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Merle Dixon
I ain't gonna beg. I ain't begging you!
~ Merle's last words before the Governor kills him.

Merle Dixon is the opening antagonist of the AMC survival horror series The Walking Dead, serving as the secondary antagonist of Season 1, a flashback antagonist in Season 2, and the secondary antagonist turned anti-hero of Season 3. He is Daryl's older brother and The Governor's former second-in-command. He is a racist, misogynistic, and mentally unstable hillbilly who is one of the original survivors who frequently butts heads with the other survivors. However, he eventually redeems himself before being killed by the Governor.

He is played by Michael Rooker, who also played Yondu Udonta in the Guardians of the Galaxy films.

Biography[]

Merle was born to an abusive father alongside his younger brother Daryl. The two shared a close bond, but were both physically abused by their dad. Merle, not realizing until the apocalypse that Daryl was also abused, took a protective role over his brother. He spent much time in juvenile detention, took many drugs, and eventually served in the army. During this time, he developed racist and misogynistic tendencies. Once the apocalypse occurred, Merle and Daryl survived for a while before eventually joining a group of survivors led by police officer Shane Walsh, secretly intending to rob them.

Season 1[]

6 months after the apocalypse, Merle alongside other members of the group head out to Atlanta, where they meet Shane's presumed dead best friend Rick Grimes. Merle is introduced carelessly shooting a rifle at walkers, much to the chagrin of the other members of the group. This escalates to a verbal confrontation between Merle and T-Dog, an African-American member of the group, whom Merle calls a racial slur, leading to the two getting into a fight. To calm down the situation, Rick takes down Merle and handcuffs him to the roof of the building, leaving T-Dog to keep watch over him. However, a group of walkers attack, and T-Dog loses the keys to Merle's chains in the scuffle, and leaves Merle for dead. Merle is then forced to grab a hacksaw and cut off his own hand to escape.

When the rest of the group return to base, Daryl learns Merle was left for dead, and demands the group return to save him. Rick concedes, and alongside other members, goes back to Atlanta for both Merle and a bag of guns he left there, finding only Merle's hand left behind.

Season 2[]

Merle's sole appearance in Season 2 is as a hallucination that torments Daryl as he looks for Carol's daughter Sofia. Throughout the episode, Merle mocks Daryl for having grown weak due to spending time with the group.

Season 3[]

It is revealed that after escaping the Walkers, Merle discovered Woodbury and became the right hand man of The Governor, who outfitted him with a bladed gauntlet to replace his lost hand. Merle discovers Andrea after both find a crashed military helicopter, and takes her and Michonne to Woodbury. When Michonne leaves Woodbury due to distrusting the Governor, Merle is sent after her with a small team alongside him. Michonne kills almost all of them, save for Merle and one man, whom Merle kills in order to tell the Governor that Michonne was killed. On his way back, he encounters Glenn and Maggie, and takes both back to the Governor, where he tortures Glenn by putting him in the same room as a chained Walker.

After Rick and company rescue Glenn and Maggie, killing many members of Woodbury in the process, The Governor, who lost his eye and zombified daughter Penny to Michonne, chooses Merle as a scapegoat for the attack and forces him and a captured Daryl to fight to the death. However, they are also rescued by Rick and the group and escape Woodbury. Daryl and Merle temporarily leave the group owing to their distrust of Merle, but eventually choose to head back to the prison, where Merle is locked up. Later on, the Governor and Rick form an agreement: Rick's group must hand over Michonne, or else The Governor will raid the prison and kill Michonne.

When Merle discovers this, he knocks out Michonne and attempts to take her to the Governor to protect Daryl. However, he has a change of heart and lets her go, instead attempting to assassinate the Governor. His attempt goes awry, however, and The Governor shoots him. Daryl later finds a zombified Merle and is forced to kill him.

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