Animal Kingdom isn't consistent in its quality but the storyline between Pope and Lena in season 3 is phenomenal.
The characterization of Pope trying to care for Lena while being profoundly limited because of who he is and how he was raised??? Phenomenal. And he recognizes some of his own limitations but not all of them!! He admits he doesn't care about Lena going to school but that his view is shaped by Smurf's neglect of him. He's determined to have Lena continue school because he thinks she's smart "like her mom" and because her mom would have wanted her to go, she shall go to school.
At the same time, we see him err in over-relying on Lena in her own care. He breaks down and tells her that he needs her help, that he needs her to act "right" because he can't "do this alone" (paraphrasing).
Still, it's endearing how hard he's trying. He tells Lena about the threat of DCFS but immediately corrects and tells her not to worry about it. That is his fear but he doesn't want it to be hers. He's honest about therapy not working for him but that it's a necessity because the school says so, so he'll get her a therapist. And all along he's scrambling to have Lena experience stability and family in the limited (but foundational) ways Pope understands it; he sleeps on Baz's couch so Lena can keep her home and her bedroom, he insists on weekly family dinners with the brothers, he makes sure he's the one to take Lena to and from school every day. He does her laundry and makes her breakfast and packs her lunch; things we know Smurf probably didn't do for him and Julia (even if she did it for Craig and Deran). He's so fucked up; he's the neglected eldest child and he killed Cath but because one of Baz's last acts was to forgive him and to promise to take care of him, he's willing to tear himself apart to care for Lena.