I think that we don't talk enough about how Carmen Sandiego has not one, but TWO straight up psychopath characters. Sociopath at the very least. Professor (Gunnar) Maelstrom and his favorite student Paper Star.
First off, let's start with Maelstrom. He was clearly the most intelligent/smartest out of the V.I.L.E. faculty and gave severe main character/boss vibes in V.I.L.E. since he was always the one that leaded the majority votes, explained something important and came up with a huge amount of their plans. Sorry Doctor, you were the cereBellum but Maelstrom was the brain of V.I.L.E. The series tried to soften that by having Countess Cleo on the middle of the table, giving him the most dark yet discreet design and a mysterious aura since compared to the other faculty members, he is the one we know the least about his past, personality, etc. We see that he knows a lot about the people he lives with and they barely know something about him, on purpose. Because he wants it that way. The attention being on the others, it becomes even easier for him to manipulate things behind the curtains, on the backstage, and make everyone believe him. Not to mention, he is also the most dangerous out of V.I.L.E. faculty, a point proven in the finale. He escapes through a secret passage in a rock that I bet only he knew about. We see Coach Brunt in the entrance, Doctor (Saira) Bellum trying to escape flying and Countess Cleo just waiting for her fate. Maelstrom never cared about any of them to at least suggest to them to already have a escape plan like he did. My head canon is that he wanted the others to be caught to have V.I.L.E. all for himself and do whatever the hell he wants. Coming back to the Carmen situation, the others never thought about it? Have they never talked about it before? Because they knew putting Carmen in a faculty position would be risky. Maelstrom is the one that says Carmen has a risky behaviour while stealing that doesn't fit V.I.L.E., he just let it slide because all her missions were successful but he always thinks ahead. He was ready. Dare I say, he saw it coming. Meanwhile, Brunt never betrays family and, let's be real, genuinely cared for Black Sheep before she became Carmen Sandiego. And Cleobellum are girlfriends. Okay, seriously they seemed to be close, even if just as friends. And Bellum clearly cared about her students since she missed Crackle. Also she liked cat videos, there's no way she was truly evil. The point is, Brunt, Cleo and Bellum were evil but they had a little bit of good in them. We even see Countess Cleo being sad and calling the island "Sweet Palace" while saying goodbye to it. Maelstrom was never attached to it like the others since he and Doctor Bellum are the ones that agree they have to leave the island, Brunt and Cleo being against it. Maelstrom isn't attached to anyone or anything. He only needs himself and only cares about anything that has to do with him.
