Our favorite moments from The Walking Dead season 2

Rick Kills Shane

Season 2, episode 12 “Better Angels”

Tim says:

To me, the signature moment of season two of The Walking Dead is Rick killing Shane. While I hated to see Shane go, and I hated how Shane had descended to such levels of evil that Rick had almost no choice in the matter, it was a watershed moment for the show.

First of all, it established Rick as the group’s leader, once and for all. A leadership that would last until season nine. Rick was alive, Shane wasn’t, and that’s that.

Second, it showed that Rick could shed the nice-guy leadership style and be ruthless if he had to. While I personally prefer the nicer, more moral version of Rick that we’ve seen for about half his time on the show (he’s vacillated between good-hearted leader and merciless dictator over time, usually settling back to good-hearted in the end), occasionally even the most upstanding citizens must break their moral code in the post apocalypse. This was one of those times.

Rick killing Shane also marked a watershed moment in his oft contentious relationship with his son, Carl. After Rick realized that Carl saw him kill Shane, Rick thought he’d have to explain to his son why Shane, who’d saved Carl’s life and mentored him, needed to die. But not only did Carl seem to intuitively understand, he also saved Rick’s life by shooting the undead version of Shane.

Which brings me to the last reason that moment stuck with me. As I wrote last week, one of the key moments of season one was Jenner explaining to Rick that you turn if you die, even if you weren’t bitten (unless, of course, you were killed by head trauma). Shane proved to Rick that Jenner was right, and Rick revealed this to his group, and us in the audience.

Yes, Randall’s reanimation was a tease, and those viewers who didn’t already know what happens after death (obviously comic readers would’ve been expecting this twist) may have figured it out from what happened to Randall, but for the rest of the viewing audience, Shane’s death set up a reveal that had simmered for a full season.

Other key deaths in season two involved a bite (Dale, Sophia). Those who were killed by bullet, not bite, weren’t shown turning or as zombies. I’m thinking here of Randall’s compatriots that Rick and Herschel dispatched in the barn – we saw them dead but since it takes time to reanimate, we never saw them as walkers.

I liked the Shane character, even if I thought his actions in season two were reprehensible as he descended into madness. I liked Jon Bernthal’s performance. But Rick and Shane battling it out to be the alpha dog was unsustainable – the drama would’ve been old, stale, and boring had it continued. And it simply wasn’t believable that either character would take second fiddle, or even share a leadership role. Darryl is believable as a loyal lieutenant who isn’t afraid to voice dissent, Shane wasn’t. So Shane had to go.

And his death was about more than just which character rules the roost. That alone would’ve been important and interesting, but Shane’s death was fascinating on so many more levels.