The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor

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The Fall of the Governor - Part 1
Author	Robert Kirkman Jay Bonansinga
Publisher	Thomas Dunne Books
Based On	Image Comics' The Walking Dead
Published	October 8, 2013
Preceded By	"The Road to Woodbury"
Succeeded By	"Descent"

The Fall of the Governor - Part 2
Published	March 4, 2014
Preceded By	"The Road to Woodbury"
Succeeded By	"Descent"

The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor is the third installment of the four-part novel series of the origins of the infamous antagonist The Governor. As with the previous two installments, it will be written by Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga. Robert Kirkman has stated that we will be seeing characters from the comic series, such as Rick and Michonne. The novel will end "pretty much the same place as in the comic" but from The Governor's perspective. Because this novel was so long, Robert Kirkman and Jay Bonansinga made the decision to release it in two parts. The first part was released on October 8, 2013 and the second part was released on March 4, 2014.

Plot Synopsis

Part One

The Gathering

The story begins with Bruce and Gabe fighting in the arena. As the fight concludes, Lilly decides to leave the arena, when the Governor suddenly steps forward, and addresses the people of Woodbury. The Governor tells the people he is aware of their dwindling supplies, and that a group of citizens will be sent out on a supply run soon. Later that night, Lilly has difficulty falling asleep. She finishes off a bottle of cold pills, and falls asleep. While she is asleep, she has nightmares about her first days in Woodbury, and the death of her other friends. She is awakened in the early morning by Martinez, who has come to take her on the supply run. Her, along with Martinez, Austin Ballard, Wes, and David and Barbara Stern leave Woodbury to go on the supply run. As they ride around, Austin tries to flirt and make small talk with Lilly. She mainly keeps to herself and ignores him. They finally come to what they were looking for: a deserted and ransacked Piggly-Wiggly.

At first, the group thinks that the run was for nothing, until they see the warehouse behind the Piggly-Wiggly. The warehouse contains lots of food and other supplies. As they are leaving with all their supplies, Austin is attacked by a walker that was hiding in a freezer; however, Lilly manages to save his life. The group leaves the warehouse with their supplies as more walkers draw near it. On their way back to Woodbury, they witness a helicopter flying overhead. As they watch it, the helicopter crashes in the woods nearby. They rush to the crash site, with Austin almost getting bitten by a walker that was hiding in a swamp. When they get there, they discover the pilot dead and the passenger disoriented and severely injured. They grabbed the passenger, who has passed out, and the pilot, and they return to their truck.

On their way to Woodbury, the passenger regains consciousness and reveals her name to be Christina. She tells them about her past job, the pilot, and why she wants to give him a Christian funeral, and where they had been hiding at. After talking with the others, she passes out again. They eventually make it back to Woodbury, where Christina is taken to the infirmary. While she stays in the infirmary, she meets Doctor Stevens, and he warns her about the Governor, telling her not to trust him. A short period after this, the Governor comes into the infirmary with Bruce and Gabe right behind him. He asks to be alone with Christina. Stevens is very hesitant to do this; however, he listens to the Governor, and leaves with Bruce and Gabe. When they are alone, the Governor kindly asks Christina questions about herself, and where she was previously located. She at first dodges these questions, and gives little answers that are of no use to the Governor; however, the Governor grows impatient, and so he places his hand on Christina's leg and slowly moves it upward toward her thigh. As he is doing this, he continues to question her, and she finally reveals the truth.

She tells of her having been staying in a news station with many others, and when they ran out of supplies and people started turning on one another. To escape this, her and her friend Mike, who was the pilot, tried to escape by leaving in the news chopper, little did they know someone had tampered with the helicopter's engine. Satisfied by what he heard, The Governor told Christina to have some rest and welcome her to settle down in Woodbury because the town needs good people like her, Christina suddenly remembers what Stevens said to her, and so she told him she would like to leave. She then calls him a bully, and that she would rather dying on the road than living in the same town with him. The Governor hears this, and start talking to himself and her, saying he tried and he wished things could have been different. The once kind Governor then lashes out at Christina. He grabs her throat and strangles her, effectively killing her.

