10 More TV Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won
These villains all picked up the sly W.
When audiences have spent years watching a TV show, it makes the hero's seemingly inevitable triumph over the villain that much more satisfying. All the same, not all shows are created equal, and some are less interested than others in simply giving viewers a typically crowd-pleasing ending.
Sometimes the bad guy gets away and even ends up in a better position than they were beforehand, all while the hero is just left to clean up their damn mess - if they even can.
That's certainly the case with these TV villains, who despite how the show might frame it and how you might remember things, didn't really lose at all. Quite the opposite, in fact; they picked up big, juicy Ws. And so, as a sequel to our 10 TV Villains You Didn't Realise Actually Won, here are ten more TV villains you didn't realise secured victory.
The following villains all succeeded in their goals in some form, prospered, and largely got away scot-free, even if the show in question never drew much attention to this fact. These rogues all knew when they'd won and ducked out into the ether, seemingly well aware that sticking around wasn't a very smart idea...
10. Miles Papazian - 24
As in real life, 24 proves that what we really need to be worried about isn't terrorism, but rather sociopathic, ladder-climbing bureaucrats like Homeland Security's Miles Papazian (Stephen Spinella). This thoroughly detestable human weasel appeared throughout the fifth season's second half, being sent to CTU after the office was ground zero for a nerve gas attack.
Miles spends much of his time impeding the progress of Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) and those CTU employees secretly helping him to uncover the full extent of President Logan's (Gregory Itzin) villainy. Once Bauer obtains a recording implicating Logan in the assassination of beloved former President David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), Papazian immediately reveals this information to Logan, agreeing to destroy the recording if Logan grants him a position in his administration - which he does.
Papazian indeed destroys said evidence, and though his actions are eventually revealed, he's never punished for his crime beyond getting a quick roughing up from Jack. Miles peaces out of CTU two episodes before the end of the season, and that's the last we ever see of him.
Despite his actions having a major impact on the show's subsequent Logan-centric seasons, Papazian is never heard from again, and without any proof of him tampering with the recording, he surely got away scot-free, the scumbag.