Pope is an antagonistic character from the eleventh season of The Walking Dead. He is the leader of a violent group of survivors known as the Reapers, who have endured the apocalypse by raiding other survivors' settlements and murdering their occupants. Pope is also a religious fanatic who believes that he has been chosen by God to lead his people in the new world. He excuses his heinous actions and those of his troops as being in accordance to God's will, and while he preaches about the importance of family and how he regards the Reapers as his "children", he has no issues with murdering his own people to satisfy his delusional goals, making him a hypocrite as well as a psychopath.
History[]
Early life[]
Before the apocalypse, Pope served in the United States Army and led his own squad. In the early 2000's, he and his squad fought in Afghanistan. After completing their tour of duty, they returned to the U.S. but struggled to adjust to regular life, finding it difficult to deal with their personal traumas and find work. Having formed a strong bond together, Pope and the members of his squad came together once more to form their own private military company.
When the zombie outbreak took place, Pope and his band of mercenaries were involved in Operation Cobalt, in which the military began firebombing whole cities to stem the tide of the undead. Pope and his unit managed to escape the bombing of one such city by taking shelter in a church. Seeing that none of his people had been killed or injured when running from the firebombing, Pope came to the conclusion that he and the others had been chosen by God to survive in the new world. Since then, Pope's unit - dubbing themselves "The Reapers" - survived the apocalypse by attacking whatever camps or settlements they came across, murdering all occupants and taking whatever supplies they had.
Season 10[]
While Pope himself does not appear at any point in this season, Maggie Rhee reveals the existence of the Reapers to her friends in Alexandria after returning following a lengthy absence. She explains that she had joined another community known as Meridian, but this settlement would end up being attacked by the Reapers, who would kill most of the residents and hunt down those that escaped. Maggie and her new group - the Wardens - barely escaped Meridian, but Pope had marked them for death and expected that they would one day return.
Season 11[]
When Maggie led a team from Alexandria to obtain desperately-needed food from Meridian, the Reapers were waiting for them. As the Reapers attacked, Maggie's group was scattered, with Daryl Dixon finding himself on his own, save for Dog. While scouting around for another means of entering Meridian, Daryl encountered Leah Shaw, whom he had met during his time searching for Rick Grimes following his disappearance. Thinking that Daryl might prove to be a great asset to the Reapers, Leah took him to Meridian, initially as a prisoner, but later introduced him to Pope.
Upon meeting Daryl, Pope asked Leah why she hadn't simply killed him, to which she explained that Daryl once meant something to her. She tried to convince Pope to let Daryl join their group, stating that he was trustworthy, to which Pope decided that he would find out for himself. Pope then tested Daryl by setting a shed on fire while Daryl and Leah were inside. Daryl was able to break through a window and helped Leah out of the burning shack, following her to safety outside where they found Pope and all of the Reapers gathered outside. Pope declared that Daryl had been "forged by fire and ordained by God", welcoming him into their ranks.
In a private meeting, Pope asked Daryl if he believed in God. When Daryl admitted that he didn't, Pope was disappointed. Confused, Daryl pointed out that he passed the test, but Pope revealed that the test wasn't over. When asked what more he wanted from him, Pope simply told Daryl he wanted him to understand. Over a drink and a cigarette, Pope explained the backstory of his group. The Reapers started out as a military unit serving in Afghanistan, where they saw a great number of their comrades killed. Despite their sacrifice, the politicians didn't really care about them, and just used them as props. In those dark days, the soldiers didn't have much to hold onto but God and each other. After returning home, many Reapers found it difficult to reintegrate into society. Ultimately, Pope formed a mercenary group comprised of his old unit, and they served all over the world.
During the Fall, Pope witnessed such carnage that his faith in God started to waver, just like Daryl's. When the military bombed the cities, the Reapers survived by holding up in a small church, as everything around them burned. Despite their perilous situation, none of the Reapers were even injured. It was then that Pope came to believe the Reapers were chosen by God to survive. He compared this situation to Daryl making it out of the fire unscathed, claiming that God chose Daryl as well.
The following day, Pope interrogated the captured Warden, Frost. Frost refused to talk even when tortured, but Pope then allowed Daryl to take over the interrogation, still unaware that Daryl was part of Frost's group. In order to make the interrogation seem convincing, Daryl had to cut off one of Frost's fingers, after which Frost gave up the location of a supply depot that the Wardens had been using. Daryl and Leah then left, taking a team of Reapers to find the depot. Meanwhile, Pope continued torturing Frost until he eventually killed him. He later tied Frost's body to a tree and let it reanimate.
Two days later, Pope and the Reapers noticed a horde of zombies approaching Meridian. Daryl noticed that the horde seemed to be moving in a circular motion, realizing that Maggie and Negan were herding the undead just as their old enemies, the Whisperers, had done in the past. Daryl offered to lead the horde away, but Pope sent Wells down to do it instead. When the Reapers stopped hearing back from Wells over the radio, they assumed that he had been killed, which Pope revealed he expected would happen. Leah realized that Pope dispatched Wells as bait to confirm his hunch that Maggie was controlling the horde. Leah reminded Pope that Wells was part of their family, but Pope insisted that it was Wells' fate to die.
Pope asked Daryl for intel about Maggie, who Daryl said was a good shot and advised Pope to look for her in the trees. Carver radioed Pope to report that the horde had returned. Pope looked out at the horde and declared that it would never reach their gate. Explosions started to go off as the horde tripped several mines that had been planted around the perimeter. However, the number of walkers exceeded the number of mines in the ground as some managed to make it to Meridian's main gate. Pope then ordered Ancheta to deploy the Reapers' Hwacha rocket launcher and fire on the horde. Leah objected to this, reminding Pope that some of their men were on the ground and would fall victim to the Hwacha as well, but Pope stated that it was their time to die, as declared by God. Realizing how delusional her commander truly was, Leah drew a knife and slashed Pope's neck. Pope fell to the floor, holding one hand up to his throat as it gushed blood. Ancheta tried to intervene, but was stabbed by Daryl. Leah then finished off Pope by driving her knife into the back of his skull.