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This article is about the Novel Series character. You may be looking for his Road to Survival counterpart. For other pages with the same name, see: Philip

We're gonna survive this thing, and we're gonna do it by being bigger monsters than they are! You understand? There ain't no rules anymore! There's only us and them, and all they wanna do is eat our ass! So we're gonna fucking eat them! We're gonna chew 'em up and spit 'em out, and we're gonna survive this thing or I will blow a hole in this whole fucked-up world! You follow me? You FOLLOW ME?!
―Philip Blake ensuring Brian Blake.[src]

Philip Blake is a main character and later an antagonist of the Novel Series. The husband of Sarah Blake, the father of Penny Blake, and the brother of Brian Blake. In the comic series, the Governor was referred to as "Philip". However, the novel The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor explained that Philip Blake died and that his brother, Brian, adopted the name and went on to become the Governor.

Pre-Apocalypse[]

Waynesboro, Georgia[]

Philip was born in 1971 to Rose (née Garcia) and Ed Blake. He grew up in the shabby little bungalow on Farrel Street with his parents and older brother, Brian, who used to share the bunk bed of the back bedroom and pass the late-night whispers with him. The brothers attended Burke County Elementary, sharing the endless tedious times of grammar school.

In 1981, when he was around 10, his mom took him and his brother to the Barnum and Bailey Circus in Athens. The boys reveled in the circus shows and performances—which consisted of the high-wire acts, the tigers jumping through flaming rings, the men shooting out of cannons, the acrobats, the elephants, the sideshows, the sword swallower, the human dartboard, the fire-eaters, the bearded ladies, and the snake charmer—by eating cotton candy. He also took epic journeys into the woods & overnight stays in pup tents and cabins with his brother, including an ill-fated Appalachian camping trip where they secretly had their first beers; even at that age, he could drink himself under the table.

In 1983, at twelve, his father unmercifully whipped him with a hickory switch, raising so many welts on his backside that he had to spend nights sleeping on his stomach, but he never cried. Almost out of spite, he refused to cry.

As a teenager, he attended Burke County High School with his two best friends, Bobby Marsh & Nick Parsons. They were accustomed to drinking together, starting their first year at high school with crème de menthe and watermelon wine in pup tents in each others' backyards. Later, they graduated to boilermakers after football games. Nobody could hold his liquor like him, but the other two men were close rivals in the juicer sweepstakes. The trio maintained a relationship all along.

During 1989 New Year's Eve, as he looked forward for months, he and his buddies got a whole pig delivered on December 30th and started it slow-roasting in the ground behind his parents' place, lining the hole with bricks—Hawaiian luau style—and having had a two-day feast. While the local bluegrass band, the Clinch Mountain Boys, played all night long, he'd gotten good weed as they partied through the first, and he got laid and had a grand old time with his brother.

In 1990, maybe at nineteen, he caught a rabid—foaming mouth and all—German Shepherd dog that terrorized the neighbor kids. He chased it down to the dry creek bed and wrestled it into a trash barrel, grabbing it with his bare hands and throwing it halfway across the gully before slamming the trash can down on it like he was catching a fly. This incident impressed his brother and friend to remember it for a long time.

As an adult, he married a woman named Sarah, who had been a blue-ribbon kisser. His love for her was complicated, conditional, and fluid. Early in his married life, he would go out "carousing" with his two high school buddies regularly - mostly to remind himself what it was like to be young, single, and irresponsible.

One night in 1995, he and his friends were drunk and sneaked into the Starliter Drive-in Theater out on Waverley Road and broke into the projection booth. His friend Bobby waved his fat little fingers in front of the projector where Top Dog was playing, pranking on making shadow dolls appear on the distant screen. It made him laugh so hard to think he was going to puke, watching the silhouettes of rabbits and ducks cavorting across flickering images of Chuck Norris spin-kicking Nazis.

In the spring of 1996, the couple had a child, Penny. He learned what it means to love when he first sees his baby girl as a blotchy little newborn; it means to be afraid and vulnerable for the rest of his life. He has never loved anyone other than his child - even his wife came in second.

In late 1999, his wife Sarah, who drank alcohol, died in an unfortunate car accident on a rain-slick highway south of Athens while driving home from visiting a friend at the University of Georgia. She lost control of her car on a winding road in Wilkes County, losing her life at 3 A.M. He had identified the body and had no qualms about doing the right thing for raising his child but knew he would never be the same from the moment. Traumatized, the void in his heart would pang at the same time his wife passed away on sleepless nights.

