In the words of the immortal Darth Vader: “Nooooooooooooooooooo!!”
Just in case you didn’t think Shane was a crazy, macho-headed rageaholic, this week’s episode is finely tuned to bring you to Rick’s side of the fence. All season long, I’ve been championing Shane. Even though he sweats profusely and has weird OCD about rubbing his head approximately twenty two times every scene, he was still the only character who acted like he was knee-deep in a zombie apocalypse, and the only one who didn’t see much sense in Rick’s foolish, life-endangering errands. How’d that whole Sophia thing work out again?
As Rick flip-flopped his way through his self-imposed leadership, Shane stood in the background cursing everything Rick half-way decided. It took the death of Dale for Rick to finally start saying, “It’s my way or the highway,” even though I’m still not sure who gave him that power in the first place. So, in order for us to distance ourselves even more from Shane, we’re treated to a character development that happens faster than a now-mutated zombie virus which simply wakes up the living dead sans bites.
Shane goes from a sneering realist to a head-smacking, murdering psycho in thirty minutes flat. Sure, Shane had his own way of doing things, but compared to Rick’s way of running the farm, Shane’s ideas always seemed much more efficient for Rule Number One: Stay Alive. He still wouldn’t stand idly by while his fellow campers were in trouble. He was a bad dude, just one who realized that they’re living in a changed world. Trying to put together some kind of “society” should come second to making sure everything is as safe as possible. I didn’t buy Shane’s quick descent into madness. The moment Lori came up to him and said her last words, I felt like something was going to happen.
During his convenient mental breakdown, Shane comes up with a diabolical plan: Free Randall, kill him in the woods, and then kill Rick too while he’s searching for Randall. He’d get his make-believe family back and be free to roam the farm incessantly rubbing his head without anyone brave enough to stand in his way. Only, he can’t do it. While both of them are bathed in moonlight, Rick talks and talks until he finds the perfect time to stab Shane right through the heart. My favorite character of the series gurgles, spits up blood and then succumbs to his injuries. Sadness.
One wonders if Shane’s demise makes way for Season Three’s upcoming character, the Governor, who has already been teased about. Rick’s main antagonist is out of the way, and I’m assuming that the Governor will take over Shane’s vacated Bad Dude spot.
I know one thing: Now Rick has no competition from anyone in the camp. Daryl is the next most interesting character and his part has been woefully underwritten this season. He’s gone from making undead jewelry out of zombie ears to following every one of Rick’s orders without hesitation. During this episode, he plays Detective Daryl, which reminds me of John Locke and his sweet tracking skills. (You’ve always got to have at least one tracker in a show like this.) T-Dog’s still around, but you wouldn’t know it since one of his only lines this episode is (and I’m not making this up) “Oh, hell no!”
Then there’s Carl, who still somehow finds himself unsupervised. Rick is off roaming in the woods, but where’s Lori? How does Carl make it all the way down into a field in the middle of the night? Come to think of it, if Shane is planning to murder Rick, why does he finally pick an unconcealed spot a stone’s throw away from the farm house? I understand that the field looks much better for cinematography sake, but Shane is smart enough not to lead Rick all the way back to the farm and then kill him there.
Now we finally know the answer to the odd conversation that Rick and Shane had about the zombie guards who didn’t have any apparent bites. We have a new super zombie virus which picked the opportune time to mutate. Once Shane is killed, barely a few minutes later he rises from the dead and almost tastes sweet revenge as he sneaks up behind Rick. Good thing Dead-Eye Carl is there, to blow Shane’s brains out. Yet one wonders about Dale. Will he soon dig himself out of his shallow grave and start munching down on his once-beloved friends? There would be no greater joy than seeing Dale’s beard streaked with chunks of Carl, but one can only hope.
[Ed.: Daryl shot Dale in the head after Dale was bitten by a zombie, so it seems unlikely that Dale will rise from the grave. -JZ]
Shane is gone. Antagonists have a short lifespan because people always side with the Good Guy. Even though Rick has claimed that he isn’t the Good Guy anymore, he really still is. He’ll always be that guy. He’ll never have a psychotic break as fast as Shane did, and his time will never come. We’re stuck with Rick, forever. That may make some people happy, but not me. Not me.
cardpetree
LOL! The black guy always has to say “Oh, hell no!” at some point.
Josh Zyber
This episode had some weird issues with regard to geography. I got the impression that the field was supposed to be far away from the farm. Hence the reason why one shot from Carl’s gun would attract a whole horde of zombies, even though the group had been shooting at the farm without issue. Yet some of the wide shots made the field look really close and within direct eyeline of the farm. I think this was a flaw in the directing of the episode, not necessarily the writing.
I have mixed feelings about Shane’s transition from jerk to raging psycho. On the one hand, this was inevitable. What happened in this episode happened in about page 5 of the first issue of the comic book (though Carl’s reason for shooting Shane was different). On the other hand, I agree with Aaron that the way it played out here seemed unrealistically sudden.
However, Shane’s behavior in most of the episode seemed almost zombie-like. I have to wonder if this is meant to signal that the virus is now capable of turning people even while they’re still alive? That might explain a lot.
I know that Aaron discounts any explanations given after the show in the Talking Dead interviews, but for whatever it’s worth, the actress who plays Maggie claims that footage had been shot to explain who’s supposed to be looking after Carl and how he keeps slipping away to wander off on his own, but it didn’t make the final edit. I don’t think that this excuses the way he’s portrayed in the show, but at least we know that people in the writing and production staff are aware of the problem.
John
Ive felt Shane has been a loose cannon from early on. So i guess I will have to disagree with the comments that he just suddenly became a raging lunatic this episode.
You guys kept saying hes the one you need in charge to keep you alive. But really he is only thinking about keeping HIMSELF alive. He would have problem putting anyone down that didnt fit into HIS plans. If Andrea was holding him back from his psycho delusions of Lori and Carl he would have shot her if it came to saving himself. He is def not someone who has his shit together.
RCorman
Didn’t T-Dog also say something about the Governor called and you’re getting a reprieve, when he went to get Randall?
Lahrs
I don’t know if my comic comparisons every few weeks are just annoying or interesting to some, but well, here it goes.
Shane dies in issue 6, again shot by Carl but for a different reason as Josh mentioned, though no one is aware he becomes zombie Shane until 40 something, and that is when it is confirmed that everyone is infected. It never mutated, that is the way it always was.
Comic Rick is a combination of Rick on the show and Shane. Keeping Shane around, it felt like they split the character and in my opinion, completely ruined Rick onscreen as a leader as evident every week when people compare the two. Rick still makes plenty of dumb ass mistakes in the comic, but is not above doing what is necessary to keep the group alive. My hope now for the show is Rick will start to envelop much of what Shane stood for, just without his wild tendencies and fantasies.
Budget, story or whatever, it is time to get off the farm, and I am hoping this oncoming zombie swarm does the trick. It is quite convenient that after all this time, the group was just now invited into the house and stock piled supplies.
I hate to say this as a huge fan of the comic and of the show, that this season has been incredibly slow, which will make the wait for season 3 that much more difficult. Not enough meat on season 2’s bones to really hold me over, though I definitely have not given up on the series. I am just hoping the next 45 minutes are going to make a huge impact.
mlemaire
We also can’t forget that in season 1, Shane did point his shotgun at Rick when they were in the forest searching for something, and Dale noticed. So while this did seem sudden in some ways, it’s not like it’s something he hadn’t already considered. But yes, the Carl unattended stuff riles me every single time…