Who Is Pete Nichols in ‘Silo’? What Happens to Him?

In a dystopian setting like Apple TV+’s Silo, doctors are often seen as a source of hope, but Dr. Pete Nichols doesn’t offer any in the show. Apart from failing terribly as a father and a husband, he continues to follow the same draconian rules that killed his wife and broke his family. His failure to ask questions for all those years is baffling, but he is the only family that Juliette has left, and fans wonder who he really is and whether he will survive in Silo.

Dr. Pete Nichols is introduced as Juliette Nichols’s estranged father in both Apple TV+’s Silo series and Hugh Howey’s Wool Trilogy. Unlike the show, which gives Pete a bigger role in Juliette’s hunt for the truth, the books limit him to the background. Being a doctor, he changed the cause of his wife, Hanna Nichols’s death, and now lives a lonely life after Juliette left to work in Mechanical.

In Silo, Nichols gullibly agrees with Judicial’s orders to lie to his patients about removing their birth control. Nichols also knows the authorities are poisoning the water but doesn’t do anything about it. After being pressured by Juliette, Dr. Nichols finally grows a spine and stands up to Robert Sims. Having missed out on over 20 years of Juliette’s life, the doctor owes Juliette much more than he offers in the show, so let’s look deeper into the character.

Who plays Pete Nichols in Silo?

Pete Nichols is portrayed by the Scottish actor Ian Glen, famous for the role of Jorah Mormont in HBO’s Game of Thrones.

Glen is an experienced actor appearing in many popular movies and TV shows, including Doctor Who, Resident Evil, Strike Back, and The Rig.

Like many previous roles, his performance as Pete Nichols in Silo has received positive reviews.

His character is a father torn between his love for his family and obeying an oppressive regime that oppresses people in the underground city.

Like most of the residents in The Silo, Dr. Nichols does his best to stay out of trouble and complies with everything the authorities say, unlike his wife and daughter, who question the regime and seek answers.

His decision to comply with the rules sees him continue to work for the same regime that caused the deaths of his wife and son while his daughter leads a revolution against it.

He doesn’t question when the authorities tell him to lie to his patients and give them false hope that they can have children.

Despite his complacency causing so much pain, Nichols does very little to make a difference.

Glen still perfectly brings out the loving father when Juliette tells Dr. Nichols that she is sorry and that he wasn’t responsible for his wife’s death.

Dr, Nichols still blames himself for his family being torn apart, especially after their son, who had a hole in his heart, died.

In the end, he offers his daughter the little help he can afford when she comes seeking information during her hunt for answers.

Why did Juliette hate her father in Silo?

Juliette blamed Dr. Nichols for her mother’s death since she believed that he had reported her to the authorities when she created a magnifying lens that was against the Silo rules.

Hanna Nichols had just lost her son, who had a hole in his heart, and the magnifying lens was for her research to help treat children with the same condition as her son.

After she used the lens to treat a rabbit, Judicial came to her house and terrorized the family until she gave it up, and they destroyed it.

Juliette believed that her father had betrayed her mother, leading to the incident which caused her mother’s grief leading to her suicide.

She later realized that her mother was on Judicial’s watchlist and could have been murdered just like her boyfriend, George Wilkins.

After her mother’s death, Juliette refused to take up a role as her Shadow in medical, choosing instead to go to mechanical.

Her father allowed it because he believed she would be occupied there, repairing things, which would prevent her from getting into trouble while digging for answers like her mother did.

However, in the first season’s eighth episode, Juliette learned that Judicial had seen the lenses on their surveillance cameras and that her father was innocent.

Juliette still blamed her father for agreeing to Judicial’s plan to lie to patients about having their birth control removed.

However, after realizing that Dr. Nichols was only trying to keep his family safe, Juliette reconciled with her father, and the two shared a hug.

Does Pete Nichols survive in the books?

After being interviewed by Mayor Jahns and Deputy Marnes in the books, Pete Nichols becomes more involved in Juliette’s life and exits The Silo alongside other survivors at the end of the third book, Dust.

Pete’s relationship with Juliette grows fonder after she becomes sheriff, setting the stage for the happy ending that sees what is left of the Nichols family reunited.

His reconciliation with Juliette in the show sets the stage for a similar father-daughter reunion later in the show if Juliette survives being sentenced to clean in the first season.

The show is still likely to express Dr. Nichols’s fatherly side better than the books after he stood up to Robert Sims to protect her.

It shows that Pete has finally grown a spine and will likely join Juliette’s call when the rebellion finally starts.

In the books, most people in the titular silo die at the end when the founders decide to destroy it, although many, including Pete Nichols, are saved when they crawl to safety through a lateral tunnel created by Juliette.