Merle Dixon is a main character and recurring antagonist in the Living. He is the younger brother of Daryl and a violent criminal involved in drugs and armed robbery.
Personality[]
History[]
Background[]
Season One[]
Merle Dixon and his younger brother, Daryl, head to a local store and while the brothers argue, Merle angrily enters the shop and points his gun at the clerk, Morales, as well as forcing Daryl to threaten and stop the other people in the store from fleeing: Jacqui, T-Dog, Glenn Rhee, Andrea and Rick Grimes, unaware that Rick is a cop. As Morales gets the money that Merle demands, Merle begins to act racist towards T-Dog despite Daryl urging him to stop, so T-Dog throws a punch which Merle parries and the two begin to brawl. Though Glenn and Rick attempt to intervene, Merle single-handedly knocks them down and viciously beats T-Dog, establishing his dominance by spitting on the man. After threatening he will shoot the next person who steps out of line, he is blindsided by Rick, who hits him with his own pistol and handcuffs him before Merle can cause further harm. Rick then confiscates Merle's pistol and cocaine, infuriating him. Rick then grabs his radio to call headquarters about the situation hoewever Daryl holds his crossbow to Rick's head, ordering him to hang up. As Rick tries to talk Daryl out of doing something wrong, Daryl argues that he's already done something wrong and that he demands for him and Merle to leave the store before anyone else gets hurt.
After talking about the situation and Rick trying to find a solution to defuse the situation peacefully, Glenn attacks Daryl from behind and distracts him, so Rick holds Daryl at gunpoint with his revolver to the head and when Merle starts insulting Rick and Daryl urges Rick to pull the trigger, Rick refuses and instead arrests him. With both brothers detained, Rick goes to call for backup to apprehend Merle and Daryl however Merle claims that he isn't going to prison and uses a bobby pin to free himself. When Morales runs to stop Merle, Merle punches Morales down and also saves Daryl. Rick attempts to prevent their escape and he points his revolver at them as they flee, but doesn't shoot and the two brothers escape despite Shane Walsh, Lambert Kendal and Leon Basset just arriving. While on the run from the cops, Merle and Daryl split up and are separated from each other.