Merle Dixon (TV Series)

Merle Dixon is a survivor first encountered in "Guts", the second episode of the Walking Dead TV series. He has a younger brother named Daryl Dixon. The Dixon brothers appear only in the TV series and do not exist in the continuity of the comic series.

Season 1
Merle Dixon, often called by either his first or last name, is a survivor who left the refugee camp to gather supplies in Atlanta with Glenn, Andrea, Jacqui, T-Dog and Morales.

After Rick meets the survivors in the department building, gunshots are heard from the rooftop, revealing it is Dixon firing his rifle. T-Dog demands that he stops firing as it will draw more walkers. Merle provokes a fight with him by referring to him as a "nigger" and the two begin to brawl. Though Rick, 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 punches him out and handcuffs him to a pipe, before Dixon can cause further harm. He is then put under the watch of T-Dog while the other survivors attempt to find a way out of the city. When the survivors do find a way out, T-Dog attempts to save the man but accidentally drops the handcuff keys into a vent, forcing him to abandon Dixon on the rooftop, as he flees after locking the rooftop door shut with chains. He is left behind as the survivors escape Atlanta.

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 zombies invade the building and reach 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 attempt reaching a hack-saw.

Back at the camp, the survivors return and Rick learns of Merle's brother Daryl who is out hunting in the woods. Upon Daryl's return, they inform him of his brothers fate and he goes ballistic. Eventually, Rick decides that some of them should return to the city to fetch his bag of guns and if they do so they will go back for Merle. Daryl, Rick, Glenn and T-Dog return to retrieve the guns and Merle, the latter attempting to make things right for abandoing the man.

Upon their return to rescue him, Merle is found missing except for his hand, bloody handcuffs, and a bloody hacksaw. It is assumed he cut his own hand off in order to escape from the rooftop. Two walkers are found with their heads bashed in by a hammer, indicating Merle killed them. Also there is a hot iron covered in burned flesh found indicating he cauterized his wound and an open window, where it is assumed he escaped.

Although his whereabouts are currently unknown, Rick, Glenn, T-Dog and Daryl notice the van they parked near the department store was stolen. Merle is assumed to be the culprit and he would return to camp with a vengence. However, upon the duration of their stay at the camp, the survivors would not run into the missing man again.

Season 2
Merle is mentioned in Season 2 when Daryl takes his brother's "stash" of Drugs to find T-Dog some painkillers.

Trivia

 * Merle is similar in appearance to Francis from the Left 4 Dead video game series.
 * Merle is one of the characters who does not appear in the comic series.
 * Merle's clothing suggests he was a biker before the zombie apocalypse. His bike was taken by his brother when the group made a stop at the brothers surprisingly unransacked house to get supplies.
 * Merle is a racist, as:
 * He calls Morales a "taco-Bender."
 * He calls T-Dog a "nigger."
 * He states that "[his] kind and [T-Dog's] kind aren't meant to mix.
 * Michael Rooker appears as a playable character in Call of Duty: Black Ops in the zombie map "Call of the Dead" He even references His role on walking dead in a quote
 * Popular speculation during Season 1 suggested the possibility that Merle could become the Television Series' version of The Governor.
 * Based on Merle's conversation with himself while he is still chained on the roof (among his mumbles he can be heard telling a story of himself mouthing off to a non-commissioned officer and being penalized for it), it is possible he served in the military at one point.
 * According to his brother, he got the Clap on occasion and had to take some serious antibiotics.