Merle Dixon

"Now... How's about a hug for your old pal Merle? heh heh heh..."

- Merle to Andrea

Merle Dixon is a character from AMC's The Walking Dead. He appeared briefly in the first season, where he was handcuffed to a rooftop by Rick Grimes after displaying hostile and racist behavior. The group had left him there when they escaped from Atlanta, which Merle had remained extremely resentful of. Believing no one will be coming back to help him, he is forced to amputate his own hand in order to escape the horde of walkers and blistering heat, from which he nearly suffers a heat stroke. As he is dying, he is discovered by The Governor, who takes him in to Woodbury.

He was portrayed by Michael Rooker.

In the first half of season 3, Merle appeared as an antagonist, following The Governor's orders without question. He discovered Andrea and Michonne hiding from The Governor and his men as they are foraging a downed military helicopter. After he discovers them, The Governor (The Walking Dead) allows them into Woodbury. However, after Michonne later tried to kill The Governor, she leaves Woodbury and is hunted by an assassination squad lead by Merle. When she finds them, she kills all of them except for Merle, who managed to shoot her in the leg. She escapes and hides in a mini strip plaza, when she sees Glenn and Maggie looking for baby formula. As she attempts to slip by them, Merle storms from a corner and takes Glenn and Maggie hostage into Woodbury. In Woodbury, Merle brutally tortures Glenn in an attempt to find out where the rest of the group are holed up. After Maggie is nearly raped by The Governor, she tells the Woodbury soldiers that they reside in the prison. As Glenn and Maggie are about to be executed by Merle's command, Rick, Daryl, Michonne, and Oscar raid Woodbury to find them. Michonne fights with The Governor in his quarters and manages to stab him in the eye with a piece of glass. Michonne gets away after Andrea discovers her and The Governor fighting and almost shoots her. Blaming Merle for the attack on Woodbury, The Governor labels Merle a traitor, and forces him and his captured brother, Daryl, to fight to the death. Instead, him and Daryl tag-team to attempt to ward off the "entertainment" walkers, and as they do so, Rick and the rest of the group shoots into the crowd, allowing Merle and Daryl to escape.

In the second half of season 3, Merle became a protagonist, saying that his loyalty lies with his brother. However, most of the prison group is extremely distrustful of him, and keep him in a different cell block than the rest of the group. Eventually, Rick goes to Merle and tells him to hand Michonne to The Governor, who Rick believes will spare the prison from future attacks. Merle agrees, and leads Michonne to a vulnerable part of the prison, where he knocks her out and ties her hands to prevent escape. As they are traveling to Woodbury, Merle sets Michonne free, saying "there's something I gotta do by myself." When he reaches the rendezvous point, he creates a walker bomb by playing loud music and leaving a car in the Drive gear. As the walkers follow the car and discover the Woodbury soldiers, Merle hides in a shack and begins to pick them off. However, he wrestles with a walker he didn't notice, and is then discovered by two Woodbury soldiers, who begin to beat him. As The Governor walks in, he begins to fight with Merle, breaking his blade arm and biting off two of his fingers off his good hand. Accepting defeat, Merle doesn't resist when The Governor shoots him in the chest and kills him. Later, as Daryl is looking for Merle, he notices the carnage caused by the walker bomb, and then sees a re-animated Merle feeding on a corpse. Breaking down, Daryl wrestles with the walker-Merle and stabs him multiple times in the face, putting him out of his misery.

Merle's attack on The Governor and his soldiers marked the beginning of the end of Woodbury, as The Governor was no longer able to overwhelm the prison survivors with his sheer amount of resident soldiers. The residents that he did gather to fight did not possess the willpower to kill the prison survivors as they were completely inexperienced and ignorant to The Governor's true nature.