Philip Blake, the main antagonist of The Walking Dead television series and comic series, always finds himself in a clash with the protagonist of the story, Rick Grimes. Philip Blake is also known as the Governor, who is also the leader of the town of Woodbury. This ruthless and merciless character becomes the reason for the deaths of many people.
However, later in the series, he dies horribly. Even though he was the antagonist in the whole series, his sudden death shocked many fans of The Walking Dead. As there’s a significant difference between the life stories of The Governor in the comic and the TV show, here’s what happened to him in the fan-favorite TV show. So, when and how does he dies in the TV Show?
The Governor from The Walking Dead: Backstory
The Governor, aka Philip Blake (In Comic – Brian Blake), plays the primary antagonist for the third and fourth seasons of The Walking Dead. Rick Grimes awakens from a coma and finds himself completely enmeshed in the horrifying situation that has gripped the entire town as the apocalypse unfolds there. An increasing number of people are becoming victims in the zombie-infected nation, and those who attempt to avoid becoming zombies are known as The Survivors.
Philip Blake is one of the survivors. His fearless behavior always helps him conquer any difficult situation easily and leads him to save his daughter (In the Comic – Governor’s Niece) and himself from the zombies, also known as the walkers. After some days in the quarantine with nine other survivors, when they seek a place to sneak, they come across an abandoned town named Woodbury.
Philip Blake makes the brave and audacious decision to aid the survivors by establishing his own base with the other survivors under his direction. Philip Blake later starts having more survivors in his base, and the number starts increasing drastically. At this point, everyone starts referring to him as The Governor as they begin to believe in his leadership abilities and feel safe in his hands.
As his daughter Penny gets infected by the zombie, Philip Blake’s kind behavior changes into a ruthless and merciless person who does not anymore care about anyone. He also hides his infected daughter and tells no one about the same. However, he maintains a diary that mentions the names of all of his loved ones who died during this apocalypse.
Tragic Death of Governor’s Daughter: Penny
The Governor hides Penny in the closet and begins to lose control over his sanity after being profoundly shocked to learn that even his daughter has been infected by the walkers. He gradually begins to lose control and goes completely insane, transforming into a psychopath. However, he still possesses his fatherly instincts, which drive him to care for and adore his infected daughter in the same manner that he always did.
Later, When Michonne joins the Governor’s group of survivors with Andrea, She senses that something is wrong with the Governor and he is not better to trusting on to. Eventually, she never trusts him but decides to leave Woodbury town and consequently finds Rick Grimes’s base.
Before leaving Woodbury town, Michonne wants her Katna (the sword-like weapon that she usually uses to save herself from the walkers) back from the Governor, stands in front of his apartment when the Governor visits his chain-tied daughter to meet her and to take care of her that he usually does. Governor suspects that Michonne is staring at them from the window.
Subsequently, the annoyed Governor succeeds in covering his zombified daughter’s face. When the Governor finds Michonne dangerous for him and his daughter’s survival, he asks some of his men to kill her, but she survives and eventually gets to know about the Governor’s captivated, zombified daughter.
She goes after her to kill her, but despite the fact that the Governor pleads not to kill his daughter, Michonne ruthlessly murders her. In the feud between the Governor and Michonne, Governor’s eye gets injured. As Michonne also joins Rick’s army later, the Governor eventually decides to exact revenge on Michonne and Rick Grimes’ army for the murder of his daughter as a result of the entire situation.
The Governor counts his final breaths: The Shocking Death.
As the Governor forms his whole army of survivors who can do anything for him, he breaks down the responsibilities to collect food, shelter, and other essentials for their survival, and for that, he orders his army to destroy other bases and take full control over the place.
The ones who do not listen to the Governor get eventually killed by him, and because of this, a lot of innocent survivors fall prey to his homicidal behavior. Governor decides to attack the prison where he can find Rick and his entire army in order to complete his mission of eliminating Rick’s army in its entirety. They discover there is no one inside the prison as they get closer.
They enter covertly, and the army of walkers suddenly launches an attack. The Governor loses control due to the panicked army and unknowingly begins shooting everyone, killing some of his own people in the process. Eventually, at the end of season 3, Governor Martinez and Shumpert drive away to a remote place.
At the very start of season 4, Martinez and Shumpert abandon the insane Governor in the middle of the night. Governor later finds a new family with two daughters, Lily and Tara. He fakes his identity and starts living with them.
After a few days of living with them, David, the father of Lily and Tara, passes away from cancer and later comes back to life as a zombie. When Governor finally manages to kill him, Lily and Governor leave at Lily’s request.
The Governor, Tara, Lily, and Meghan form a new group and begin living together as they search for a safe place to live and come across Martinez along the way. They also make plans to leave the area and look for a new, safe location. However, when they come across Michonne and Hershel while traveling to Georgia, their fate is altered.
They stop at the place and keep Michonne and Hershel as hostages. Later, he manages to convince the people around him to attack the prison and force Rick to leave it with the help of Hershel and Michonne, whom he keeps as hostages. Even though Hershel pleads that he and Michonne can live with the Governor, Governor does not listen to him because of his rivalry with Michonne and Rick.
At this point, Lily starts suspecting Governor’s ruthless behavior, which gradually changes her opinions about him. He later visits the prison and lets Rick know that Michonne and Hershel are held captivated by him. He says that he will let them go if Rick empties the whole prison and give it to the Governor.
However, Rick does not agree, leading him to threaten Rick by pointing his sword at Hershel. When Rick pleads Governor not to kill Hershel and offers to live with him in prison, but Governor attacks Hershel with Michonne’s Katna.
Furious, Rick starts gunfire, and combat between Governor and Rick’s team emerges. Governor totally kills Hershel and later finds Lily coming with the body of walker – Infected Meghan. As he also kills Meghan because she starts reanimating into a walker, Lily loses her mind because it was very inhumane of the Governor to kill the little girl.
Later at the end of season 4, The Governor dies when he engages in one-on-one combat with Rick. As Rick gets on the verge of getting killed by the Governor, Michonne arrives and stabs the Governor with her sword. At the last minute, Lily arrives near the dying body of the Governor and shoots him with his own gun. Consequently, he fully dies in agony as revenge for all of his bad deeds and sins.
The Governor, who appeared in season 3 and season 4 of the show, had a distressful life, and his unexpected death shocked all of the viewers and especially the fans of this phenomenal antagonist. As there is only mention of him in season 5 of The Walking Dead, The Governor’s fans could not see him for the rest of the next seasons.
