I think its great that Carol is willing to risk talking to Daryl about Merle. He seems to be realizing it on his own, but I think having someone else to lean on for a change will be good for Daryl. I really don't see her turning into Lori, but even if she did I'd have more tolerance for the advice of an abused-widow than the wife-who-slept-with-the-best-friend.
Jesse - if you're looking to read the books, I would actually suggest the Trades over the Compendiums.
Amazon has the trades for $3-8 each, while the compendium is going to run you +$30. You can get the first 7 trade for about $40. Beyond price, I find comics in a compendium to be annoying because you have to either limit opening the book to 90 degrees or pry the binding apart to see everything. The Trades also give you new covers and they all fit together to form an ongoing picture, which is kind of cool. I also like how the storylines kind of wrap up a little with each trade, kind of like chapters. It makes it easier to remember where and when events took place in the story.
If you wanted to go with the original comic format, they've also re-published a good chunk of them for $.99 a pop. You could probably find a good chunk of them for cheap going that route, but might be more tedious trying to find individual issues.
To each their own, but I love the trades. I would still be buying them, but once I caught up to the current storyline I had to start getting the monthlies.