By 2000, he soon became a single parent and took on two jobs to keep his daughter fed, clothed, and cared for. He worked days at the muffler shop and nights for two and half years driving the Freightliner for Harlo Electric with Penny in the sleeper compartment. As a truck driver, he was well aware of the location of the gas tank and occasionally made deliveries to Atlanta. He started to encounter prostitutes over the years since Sarah's death, who had given up more in the kissing department. Even hookers have feelings, and he would usually ask at the beginning of a session if they would mind if he slipped in a few kisses, just for good measure, to pretend there was love involved.

As the stress of his life had consumed him, he grew apart from his friends, and the boys' nights out became less frequent. Since 2002, he wondered if he was going through the motions with Bobby and Nick to remind himself that he was alive. Once in a while, in mid-2003, though, he still found time to meet them down at the Tally Ho or the Wagon Wheel Inn or some other Waynesboro dive for an evening of good-natured debauchery (while his mother watched Penny).

Post-Apocalypse[]

Rise of the Governor[]

"The Hollow Men"[]

When the dead began to rise, Philip, his two friends Nick Parsons and Bobby Marsh, his daughter Penny, and his brother, Brian, left Waynesboro and found shelter in the Wiltshire Estates, an upper class gated golfing community. After Bobby died of blood loss due to a zombie bite, Philip, Nick, Penny, and Brian left with weapons and supplies loaded up into Philip's Chevy Suburban. On their way out, Brian left a sign at the entrance of Wiltshire Estates that read: "ALL DEAD DO NOT ENTER."

"Atlanta"[]

Philip and his family made their way to Atlanta through wrecks and walkers. They found a temporary safe haven with the Chalmers family in an apartment in Atlanta. David, Tara, and April Chalmers were traveling musicians who were seeking out a living in the first floor of an apartment building. Philip and his group assisted them in expanding into the upper levels of the apartment and with retrieving food and supplies from nearby stores. The living arrangement was perfect until Philip took his blossoming romance with April too far. As they began to have sex, April told Philip to stop and that it was too soon. Philip then raped her. He realized what he'd done immediately afterward, but in his delusional thinking, he thought he could still salvage their relationship.

The next morning, all of his group's weapons are gone. Tara told them, at gunpoint, to leave.

"Chaos Theory"[]

They left and made their way, via motorcycle, to an abandoned old plantation house. The house was secure and free of walkers, for the most part. They had food to last them through the winter and the house itself was in an orchard. Brian suspected that they were followed to the house and were now being staked out. His suspicions were confirmed when a drug-addled and heavily armed gang came to take the house away from them. Philip made a deal with the group's leader to let them walk away, but Philip realized that the gang planned to kill them as soon as they were out of the house. They sprinted down the orchard where Philip told Brian to hide with Penny and to keep her safe at all costs. Philip and Nick stealthily took out several of the gang members. However, one slipped past and shot Penny. Just as the shooter was about to execute Brian, Philip arrived and killed the gang member. Enraged at his daughter's death, Philip began mercilessly kicking Brian and severely injured him. Philip couldn't bring himself to put Penny down, so he kept her tied to a tree. Two of the gang members, Sonny and Cher survived. Philip kept them prisoner in a barn, torturing them and raping Cher for days on end until they were unrecognizable. Eventually, Nick discovered them and mercy killed them, much to Philip's chagrin.

They left the plantation house and came across Woodbury: a beat up old town with a fairly large group of survivors. Philip and his crew took residence in an apartment there. Philip snuck Penny into the apartment and began feeding her appendages from the bodies that he claimed he didn't kill. One night, Nick spotted Philip dragging a girl out into the woods against her will. He set out to stop Philip with a shotgun while Brian attempted convincing him that whatever it was going on with Philip could be fixed. Nick killed Philip and accidentally killed the girl Philip had abducted. Brian, almost instinctively, killed Nick on the spot. Philip died in Brian's arms. The next day, there was a town meeting about the rising number of deaths. A group of National Guard soldiers were terrorizing the citizens of Woodbury into obeying their every command. When one older man attempted to leave, their leader, Gavin, shot him in the back of the head. Brian, who always relied on Philip for protection since childhood, began wondering what Philip would do in this situation. While Gavin's followers were outside, Brian had an out of body experience in which he carried out his vision of what his brother would do, and killed Gavin. Brian encouraged the people of Woodbury to assist him in taking out the remaining National Guard soldiers. Martinez, the man who eventually assisted Rick, Michonne, and Glenn escape from Woodbury, asked Brian for his name. Brian told Martinez that his name was "Philip Blake".

Death[]

Killed By

While Philip was in Woodbury, he abducted a girl into the nearby trees and attempted to either have sexual intercourse with her, or to kill her as food for Penny. Nick, however, found out about his plan and followed him. Philip wouldn't give up the girl, so Nick shot Philip with his shotgun. His and the girl's body was devoured by zombies.

