| This article is about the Novel Series character. You may be looking for his appearance in the Comic Series, his TV Series counterpart, the Social Game character, the Woodbury resident, the Grady Memorial Hospital cop, the Alexandria Safe-Zone resident or the actor. |
| “ | For about two weeks forty goddamn years ago! I can't do shit.
―Bob to Bruce about his service in the military in response if he can save Brian from dying.[src]
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Bob Stookey is a comic-adapted character first encountered in The Road to Woodbury and a minor character in the Comic Series. He is the local town drunk of Woodbury and a former army medic. After the death of Dr. Stevens, Bob becomes the town's medic and finally gets off alcohol having found a purpose.
Pre-Apocalypse
Location Unknown
Little is known about Bob's life before or as the outbreak began other than that he is from Vicksburg and lived in Smyrna before the Outbreak occurred. Thirteen years prior to the outbreak, Bob served for two weeks in Afghanistan with Sixty-Eight Alpha Company as an army medic at the age of 36. He was only given brief instructions how to be a medic, and didn't really heal any of the soldiers - only kept them breathing throughout the war. In Kuwait, Bob saw a soldier choose the battlefront over a behind-the-lines job just so he could avoid the tight quarters of the Quonset hut office. At some point later on, he had descended into alcoholism.
Post-Apocalypse
The Road to Woodbury
When the outbreak first started, Bob's wife, Brenda Stookey, was killed and turned, but, Bob was unable to put her down. After that, he made his way to Tent City where he met Lilly Caul and would go on frequent supply runs. Bob cared for Lilly, so when she decided to leave Tent City after her boyfriend Joshua Lee Hamilton got kicked out, he joined her, along with Megan Lafferty and Scott Moon. In Bob's truck, they headed to a gas station which they lived in for three days. Bob became jealous of Scott because of his sexual relationship with Megan.
One morning, Bob goes fishing down by a creek. He returns to the group having not found the creek, but having discovered a Walmart nearby. There they meet Caesar Ramón Martínez's crew. The group make a deal so join this community called 'Woodbury'. Soon after arriving, the town's leader, 'the Governor' takes a special interest in Bob. He invited him into his inner circle and tells him many of his secrets, such as Penny's state and the killing of the National Guard soldiers (things he has told few before). The Governor would even at times bounce ideas off of Bob, who by this time was nearly always drunk. Bob comforted Megan the night before she killed herself after she slept with the Governor in front of Scott's zombified head and had to put her down the next morning. This resulted in him becoming depressed and drinking even more, which worries Lilly greatly. After a while, Bob's drunken state worried many in the community.
The Fall of the Governor
Bob slips into the background and doesn't get much notice from people. When the Governor is attacked by one of the three strangers, Bob is the only one who hears the screams of torture, but thinks nothing of it. Eventually Bruce brings Bob up to save the Governor's life after Michonne mutilated him and Alice and Stevens had deserted the town. Bob was successful in saving the Governor's life, much to the Governor's own disbelief. After they discover Steven's death, Bob becomes the town's medic and finally stops drinking. He helps Lilly with her pregnancy and has to break the news of her miscarriages to her. During the prison assault, the Governor personally asks Bob to watch over his undead daughter until he and the Woodbury Army returned from eliminating the prison's survivors. Bob stayed faithful to the Governor after his death and continued to feed and look after Penny. Until Lilly caught him heading over to the Governor's apartment. He helped Lilly put Penny to rest.
Descent
After Lilly takes over the leadership of Woodbury, Bob continues to live there as the towns doctor. He, Ben and Hap discover an old sewer system that runs below Woodbury. When Hap gets bitten and kills himself, Bob becomes upset over his friend's sudden death.
They use Bob's newly found sewer to rescue the Pentecostal People of God which Bob takes part in. On the way back he takes a disliking and becomes suspicious of reverend Jeremiah James Garlitz and his group, and starts spying on them. He finally finds out that Jeremiah and his group are planning to kill everyone living in Woodbury in a religious suicide pact to go to Heaven, and tries to warn Lilly. At first, she does not believe him, but finally understands what they are really up to when Bob shows her a bag filled with poisons and explosives. He replaces the poison with water before being caught and taken to the detention cells below the town. After his, Lilly and Tommy's failed execution Bob breaks them all out and they go after Jeremiah's group. During the destruction of Woodbury, Bob falls down a hole and is presumed dead by Lilly. The few remaining Woodbury residents take refuge on the courthouse after the attack where they begin to run out of supplies. Bob returns to save them and leads the group down to the sewers where he had been busy setting up a cozy living room while the others were busy with the new survivors. Bob tells Lilly afterwards they can't go back to Woodbury.
