Julia Sigsby is the main antagonist of the novel The Institute. She is the director of The Institute, a top secret agency which tortured and killed children with telekinetic or telepathic powers in order to save the world from complete destruction.
History[]
Julia ruled The Institute with an iron fist and was strongly disliked by the children there as well as most of the workers. She also watched the children move about The Institute via surveillance cameras and was not afraid to severely hurt children in order to make them do what she wanted. Following Luke Ellis's escape, she joined several other members of The Institute in the operation to capture him. This mission failed and Julia was placed under arrest by the DuPray police department. She was accidentally later killed by Stackhouse who cannot see that she is the one in the driver's seat when she arrives at the Institute with Tim Jamieson and Luke, with Stackhouse having his the Institute workers open fire on the car, leading to Julia being shot to death.
Personality[]
Julia is an evil psychopath who shows zero remorse for her actions nor does she care what happens to the children as long as they don't escape The Institute. She is prone to get angry rather quickly and seems to have a strong dislike of children. She has been assaulted a few times by children who are either angry or scared, which doesn't bother her. She is also extremely controlling, forcing children to do things they don't want to do by frightening them with the threat of hurting them. Despite her hatred and general disregard or lack of care for the children at The Institute, she still seems to show them a bit of respect, at one point telling her assistant not to joke about Kalisha Benson, saying that she was one of The Institute's charges. She also seems to genuineley believe she is saving the world from catastrophes and therefore serving a righteous course. She carries a picture of her father around which appears to spark fond memories in her and saddens her at the same time as her father needs a caretaker.
Appearance[]
Julia is an extremely thin woman who wears a plum colored suit. Her hair is thinning and she has the facial appearance of a strict headmistress who won't stand nonsense from any student.
TV adaptation[]
- Main article: Julia Sigsby (TV)
In the TV adaptation, Julia is a lot less nasty and strict towards the children and acts nice towards them, throwing them parties and acting in a similar overly happy way to Gladys Hickson. However, just like Gladys, her nice behavior is fake and she still shows zero regrets for her actions nor does she bother to tell the staff to act nice towards the children when they are horrible to them in front of her. Although she shows a cheery disposition in front of and towards the children, behind the scenes, she hates all the children in her care, with all the children in her care feeling the same way towards her, if more intense. Like all the staff, she harbors an extreme hatred towards Nick, at one point cheerily telling him when he spits on a slice of cake that she should make him eat it. Just like most of the staff as well, she also distrusts Luke and Avery, watching them closely while they are together. While she dislikes Luke like most of the staff, her hatred towards him doesn't seem to be as strong as most of the other staff and it is hinted that she feels sorry for him. She also appears to be a sadist, enjoying inflicting intense pain on herself as shown when she burns herself several times on her leg on purpose.
Her true cruel and sadistic side started to show itself more the longer Luke was in the Institute and started acting hostile towards him and the other staff. In order to get Luke to show he was telepathic as well as telekinetic, she brought up an article on her computer about Luke's parents murder as well as Luke's disappearance, which brought the attention of Luke who spun the computer around to see what the article was. When Luke saw the article, Julia made a sarcastic comment. An enraged and upset Luke attacked Julia, strangling her until being restrained, which resulted in Julia being injured. An angry and amused Julia told Luke she would make him pay for what he did while smirking at his misfortune. She later threw Nicky a front half departure party, showing significantly less enthusiasm and happiness compared to Iris and Kalisha and appearing unmotivated and depressed and made an irritated comment about her staff when Nicky was finally restrained after causing chaos and making a mess when he was being taken to back half.
When Luke manages to escape the Institute, she leaves the Institute in an attempt to capture him, but ends up being captured by him and Tim Jamieson instead. In an attempt to sway them to the Institute's side, she reveals the truth behind the nature of their activities there. Certain of the children that they recruit have the ability of precognition and they see people who are fated to do things would destroy the world, such as a man whose actions result in Russia launching nuclear missiles. They then use the other children to have those people killed.
Luke and Tim, however, are not swayed and end up bringing her back with them to the Institute. She is then used as a decoy while Luke works to free the children and then later manages to escape the Institute before it is destroyed completely.
Unlike in the original novel, Julia Sigsby survives the events of the first season of The Institute, which which ends at the same point as the original novel. With the series announced as having been renewed, she is likely to play a pivotal role in the program's second season.