Rick and Shane reunite for Rick’s final episode of The Walking Dead

Rick Grimes had a few visits with some ghosts from the past in his final episode of The Walking Dead, and Shane Walsh was one of them.

A few months ago it was announced that Jon Bernthal would be reprising his role of Shane Walsh in The Walking Dead season 9 for Rick Grimes’ final episode. In Rick Grimes’ final episode titled What Comes After, Shane Walsh reappeared to Rick Grimes in a hallucination that Rick was having.

Just like in the pilot episode “Days Gone Bye”, Shane appeared in Rick’s hallucination in his police officer uniform sitting in a police car. Rick gets in the car and the both of them joke around while having some burgers and fries just like in the first episode.

Shane of course, being as humorous as before brings up the fact that Rick is actually looking for “his” family:

"How is my baby girl?"

Shane is referring to Judith, who is Shane and Lori’s biological daughter.

It was so refreshing getting to see Shane and Rick joking around again just like they used to. It’s almost like the events of earlier seasons never happened, and they were still best friends.

The light banter that Shane and Rick shared turned a bit darker when Shane told Rick that he was responsible for Rick’s darker side:

"I’d like to take full credit for it, you took a page out of my book."

Shane then goes on to tell Rick that Rick was channeling Shane when Rick bit out Joe’s throat in A, and Rick also channeled Shane when he killed Gareth with the red machete in the church.

Even though this is a hallucination, Shane makes a really interesting point here. Those were some of Rick’s most vicious moments. That is exactly who Shane was when the apocalypse began, and Rick was still learning the ropes.

Is it possible that Rick really did channel Shane in those moments or was he acting all on his own? I think that it definitely took Rick a while to get to the point in the apocalypse where Shane’s mindset was at the beginning of it. Rick had realized later on that not everyone is worthy of saving and can be a threat to others. This was a very Shane-like mentality that developed for Rick later on in the show. Shane definitely had some influence on Rick in those dark moments. For Rick to even be hallucinating Shane in the first place would mean that Shane has always been in Rick’s subconscious for a while now.

Since those darker times, it does seem that Rick’s mentality has changed. He is more forgiving and willing to give people a chance, as we have seen with Negan. There is no way that Shane would have let Negan stay alive, but that’s where Rick and Shane’s differences come at play.

What is your favorite Rick and Shane memory? Be sure to tune into new episodes of The Walking Dead, Sundays on AMC.