Paula (Savior)

"Go on, do it. You killed Donnie, you killed Molly, your people have destroyed my home. You have no idea. The things I've done, what I've given up, what I had to do. Go ahead, I've already lost everything."

- Paula taunting Carol Peletier

Paula is an antagonist and a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's The Walking Dead. She is a high ranking member of the Saviors and serves as an antagonist of the episode "The Same Boat".

Personality
''"Cool, controlled and formidable". She's faced tragedy and trauma and come out the other side stronger and harder. But she's also become colder and less outwardly emotional — she avoids attachments and maintains a toughly pragmatic, nihilistic worldview."''

Washington, D.C.
Paula was born in the mid 1970's where she grew to be a family woman living with her beloved husband and four daughters in Washington, D.C. She worked as a secretary under an unappreciative boss which put a heavy strain upon her lifestyle and essentially made her a burned-out employee trapped in a cubicle working a thankless occupation. To cope with her depressive life and move forward through the turbulent times, she would spend her free time reading several inspirational email stories, watching inspirational pictures and funny cat-meme pictures.

Post-Apocalypse
During the onset of the outbreak, Paula was present at her workplace when the military arrived, however, to her misfortune, only essential government employees and members of congress were being evacuated while everyone else was ordered to stay indoors wherever they were, effectively leaving Paula stuck at her workplace alongside her boss. However, her boss, being a bussinessman with no fight or survival skills was surely getting both him and Paula killed and this would have prevented Paula from returning home to her family so she killed her boss, the very first person she killed, and went back home, but by the time she managed to arrive back to her house she tragically discovered that her husband and all of her four daughters had already died.

At some point after this event, Paula eventually came into contact with Negan and subsequently joined his group dubbed 'The Saviors'. Due to her keen intellect and resourcefulness Paula was appointed as one of Negan's personal lieutenants; during where she developed a somewhat romantic relationship towards her fellow survivor Donnie.

She aided in terrorizing other survivors and communities into subjugating to Negan's will, during which she committed several horrific acts in order to do so including murdering innocent people. At some point after discovering the Hilltop Colony, they demanded half of their supplies in exchange for leaving the farming community unscathed, upon where they demonstrated their methods through executing Rory, a 16-year-old member of the colony.

"Not Tomorrow Yet"
Paula is heard through Primo's walkie-talkie, ordering Rick Grimes and his group to lower their weapons after their attack on the Saviors compound. She refuses to show herself to Rick, but agrees to talk to him, revealing that she is holding his people Carol Peletier and Maggie Greene hostage.

"The Same Boat"
Paula watches through binoculars as Rick's group beats up a fellow Savior, Primo. She contacts Rick on Primo's walkie-talkie and tells him she has Carol and Maggie. Rick offers to trade Carol and Maggie for Primo, but Paula instead takes Carol and Maggie away while calling for backup. Paula's group brings Maggie and Carol to a slaughterhouse, where they're gagged and bound in a makeshift cell.

Carol hyperventilates. Maggie is concerned, unsure whether it's real or Carol is pretending. Upon Maggie's insistence, the Saviors remove Carol's gag and look pitifully at her as she gasps for breath and prays. Carol begs them not to hurt Maggie and the baby, and asks Molly, one of the Saviors, to refrain from smoking on account of the pregnancy. Michelle, one of the other Saviors, surprisingly backs Carol up. Donnie, the Savior who Carol shot in the woods, shrieks with pain and threatens to kill Carol. Paula orders him to leave Carol alive as insurance until backup arrives in 30 minutes. Donnie smacks Paula. Maggie trips him as he goes for Carol, and they fight. Paula knocks Donnie unconscious with the butt of her gun and instructs Michelle to interrogate Maggie in another room. In the other room, Carol thanks Paula for helping her and Maggie with Donnie.

"You're pathetic," Paula tells Carol. Rick radios Paula to ask if she's considered his proposal to trade hostages. Paula delays her decision and ends the transmission. Carol explains to Paula that her group killed the people at the outpost because the Saviors ambushed Daryl's group on the road, instilling them with a fear of Negan. Paula tells Carol that her boss was the first person she killed after the fall. She says she stopped feeling bad about killing people when her body count reached double digits. Carol accuses Paula of living among killers, but Paula counters that Carol's people are killers, too, making Carol a killer. After Carol tells Paula that she'll die unless she makes the trade, Paula eventually radios Rick again and tells him to meet her in a nearby field. Afterwards, she worries that the absence of static on the walkie means that Rick's group is close, possibly already outside the slaughterhouse.

Paula contacts her reinforcements, who are now only minutes away. She and Molly leave Carol alone in the cell. In their absence, Carol sharpens the crucifix on the rosary beads and uses it to cut herself free. Maggie and Carol find a hall full of impaled but living walkers, designed to slow them down or trap them. From behind, Paula fires at them until she runs out of bullets. Carol aims her gun at Paula and orders her to run, despite Maggie's insistence that Carol kill Paula. A walker attacks, causing Carol to shoot Paula in the shoulder. Maggie kills the walker, then races over to fight Michelle. During their struggle, Maggie's abdomen is nearly slashed, but Carol manages to shoot Michelle dead. Maggie and Carol find Paula injured on the ground.

Paula asks what Carol is so afraid of when she's so capable. "I was afraid of this," Carol says, alluding to Paula's death by her hands. Paula lunges at her. Carol shoves Paula into a speared walker, and the Walker tears off a good portion of Paula's cheek. Paula's screams of agony are shortly drowned out as she chokes to death on her own blood, and dies from blood loss and/or trauma.

Later, when Maggie and Carol are making their way to the kill floor to assault the remaining Saviors, the former puts down all the walkers used in the trap, including the now-reanimated Paula.

Killed By
Paula is shoved by Carol into a pike and impaled, and is partially eaten by a walker, who bites her on her cheek, ripping out a large chunk of flesh. Paula screams in agonizing pain until the walkers bites her throat, ripping it (as her screaming finally stops which means her trachea was ripped) and thus killing her by asphyxia, blood loss or both.
 * Carol Peletier (Caused)
 * Zombies
 * Maggie Greene (Zombified)

After Paula reanimates off-screen, Maggie stabs the zombified Paula.

Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Paula has killed:
 * Unnamed boss (Alive)
 * Donnie (Negligently Caused)
 * Numerous counts of zombies and unnamed people (Caused and Direct)

Negan
Paula was never seen with Negan on screen but she was one of his high ranking members of The Saviors as shown when she was leading the remaining Saviors after Rick Grimes and his group attacked their outpost as well as dealing with Rick about trading with Carol and Maggie for Primo. When Carol asked her about Negan, she and Molly protected Negan's identity by telling her, "We're all Negan", showing an amount of loyalty for him. Her death was avenged when Negan personally kills one of Rick's group members.

Carol Peletier
"If you could do all this, what were you so afraid of, Carol?"

- Paula to Carol

Paula and Carol had a very negative relationship. She constantly mocks Carol because of her apparent fear of the Saviors as well as her faith. Carol, while dislikes her, gives Paula a possibility to escape alive, which she ignores and continues to taunt her. When Carol shoves Paula into a pipe and gets her killed, she is shown to be shocked by the act.

Molly
Paula and Molly are shown to have a good relationship or at least on steady grounds as they are seen helping each other out. When Carol asked them who Negan is, both Molly and Paula protected Negan's identity. Paula seems to be shocked and angered by Molly's death and tries to kill Carol and Maggie to avenge her only to meet her own demise.

Michelle
Although not seen interacting that much, it is assumed that Paula and Michelle have a good relationship. Michelle seems to respect Paula as the leader of their own group while Paula entrusts Michelle enough to interrogate Maggie. It is assumed that Paula doesn't know where Michelle is as she is not among her fallen allies and isn't mentioned by Paula. Regardless, Michelle is later shot and killed by Carol.

Donnie
Donnie and Paula are shown to have a rough relationship. After Donnie gets shot in the arm by Carol, he begins to get emotionally uncontrollable and intends to kill Carol for shooting his arm. Paula tells him that they have to be smart and wants to keep both Carol and Maggie alive and wait for reinforcements to arrive. After Donnie loses control and hits on Carol as well as Paula, Paula knocks him in the head with her pistol, sending him out cold. Paula's negligency caused Donnie to die out of blood loss and infection. When she later finds out that both Donnie and Molly have died, she gets infuriated and tries to kill Carol and Maggie for their actions. He is mentioned by Paula (alongside Molly) when she taunts Carol to kill her for killing her friends and that she doesn't have anything left, showing she does care for him.

Season 6

 * "Not Tomorrow Yet" (Voice Only)
 * "The Same Boat"

Trivia

 * The casting call for this character was Polly.
 * The zombified Paula was played by another actress because there wasn't time to get Alicia Witt made up as a zombie.
 * Alicia Witt stated that she had a line that she was supposed to say to Carol Peletier which was "You seem like someone I would send weird cat pictures to", but it wasn't said in the show.
 * On the Netflix version of the episode, that line appears.