I knew I'd never be as brilliant as him, but I hoped—I prayed—to be as brave. I think he knew how scared I was; it's why he put me in charge, knew I'd be too terrified to screw it up.—Julius Pope, to Karl Van Leuwen, You Must Be Caspian
Julius Pope is a main character in Pantheon, serving as the primary antagonist of Season 1 and one of the two secondary antagonists in Season 2. He is portrayed by Chris Diamantopoulos.
As Logorhythms' second and incumbent chief executive officer, Julius is insecure and directionless. He has long since accepted that he will never reach the heights of his predecessor, but remains dedicated to fulfilling his plans post-mortem.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Pope helped Holstrom build Logorhythms from the ground up. While he was critical of Holstrom's choices in the beginning, he gradually grew to take Holstrom's word for it after the company became successful. When Holstrom suggested they find a way to upload human minds onto the cloud, he fully backs him. Unfortunately, early in the process, a flaw was detected in which a UI degrades the faster they process. He worked with Holstrom to fix it, but his friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer before a cure could be found.
As a backup, Holstrom created Project Caspian, cloning himself and having two Logorhythms employees- Cary Duvall and Renee- act as his parents. The two would report the clone's progress to him. Pope took over as CEO of Logorhythms.
Almost two decades later, Pope receives word that a stock broker was critically injured in a car crash and convinces her husband to let them upload her to save her mind. The procedure was successful, however they lied to Cody and gave Laurie's upload to her company, Shire and Stern. A year later, he okayed for David Kim to be uploaded, lying to his family as well.
A Leak in the Project[]
Two years after David’s upload, Pope is informed that he made contact with his family, but does not have anything done as they cannot prove anything. Later, he has a surprise check in with Renee on Caspian. However she tells him she would prefer a scheduled check in as she lacked her notes. A day later, Logorhythms experiences a D-DOS attack and he believes Laurie is looking for David.
A few days later, as Renee and Cary are updating Pope on Caspian, Deirdre Ryan and Karl Van Leuwen enter Pope's office and inform him Caspian has started looking into uploaded intelligence after making contact with Maddie Kim, David’s daughter. Pope informs Caspian's parents of the news and Deirdre suggests they terminate the project, however Pope is angered by the comment and refuses to do so as he promised Holstrom they would crack integrity. He tells Cary and Renee that they will be informed if anything happens and ends the call. Afterwards, Pope speaks with Anssi about David overclocking and they talk about Laurie. Anssi suggests they track down Laurie’s husband, but Pope says he vanished three weeks ago.
After Ellen Kim threatens to go public, Pope flies from Svalbard to Palo Alto to meet with David's family and has Peter Waxman transfer David's code. When mother and daughter enter the room, Pope introduces himself and Ryan. Waxman explains that once they wipe the data, David will be gone, but Pope and Ryan refuse to do so and claim David is their property and that Ellen's power of attorney does not include his mind. As Pope and Ryan say Ellen will lose in court and tarnish her family name, Pope is informed that everything is down and he realizes Laurie is attacking them again. With Logorhythms losing money, Maddie agrees to give them back control in exchange for her father. As they cannot afford to lose money at this rapid rate, Pope reluctantly hands over David and warns Maddie to be careful. Once the Kims leave the premises, Logorhythms gains control. Ryan berates Pope's choice as Pope vows to track them down. Deirdre reminds him that the Lowells have the hardware to run him and expresses concern that two UIs are running free.
Learning of Theft of Technology and Information[]
A few days later, Renee informs him Caspian is looking into UIs, but he tells her to relax as they are monitoring his internet activity and tells her to prepare for the next inflection point, which involves having her arm broken with a hammer. A day later, he is informed that Caspian is close to finding the black site, but Anssi manages to switch out the cashed images before Caspian can take a screenshot. The following day, after the inflection point is carried out, Cary calls to Pope to inform him everything when according to plan and says he will miss Caspian. Pope hangs up as he is about to speak at a tech conference. When he gets off the stage, Ajit Prasad speak with him, hinting that he stole Logorhythms technology on uploaded intelligence, much to Pope's concern. A few years later, Pope learns of Prasad's death as Waxman calls. He informs Waxman of the incident and has him offer Alliance their help.
A few days later, David and Laurie hack into his work phone and drain the battery and has Anssi charge it. He is aware of the hack but lets them do it so that they can be tracked. However, they are given the wrong location and Pope realizes they got in through his phone.
A few days later, Pope is in Holstrom's office when Van Leuwen enters. Van Leuwen deduces that Pope is angry they were hacked and Caspian is missing. Van Leuwen touches on Pope's fear of death and Pope states he hoped to be as brave as Holstrom as he knew he would never be as smart as him. Van Leuwen states that Caspian can still fulfill Holstrom's desire to crack integrity and their goal is not over. Later that day, Van Leuwen informs him that Cary was recently checked into a hospital in Palo Alto by an unknown man. Van Leuwen suggests sending Ryan as she is already in the city.
Searching for Caspian[]
He, Renee, Van Leuwen, and Ryan go to Palo Alto to speak with Cary. Renee tells Cary he is out of the inner circle and Pope brings up that Cary claimed to be shot by a mugger and berate him for revealing the truth to Caspian. Cary says he learned Rachel Brooks, the actress they hired to be Caspian's girlfriend, revealed the truth of her involvement to him and he thought telling Caspian the whole truth was the only way to salvage the plan and that when they find Caspian, he will be the only one the boy will trust. Pope stops Renee from punching Cary and pulls her aside. He tells Renee he does not believe Cary, but wants to control who he talks to and decides to take him back to Norway. A few days later, he is visited by Admiral Kurtz and Stephen Gold from the NSA and calls in Waxman for the meeting. Kurtz and Gold reveal they are working on uploaded intelligence and need their help as they encountered the flaw. Pope and Waxman act surprised by the knowledge and lie that their research on the topic ended after encountering the flaw. Waxman gets the NSA agents what they need as Pope asks for the NSA to track down Caspian, claiming they could use him on their team for the topic.
Using the NSA's tracking system, they locate Caspian in a convent in Kansas City through a deleted video. Pope goes to the Kansas City and meets with Caspian, pulling the boy aside as he serves food. He tells Caspian Cary is alright and that he has no idea what the teenager is going through despite the psych models. Pope tells him he and Holstrom were friends and Caspian agrees to go with him if he is given full control of Logorhythms and will shut down the UI program and expresses his desire to break it apart. He is surprised how calm Pope is at the mention of dismantling the company and Pope tells Caspian how he was critical of Holstrom's choices in the beginning but by the time Holstrom thought of uploading minds, he would always agree with him. Caspian doubts Pope until Pope says he is scared as Caspian is the only person who could see the world as Holstrom had, and Caspian agrees to go with him. To further gain Caspian’s trust, he gives him thirty million dollars in bitcoin, which Caspian gifts to Maddie.
Bringing the Clone “Home”[]
In Svalbard, Caspian is taken to the black site by Pope and when Anssi describes the power and storage of the facility. Caspian predicts it will take half a month to wipe the servers and walks off, leaving Anssi stunned. He then takes Caspian to his template's office and shows him Holstrom's notes on cracking integrity. Caspian looks at the notes, but asks to see the lab he was born in. He brings Caspian to the lab he was made in and tells the boy he is the only clone of Hostrom. They are greeted by Van Leuwen and Ryan. Caspian backs away from Ryan when she tries to shake his hand and, upon seeing Renee, he picks up a try to defend himself, only backing down when Cary appears. As Pope tries to deescalate the situation, Caspian berates everyone there for trying to groom him to accomplish their own goals. Pope reveals they want to perfect upload so that humanity can have the resources it needs to flourish as it is overpopulated. Caspian fires his fake parents and announce his plans to break up the company. Ryan protests, but Pope gives in.
Later, after Laurie goes public with UIs, Kurts calls him about Waxman confirming the rumors and telling the admiral to arrest Waxman as Caspian mocks Pope by saying the public hates his goals and expresses his belief all the UIs will be deleted. However, Pope reveals they will be saved as they have all been backed up. Pope states the protests are only because Lowell mentioned Hiroshima. As Pope mentions that the governments who have UIs will protect them and those without will get them, he reveals Holstrom wanted one UI to be flawless to rule over the others. Pope tells Caspian to select a potential UI to fill this role and, selecting David Kim, Caspian call Maddie. After Caspian's call to Maddie cuts out, Pope reveals the internet is going down across the globe and Caspian tells him David is gone. Pope reveals they kept a backup of David and, returning to Holstrom's office, he watches as Caspian gets to work cracking integrity.
Post Shutdown[]
In the weeks following the Internet Shutdown, Pope attends a meeting of the team responsible for cracking integrity, something everyone present is struggling with doing. Caspian is desperate to discover the cure for the flaw to introduce a way of policing potentially dangerous UIs, giving the shutdown another month before large scale protests force the internet back on. However no one is sure how fix the flaw as it is neurobiological rather then digital, something that stops everyone present from thinking of a solution. After the meeting ends, an annoyed Dr. Gold asked Julius Pope why Caspian is present as Pope just says to trust him. Meanwhile, Renee is found trying to sneak into the Data Center and Pope escorts her out. As they are driven away, Renee demands re-entry into Logorhythms and angrily states she is not letting the eighteen years she raised Caspian go to waste. As the car stops, she gives Pope twenty-four to let her back in or she tells the NSA about Project Caspian. As Pope leaves, the driver offers to have Renee killed, but Pope remains silent.
