Dead Lines

Last night's episode (the best of the season so far) was Merle-dominated, so there's no surprise that  "This Sorrowful Life" was full of terrific dialogue...


Merle: (to Rick) Huh, the inner circle.  I'm honored.  You know, when we'd go out on runs, [the Governor]'d bash somebody's skull, slash somebody's throat, and he'd say, "Never waste a bullet." And I always thought it was just an excuse.  [beat]  You go on.  Give him that girl.  He ain't gonna kill her, you know.  He's gonna do things to her.  Probably take out one of her eyes.  Both of 'em, most likely.  You'd let that happen for a shot?  Whew.  You're cold as ice, Officer Friendly.



Daryl: He's gonna make it right.  I'm gonna make him.  There's gotta be  away.  Just needs to be a little forgiveness, is all.
Glenn: He tied me to a chair, beat me, and threw a walker in the room.  Maybe I could call it even.  But he--he took Maggie to a man that terrorized her, humiliated her.  I care more about her than I care about me.



Merle: Your people look at me like I'm the Devil, grabbing up those lovebirds like that, huh?  Now y'all want to do the same damn thing I did--snatch someone up and deliver them to the Governor.  Just like me.  Yeah.  People do what they gotta do, or they die.
Daryl: Can't do things without people anymore, man.
Merle: Maybe these people need someone like me around, huh?  Do their dirty work.  The bad guy.



Michonne: That's a whole lot of maybes.
Merle: You gotta play the hand you're dealt.  I only got one.



Rick: What I said last year, that first night after the farm...it can't be like that.  It can't.  What we do, what we're willing to do, who we are, it's not my call.  It can't be.  I couldn't sacrifice one of us for the greater good because--because we are the greater good.  We're the reason we're still here, not me.  This is life and death.  How you live, how you die, it isn't up to me.  I'm not your Governor.  We choose to go.  We choose to stay.  We stick together.  We vote.  We can stay and fight, or we can go.