The Walking Dead: [Spoiler] Is a Chilling Casualty of Pope's Reapers

Pope (Ritchie Coster) and the Reapers take another soul on The Walking Dead. Spoiler warning for Season 11 Episode 6, "On the Inside." After his baptism by fire in Episode 4, "Rendition," Daryl (Norman Reedus) is enlisted as part of The Chosen Ones: Pope's squad of soldiers turned mercenaries who took over Meridian and marked Maggie (Lauren Cohan) for death. The Reapers ambushed Maggie's group on the road, killing Roy (C. Thomas Howell) to start a slaughter that ended with the deaths of Maggie's Wardens: Cole (James Devoti), Duncan (Marcus Lewis), and Agatha (Laurie Fortier). 

Now only Elijah (Okea Eme-Akwari) and Frost (Glenn Stanton) remain. 

Captured by Pope's people, Daryl and Frost are imprisoned at Meridian in "Rendition." To protect Maggie and their group, Daryl pretends he's an outsider and a stranger to Frost's friends as they're hunted by the Reapers. In "On the Inside," Carver (Alex Meraz) tortures Frost for intel on Maggie's group by ripping off his fingernails. The Chosen Ones order Frost to give up where his people are hiding. 

Pope puts Daryl to the test, so he uses a knife to sever Frost's finger. He's still in on the act of pretending not to know Daryl, but a beaten and bloodied Frost finally gives up an approximate location: a yellow house in Arbor Hills. 

The commander sends Carver and Daryl to scope it out with Leah (Lynn Collins), part of Daryl's trial by fire when Pope locked the two ex-lovers inside a burning shed as a test of divine strength. Maggie, Elijah, Father Gabriel (Seth Gilliam), and Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) evade capture with Daryl's undercover help, sneaking away from the neighborhood with the supply store that brought them to their final detour before Meridian. 

Back at base, Leah's squad returns empty-handed. "He wasn't too talkative, but I got everything I needed out of him," Pope says of Frost, whose zombified corpse is bound to a tree. Pope, laughing and whispering with Carver, leaves Daryl to wonder what Frost may have given up about the Reaper spy. 

"We've seen Daryl in scenes where he's had to torture people before, but certainly not to this extent, and certainly not against somebody that he considers an ally and that he likes," said showrunner Angela Kang on The Walking Dead: Episode Insider. "I think that what the show does is put our characters into situations where they are just in the worst possible things that they can imagine — like living nightmares. This is not something he wants to do, but they are most likely both gonna die if he doesn't do his."

Frost starts the scene bravely "knowing that he's going to be tortured, and basically going along with it."

"Ever since Daryl signaled to him when they were behind bars in Episode 4, like, 'These guys are listening. We got to pretend we're not friends.' Frost has really, really gotten that," Kang said. "He did exactly what Daryl was hoping he would do, which is, he kind of gave him the right neighborhood so there's some credibility, and Daryl's hoping that saves Frost. He thinks, 'If you just say the neighborhood but not exactly the house, then I can buy some time,' which is basically what he does."

But Daryl's not out of the fire yet. Pope is "spiraling" and "obsessed with the idea of Maggie being out there," said Kang, "and in some ways, he's messing with Daryl's head, too. He's kind of making his own moves. Him going off and talking and laughing with Carver is completely designed to create paranoia in Leah and in Daryl."  

Here's what fans have to say about Frost's death on The Walking Dead: