The Walking Dead: Top 100 Moments

92. Daryl Decides to Return to the Group

Episode 310 “Home”

Original Airdate: 2/17/2013

Submitted By: Sonya Iryna

Once Daryl was reunited with Merle the question of whether or not he would stay with the group hung in the air. They had been separated for a long time but the bond between the brothers was strong. Daryl wanted Merle to be allowed to join the group. But Merle’s treatment of Maggie and Glenn made that impossible.

Daryl really came into his own after Merle fled the rooftop. He became a person that Rick and the others in the group depended on. He contributed to the group and found the type of acceptance he had never really known before.

When he was traveling with Merle he was always in his brother’s shadow and kept in the “little brother” role by Merle’s larger than life personality and the control he had over Daryl. It was clear that Daryl didn’t really want to go back to that dynamic.

But still, blood is blood. So he left the group and took off with Merle. It wasn’t long before he changed his mind though. Daryl knew that he belonged with Rick and the others. He wanted to go back with him, and he was willing to leave Merle if Merle wouldn’t go to the group with him.

Merle was hesitant because he knew that the group wouldn’t accept him. But Daryl told him that with our without Merle he was going back. And the dynamic between them shifted as Merle tagged along with Daryl back to the prison.