Our favorite moments from The Walking Dead season 2

Rick Confronts Shane

Season 2, episode 12 “Better Angels”

Jill says:

At the near end of season two, Rick Grimes underwent a baptism.

Rick and Shane took a long walk through the woods, leading out to a field bathed in moonlight. It’s there that Rick pauses, his back to Shane as he holsters his gun and says, “So this where you planned to do it?” his voice slightly trembling in disbelief. Rick doesn’t fully believe that the moment is happening until he is in it, and he realizes what he must do. Only one of them was going to be able to walk away, and Rick made sure that he was the last man to stand. Though he tells Shane as he breathes his last breaths, “This was you, not me! You did this to us!” he caresses Shane’s face as he slips away before howling a death wail at the loss of him.

He grieved thoroughly and heavily, his brother’s blood warm and sticky on his hands… And yet, he had also been cleansed by it. Rick Grimes, like the old world, like Shane, had died and gone. The Rick that was capable of taking on this world, for all its horrors and ills, had been born that night. It was sad, but it was pivotal. This was the true origin of Rick’s evolution.