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Officer Merk is the main antagonist of the Netflix short film Two Distant Strangers. He is a racist NYPD Officer who continuously murders the protagonist, Carter James, who attempts to find some way to survive to see his dog.
He was portrayed by Andrew Howard.
Personality[]
Officer Merk is shown to be a brutal cop who is immediately aggressive with Carter and believes he’s a drug dealer, before attacking and killing him. It’s shown through the multiple time loops he’s quick to shoot him and also seems to be extremely stubborn. When Carter confronts Merk and explains everything, Merk seems shocked and helps out Carter, in which the two have a amicable conversation, where it’s said that Merk became a cop after being tired of bullied by people, and also shares a never my fault attitude towards the police brutality.
However, it is shown that Merk is actively aware of each timeloop, and actively chooses to follow Carter and kill him every time out of a mix of sadism and xenophobia towards African-Americans. He sarcastically congratulates Carter before killing him in front of his house. While he is stated to have a wife and three children, as well as he is also in contact with his mother, his relationship towards them are ultimately unknown, but they may be the only ones Merk truly cares for, as he goes pretty defensive when Carter asks about his family life and states that they are part of his take on the "American dream".
History[]
Not much is known about Merk’s life, except, according to him at least, he was frequently bullied as a child and became a cop to “put away bullies.” He also says he has a wife and three children, along with two dogs, calling it the American dream, and he is also apparently keeping in contact with his mother.
When Carter spends a one night stand with a woman named Perri and leaves her apartment to go home to his dog, Merk confronts him and believes he’s peddling drugs and attempts to force him to hand over his bag. When Carter refuses, Merk attacks him and proceeds to aggressively put him on a chokehold on the ground until Carter accidentally dies, and Carter wakes back up in the apartment.
Carter keeps doing trail runs but ends up getting shot by Merk and otherwise killed by him. When decides to stay in the apartment with Perri, Merk comes in with a SWAT team and raids the apartment (account to him, mistaking apartment 9 for 6 due to the door) and shooting Carter, horrifying Perri.
After 99 time loops, Carter decides to talk to Merk, and shows him every single thing that happens in the area to convince him about the time loop, and asks to leave him alone. Merk lets Carter go and he runs, but Carter is immediately shot by another cop, who mistakes him as a fleeing criminal. Carter, for the 100th loop, talks Merk through everything again and asks him for a lift home, to which Merk agrees.
While on the car ride, the two have an amicable conversation and seems to be nice, and as Merk parks the car in front of the house, the two part ways amicably and Carter starts walking to his house. However, Merk claps his hands and sarcastically congratulates Carter for his courage of making it this far, revealing he’s actively aware in and participates in the time loop, abusing it in order to keep killing Carter. Carter attempts to run before Merk shoots him in the back as Carter dies in front of his house, Merk taunts him with “See you tomorrow, kid” and Carter wakes back to the apartment.
In the end of the film, Carter tells Perri about everything and how Merk is sadistically hunting him. Undeterred, however, he leaves the apartment once more, willing to go through each effort to get back home to meet his dog and defeat Merk in any way possible, leaving the ending open ended.