8 Excellent TV Series & Characters That Ceased To Exist In 2013

2. The Governor, "The Walking Dead"

The first big-bad villain of The Walking Dead, The Governor as portrayed by David Morrissey, met his final demise in the episode "Too Far Gone", as his final all-out plan to assault the prison and reclaim it for his group backfires in his face and he's unceremoniously shot by girlfriend Lily, after being stabbed in the back by Michonne as retribution for him kidnapping Glenn and Maggie and murdering Andrea at the finale of Season 3. The Governor is a character that has attracted some controversy from fans of the original comic series: as depicted on the program, many rough edges have been removed, such as his brutal rape of Michonne. As well, in the original book, her retribution on him also includes him losing an arm as well as his testicles. Many fans were concerned that Morrissey seemed too "nice" to play such a twisted and evil character. His character also seemed to vacillate between a nice guy and a total lunatic. To the show's credit, this was addressed in the fourth season, which devoted two episodes to fleshing out the character and detailing what happened to the Governor after the assault on his town of Woodbury: after burning down the town's remnants and wandering aimlessly for a time, he encounters and befriends a family including a little girl, Meghan, who reminds him of his dead daughter Penny. He develops a strong attachment to her, and tries to lead the family to safety. Despite his attempt to be a better person, his old personality begins to manifest itself as they encounter a camp led by Martinez, part of his old group from Woodbury. He quickly murders Martinez when he perceives him as showing weakness by throwing him into a pit of zombies, and also killing another member of the group, Pete. He assumes control of the survivors and heads towards the prison with a tank and assault weapons to seize control of the prison, after capturing Michonne and Hershel as bargaining chips. However, when Meghan is attacked by a walker and killed, this sends him completely over the edge. He ignores Rick's pleas that the two groups can co-exist, slaughters Hershel and sends the tank through the retaining fence, unleashing a swarm of zombies inside the prison walls, ironically rendering the prison uninhabitable. The Governor's hubris led to his ultimate fall: he was completely convinced of his own self-righteousness and belief that the ends justify the means. That belief left him dead on a battleground in a futile war that he started, ultimately alone and forgotten.