The Walking Dead: 30 most heroic moments of all-time

18. Carl Puts Shane Down And Saves Rick

Season 2, “Better Angels”

Looking back now at how young Carl was back in season 2 when he protected Rick from walker Shane, it’s hard to process what it must have taken for him to use that gun to kill walker Shane as he was bearing down on Rick. For a child to see someone who is familiar to him turn into a walker and then attack his dad must have been terrifying. But Carl still had enough presence of mind to shoot Shane when it looked like Rick was going to get eaten by walker Shane. He was able to process in just a few seconds that walker Shane wasn’t Shane and that his father was about to die and pull the trigger to save him.

At that point, no one in the group knew that everyone turned when they died. Rick hadn’t yet revealed that Dr. Jenner at the CDC had told him in secret that everyone was carrying whatever genetic mutation caused people to turn and that people didn’t need to be bitten to turn. Death made everyone walkers whether they were bitten or not.

But Carl was able to instinctively do what was necessary to save Rick. And if he hadn’t been able to do, that story would have been very different. Carl saved his dad and the entire legacy of the Grimes family with that one shot. He was more heroic at ten than most people are in their entire lives. Even his own death was heroic and much too soon.