Brandon Carver was a supporting character in Season 11 of The Walking Dead. He was a member of the Reapers, a group of mercenaries that had survived the apocalypse by attacking and plundering other settlements. Like the other Reapers, Carver was fanatically devoted to the leader, Pope. Among all the Reapers, he seemed to be the most brutish aside from Pope, expressing sadistic joy in violence and relishing any opportunity for a fight, even if the odds were against him.
History[]
Early life[]
Like most of the other Reapers, Carver had been a member of Pope's squad in Afghanistan in the years prior to the zombie outbreak. Unable to adjust to civilian life after the conflict, they became mercenaries and took part in minor conflicts in various parts of the world. When the Fall began, the Reapers survived Operation Cobalt by taking refuge inside a church as the military began firebombing major cities to halt the spread of the undead. Having survived the bombing without even minor injuries, Pope was convinced that he and his squad had been chosen by God to survive in the new world.
Over the years since the Fall, the Reapers survived by raiding different communities, taking what they wanted and killing whole populations. Carver, in particular, came to enjoy this way of life as he could freely kill others without consequence. Roughly twelve years following the Fall, the Reapers took over a community called Meridian, killing most of its residents. However, a handful of Wardens survived the Reapers' attack, but Pope had marked them for death, and so he and the Reapers remained in Meridian, expecting the survivors to eventually return.
Season 11[]
As Pope had predicted, Maggie Rhee would return to Meridian, bringing her Warden friends as well as others from Alexandria. Carver and several other Reapers attacked the group, killing some of them while the others scattered. The morning following this engagement, he and Leah Shaw returned to Meridian with a prisoner: a man Leah had met years ago called Daryl Dixon. Carver waterboarded Daryl for information, but Daryl was resilient and gave him nothing. Leah then told Carver to leave, and later on Daryl would be tested by Pope to see if he had what it took to join the Reapers.
The following day, Carver was tasked with interrogating Frost, another Warden who had been captured. Having been initiated into the Reapers the previous night, Daryl was allowed to take over the interrogation. While Daryl was actually spying on the Reapers, he had to make the interrogation look genuine, and so cut off one of Frost's fingers. After Frost revealed the location of a supply depot where his friends may have been hiding, Leah took Carver, Daryl and a few other Reapers to scout out the location.
When the team arrived at the abandoned house that served as the Wardens' supply point, they searched the building. Daryl discovered a trap door in the living room floor where he saw Maggie below through the boards, but hid it under a rug while no one was watching. Carver, however, was highly suspicious of Daryl the entire time and second-guessed all of his suggestions and accused him of being disloyal. While Carver did eventually find the trap door hidden under the rug, Maggie and her team were already gone.
The next day, a horde of walkers approached Meridian's gates. Daryl suggested a plan to lure the horde away, though Carver scoffed at the plan, saying it had no "balls". Ignoring Carver's opinion, Pope agreed with Daryl and sent Wells to divert the horde, though Wells would be ambushed by Maggie and Negan while herding the walkers and would be killed. That night, the horde returned to Meridian, but the Reapers had planted landmines around the perimeter while the horde was away. Even with these defences in place, the undead were so numerous that some of them inevitably made it through the gate. Carver joined the Reapers at the gate as they started clearing walkers, but a short while later they would receive a radio call from Leah stating that Pope had been killed by Daryl.
Using the Hwacha launcher, Leah was able to destroy the zombie horde. Meanwhile, Carver and the other surviving Reapers would hunt for Maggie and her friends inside Meridian's school. Carver apparently succeeded in cornering Maggie, only to have Negan and Elijah emerge from nearby doors. Elijah angrily confronted Carver, who had previously murdered his sister Josephine, though Carver was completely unapologetic. He proved to be more than a match for the three, but after Elijah created a distraction, Negan managed to subdue Carver. Before Maggie could kill him, Daryl arrived and knocked Carver unconscious instead, suggesting that they trade him to get what they want from Leah due to how much she cared for her family.
A short while later, Maggie, Daryl, Negan and Elijah met with Leah and her few surviving teammates out in the open, offering to turn over Carver in exchange for the food supplies they came for. A gagged and bound Carver tried to argue, but then a sniper round struck the ground between the two groups; a Reaper was apparently watching them from an unseen vantage point. Leah forced Daryl to release Carver who mockingly blew kisses at Elijah. Despite his injuries, Elijah charged at Carver in an attempt to avenge his sister's murder, but collapsed. As Carver moved to kill Elijah, he was suddenly shot in the leg by Gabriel Stokes who had killed Jenson and taken his sniper rifle, forcing Leah to accept Daryl's deal. However, Maggie refused to release Carver and Leah said goodbye to him, promising to see him later.
As Leah, Boone and Washington walked away, Maggie walked after them brandishing a Magnum. She shot and killed Boone and Washington, but only managed to graze Leah with her last bullet. Leah escaped, but Carver was still lying bleeding and helpless on the ground. Taking Elijah's kama, Maggie prepared to kill Carver, but the fallen Reaper reached for a knife dropped by Boone. He took a slash at Maggie, but she knocked the weapon away. Finally, Maggie raised the kama above her head before bringing it down into Carver's heart, killing him and avenging Elijah's sister.