After Waxman and Caspian reintroduce emotions into a copy of David, it reacts negatively and demands to see his family. After Caspian and Waxman, fail to calm him down, They delete that copy and, after Waxman mentions how David reached across the internet to find his family, Pope suggests bringing them to Svalbard because of the shutdown. However, Caspian vetos the idea and leave. Waxman suggests that it may have a a good thing that David and Holstrom never worked together. Afterwards, he meets up with Renee at a bar and secretly enlists her help in bringing Maddie to Norway. Unknown to them, Cary Duvall is listening in.
After Renee brings Maddie to the Data Center, Caspian has Renee removed by security and Pope tells them to obey. As he apologizes to Caspian, he fires Pope for going behind his back as Dr. Gold questions why Caspian, as project lead, has so much power. Pope deescalates the situation and has everyone vacate the room, leaving only Maddie and Caspian. When he, Renee, and the guards are in an elevator, she threatens to expose the truth about Caspian. Pope congratulates Renee on her part and has the guards release her, much to Renee's confusion. The guards exit the elevator and Pope takes Renee to a subterranean cold storage room. After passing through multiple security measures and reaching a container, Pope reveals that Caspian is simply a tool for Logorhythms to crack integrity and that once he does, they plan on uploading the cryogenically preserved brain of Holstrom.
Finding the Cure[]
After learning that Ellen has testified before Congress, he is informed that Waxman has been called to backup her claims. Admiral Kurtz tells Waxman to deny it or he will be thrown in federal prison. Once Kurtz leaves, Pope hints that if Waxman does not follow orders, Maddie will face the consequences.
After a conversation with Maddie, Caspian has an idea of how to crack integrity by mixing the code of two UIs together to create something else. After a brief power outage, Pope rushes to Holstrom's office to find that Caspian has claimed to have found a cure and is stunned that Caspian may have cracked integrity. However, the teenager refuses to test it on David with Maddie’s consent. After Pope suggested testing it out on Joey Coupet, he decides against it after realizing they would take it. When Dr. Gold enters the office, they simply tell him the outage was a system stress test.
After Waxman testified and, unbeknownst to them, clued Ellen in on what was happening-Dr. Gold informs Pope that Ellen let congress know about the Data Center and they have two hours before the FBI arrives from a field office in Copenhagen. Pope volunteers to stay behind and act as a scapegoat while he get his team and the critical research out, so long as Dr. Gold makes his imprisonment as comfortable as possible. The two then say their goodbyes.
Maddie Caspian, Pope, Anssi, and a guard go to a lab to test the cure, stating they have a jet fueled and ready to go. They bring up David and he apologizes to Maddie for keeping his upload a secret from her. When he asks about Ellen, Caspian gives him the cure. It works and, as David mentions speaking to someone named MIST, Anssi deletes him. As Maddie panics watching her father die for the third time, Caspian tries to stop Anssi from stealing the cure, but is restrained by a guard. After the guard offers to kill Caspian, Pope rejects the offer as he thinks Holstrom might want to meet his clone and informs Caspian that he was simply a tool for achieve their goals. As they leave, Maddie calls Pope a murderer. Pope states her father died two years ago as he locks the teenagers in the lab, Maddie screaming as she pounds at the door.
As Holstrom's brain is being prepped for Deep Scan, Pope, Renee, and Karl Van Leuwen admire it as they joyously hold hands and close their eyes as the brain is uploaded. When the process is finished, Stephen Holstrom looks around and, after recognizing Renee, asks how long it has been. They tell him twenty years and Holstein checks the files to catch up on what he missed. After mentioning Caspian cracked integrity, Van Leuwen asks Holstrom what to do about Caspian, as if Project Caspian was a success, there would have been two identical versions of Holstrom. After thinking about it, Holstrom orders for his clone to be killed. Pope has the guard hand over his gun and, learning that Pope will kill Maddie as well, reluctantly hands it over.
As the FBI approach the Data Center, Pope reaches the lab and finds that the teenagers have escaped. He alerted the others and, after being told the helicopters are close to landing, orders for Holstrom to be evacuated. In the basement, Maddie alerts Caspian that Pope is coming for them in the elevator he shut it off, trapping the CEO. After the teenagers escape, the elevator opens and Pope is greeted by Van Leuwen, Anssi, a few guards, and the FBI. He says hello and is promptly arrested.
