The Walking Dead: 30 most heroic moments of all-time

23. Daryl Returns To The Prison

Season 3, “Home”

When Merle showed up in season 3 alive ,after cutting off his arm and fleeing the roof where Rick had handcuffed him in season 1, Daryl was shocked. And since Merle couldn’t join the prison community after kidnapping and torturing Glenn and Maggie, Daryl at first chose to leave the prison group to be with Merle, as Merle expected him to do.

But Daryl was unhappy and his relationship with Merle had changed forever. When he was finally able to get out from under the shadow of Merle and the abuse and poverty that he grew up in, Daryl had the chance to become the man he’d always wanted to be. He was a strong member of the group. Rick and the others relied on him and trusted him and he trusted them and cared about them. Going back with Merle was like choosing to again be someone who he didn’t like.

Even though he had an entire lifetime of respecting Merle’s authority weighing on him, Daryl chose to confront Merle and tell him that he was going back to the prison to be with Rick and the others. It must have been incredibly difficult for him to stand up to his older brother and to put his own needs first because he was trained from childhood to believe that his needs didn’t matter.

But he stood strong and he was willing to walk away from his brother to go back to his true family at the prison. Daryl chose love and family and community over obligation and it changed everything for him.