Despite earlier episodes portraying him as an antihero, Bernard Holland was revealed as Juliette Nichols’s real nemesis in Apple TV+’s Silo. Not only was he revealed to be the dreaded “Man Who Knows Everything,” but he also sentenced Juliette to clean just because she got too close to the truth. Many fans still wonder why the truth about The Silo is such a heavily guarded secret and who Bernard Holland really is in Silo.

In Hugh Howey’s Wool Trilogy, Bernard Holland is the primary antagonist that sentences Juliette to Cleaning. He also heads the heavy-handed shadowy government in the show, although he uses his soft-spoken personality to mask his monstrous actions. In Hugh Howey’s books, Holland gets killed by one of his right-hand men, and fans hope the same can be repeated in Silo.

Despite being the villain in the books, Bernard Holland is revealed to be serving the founders of the Silo program. It is unclear whether the show will follow the same trend as the books by introducing the founders in the second season as the book series does. Bernard Holland proved a dreadful villain in the show; his death is inevitable, so let’s look at how it happens in the books.

Who plays Bernard Holland in Silo?

Bernard Holland is played by the veteran American Actor Tim Robins, who won the Golden Globe award for the role of Dave Boyle in the 2003 movie Mystic River.

He also played the role of Loris Harrow in the 2008 movie City of Ember whose plot is closely related to Silo.

His experience over the years and performance in the City of Ember made him the natural fit for the role of Bernard Holland.

Bernard Holland is introduced as the head of the IT department in Silo, who takes over the role of Mayor after Mayor Jahns is assassinated.

As head of IT, Holland has access to the records of everyone living in The Silo and also controls the flow of information throughout the underground city.

Holland doesn’t support the choice of Juliette Nichols as sheriff but later changes his mind after Juliette solves Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes’ murders.

He still insists that the murders be kept secret and decides for the two to be buried together.

Holland appears to distance himself from Robert Sims’s heavy-handed leadership in Judicial at the beginning, making Nichols think that he is on her side to gain her trust.

His true colors as the real dictator behind the oppression of the population were only revealed when he lured Jiliette to the garden and conspired with Robert Sims to frame her of asking to leave The Silo.

Tim Robbins’s performance brings out both versions of Bernard Holland in the show, portraying the wise and reasonable leader at the start and bringing out the cold-hearted villain towards the end as well.

Robbins also brings out the character’s emotionless aspect, which helps build him into a dangerous villain that fans can’t predict, making it hard to anticipate what Holland will do next in the show.

How does Bernard Holland control The Silo?

Bernard Holland confirmed that he is the Man Who Knows Everything, meaning he is behind the surveillance program that spies on everyone in The Silo.

He controls a team of secretive militants known as raiders with cameras and microphones almost everywhere within The Silo.

They listen and watch the people to identify anyone that shows signs of rebellion and secretly eliminate anyone they consider a threat.

Holland was, therefore, the person behind the murder of Juliette’s boyfriend George Wilkins.

Holland also eliminated Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes because they undermined his authority by approving Juliette’s appointment as the sheriff.

He told Juliette that the founders entrusted one person with the information on The Silo’s inhabitants and tools to enforce the oppressive rules to prevent a rebellion and that he was that person.

Juliette also discovered that Holland blackmailed Judge Meadows, who was supposed to be the seniormost authority in The Silo, to keep her under his control.

With the judge, all of Judicial and IT under his command, Holland generally rules by decree and chooses who lives and who dies.

He only allowed Juliette Nichols to become sheriff because he didn’t think she had what it would take to start a rebellion.

He decided to get rid of her when he realized that she would expose the darkest secrets of The Silo, fearing that she would start a revolution.

How does Bernard Holland die in the books?

In The Wool Trilogy, Bernard Holland is killed by the sheriff that took over after Juliette was expelled from The Silo.

Juliette was communicating with Holland’s Shadow, Lukas, through the radio after she found an abandoned Silo when she was sent out to clean.

The shadow’s name was Lukas, another person that questioned Holland’s murder of people he disliked.

Lukas also discovered that the titular silo was only one of the 50 other silos created by the founders and that Holland was enforcing the draconian rules on the founders’ behalf.

Lukas also joined forces with Juliette and was willing to lead the mutiny against Holland, but Holland discovered that he was in touch with her and sentenced him to clean.

Juliette found out about Lukas’s sentence on the radio and knew that the suits made by IT would not protect him on the surface, so she rushed to the silo to bring him a safe suit.

However, when Juliette arrived at the entrance to the Silo, the person she thought was Lukas threw himself into the flames in the airlock chamber.

On looking carefully, Juliette discovered that the dead person was actually Bernard Holland and that the sheriff, who was secretly in on the rebellion, had killed him.