SPOILER: Want A First Peek At A Returning 'The Walking Dead' Character?

(WARNING: The following contains a spoiler for the upcoming season of "The Walking Dead." If you're not caught up or just don't want to know, turn back now. Last chance...)

If a man would cut off his own hand to escape pipe to which you chained him, pray he bleeds out before he finds you.

From the looks of the still below, Merle Dixon (Michael Rooker) looks like he's had some time to cope with his anger at being abandoned by his group - and he hasn't made the most of it. When last Merle was seen in the the flesh, the Atlanta survivors had handcuffed him to a pipe when he violently objected to his group assisting Rick Grimes. After the Walkers closed upon them and T-Dog's rescue attempt failed, Merle took things into his own, er, "hand" and lopped off the other to make a getaway.

Evidence has been suggesting that he survived, but from the looks of that prosthesis, he had a little help.

He was no barrel of sunshine on the best of days. We can only imagine the piper someone's going to pay, since losing a hand has never improved anybody's disposition.