Invasion
Bob, along with the few surviving Woodburians, continue to live their life in the sewers.
Bob and Gloria escape from a group of walkers after a supply run and begin to have sex on the roof. Bob notices a small bite on Gloria's ankle and panics. Shortly after he joins Norma Sutters and Miles Littleton and attempts to amputate her foot in their car (something he thought about doing to Hap Abernathy a few weeks earlier) but she refuses and dies shortly after. Sometime, after being separated from the other survivors in attempt to stop Jeremiah's second attack, Bob gets a heart attack as a result of his unhealthy manners in his youth. Using his last strength, he saves Lilly from a swarm of walkers before collapsing. A heart broken Lilly puts him down after he passes away.
Search and Destroy
Lilly dreams about Bob whilst she is in her six month coma. She realises that he is dead in the dream and starts backing away, confused.
Death
Killed By
- Himself (Indirectly Caused)
- Heart Attack
Bob suffers from a heart attack as a result of his unhealthy manners in his youth.
- Lilly Caul (Before Reanimation)
Before dying, Bob uses his last strength to save Lilly from a swarm of walkers. Later, he passes away and a heart broken Lilly puts him down to prevent reanimation.
Killed Victims
This list shows the victims Bob has killed:
- Megan Lafferty (Zombified)
- Gloria Pyne (Before Reanimation)
- Numerous counts of zombies
Relationships
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Brenda Stookey
Not much was told about Bob's relationship with his wife, but, he loved her dearly as when she was killed by zombies he was unable to put her down, and when he finally left his mobile home he left her in her zombified state. Her death was one of the main reasons Bob descended into alcoholism.
Lilly Caul
Lilly and Bob share a good friendship. Bob patched up her wounds, she received from Chad at Tent City. And after that left Tent City with her and several others. They continue to share a good relationship, in Woodbury she often took him in during heavy nights of drinking. After Megan's death, Lilly continued to support Bob and help him deal with the loss.
Brian Blake
When Bob arrived in Woodbury Brian took a special interest in him, he told him a lot of his secrets even revealing the undead Penny to him. Brian came to see Bob as a father figure, and was one of the few people he really cared about. Bob sometimes feared Brian, but, still respected him, he would later go on to save Brian's life after his mutilation by Michonne. When Brian went to attack the prison he asked Bob to watch Penny for him, until he returned.
Megan Lafferty
Bob was attracted to Megan, and would often watch her and Scott Moon have sex. After Scott's death he had the chance to sleep with her, but he decided not to. He was also the one to put her down when she committed suicide. Her death caused Bob to go into a deep depression and start drinking again.
Joshua Lee Hamilton
Bob and Joshua seemed to have a good relationship. Joshua often looked to Bob for advice and respected him greatly. Despite looking down on him for his drinking issues, Bob was shown to be saddened by Joshua's death.
Scott Moon
Bob was extremely jealous of Scott, due to his relationship with Megan. Scott never seemed to mind Bob, and other than that, the two have not interacted much.
Hap Abernathy
| “ | Okay, breathe, Old Hoss, just breathe. Gonna be okay, gonna get you outta here.
―Bob to Hap after he is bitten.[src]
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Bob and Hap had a close relationship. Bob was deeply saddened by the death of Hap, and before he took his life he tried anything to save Hap's life. Bob mentions that he loved Hap's stories, his curmudgeonly personality and loved his stubborn bullheadedness that reminded him of his old army buddies.
Gloria Pyne
Bob never really interacted with Gloria, until the novel "Invasion". He ends up making love to her, before noticing Gloria had been bitten earlier. After a failed attempt of amputation, a heart-broken Bob puts Gloria down.
Appearances
Novel Series
- "The Road to Woodbury"
- "The Fall of the Governor"
- "Descent"
- "Invasion"
- "Search and Destroy" (Dream)
Trivia
- Regarding the torture of The Governor, Robert Kirkman wrote: "It wasn't that Bob was such a good medic that suddenly came out of nowhere that saved Governor's life-although he certainly did save his life. The idea is that Michonne was keeping The Governor alive, so she could torture him more. His wounds were bad, but not impossible to heal from. You may in fact see Bob again soon. Stay tuned."[1]
- Bob is the only army medic encountered so far in the Comic Series.
- Even though Bob claims he served in the army 40 years ago in the comics, the novel reveals he served there thirteen years before the zombie apocalypse, at the age of 36.
- Bob is one of the few characters within The Walking Dead to die due to a natural cause/disease.
References