The New Pope : Season 1 Episode 1 <Best Pick>

Voiello's bitter rival, also played by Orlando.

After a deadlocked conclave between Voiello and his doppelganger, , Voiello engineers a tactical vote for a supposedly malleable candidate: Cardinal Viglietti . Taking the name Pope Francis II , Viglietti unexpectedly becomes a radical reformer, opening the Vatican to refugees and demanding the Cardinals surrender their personal wealth.

The Machiavellian Secretary of State trying to maintain control through a puppet pope. The New Pope : Season 1 Episode 1

Mostly seen comatose, though he remains the central figure of the show's cult-like devotion.

The episode ends with Francis II’s sudden death—implied to be an assassination—and a comatose Lenny Belardo moving his finger for the first time. Voiello's bitter rival, also played by Orlando

The shadowy Ambassador of the Holy See who provides "expository clarity" and is linked to Francis II’s sudden demise.

Nine months after his sudden heart attack, (Lenny Belardo) remains comatose, while a cult of followers gathers outside his hospital, treating him as a living saint. Worried about the rise of "Pius-idolatry," the Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Voiello , moves to elect a new pope. The Machiavellian Secretary of State trying to maintain

The short-lived pope whose radical Franciscan humility threatens the Vatican elite.