Our favorite moments from The Walking Dead season 2

Carl Puts Shane Down

Season 2, episode 12, “Better Angels”

Renee says:

Season 2 of The Walking Dead is one of my favorite seasons. So much happens with our group that it is hard not to love it. The Shane/Rick turmoil fuels this season and builds up our hatred for Shane. He is a hot head and you never know what he is going to do. After he lets all the walkers out of the barn things really heat up. Shane and Rick didn’t agree on most things, especially after that. Rick’s goal was to find a safe place for his family to live and Shane was constantly  ruining that with his poor decisions. When Randall arrives on scene and they had to try and figure out what to do with him, Rick and Shane really got down to voicing their opinions which lead to an all out brawl at the drop off point.

One of my favorite scenes in Season 2 is in the field with Rick and Shane. Rick tries to reason with an unhinged Shane. Shane voices his opinions of Rick and how he is unfit for Lori and for his ‘weak boy’ Carl. Telling Rick that he can’t fix it. He pulls his gun and tells Rick to do the same. Rick tells him he will have to shoot an unarmed man. Rick ultimately kills Shane and tells him “This was you not me, you did this to us.” We see the pain in Rick has he watches his best friend die. He screams out in the night, looking around trying to make sense of what just happened. The scene then goes to the mind of Shane as he is turning. Rick still stunned hears Carl say “Dad?” He walks toward Carl, who had tears in his eyes. Carl points the gun at his father at first but in the background we see the reanimated body of Shane and Carl shoots him.

Now killing walkers has become an everyday occurrence for our group. But, to have to put down one of their own is always a horrific experience. To compound that with the fact that while Rick was in a coma Shane stepped up to protect Carl and Lori. The fact that Carl doesn’t hesitate to protect his father even by killing the man he was so close to shows that Carl is in touch with the evil of this world. This was such an emotional scene for Rick and Carl. I feel it helped groom Carl and gave him a bit of maturity to try and survive this world.