Gabe comes in, asking what happened, and the Governor responds by saying they need to clean things up and make it look like an accident. A short period later, the Governor, as well as Bruce and Gabe, go to Doctor Stevens apartment. The Governor inform him of Christina's death, and how her death is on Stevens' hands because he warned her against the Governor. The Governor informs Stevens that he needs to watch himself, and that if they ever come across another doctor, then Stevens will be easily replaced. Stevens gets the message, and says he will listen to the Governor. The Governor, along with Bruce and Gabe, then leave Stevens apartment. As they are leaving, they hear gunfire coming from the entrance to Woodbury. As they approach the entrance, they see Martinez walking with three strangers (Rick, Glenn, and Michonne). The Governor approaches them, and offers to give them a tour of the city.

Meanwhile, Austin leaves the arena fight to go visit Lilly, who had earlier offered to help train him to survive better in the world. They go off to the outskirts of the town, where they train for many hours. Austin gets tired off it, believing Lilly is doing this to make fun of him, and as he leaves he ends up tripping and falling. Lilly helps him up, telling him she didn't mean for any of it to seem mean, and as they are about to share a kiss, Lilly realizes Austin had fallen on his knife and is bleeding from his side. She then rushes him to the infirmary.

On their way their, they come across the Governor, who now has a bandage over his left ear, standing in front of a storage room containing all the arena walkers, who are eating the remains of Christina and Mike. They asked what happened to his ear, and he tells them the visitors that arrived earlier attacked him, and so he chopped off presumably their leader's hand to keep them away. They tell the Governor they hope everything else is ok, and then they continue to the infirmary. When they get to the infirmary, they notice one of the visitors (Rick) lying in the infirmary, and he is missing a hand. Doctor Stevens patches Austin up, and they return to Lilly's apartment. When they get to her apartment, they both get drunk, and end up having sex.

Meanwhile, back at the storage units underneath the racetrack, the Governor enters one of the visitor's holding cells (Michonne), and has Bruce take her pants off and tie her legs to opposite ends of the rooms. He then has Bruce leave them alone, and he proceeds to beat and rape Michonne. Back in Lilly's apartment, Austin and Lilly clean themselves up, and before he leaves, Austin tells Lilly he loves her. He then returns to his apartment and goes to sleep, with Lilly doing the same. Meanwhile, back at Michonne's holding room, Bruce is standing outside, and he remarks to himself that the Governor has been in the room for a couple of hours. He wonders what the Governor is doing to her, and how much longer it will be. Just as Bruce's legs are about to give out, the Governor emerges from the room, and returns to his apartment.

He enters his apartment, where his undead daughter Penny tries to attack him. He slaps her, and realizes her bucket of food rolled out of her reach. He brings it back to her, and when she doesn't like it because the body parts have spoiled. The Governor remarks that he doesn't see how she eats it, and that he tried it once and it was horrible. He then sits in his recliner and tries to go to sleep, when there is suddenly a knock at his back door. He goes to the back door, and sees Gabe, who is holding a metal box. He gives the box to the Governor, and then the Governor tells Gabe to let no one come up to his apartment, because he needs to get some sleep. The Governor then closes the door, and as he returns to his recliner, he gives Penny Rick's hand, which was inside the box.

He then returns to his recliner, gets two heads out of the box, one belonging to Christina and the other to Mike, and he places them in an aquarium. He then sits in his chair, and stares at his aquariums full of heads, remarking that nothing good is on. Then, in a deep part of his mind, Brian begins to speak up, asking how someone could do such horrible things to the human beings. Philip ignores these questions, and he falls asleep.

Showtime

Coming Soon

Part Two

Battlefield

To Be Added

Doomsday Clock

To Be Added

The Fall

To Be Added

Credits

Woodbury Survivors

• Bruce Allan Cooper
• Gabriel Harris
• Stevens
• Alice Warren
• Caesar Martinez
• Lilly Caul
• Bob Stookey
• Wes (Called "Gus")
• Austin Ballard
• Miller
• Saul
• Harold Abernathy
• Eugene Cooney
• Denny
• Lou
• Albert
• Marianne Dolan Williams
• Sam
• Jake
• Smitty
• Tom Blanchford
• Gloria Pyne
• Raymond Hilliard
• Rudy Warburton
• Jared
• Curtis
• Arlo Simmons
• Gus Strunk
• Eric
• James Lee Steagal

