Merle Dixon

**Merle Dixon**is a main character and a former antagonist as well as a survivor of the outbreak in AMC's *The Walking Dead.*Having survived along with his younger brother, Daryl, he eventually joined a group of survivors outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He though was abandoned on a rooftop so he was found by the Governor and taken into Woodbury, serving as the secondary antagonist for the first half of season three before rejoining Rick Grimes' group.

## History

### Season One

Merle Dixon is one of the Atlanta survivors who left the refugee camp to gather supplies in Atlanta with Glenn Rhee, Andrea, Jacqui, T-Dog and Morales. When the department store is besieged by walkers, Merle fires his rifle at several of them. T-Dog demands that he stop firing as it will draw more walkers. After Merle insults him by calling him "Mr. Yo" and "nigga", T-Dog throws a punch which Merle parries with a rifle and the two begin to brawl. Though Rick Grimes, Morales and Glenn attempt to intervene, Merle single-handedly knocks them down and viciously beats T-Dog, establishing his dominance by spitting on the man. After declaring himself leader, he is blind-sided by Rick, who hits him with his own rifle and handcuffs him to a pipe before Merle can cause further harm. Rick then confiscates Merle's pistol and cocaine and tosses the drugs off the side of the building, infuriating him. He is then put under T-Dog's watch while the other survivors attempt to find a way of the city. When the survivors do find a way out, T-Dog is about to leave him behind like the others are, but after listening to his frightened pleas for help, he turns around to take the handcuffs off and help him out of the store. However, he trips and accidentally drops the handcuff keys into a roof drain, forcing him to abandon Merle on the rooftop, as he flees after locking the rooftop door shut with chains to buy him time. Merle is left behind, screaming and filled with anguish, as the survivors escape Atlanta without him.

Left alone, Merle begins the stages of accepting his fate until he begins to fight again, this time with the pipe he is cuffed to. As he hallucinates that walkers have invaded the building and are reaching the chained door to the rooftop, Merle struggles harder until he notices the spilled tools that the others had left behind. He uses his belt to reach a hacksaw and succeeds in cutting off his right hand and escape. Later on Daryl Dixon, Glenn, Rick and T-Dog return to the rooftop where Merle was left behind and chained to and are shocked to find out he has escaped and his severed hand remaining.

### Season Two

Merle's whereabouts are completely unknown throughout season two. Almost no one is concerned about where he is, if he is alive or dead, or even finding him, aside from Daryl. Merle reappears in an injured Daryl's hallucinations, in which he taunts Daryl for giving up, telling him to be tougher. He also tells Daryl to stand up to Rick, even suggesting that Daryl shoot him, and mentioning that Rick handcuffed him and left him die on the roof of the department store. As a result of this vision, Daryl is able to pull himself up from the gorge he'd fallen to.

## Killed Victims

* **Six U.S. Military Soldiers:**Shot to death.
* **Wilson:**Shot to death.
* **Tim:**Stabbed in the head.
* **Gargulio:**Shot in the head.
* **Ben:**Shot in the shoulder.
* **Six Woodbury Soldiers:**Shot.
* Numerous counts of zombies and at least 8 other unnamed people