Merle Dixon is a fictional character from the horror drama television series The Walking Dead, which aired on AMC in the United States.

Following an encounter with series protagonist Rick Grimes, Merle disappears and joins the community of Woodbury, Georgia, where he becomes the right-hand man of The Governor.

While atop a department store roof, Merle begins firing a rifle at walkers on the street while the group demands that he stop.

In the next episode "Tell It to the Frogs", as walkers begin to invade the building and reach the chained rooftop door, Merle struggles until he notices a hacksaw by the spilled toolbox the others had left behind.

In the episode "Made to Suffer", Rick's group infiltrates Woodbury and rescues Glenn and Maggie, Michonne attacks the Governor; furious at losing an eye and his reanimated daughter to a woman Merle reported as dead, he publicly accuses Merle of treason and reveals that he has captured Daryl.

In the episode "The Suicide King", the Governor orders Merle and Daryl to fight to the death, but they are saved by Rick and Maggie, who attack Woodbury.

In the episode "Home", they come across a family being attacked by walkers and Merle half-heartedly assists in Daryl's efforts to rescue them.

In the episode "I Ain't a Judas", Merle is promptly locked inside a prison cell, where he shares what he knows about Woodbury and the Governor with the group.

Later, Merle, hearing Beth's singing, walks into the cell block where he and Rick share an antagonizing look from across the room.

In the penultimate season three episode "This Sorrowful Life", Rick confides in Merle, Daryl, and Hershel that the Governor promises to leave the prison alone if they hand over Michonne.

He starts drinking whiskey before using loud music to lure a group of walkers to the exchange site where the Governor is waiting to ambush whoever will show up.

After shooting several of the henchmen, Merle is caught and beaten by Martinez and two other men and then, injured and winded, fights one-on-one with the Governor.

Club commented that "Merle is a huge sore thumb in the middle of the episode: behaving like no one in his situation ever would, his character seems to exist for no other reason than to cause dramatically convenient trouble.

"[9] Writer Robert Kirkman insisted that working with Rooker was "an absolute delight" during production, and hoped that he would regularly appear on The Walking Dead.

Club, commented that "Merle was a terrible character, all dumb hick stereotypes and bluster" but that in his return in the season's third episode "Walk with Me", "while still unquestionably a son of a bitch, is easier to take, less overtly awful, and more imposing".

[15] In his review of the episode "Hounded", Handlen notes that Merle's motivations "seem to shift a bit to justify whatever the story needs him to do.

"[18] In his review of the third season's mid-season premiere episode "The Suicide King", Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "I think The Walking Dead has sort of bungled the reintroduction of Merle Dixon.

It was always a stretch that Merle would just happen to find the Grimes Gang again, considering the sheer lonely expanse in the new zombie-infested world.

"[19] Zack Handlen called the episode's opening "a decent sequence" which put the cliffhanger's high stakes aside, partly because Merle and Daryl made it out alive.

[20] Eric Goldman at IGN specifically praised the performance of Michael Rooker in "This Sorrowful Life", the final appearance of Merle.

[21] Zack Handlen called the episode's last scene "a good one, and it leads to the terrific final confrontation between Daryl and zombie Merle that makes up for a lot".

In his conversations with Michonne, we're being sold the idea that he's deeply conflicted about all the murdering he's done, and that he's had something like a change of heart since joining the prison group.

While the show so often struggles with finding emotion or resonance in its conversations [...] there are still wordless exchanges like this, with Daryl sobbing as he stabs Merle again and again and again.

There's no real complexity to what's happening, and no mystery, but it's powerful regardless, inspiring fear and pity for both characters, and ending the hour on a high note.

"[22] He is also a main character in the 2013 video game The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct, which focuses on him and Daryl during the early days of the zombie apocalypse.