Emily Pope

Emily Pope
Biography
Status	Alive
Affiliation	Federal Bureau of Control
Occupation	Research Specialist Head of Research
Predecessor	Casper Darling
Credits
Actor	Antonia Bernath
Appears in	Control

“	See, there's no guidebook for what we do here. Everything that happens at the Bureau, including the science, is without precedent.	”
— Emily Pope

Dr. Emily Pope is a Research Specialist under the Federal Bureau of Control. She is the research assistant to former Head of Research Casper Darling, ultimately promoted to be the Bureau's newest Head of Research under Jesse Faden.

Biography

Background

As a young woman, Emily Pope excelled in her schooling at university and was also noted for her "peripheral research." This caught the attention of the FBC, and Pope was personally recruited to be Dr. Casper Darling's protege around 2014. Darling saw potential in her, but also wished to protect her from the darker conflicts of the Bureau. After three years of close collaboration, Darling became engrossed in his confidential work and has since left Pope out of the loop. Since then, Emily's last two years with the Bureau (approx. 2017—2019) have been frustrating for her due to Darling's withholding of information and the lack of transparency in Bureau protocol.

At some point, she required the code to the Black Rock Quarry's elevator and asked Darling for it, accidentally interrupting one of his presentations on the uses of Black Rock.

Events of Control

In the initial chaos of the Hiss invasion, Emily survived due to wearing an HRA and retreated to safety in Central Executive's Safe Room with a small group of her co-workers. Soon after, newly appointed Director Jesse Faden arrives and contacts Pope through the safe room's intercom, which motivates Pope to leave and speak with her new superior face to face/ The two exchange information regarding the situation, and upon learning of Jesse's immunity to the Hiss, attempts to have Jesse free a nearby Hiss Agent from its influence. She is successful, but the Hiss has assimilated too deeply and the agent dies when released. Undeterred, Pope points Jesse to the Communications department to reach the Hotline to be able to better communicate with the "ghost" of Director Trench.

When Jesse returns, Pope informs her of the current Bureau Heads that Trench mentioned and their last known whereabouts, before tasking her with lifting the lockdown to travel to the other Sectors in search of Helen Marshall and Lin Salvador. After hearing about Alberto Tommasi's fate, she also encourages Jesse to locate and defeat him.

When Jesse returns after successfully overriding the lockdown, Pope advises her to seek out Marshall in Containment before the other department head, as she will be the best source of information on Dylan's whereabouts. Some time during Jesse's absence, Dylan enters Central Executive and willingly surrenders, where Pope places him in a special cell on the second floor and contacts Jesse to inform her of this. When Jesse arrives, Pope informs her of Dylan's unique state of Hiss infection infection leaving him more lucid before Jesse leaves to speak with him.

Not long after, the Hiss destroy Hedron, nullifying the effects of the HRA's and overtaking everyone, including Pope. Director Faden is able to reverse this through tapping into the fragment of Hedron inside of her to reactivate the HRAs. This saves everyone previously protected by Hedron, and Jesse further closes the portal into Slidescape-36, cutting off the Hiss within the building and allowing for termination efforts to begin. Certain Dr. Darling is gone from this plane of reality, Jesse promotes Pope to the Head of Research.

The Foundation

Following Jesse entering the Foundation of the Oldest House and rebuilding the first "locks" of The Nail, Pope and a research team suddenly appear at the abandoned camp, Emily unable to explain how or why she arrived other than knowing that Jesse needed her. Pope begins to run tests on the Nail and sends teams to search for the missing Helen Marshall while Jesse looks for the next three locks She also tasks Jesse with finding five Bureau ID badges to access former Head of Research Theodore Ash, Jr.'s personal lab. When Jesse does so, she uncovers a miniature copy of the Nail and notes from Ash, which Pope works to decipher the meaning to.

After the four locks are repaired, the Foundation begins to quake and Pope reports the quickening of the Astral Plane's bleed into the Foundation, the opposite effect that was promised to Jesse by the Board. Against Pope's wishes, Jesse ventures to the Nail's base and confronts the infected Marshall, managing to restore the Nail to its intended purpose after a battle. The Bureau is saved, though Pope still has several unanswered questions regarding the Foundation and the Bureau's old expeditions into it, and regularly returns to the area for study.

Personality

Emily Pope is described as a "genius," a Bureau researcher who "hungrily drives into paranatural matters." Her constant drive to explore the unknown leads to her annoyance with Bureau protocol, including her superior Dr. Casper Darling withholding classified cases from her. During the Hiss invasion, Darling's disappearance leads Pope to be one of the only researchers left to study the Hiss, an experience she finds both terrifying and thrilling. Pope holds a cynical outlook toward the world, calling it "pretty shitty," but states that she would not want the Hiss to destroy it.

Over the course of time, she and Jesse Faden grow closer, and Jesse gradually begins to confide in her about her past.

Gallery

Pope in the Board Room

Pope during Welcome to the Oldest House