Merle Dixon

Merle Dixon turns up in the Atlanta survivor camp as the loudest, ugliest problem in the group: a racist loudmouth spoiling for a fight, quick with a slur and quicker with his fists. He wants control, or failing that, chaos. Rick and the others cuff him to a rooftop pipe to shut him up, and that's the last anyone sees of him for a while.

Rooker plays Merle with a swagger that's genuinely repellent and genuinely magnetic at once, refusing to soften him into a redemption project too early. The writing uses him as the group's ugliest impulses given a mouth and a gun, and Rooker never lets you forget he's dangerous even chained to a pipe.