The Governor

Bio

The Governor is the man in charge of the little but very well fortified town of Woodbury, Georgia, where a large group of survivors is gathered. They were discovered by Rick, Glenn and Michonne who were following the trails of a crashed helicopter. But for their horror, the group found out that the Governor was using living human beings to feed the zombies in a twisted mix of perversion and sport for the locals. Furthermore, the Governor tried to force Rick to reveal the location of the prison and due to his negative, he cut off Rick's right hand, locked Glenn down, and raped Michonne.

Ironically, the Governor is loved by the locals because the protection and safety he and his group brings. It was later discovered that the Governor keeps a macabre secret. He not only hides in his house his zombified daughter, but also uses the heads of his victims for his own disturbed pleasure.

When Martinez helps Rick, Glenn and Michonne to escape, Michonne decides to stay a little longer to pay the Governor a visit. After a vicious fight between them, Michonne gets her revenge by torturing and mutilating him. But the arrival of the Governor's men stops Michonne from putting an end to his life. This later would become a huge mistake when the Governor leads a full out attack against the prison, when he convinces the folks from Woodbury that Rick and his friends are completely evil.

Nevertheless, things for the Governor don't go the way he planned as the people from the prison put up a tenacious defense, that forces the people from Woodbury to a humiliating retreat. Michonne and Tyreese make a huge mistake by following the trails of the Governor. Tyreese gets caught and Phillip uses him as bait, he threatens to execute Tyreese if Rick doesn't open the prison doors. But they refuse to do so, and so the Governor beheads Tyreese. When he returns to his camp, he lies to the people of Woodbury that the prison people had killed Tyreese in their cruelty. Michonne once again tries to kill him. In retaliation, the Governor, leads a final, all-out attack on the prison.

This time, he was taking no hostages. He crushes the prison defenses, killing Axel in the process and to obliterate any further attempt at a fight back, he orders the tank to drive trough the fences. The prison is now lost for Rick and his friends, but the Governor stops their escape route. The people from Woodbury began the massacre following the Governor's orders. They kill Patricia, Billy, Hershel Greene and Lori Grimes and her new born baby, Judy.

But the rejoice of victory was short-lived for the Governor. Lilly, one of the survivors from Woodbury just couldn't stand any more the horror of the massacre when she realized that for following Phillip's orders, she had murdered a baby. The Governor tries to calm his people once more, but this time, Lilly puts a bullet through his head, ending his life and the brutal assault.

Other Media

Novels

The Walking Dead: The Rise of the Governor

In the Walking Dead universe, there is no greater villain than The Governor. The despot who runs the walled-off town of Woodbury, he has his own sick sense of justice: whether it’s forcing prisoners to battle zombies in an arena for the townspeople’s amusement, or chopping off the appendages of those who cross him. The Governor was voted “Villain of the Year” by Wizard magazine the year he debuted, and his story arc was the most controversial in the history of the Walking Dead comic book series. Now, for the first time, fans of The Walking Dead will discover how The Governor became the man he is, and what drove him to such extremes. Editions Paperback (St. Martin's Griffin, June 2012), ISBN: 1-250-00839-5 Hardcover (Thomas Dunne, October 2011), ISBN: 0-312-54773-0 Audiobook (Macmillan Audio, October 2011), ISBN: 1-427-21768-8

The Walking Dead: The Road to Woodbury

The zombie plague unleashes its horrors on the suburbs of Atlanta without warning, pitting the living against the dead. Caught in the mass exodus, Lilly Caul struggles to survive in a series of ragtag encampments and improvised shelters. But the Walkers are multiplying. Dogged by their feral hunger for flesh and crippled by fear, Lilly relies on the protection of good Samaritans by seeking refuge in a walled-in town once known as Woodbury, Georgia.

At first, Woodbury seems like a perfect sanctuary. Squatters barter services for food, people have roofs over their heads, and the barricade expands, growing stronger every day. Best of all, a mysterious self-proclaimed leader named Philip Blake keeps the citizens in line. But Lilly begins to suspect that all is not as it seems. . . . Blake, who has recently begun to call himself The Governor, has disturbing ideas about law and order.

Ultimately, Lilly and a band of rebels open up a Pandora’s box of mayhem and destruction when they challenge The Governor’s reign . . . and the road to Woodbury becomes the highway to hell in this riveting follow-up to Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga's New York Times bestselling The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor.