Who is merle

Gargulio refuses to lie to the Governor, he remembers what Merle said earlier about how serious the situation was, Merle at first agrees, but then he shoots Gargulio in the head while he is distracted by a bird call. Sometime after, Merle follows Michonne into the "Red-Zone" and, much to his surprise, he stumble upon Glenn and Maggie while they were on a food and supply run. Merle questions Glenn about Daryl, Glenn says that Daryl is still alive, but refuses to take Merle along because of his knife prosthetic.

Merle tries to be friendly at first, but then he shoots at them and holds Maggie hostage. He then orders Glenn to get in the car and drive them to Woodbury, but, without their knowledge, Michonne was watching everything from behind a car. Later on, Merle interrupts the Governor and Andrea as they are having sex.

The Governor walks out of his apartment to talk to Merle, who lies to him saying that he killed Michonne, but she managed to kill all the other guys. The Governor is saddened for the loss of his men, Merle then tells him that he's captured Glenn and his "pretty little girlfriend".

They decide not to reveal this to Andrea, and Merle leaves, stating that he's going to find out where they were holed up.

Merle brutally interrogates Glenn to find out the location of the Atlanta survivors' current camp. Despite the beating, Glenn still does not reveal anything, saying that Rick will eventually find and save them.

Merle reinforces that nobody's going to find them. Glenn tries to scare Merle by mentioning several strong survivors still being in the group, but he commits the mistake of mentioning Andrea, so Merle instantly knew that he was lying.

Merle eventually becomes frustrated and leaves a walker in the room with Glenn, hoping that it would kill him. However, Glenn ends up killing the walker in a matter of minutes with a piece of the broken chair he was duct-taped to. Eventually, Merle, Martinez and the Governor talk about the situation, Merle says that he wasn't able to get any information from Glenn, but he's going to interrogate Maggie next. The Governor says no and tells him that he is going to talk to her himself.

After a while, the Governor gets tired of games, he, along with Merle and Martinez, takes Maggie to the shack where Glenn is and threatens to kill one in front of the other. Maggie eventually reveals that the Atlanta group is camped in a prison inside the "Red-Zone". Later on, at the Governor's apartment, the Governor says that now that they know that Daryl is still alive, this may count when the time comes to Merle to choose a side, he questions where Merle's loyalty lies, and Merle assures him that his loyalty is no longer to the Atlanta group or his brother, but to Woodbury and the Governor.

Merle converses with the Governor, who is interested in ambushing the prison and enlisting Daryl as an, "inside man". Merle requests that nothing happen to Daryl, and the Governor complies. He then orders Merle to take Glenn and Maggie to the "screamer pits" and execute them. Merle and Warren are going to collect the two when they are ambushed by Glenn and Maggie, and Warren is killed when Maggie stabs him in the throat.

Shots are accidentally fired during the confusion, attracting the attention of the entire town. Maggie holds Merle at gunpoint but is stopped when Martinez arrives. Glenn and Maggie are restrained and ready to be executed, but Merle and the other Woodbury men are ambushed by the Survivors, who throw several flash grenades inside the shack and successfully rescue Glenn and Maggie.

When the Governor and the others are in Milton's lab talking about what is happening, Merle arrives saying that they were attacked and that Warren is dead. The Governor immediately orders every guard to check every corner of Woodbury in search of the "terrorists". Shortly after, smoke dominates the streets of Woodbury and another shootout ensues.

Merle participates in the shootout between the Woodbury soldiers and the Survivors, though the smoke affects their vision, so they are not able to recognize each other.

After the shootout where the Survivors manages to escape, Merle visits the Governor at the infirmary after he was stabbed in the eye. Merle asks what happened, but the Governor only tells Merle that he was attacked and doesn't say who it was Michonne, who Merle told that was dead, attacked the Governor.

The Woodbury citizens are all called into the arena, where the Governor makes a speech about the attack to calm down his people. He then accuses Merle of participating in the attack and betraying them all.

Merle is shocked when the Woodbury soldiers bring in a restrained Daryl, who was captured during the shootout. The Governor asks the residents what should be done with the terrorists. The Dixon brothers are finally reunited after nearly a year apart as the crowd cheers for their deaths.

In the arena, the Governor orders Merle and Daryl to fight to the death, with the winner walking away free. Merle says that he will do whatever he can to prove his loyalty to Woodbury before punching and kicking Daryl. On the ground, Merle orders Daryl to follow his lead, proving he has no intentions on killing him. Rick and Maggie attack the Woodbury citizens by shooting the lamps and throwing in a smoke grenade, Merle knocks down Shumpert and escapes with Daryl, Rick and Maggie.

After reuniting with the others far away from Woodbury, Glenn and Michonne are not happy to see Merle and attempt to attack him. After Daryl tells Merle to shut up multiple times, Merle begins insulting the group, but Rick pistol whips him in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious.

Daryl later decides to depart with Merle, refusing to abandon him again. Merle is in the woods with Daryl, and it appears the two haven't had much luck with scavenging food.

Daryl hears the cries of a baby at the bridge over Yellow Jacket Creek , where Merle jokingly suggests that the noise is just two raccoons mating. They notice a Mexican Family being surrounded by walkers, and Merle reluctantly assists Daryl in saving the family. After the walkers have been killed, Merle holds the family at gunpoint and attempts to retrieve their supplies, until Daryl holds his crossbow at Merle and orders him to allow the family to depart.

Back in the woods, Merle and Daryl argue over the events that had just transpired, Merle is jealous that Daryl changed so much after spending almost a year with Rick and mentions their original plans to rob the Atlanta group back at the original camp. Daryl says that Merle was the one who left him, as he always did in the past. Merle gets frustrated and rips Daryl's shirt, revealing scars on the younger brother's back from childhood abuse.

Merle is horrified and insists that he was unaware of his father's abuse of Daryl, it is revealed that Merle was abused too and that's why he left.. Daryl decides to depart back to the prison, and Merle tearfully informs Daryl that he can't accompany him because he attempted to kill Michonne and brutally attacked Glenn.

Daryl accuses Merle of once again leaving him and departs. However, both Merle and Daryl come back to the prison in time to save Rick from being killed by three walkers, who had him pinned against the chain-link fence. Merle is locked inside the common room of the prison as the group discusses what to do about the Governor's recent attack. Merle informs the group that the Governor probably has scouts on the outside to trap them in, and that they had a window of opportunity to retaliate last night, but didn't.

Merle appears to be right when Rick notices movement near the trees from afar when he looks out with his binoculars. While fastening his bayonet back to his metal covering, Hershel visits him in the cell, where they bond over their amputations saving their lives and a Bible verse.

Merle also informs Hershel of the Governor's planned pecking order if he attacks again, with Merle being the first death and Rick being the last because the Governor wants Rick to watch all his family and friends die around him.

Later on, Merle apologizes to Michonne for trying to kill her, saying that he was simply following orders and that he has done a lot of things he regretted, before and after. When Andrea shows up at the prison, a now armed Merle assists Rick into scouting her in. He, along with the rest of the group, listens to Andrea's plan of making peace with the Governor and Woodbury, Merle chuckles when she says that there is room for all of them at Woodbury. After Andrea leaves, by the evening, Merle, in the door of the common room, listens to Beth singing.

Rick privately tells Daryl that if Merle causes any trouble, he is to blame. Whilst Rick, Daryl, and Hershel have departed to rendezvous with the Governor so they can talk, Merle is with the rest of the survivors back at the prison where it looks like they are gearing up for war and lookout.

Also, whilst Rick and the Governor are discussing their need to fulfill the protection of their people, Merle is mentioned by the Governor, whom he blames for the capture and torture of Glenn and Maggie, but it doesn't convince Rick. Back at the Prison, Merle suggests to Glenn in front of the rest of the group that they have to kill the Governor before he kills them, which puts a scared look in Glenn's eyes; he is worried that Merle is actually scared of someone for once.

But as the de facto leader whilst Rick, Daryl and Hershel are gone, he decides that it's a bad idea and that keeping Merle at the prison and fighting is the best chance they've got, which puts a disappointed yet worried look on Merle's face, showing his desperation to kill the Governor. Later, Merle packs guns into a duffel bag, in which he tells the group he is going to assassinate the Governor. Glenn becomes infuriated due to Merle not heeding his warning about putting Rick, Daryl and Hershel into a cross fire which could potentially kill them.

Merle tries to leave but Glenn blocks the door, wanting Merle to stay put within the Prison. This infuriates Merle and his temper begins to ignite, so after a few warnings and Glenn repetitively saying for him to stay, a fight ensues. Merle grabs Glenn and pushes him away, but before he can open the door, Glenn tackles him and they fall down a small set of stairs.

Merle is strangling Glenn until Maggie begins to choke him and Michonne holds his bayonet arm. Beth, with an annoyed look on her face, shoots the ceiling, which stops the confusion. Merle is left angrily telling Maggie and Michonne to let him go, which they do. After this, he meets Michonne alone, telling her that she is attractive and seductive, and they can end this by assassinating the Governor. She denies the offer, saying that, "killing him will result in more people getting killed, I ain't getting involved in that.

When Rick arrives back with the others, Merle asks if Rick was all alone with the Governor, he answers that he was. Merle walks by Glenn saying that they should've done it when they got the chance. He listens as Rick explains to the group that they are going to a war against The Governor and Woodbury.

Merle is at Cell Block B, ripping apart mattresses and looking for drugs. Rick approaches him and reveals that the Governor promised to leave the group alone as long as they give him Michonne.

He wants Merle to do the dirty work, "You're cold as ice, Officer Friendly," Merle says before giving instructions of which kind of wire they will need to use to keep Michonne captive. He also doubts that the Governor will leave them alone, and mocks Rick for asking him to do this since he is ashamed of giving up Michonne's life like this, knowing that the Governor will slowly torture her. Merle then watches the group from outside and laughs at Rick's reaction next to Michonne, which draws Carol's attention.

She questions if Merle is with the group or not, and he says that he is with the group because of his brother. She tells him to pick a side, he is with the group, or he is not.

Merle reminds Carol that she used to be a scared and innocent woman back at the Atlanta camp. Merle goes to the generator room to gather supplies to capture Michonne, when Daryl arrives and Merle says that he was only searching for crystal meth. Daryl asks him if he is going to do "it," and Merle says that he is, since nobody else has courage to do it.

He also questions what happened to Daryl, because he isn't the same since he became friends with Rick, and laughs at him for always taking Rick's orders. Daryl says that he just wants his brother back. Daryl walks off as Merle puts the supplies in a bag. He then takes Michonne to "the tombs" with an excuse that Rick told them to search for the breach Tyreese and his group used to get in, while she is distracted killing walkers, Merle knocks her unconscious and drags her into a room where he binds her wrists and covers her head with a bag.

Later, Merle and a captive Michonne are walking down a road on their way to the meeting, he explains the deal Rick made with the Governor and how he didn't want to take any risks. Michonne tries to irritate Merle, but he ignores her and uses her katana to kill a walker that was approaching, he says that she could have escaped while he was doing this, but she says that she wouldn't leave without her sword, and they both strangely laugh.

Further on, Merle stops to check if there is a car available to them, he tells Michonne not to take it personal because this is the only way he will be able to save his brother at the prison.

Michonne notes that Merle has a conscience after all, but Merle disagrees, saying "I've killed 16 men since all this went down. They come upon an abandoned motel , Merle tethers Michonne to a post while he hotwires a car.

He accidentally triggers the alarm, attracting all the nearby walkers. Michonne is forced to fight the walkers with no weapons while Merle turns off the car alarm, he then frees Michonne from the post, they get in the car and drive off. In the car, she tells him how the group would welcome him with open arms, but instead he chooses to be an outsider. He also calls her an outsider, but she adds: "once the Governor's done with me, at least I won't have to live with myself.

Merle stops the car, cuts the wire that were tied to her wrists and opens the door for her, he tells her to go back and gives her sword, "I got something I gotta do," he says, and drives off alone.

Merle is then outside a bar playing loud music inside the car while drinking alcohol. Walkers surround his car and he smiles. He slowly drives to the meeting, prompting the walkers to follow him along the way, when he arrives at the farm store, he bails out of the car allowing it to crash into the meeting area, still playing loud music, and the walkers who were following the car continue after it into the area.

This forces the Woodbury soldiers waiting for Rick's arrival to defend themselves from the herd. Merle finds a hiding spot and grabs his assault rifle and starts shooting the Woodbury soldiers one by one. Due to the loud music and shots being fired against the walkers, the soldiers don't notice that it is an ambush. Merle finally spots the Governor helping his men to kill the walkers, Merle has dead aim at the Governor, but Ben unintentionally walks in the way and gets shot instead, saving the Governor's life.

Immediately after the missed shot, a walker in the farm store almost bit Merle, attacking from the side but he managed to kill the walker after a struggle.

The struggle revealed his location and the Woodbury soldiers attack and kick him to the ground. The Governor orders them to back off, saying that he is going to take care of Merle himself. The Governor drags Merle back into the farm store where he was hiding and starts beating him. An already severely weakened Merle fights back, but to no avail.

The Governor chokes him and bites off two of Merle's fingers, before breaking his bayonet arm and finally stunning Merle.

I ain't beggin' you. The Governor pulls out his gun and shoots Merle in the chest, killing and dooming him to become a walker. After the Governor and the Woodbury faction left, abandoning many of their dead, Merle reanimated and started feeding on Ben's corpse. Daryl, on a mission to rescue Merle, arrives and sees his brother as a walker.

Daryl is immediately heartbroken and shocked. As Merle tries to attack him, Daryl pushes his undead brother back three times before finally dropping Merle to the ground and stabbing him in the face multiple times.

Daryl then falls to the ground sobbing next to his dead brother. Instead of handing Michonne to the Governor, Merle chooses to ambush and attempt to kill the Governor himself. During the ambush, Merle is attacked by a walker and because of this he is captured by the Woodbury soldiers and is severally beaten. The Governor then grabs him and takes him back inside the building that Merle was shooting from. The Governor beats him, bites off two of his fingers on his left hand and breaks his right arm, before fatally shooting him in the heart.

Later, Daryl comes across a zombified Merle and begins to cry uncontrollably. A zombified Merle approaches Daryl, who pushes him back three times before stabbing him in the shoulder, knocking him to the ground and then stabbing him seven times in the face, putting him down. Merle sincerely loved his younger brother. Daryl was raised by his brother to share his beliefs and Merle was Daryl's biggest influence growing up, and was also apparently the only member of their family that paid any attention to him growing up.

When the apocalypse broke out, Merle and Daryl worked together and easily survived. When Daryl found out in " Tell It to the Frogs " that Merle had been left for dead by the group, he became furious. After discovering Merle had escaped Daryl had no doubts his brother was still alive. Daryl was the only person during Season 2 who was interested in looking for his brother, and even had an hallucination about Merle in " Chupacabra ".

In the hallucination, however, Daryl expressed his own dislike of his brother and how Merle was never really there for him and how he lived in Merle's shadow. Although it did seem to be implied that the image of his brother tormenting him was the only thing to help him survive in such a broken down state, possibly a testament to tough love that Merle gave him, and his understanding of this is why he still cares for his brother.

In Season 3, after being captured, Daryl finally reunites with his brother for the first time since the Atlanta camp. When faced with leaving his brother behind at the end of "The Suicide King", Daryl chooses to go with his brother out on their own instead of returning to the prison without him. During the rescue of a family trapped by walkers, Merle sees that the time his brother spent with the Atlanta group has changed him; when Merle goes to raid the family's supplies, Daryl threatens to kill him.

Later as they argue, the two fight each other and Merle is seen to be horrified when he notices scars on Daryl's back from beatings that he received as a child from their father. In " This Sorrowful Life " Daryl is seen attempting to talk Glenn into forgiving Merle, because he knows Merle is too proud to apologize.

Later on he finds Merle in the generator room and the two talk about the plan to hand Michonne over. Merle says that the group needs someone to do their dirty work- a bad guy, and that the group, without Daryl, looks at him like the Devil. Daryl tries to convince Merle that he can't do things without people anymore.

Merle comments on the way Daryl has changed, stating that he would've have called people acting as he does "sheep" before the apocalypse. Daryl then expresses his concern of his brother's own change, mentioning that he just wants his brother back.

Daryl later goes to track down his brother when Merle leaves with Michonne. Upon finding him reanimated as a walker, he breaks into tears. After shoving his brother back three times, all the while trying not to break down, he tackles Merle to the ground and stabs his head multiple times in rage.

A few months later, the pair returned to California, where they were arrested as robbery suspects. After the real thieves were caught, Haggard was sent back to juvenile hall, but he and Teague took off to Modesto, California. For a brief time, he did manual labor, was a short-order cook, drove a truck, and committed a series of small crimes.

Soon after he moved to Modesto, Haggard made his performing debut with Teague at a bar named the Fun Center; the two were paid five dollars and given all the beer that they could drink.

By the end of , Haggard had returned home and he was again arrested for truancy, as well as petty larceny. In the beginning of , he was sent to Fred C. Nelles School for Boys in Whittier, California; again, he ran away. This time, the courts decided he was incorrigible and sent him to the high-security Preston School of Industry; he was released after 15 months. Shortly after his release, he and a boy he met at PSI beat up a local boy during an attempted robbery, and Haggard was sent back to PSI.

After getting out of PSI for the second time, Haggard had the first major event in his musical career. He went with Teague to see Lefty Frizzell in concert in Bakersfield. Before the show, he went backstage with several friends and he sang a couple songs for Frizzell. Lefty was so impressed he refused to go on-stage until Haggard was allowed to sing a song. Merle went out and sang a few songs to an enthusiastic response from the audience.

The reception persuaded Haggard to actively pursue a musical career. While he was working during the day in oil fields and farms, he performed at local Bakersfield clubs. His performances led to a spot on a local television show, Chuck Wagon. In , he married Leona Hobbs; the couple moved into his family's old converted boxcar. Throughout , Haggard was plagued by financial problems, which made him turn to robbery. At the end of the year, he attempted to rob a restaurant along with two other burglars; the three were drunk at the time.

Believing it was three o'clock in the morning, the trio tried to open up the back door of the restaurant. However, it was and the establishment was still open. Although the trio fled the scene, Haggard was arrested that day.

The following day, he escaped from prison in order to make peace with his wife and family; later that day, he was recaptured. Haggard was sentenced to a year term and sent to San Quentin prison. Prison didn't immediately lead Merle into rehabilitation. He was fired from a series of prison jobs and planned an escape from the jail, but was talked out of it by fellow inmates.

Nearly two years into his sentence, Haggard discovered that his wife was pregnant with another man's child. The news sent Haggard over the edge.

Soon, he and his cellmate began a gambling racket and brewing beer in their cell. Before long, Haggard was caught drunk and was placed in isolation for a week. During his time in isolation, he had several conversations with Caryl Chessman, an author and a member of death row. A news junkie, he was politically outspoken, taking stances unpopular in the country music world.

There seems to be no shame or anything. Unlike many of his peers, Haggard never stopped writing, releasing 15 albums since I feel like a preacher in front of a congregation.

We may never gain it back. When you look at things realistically, this country was built on three shifts every 24 hours and we are talking about working three or four days a week. As recently as January, when Haggard last spoke with Rolling Stone, he was writing and recording, preparing to hit the studio for a follow-up with Nelson, encouraged by their record and ticket sales.

He was looking forward to hitting the road despite reeling from a two-week hospital stay for double pneumonia. My wife is taking care of me. I really sincerely thank everybody for the prayers. Newswire Powered by. Close the menu. Rolling Stone. Stylistically, he mined honky-tonk, blues, jazz, pop, and folk. Haggard was born poor, though not desperately so, in Depression-era Bakersfield to Jim and Flossie Haggard, migrants from Oklahoma.

Jim, a railroad carpenter, died of a stroke in , forcing Flossie to find work as a bookkeeper. Flossie was a fundamentalist Christian and a stern, somewhat overprotective mother. Not surprisingly, Merle grew quickly from rambunctious to rake-hell.

He also spent time in local jails for theft and bad checks. His woebegone criminal career culminated in when, drunk and confused, he was caught burglarizing a Bakersfield roadhouse.