Merle Dixon

**Merle Dixon** is a main character, as well as a survivor of the outbreak in The Walking Dead. He is the first human antagonist of the series in the post-apocolyse.

## Pre-Apocalypse

### Atlanta, Georgia

Nothing is known about Merle's life prior to or as the outbreak began.

## Post-Apocalypse

### Season 1

#### City of the Damned

On the department store's rooftop, Merle fires at roamers in the street with a scoped rifle. The group arrives and T-Dog chastises him for wasting bullets and attracting more walkers. Merle scoffs at him by saying he'd never take orders from a "n\*gger," which sets off a fight between the two. Merle beats T-Dog and presses a handgun to his forehead, before spitting on his chest and proposing a change in leadership. The group is forced to vote in favor of Merle being their new leader. Suddenly, Rick hits Merle with the butt of the rifle and handcuffs him to a pipe. "Things are different now. There's us and the dead. We survive this by pulling together, not apart." Rick tells Merle as he holds a gun to his head. He then finds a stash of cocaine in Merle's shirt pocket and tosses it over the roof, much to Merle's chagrin.

Merle is then put under the watch of T-Dog while he is still unsuccessfully trying to radio the others. Merle tries to convince him to get the hacksaw in the bag of tools to set him free. He scoffs at Merle's offer. "I guess you want me to get that rifle over there, too, so you can shoot that cop when he comes back up." After the group comes up with a plan to escape the city, T-Dog is left in charge of Merle's handcuff keys.

Later, the group grabs their bags to leave the store in a rush, ignoring Merle's pleas to set him free. T-Dog reluctanty turns back and runs with the key in hand to set him free. However, he accidentally slips on the rain-soaked roof and drops the handcuff key down a drain while also dropping the tool bag, making the hacksaw and other tools spill out. "I'm sorry," T-Dog gasps, while Merle accuses him of dropping the key on purpose. He runs back to the stairwell and starts going down, but goes back up and chains the door shut so that the walkers can't get to him.

Merle is left behind, screaming and filled with anguish, as the survivors escape Atlanta without him.

#### Our Horrific Adventures

Left alone, he begins the stages of accepting his fate (praying, bargaining, etc.), 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 to escape.

Later on, Daryl, Rick, Glenn 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. Daryl screams in anguish.

## Mentions

### Season 1

#### Inner City Blues

Daryl takes Merle's severed hand, and places it in T-Dog's bag, before later placing it in Rick's jacket. It's unknown what happened to the hand after this, or if it survived the escape from the the gun store. The four also follow Merle's blood trail, realizing he cauterized the stump.

It is unknown if the person who took the van was Merle or not.

#### A Matter of Time

Daryl mentions Merle while discussing with Rick the prospect of moving the camp. Daryl tells him he doesn’t want to leave without Merle coming back, but assumes he’s dead anyway.

## Relationships

### Daryl Dixon

Daryl and Merle are brothers, and Daryl is shown to care about him a lot.

### T-Dog

T-Dog and Merle didn't get along well during their time in Atlanta and the campsite. T-Dog and the Atlanta group didn't agree with Merle due to the fact that he was wasting bullets and attracting more walkers while shooting at them. Merle, being racist, called T-Dog a "n\*gger" and beat him up. Their relationship worsened when T-Dog refused to release him and accidentally dropped the keys to Merle's cuffs down a drain

### Morales

Morales and Merle didn't get along well during their time in Atlanta and the campsite. Morales and the Atlanta group didn't agree with Merle due to the fact that he was wasting bullets and attracting more walkers while shooting at them. Merle, being racist, called Morales a "taco bender", claiming Morales to have been on his case all day. This lead to Merle attacking Morales, T-Dog, and Rick, announcing his leadership of the group. Morales and the rest of the group abandoned Merle after T-Dog lost the keys to Merle's cuffs.

## Appearances

### The Walking Dead

#### Season 1

* City of the Damned
* Our Horrific Adventures

## Trivia

* Merle is the first human antagonist of the series after the zombie outbreak.
* Merle is the first survivor to have a limb amputated, after he cut off his own hand to escape.