Killed Victims[]

This list shows the victims Philip has killed:

Relationships[]

Penny Blake

Penny was Philip's daughter thus he loved her greatly. He constantly worried for her safety and well-being. He trusted Brian to watch her but regretted that he could not spend more time with her. Upon her death, Philip was unable to put her down and slowly descended into madness. He sang to her and even fed her body parts showing he was greatly affected by her death

Brian Blake

Brian was Philip's brother. Philip was always more capable of being a leader than Brian while growing up, with Philip always being the one to be grounded in reality while Brian was seemingly in his own world. When the apocalypse started, Philip accidentally ran into Brian and brought him along with his own two friends Bobby and Nick. Brian always looked up to Philip despite being older than him and often tried to be as strong as his brother. After Philip passed away, it seemingly pushed Brian the extra mile into becoming The Governor, taking on several of Philip's personality traits along with his name. It is safe to assume he also adopted his brother's insanity during his role as the Governor.

Sarah Blake

Sarah was Philip's wife. Although he adored her, his love for Sarah came in second (the first being Penny) and was complicated, conditional, and fluid. She died in a car accident before the apocalypse, leaving Philip to raise Penny all by himself.

April Chalmers

Met a lotta girls in my day, ain't never run across one quite like you. Tough as nails... but the tenderness you show toward my kid? Never seen Penny take to somebody like she's taken to you. Hell, you saved our asses, pulling us off the streets. You're a very special lady, you know that?
―Philip expressing his affection towards April.[src]

Philip and his group found a temporary safe haven with the Chalmers family in an apartment in Atlanta. Philip and his group helped the Chalmers expand into the upper levels of the apartment and to retrieve food and supplies from nearby stores. The living arrangement was perfect until Philip took his blossoming romance with April too far. As they began to have sex, April told Philip to stop and that it was too soon. Philip, in the heat of the moment, was unable to stop himself. He realized what he had done immediately after, but thought he might've still been able to salvage the relationship. However, April's sister, Tara forces the group to leave the apartments at gunpoint the following morning.

David Chalmers

Philip held a high respect for David. He agreed to help out and pull his weight. He liked how protective he was of his daughters and came to see David as a father figure. Philip was the one to put David down after his reanimation he later showed regret and sorrow for doing it.

Nick Parsons

Though both once lived in the same area and attended school together, the ensuing traumas of the apocalypse drove Nick into a closer friendship with Brian, the last "sane one" he saw within their group. After Philip's actions lead to their "eviction" from the Chalmers' apartment, Nick began slowly losing his edge. He tried convincing Brian that his brother had gone insane and that "the Devil has his hooks in him." After the death of Penny, Philip beats Brian severely, blaming him for allowing his daughter to get shot. Nick is the one to help Brian heal and rehabilitate, also informing him of his brother's deranged activities with Penny's surviving attackers. Nick also confided in Brian his feelings about Philip keeping a reanimated Penny as part of their group, as he believes Philip to be keeping her soul from reaching Heaven. Upon their arrival in Woodbury, things came to a serious head. Nick and Brian discovered Philip collecting body parts from the recently deceased to feed to a zombified Penny. Soon after, Nick saw what he believed to be Philip dragging off his latest victim. Nick attempted to stop him but wound up killing the victim and mortally injuring Philip. Stunned by his actions, Nick collapses to his knees crying and mumbling. Brian, overcome with the grief of losing everyone he cared about, shoots Nick in the head.


Appearances[]

Novel Series

Rise of the Governor

  • "The Hollow Men"
    • "Chapter One"
    • "Chapter Two"
    • "Chapter Three"
    • "Chapter Four"
    • "Chapter Five"
    • "Chapter Six"
    • "Chapter Seven"
    • "Chapter Eight"
  • "Atlanta"
    • "Chapter Nine"
    • "Chapter Ten"
    • "Chapter Eleven"
    • "Chapter Twelve"
    • "Chapter Thirteen"
    • "Chapter Fourteen"
    • "Chapter Fifteen"
    • "Chapter Sixteen"
  • "Chaos Theory"
    • "Chapter Seventeen"
    • "Chapter Eighteen"
    • "Chapter Nineteen"
    • "Chapter Twenty"
    • "Chapter Twenty-One"
    • "Chapter Twenty-Two"

The Road to Woodbury

Novels 1 2 3 4 5
Rise of the Governor
The Road to Woodbury
The Fall of the Governor
Descent
Invasion
Search and Destroy
Return to Woodbury
Appears Voice is heard
👁 Appears with no lines Appears in a flashback
Appears as a walker 🖼 Appears in a photograph/video
Appears as a corpse Appears in a hallucination/dream

Trivia[]

  • After Philip's death, Brian Blake assumes Philip's identity and seems to even take on aspects of Philip's personality becoming the Governor.
  • Philip is one of two characters in The Walking Dead universe confirmed to have raped two people, raping both April Chalmers and Cher.

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