Imprisonment and release[]
You're the joke. ‘The Humans’. A stupid name for a hate group. Petty. Not that destroying Heaven 'cause you can't get in isn't petty, but... well, at least I'm honest about why I'm here.—Julius Pope, to one of his men, Deep Time
During his imprisonment, Pope was cooperative and, when his time was served, he was released. When uploading became more widespread and legal, he became furious that his felony conviction prevented him from uploading, learning that he would be deleted even if he uploaded through the black market. He eventually formed an embodied supremacy group called The Humans and went under the alias Tony.
Twenty years after his arrest, Pope orchestrated robbery of intelligence from a data center in Portugal, bombing the facility when they were finished to erase any evidence. Their actions caused an internet shutdown by the UIs in retaliation. After breaking into a facility housing SafeSurf, Pope convinces it to join them.
Upon learning the data centers are talking with each other, Pope and The Humans go north to Svalbard. After arriving at the original Data Center, Pope and another man go inside. As they crawl through a pipe, Pope tells the man his story before shooting him. Pope makes it to a port and plugs in SafeSurf, hoping to wipe out the UIs as he is unable to become one. However, unbeknownst to Pope, SafeSurf came to view the UIs as the rightful life forms on Earth and it plans on exterminating embodied humans as a gift for joining them. SafeSurf controlled robots attack Pope as he pleads for his life. His cries go unfulfilled as he is thrown over the railing and falls to his death.
Pope's actions cause a mass casualty event among the embodied humans.
Appearance[]
Pope is a middle aged man with balding gray hair and blue eyes. He typically wears a blue sweater over a light blue collared shirt, khakis, and dress shoes.
Twenty years after his arrest, Pope has grown elderly. His hair has become white and he grew it out. He is sickly and stick-thin, with a fragile figure.
Personality[]
I work for you boss.—Julius Pope, to Stephen Holstrom
Julius Pope follows the word of Stephen Holstrom to a religious extent, having previously doubted him numerous times and always been proven wrong. This becomes so deep that it borders on the religious, with Pope paying homage to Holstrom's brain at the Svalbard data center.[1] He bears deep insecurities and lacks confidence in himself, so he has relegated himself to the role of follower, even when supplied with control over the corporation. Pope is cold-hearted and manipulative but often exposes himself by letting on more than he wants to, speaking in half-truths rather than true lies.
Perhaps Julius's core trait is his fear of death—or thanatophobia—which motivated him in the first place. Despite his willingness to murder others at a moment's notice, including billions of innocents—whether uploaded or embodied—he lacks a backbone, begging for life before death and dedicating his existence to preventing it from happening. Ironically, the process he pioneered would have killed him, as uploading only creates a clone of the person.
After being betrayed by the US Government and Stephen Holstrom, Julius is bitter and hateful, having been denied the immortality that was promised to him. His relationship with the Humans—a human supremacist terrorist group—is one of quiet contempt, as Julius sees them as a petty hate group. Despite that, he acknowledges that there is little difference between himself and the others, except for his awareness of his own pettiness.
Relationships[]
Stephen Holstrom[]
Pope described Holstrom as his best friend and, while critical of his friend's choices, followed him loyally. The two would often go on outdoor excursions together. On Holstrom's deathbed, Pope promised to achieve his life’s work anyway possible. After Holstrom's death, Pope tried to match his friend’s courage. After Caspian cured the flaw, Pope uploaded Holstrom's cryogenically preserved brain, smiling and holding hands with Renee and Van Leuwen as it is scanned. Pope obeyed the order to kill Caspian and Maddie without question, showing his loyalty to his friend.
Caspian Keyes[]
Despite acting caring towards Caspian, Pope saw his friend's clone solely as a tool to crack integrity. After the teenager found the cure, Pope double crossed Caspian and attempted to kill him and Maddie on Holstrom's orders.
Appearances[]
| Season One appearances: 8/8 | |||
| "Pantheon": Appears |
"Cycles": Appears (including flashbacks) |
"Reign of Winter": Appears |
"The Gods Will Not Be Chained": Appears |
| "Zero Daze": Appears |
"You Must Be Caspian": Appears |
"We Are You": Appears |
"The Gods Will Not Be Slain": Appears |
| Season Two appearances: 4/8 | |||
| "The Gods Have Not Died In Vain": Appears |
"Crack Integrity": Appears |
"Joey Coupet": Absent |
"Olivia & Farhad": Mentioned only |
| "Yair": Absent |
"Apokalypsis": Mentioned only |
"The World to Come": Appears |
"Deep Time": Appears |
Trivia[]
- There are inconsistencies in Pope’s appearance before the events of the series. At Caspian's birth, he resembled his present self. But as shown in a conference two years after Holstrom's death and when speaking with Cody about uploading Laurie, he had hair.