Drake Merwin Jr. is a major antagonist in the Gone series and the Monster trilogy.
Introduced as a student at Coates Academy and the right-hand man of Caine Soren, Drake proves to be the absolute worst of the worst, surpassing Caine himself in sheer sadism and cruelty.
However, he doesn't remain under Caine's thumb for long, soon joining the supernatural entity The Gaiaphage in its efforts to conquer the entire world, and later on in the Monster trilogy, joining the vigilante Tom Peaks, solely as an excuse to continue hurting people.
Drake is a person who cares more about causing pain than obtaining power, as shown by his lack of desire to continue controlling Coates Academy in Caine's absence, along with his track record of being second in command to those with greater power than himself.
After Sam burned off his arm in Gone, the Gaiaphage gifted him with a tentacle-like whip in its place along with an army of talking coyotes to command. It also granted him immortality by fusing his body with Brittney Donegal, although they must take turns being in control.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- He is a monstrous sadomasochist who receives dopaminergic and sexual pleasure from torturing and killing women.
- The possibility of him caring about his late father is left far too vague to be considered a legitimate redeeming quality as the only time he ever says anything about him is when fondly reflecting on his first time going out shooting, which was more representative of Drake's love for guns than any affinity he may have had for his father.
- His grandfather mentioned that Drake got worse after his father died, but this doesn't necessarily mean he was grief-stricken. It could just mean that his father was able to keep his sadistic tendencies in check.
- While he does have moral agency issues when under the Gaiaphage's influence, this doesn't change how much of a depraved monster he is overall.
- He was already a horrible person before encountering the Gaiaphage, having committed several heinous acts both under Caine's orders and of his own authority.
- The Gaiaphage does not change the personality of the people it controls and generally has to manipulate them into serving it. With Brittney, it had to show her visions of her deceased brother and also pretend to be the Christian God. In Drake's case, it just had to allow him to fulfill his violent urges, along with offering promises of greater strength.
- There is also a multitude of instances of Drake committing crimes completely independent of the Gaiaphage's wishes.
- After the Gaiaphage's death, Drake did not change for the better and arguably got even worse in the Monster trilogy despite no longer doing the Gaiaphage's bidding.
- Aside from some rare instances where he compliments Brittney's actions, he never shows any genuine care or affability towards his allies.
Background[]
- Since youth, he was known to show sadistic traits like taking an interest in his grandfather's Vietnam war stories about killing enemies, having an unnatural affinity for firearms, and shooting a boy who annoyed him with a pellet gun.
- Although he lived with an abusive stepfather, this tragedy doesn't hold up considering the weight of his crimes along with the fact that other characters in the series like Orc and Diana Ladris went through similar hardships while not turning out anywhere near as bad as he became.
- At Coates Academy, he was one of the biggest bullies, regularly hurting his classmates and giving them swirlies.
Gone[]
- Under Caine's command, he brutally immobilized all the students of Coates Academy with powers in their sleep. He then encased their hands in concrete where they would be imprisoned for at least a week.
- Upon being declared the sheriff of Perdido Beach, he and his cronies would beat up and abuse anyone who broke the rules Caine had put in place. This led to a girl called Bette getting beaten to death by his deputy sheriff, Orc, for breaking the rule of not using her power, a rule that was only in place to strengthen Caine's control of the town.
- While he did beat Orc up after this, invertedly saving Sam Temple's crew, it was only because Orc was refusing to follow his orders as opposed to him actually showing any standards. He even defended Orc's actions when confronted by Sam about them.
- While taking Astrid Elison hostage, for his own amusement, he repeatedly slapped her and forced her to call her 5-year-old autistic brother, Little Pete, an ableist slur.
- He tried to shoot Astrid and Little Pete, only barely missing the chance to kill them.
- He threatened to shoot Lana Lazar's dog if she didn't heal his recently burned-off hand.
- He took a daycare of preschoolers hostage in the Thanksgiving battle, intending to have the coyotes eat them at the end of it.
Hunger[]
- He placed wire traps around the Perdido Beach nuclear power plant to slice the speedster Brianna Berenson in half if she ever used her powers in the area.
- He threatened to cause a nuclear meltdown if Sam didn't stop fighting and let himself get tortured. This gave Sam severe PTSD that stayed with him through the rest of the books
Lies[]
- Upon his resurrection after being seemingly killed by Caine, he flayed a boy called Leonardo to death.
- He forced Astrid and Little Pete to jump off a cliff, threatening to kill them himself if they didn't. He would have succeeded if not for Brianna saving them at the last second.
Plague[]
- When escaping from his confines at Orc's house, he took a boy called Jamal hostage and later fed him to an army of bugs the Gaiaphage offered.
- He wreaked havoc in Perdido Beach with his new army, demanding Little Pete be handed to the Gaiaphage. This forced Astrid to kill Pete herself.
Fear[]
- He murdered Howard Bassem and fed his body to the coyotes.
- While he did say he thought Penny was cute, it was only because he wanted to take advantage of her crush on him as he saw her as a useful ally.
- Using a 5-year-old boy called Justin as ransom, he kidnapped the pregnant Diana Ladris and offered her baby to the Gaiaphage as a vessel, making him indirectly responsible for all the children that Gaia Soren-Ladris murdered.
Light[]
- After Gaia had already died, he made one last effort to murder Sam and Astrid before falling apart due to his immortal body no longer being supported without the Gaiaphage.
Monster[]
- Following a slow regeneration from a single piece of himself, he raped and tortured 18 people to death in the Mojave desert. We later see that he left some of his victims on crosses alive to see who would last the longest.
- He had reduced Brittney to a face on his chest, conscious, but unable to take control or do anything. This means he’s responsible for her experiencing a fate worse than death.
- In turn, this also subverts any care he may potentially have had for Brittney, which was already relatively ambiguous to begin with as it merely amounts to a few positive comments he made about her after she assisted him.
Hero[]
- He threatened to murder the 6-year-old son of an FBI agent if she didn't take him to Astrid. After she complied with his demands, he killed them both anyway.
- He tried to torture Astrid to death before being cathartically defeated and dissolved in a barrel of acid.
Trivia[]
- Drake Merwin, alongside the Gaiaphage, is one of the two villains from the Gone series to be Pure Evil.
- Drake is mentioned by name in the Animorph series, another collection of books Michael Grant was involved in creating, indicating a possible connection between the works. However, there is not enough evidence to suggest it shares a universe with Gone beyond just a few hints, and there are also several continuity errors that would arise from such a connection.
- If Drake was treated as part of the Animorph universe, it’s unlikely his status as Pure Evil would change since, while the heinous standards of Animorph are significantly higher than the Gone series, Drake’s crime of serial rape would be completely unique as the work’s younger age demographic prevents it from exploring such deplorable acts.
- Steven King gave Drake Merwin an honourable mention on his list of the 10 best fictional villains for Entertainment Weekly.
External Links[]
- Drake Merwin on the Villains Wiki
- Drake Merwin on the Gone Wiki