Blake Family

• Brian Blake
• Penny Blake

Stern Family

• David Stern
• Barbara Stern

Prison Survivors

• Glenn
• Andrea
• Michonne
• Tyreese
• Patricia
• Axel
• Andrew (Zombified)

Grimes Family

• Rick Grimes
• Lori Grimes
• Carl Grimes
• Judith Grimes

Greene Family

• Hershel Greene
• Billy Greene

Other Survivors

• Mike
• Christina Meredith Haben
• Pearl Caul

Deaths

Part 1

• Andrew (Zombified)
• Mike
• Christina Meredith Haben
• Harold Abernathy
• Eugene Cooney
• Stevens

Part 2

• Stevens (Zombified)
• Bruce Allan Cooper
• Curtis
• Caesar Ramon Martinez
• Carol
• Johnny Aldridge
• Simmons
• Jake
• Evan
• Ronnie
• Alex
• Andy
• James Lee Steagal
• Eric
• Tyreese
• Raymond Hilliard
• Axel
• Bart
• Charlie Banes
• Don Horgan
• Teddy Grainger
• Rudy Warburton
• Daniel
• Gabriel Harris
• Gus Strunk
• Patricia
• Billy Greene
• Alice Warren
• Lori Grimes
• Judith Grimes
• Hershel Greene
• Clint Mansell
• Brian Blake
• Tom Blanchford
• Smitty
• Earl
• George
• Red
• Jared
• Austin Ballard
• Christina Meredith Haben (Zombified)
• Penny Blake (Zombified)
• Scott Moon (Zombified)
• Caesar Ramon Martinez (Zombified)
• Numerous counts of unnamed Woodburians.

Trivia

• This is the first novel to be split into two parts.
• Robert Kirkman has revealed that for the third novel (October 2013) we shall be seeing Rick, Michonne and some of the other characters that you haven't seen in the novel series thus far. Kirkman also stated that the ending of the 3rd novel would roughly be the same story from the comic series, but told from The Governor's point of view. In the final release of part 1 this shows to be not entirely correct as there are many points in the book focusing on Lilly Caul, Caesar Martinez, Bruce, Gabe, Bob Stookey, and a new character Austin Ballard, all told from a 3rd person narrative, not 1st person from the Governor's point of view as previously stated.
• The book will be released both in hardcover, Ebook and an audio version read by Fred Berman.
• The book is not the final of the novel series, as Robert Kirkman stated there will be more novels in a thread on Reddit.

Goofs/Errors

• It's stated early in the book that just over 2 years have passed since the dead started walking when it has actually been just 7 months.
• It's stated that during the Governors torture at the hands of Michonne, the power drill is used on his left shoulder when in the comics it's shown to be his right shoulder.
• Early in the second part of the novel, It's stated that Penny has been dead for over a year, when she has been dead for around half a year.
• Lily remembers having met the Governor over a year and a half ago, when only over half a year has passed since she met him.
• Wes is called "Gus" throughout the novel.
• The dialog between Bruce and Bob where he is fetched to take care of the injured governor varies slightly. Mainly Bob says "for about fifteen minutes... about a million years ago" instead of "for about two weeks forty goddamn years ago!".
• The National Guard base is destroyed around May 11, whereas in the comic series, this happens around early July.
• During his speech to Woodburians, it is mentioned the Governor had a microphone given by Rudy Warburton. In the comics, he never had a microphone and Rudy is nowhere to be seen.
• During target practice, the Governor "closes his right eye and peers down the barrel with his left." At this point, he has already lost his left eye.
  • Additionally, Lilly comes to talk to him about the speech he gave to Woodburians, during the target practice, but in the comics, the interaction between him and Lilly never happened.
• Instead of saying "Kill them all!", the Governor says "Destroy them all!"
• Novel states the Governor and his army took the bodies of the first assault with them while withdrawing, including Simmons, Johnny, Ronnie, Jake, Evan and Alex, and Governor later on shot all of them in the head, avoiding the reanimation. In the comics, the army left in a hurry and was not able to take the bodies with them. Additionally, most of the soldiers were already shot in the head.
• Sam is replaced by Curtis at the Walmart.