when did merle die in the walking dead
Merle Dixon 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.