The Walking Dead: Five Reasons That Death Had to Happen

While fans on social media exploded in surprise, outrage and sorrow at the sight of one of The Walking Dead's most popular recurring characters meeting a grisly end today, we here at ComicBook.com (and many fans, too) have been saying for months that the character wasn't going to make it out of the season unscathed. Despite some shocking moments, the overall structure of The Walking Dead's third season has been remarkably safe ground for the writers. There have been a lot of cannon fodder deaths--characters brought into the show just to be killed so an event has "weight"--as well as predictable developments like being abandoned by your vest-wearing badass, who then does an abrupt about face and swings in like Han Solo to save the day when it's most convenient. So when we speculated months ago that one of the most unlikable characters on television--Merle Dixon--would somehow morph into a hero by the end of the season, we knew in the back of our minds that there was realistically only one way that hero's journey could end. That same writer's toolbox that gives you rules like the ones heeded in those other stories set up a pretty standard storyline: if someone needs redemption, but nobody around them is willing to give it, then the character should take it by giving as much of themselves as humanly possible. In the world of The Walking Dead, that means dying. So what common storytelling tropes made us believe that Merle's death was inevitable? Read on... 1. Merle was never going to stick around. Woodbury isn't the same place he left, and realistically there was little to no chance that he would be able to step up and take control once the Governor was out of the way. That was really his ticket to survival, since his attitude wasn't likely to be tolerated indefinitely by Rick and the rest of the group. Acting like the alpha male jerk is fine for a little while, but the fact of the matter is, it would grate on the other characters--and arguably more importantly, on the viewers--pretty quickly. Robert Kirkman has suggested that next season the show plans to focus on the threat of the walkers, with humanity's own demons taking a bit of a backseat after two seasons where the central antagonists were actually Shane and the Governor. That would have made Merle (who in some ways acts a lot like Shane) an odd man out, in terms of who would be serving a purpose in the story. He wouldn't have made it long. Compound that with the fact that Michael Rooker is a known quantity--an actor with considerable demand for his time--and you've got a situation where the likelihood of Merle being upgraded from "recurring" to "series regular" was almost nil. And on The Walking Dead, if you're not a series regular, you're not safe. Hell, even some of the regulars aren't safe, right, Lori? ...Lori?... 2. Daryl needed to suffer. This season has been all about Rick's suffering and, for the most part, the characters empathized with him but couldn't really relate. Hershel had lost a lot, and so had Carol--but both of them had time to come to grips with the loss. Even at their most hopeful that the walkers could be cured or Sophia would turn up again, in the back of their head part of them had to be processing the likelihood that their loved ones were gone. Rick's breakdown this season has been the central plot running through the prison, exacerbated by the Governor's (and before that the prisoners') madness coming from without. And meanwhile, the second half of this season has given Daryl exactly what he wanted. He found Merle, they made it out of the midseason premiere alive, and since then things have been rough for the brothers, but they've been able to weather it together. The Walking Dead isn't a show where people get to have the things they want. That Daryl's breakdown was reminiscent of Rick's is no doubt not a mistake. The show is bringing him down to Rick's level, making him more human and relatable (and perhaps lining up a scenario where he's not the rock he's been up to this point, meaning that Tyreese could play a role in Rick's leadership structure at some point). 3. The group needed a "big" loss. Last season, the finale was a bit of a dud. After the death of Dale in the second-to-last episode, there wasn't anything comparable to do to the group. Shane's loss would be felt, of course, but everyone had seen him deteriorating and once it was known that he went bad and had to be killed, it seems as though they more or less accepted it (or at least, if there was a grieving/coping process it took place during the nine months between the seasons and viewers weren't privy to it). This season is likely to be the same: the big war promises a massive number of deaths, but everyone can pretty much agree that almost all of those will likely be Woodbury soldiers and/or a couple of the prison survivors who the viewers barely get to hear speak. If the Governor is meant to be the big, revelatory death at the end of the finale it will feel very much like last year did...and if he doesn't die and we're being set up for more fighting, fans will be even less impressed. So if all the major players are more or less safe, you needed someone who was at the heart of this season's action to take the bullet--in this case literally. 4. It creates fertile ground for future conflict among the survivors. While it's pretty clear from the episode that nothing much could have been done on the part of the prison group to avoid Merle's death, it wouldn't be surprising to see Daryl very displeased with the way Merle was treated and the fact that he felt like he "needed" to put himself in danger. Glenn and Maggie, particularly, might find themselves on his naughty list because after he returns from having taken Walker Merle out, they'll likely be in the throes of getting married and pretty jolly about it... 5. "One for the Governor." Last year, after Dale was sent to that great RV in the sky, producers on the show said that his death was "one for the walkers," a reflection that it didn't seem the zombies had really been given their due as a serious threat during the show's second season. This is "one for the Governor," it seems, giving the Governor a chance to get his hands dirty and kill somebody "important" in an up-close-and-personal fashion to re-establish him as the badass he's supposed to be right before the big battle.