<P> Merle and Daryl spend time fending for themselves in the woods . In the episode "Home", they come across a family being attacked by walkers and Merle half - heartedly assists in Daryl's efforts to rescue them . Merle then attempts to rob them, but Daryl points his crossbow at him and lets the family drive off before walking off on his own . Merle follows and they get into a physical confrontation, where the depth of their father's abuse is shown when Merle inadvertently exposes scars on Daryl's back . Merle realizes that his leaving home resulted in Daryl becoming the target of their father's abuse . It is also revealed that the brothers had originally planned to rob the Atlanta group . Daryl then leaves to go back to the prison, despite Merle's claims that the group will never accept him . The brothers arrive at the prison at the tail - end of an assault by the Governor and his men, who have crashed a truck through the prison gate and unleashed a horde of walkers onto the prison grounds . Merle and Daryl save Rick from attacking walkers . </P> <P> In the episode "I Ain't a Judas", Merle is promptly locked inside a prison cell, where he shares what he knows about Woodbury and the Governor with the group . He bonds with Hershel and apologizes to Michonne, claiming his attack on her was simply following the Governor's orders . Later, Merle, hearing Beth's singing, walks into the cell block where he and Rick share an antagonizing look from across the room . In the episode "Arrow on the Doorpost", Merle unsuccessfully tries to get the prison group to attack the Governor after fighting Glenn . He later tries to get Michonne to join him with his mission . </P> <P> In the penultimate season three episode "This Sorrowful Life", Rick confides in Merle, Daryl, and Hershel that the Governor promises to leave the prison alone if they hand over Michonne . Rick plans to do as the Governor requests, and asks Merle to help deliver Michonne to the meeting place at noon . Merle, knowing that Rick will not go through with it, traps and ties up Michonne . However, after he and Michonne talk about personal matters, he lets her go and returns her katana, telling her he has something to do alone . He starts drinking whiskey before using loud music to lure a group of walkers to the exchange site where the Governor is waiting to ambush whoever will show up . The music also distracts the Governor's henchmen while Merle secretly takes cover, intent on killing the Governor both for revenge and to prevent him from killing anyone else at the prison, mainly Daryl . After shooting several of the henchmen, Merle is caught and beaten by Martinez and two other men and then, injured and winded, fights one - on - one with the Governor . The Governor gets the upper hand and bites off two of Merle's fingers . A wounded Merle then yells that he will not beg for mercy before the Governor shoots him in the chest with a pistol . Later on, Daryl, who left the prison to track down Merle and Michonne after Rick noticed them missing, finds Michonne unhurt and continues on to the exchange site, where he sees a reanimated Merle eating Ben's corpse . Daryl breaks down in tears and pushes his reanimated brother away more than once before stabbing him repeatedly in the head, killing him for good . </P> <P> Actor Michael Rooker described his thoughts on the role: "Merle is a survivor of the Zombie Apocalypse . And you can tell when you first meet him that even before all the shit went down he was kind of an asshole . We don't play a lot of it up in our portrayal but he's the kind of person where you're not really sure if he should be in charge...if he would be a good leader or not, though he certainly thinks he is ." Merle was one of a number of characters introduced in the second episode of the series, "Guts". Kirkman was pleased with Rooker's performance, retorting that it was "' The Michael Rooker Show' for one solid episode ." </P>

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