The Walking Dead: The Television Series

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Vampyr

Yeah, the last episode was really good, and they sort of addressed the earlier debate of limb vs chain by saying the saw was too dull to cut through the cuffs.

Although that begs another questions: Why didn't he just cut off his thumb?

Your thinking about this too hard. The point of it all was to establish Merle as a bad-ass to be reckoned with. He is the first true human enemy they will likely face, and a man willing to cut off his own hand to escape a trap is a man willing to do pretty much anything.