What happened?
Randall was kept interred in the barn whilst a decision continued to be deliberated over how much of a threat he represented. Shane, however, secretly released him into the woods. Leading him far out on the pretence of cutting him loose, Shane broke his neck and feigned injuries before returning to claim Randall had broken loose.
Daryl and Glenn traced the tracks to where Randall was killed, then encounter his reanimated corpse. Shane, meanwhile, took Rick out to an isolated area where it was apparent Shane intended to murder him. Rick pleaded with Shane to find another way before he managed to turn the tables and stab Shane, killing him. Carl arrived on the scene and to see Shane reanimated and shot him. However the danger had not passed as out of the woods could be seen a horde of walkers charging towards them. . .
Thoughts
So the crunch that was inevitable finally came. Shane decided to once and for all eradicate Rick from his life little realising that Rick is the leading man in this show and Shane ain’t! It marked the conclusion to a tension that has been simmering to the boil over the past few episodes, although Shane’s downfall really occurred, I think, after he killed Otis. The moment he committed that atrocity he lost a portion of his humanity that he just could not get back, not to mention his hair. Maybe he thought Lori would be the one person that could make him feel right, but she was well and truly with Rick. You can see why Shane’s twisted mentality had it that Rick had to go. With his slack-jawed expression and unfeeling eyes, however, it looked to me like Shane had really slipped into insanity and there was no helping him.
Almost perverse how it was that Lori for once offered up a friendly front towards Shane. I wasn’t entirely sure what her play was. I figured she had sided with Rick’s view that Shane was a part o the group and he wasn’t going anywhere so she ought to make the best of it. Maybe she thought her saying thanks for saving their lives was going to be enough to bring him back to how things were, without her actually being with him. Ultimately in retrospect I think the scene was there to remind us that Shane wasn’t always bad or unhinged and that there was a certain tragedy in what would happen to him, I also think the scene helped generate a sense that Shane was being accepted back a little and so wasn’t going to be going anywhere, to help the surprise of the ending.
Shane was, also, a good man to Carl. Even at this late stage Carl would still come to Shane when he was in a fix about what to do with Daryl’s gun. Again, in retrospect, this played into the gruelling ending since it was Carl that would show up and kill Shane (who, I suspect, simply believed had been bitten and turned into a walker). Of course, we now learned for absolute certain that a person doesn’t have to be bitten to become one of the undead.
As has been hinted at over the last few episodes with the discovery of bodies that have not been bitten, it appears that if anyone dies of just natural causes they will resurrect as a walker. This certainly caps off a grim picture with a horrible surprise ending. Even if Rick were the last man on Earth and managed to see to it that he killed every last walker in the end he too would become one, unless he blew his own brains out before he died. Not exactly a hopeful future for anyone. I am figuring that perhaps Lori’s unborn child might be a hope if it is somehow immune, because the next logical question is how it is that everyone has become infected in this way. I mean, I have to presume this is how the dead began to walk, that this virus had been released amongst the living and so the moment they started dying that was when zombies were all over the place.
Is this a worldwide thing? Has everyone all over the world been exposed to the same virus? I find it hard to imagine how this could be, but maybe it was something that got released into the air and maybe other people could pass it on to other people and that was how it spread around. . .? A lot of guesswork, though I don’t suppose I’ll have anything else to go off for this season at least.
Daryl and Glenn would appear to be just a little behind Rick in figuring out that the dead will rise again regardless of the circumstances, though I don’t blame them for not reaching that conclusion immediately. They were still trying to get their heads around the fact that Shane had done what he did in luring Randall away and killing him. I liked that Daryl figured it out. Though he perhaps just a little too readily stepped up to Rick’s right hand side (not so long back he had isolated himself away from the group entirely!) it’s a good match up. I could happily see Rick and Daryl buddy up and taken down the zombie hordes if not just for their skills in the field but also for how they get along during downtime. Daryl remains a fascinating character and I hope that continues and he doesn’t just suddenly start toeing the lime and being a cookie cutter good guy.
Rick walking through the woods with Shane, being lead to a quiet spot to do a dastardly deed, was really good stuff. The final location, in the wide open field with thick mist under a large full moon all around them, gave the scene as epic a feel as could be managed. Rick was a tad fortunate to get out of it, though. For a man who had clearly figured out what Shane was intending before he did it, Rick allowed things to be taken to the last point where Shane could have easily killed him quickly had they not had to stall and drag out the agony of the deed.
So Rick managed to get in close and take Shane down, and then he sat and waited for him to turn. Must have happened quickly, but it did allow Carl time to arrive on the scene. Again, my exasperation for how it is that boy just won’t stay put and stay safe totally blows my mind, and also how it is the likes of Lori just obliviously allow him to wander away from their sight and go off on his own considering the world they live in. It must be some kind of running joke the show writer’s are having, about how often and how annoying they can make Carl’s solo forays because I just don’t buy into a kid of his age being that carefree given the horrors and terrors he has witnessed and experienced.
The episode could have ended on that oblique moment, with Carl having shot zombie Shane and Rick reeling from what he had done. If The Walking Dead had closed out on that sombre note it would have been more than considered another first rate episode. But it wasn’t done. Because there at the end, out of nowhere, leaving Rick and Carl scarcely time to draw breath, there was a massive horde of zombies streaming out of the woods. Just after the show has made you go whoa it then lays on something to make you go WHOA! I am not sure where this horde has come from but they looked numerous and they looked rapid and it all paves the way for a heck of a season finale.
What was the best part?
Easily the final showdown between Rick and Shane. Even when Rick was imploring with Shane that nothing had been done that could not be fixed I just knew it was way past that point. They both knew it, really. They were just desperate cries from a man unwilling to kill his best friend. It’s hard enough for Rick to just kill another human being, but Shane was a whole new level. I have to wonder if this won’t forge a watershed in Rick, similar to how Shane cracked after killing Otis. There’s simply no way such an act will slide off him, I’m sure of that. Great scene, though. Absolutely worth the build-up.
What do I think will happen next?
I am fully expecting the siege of the farmhouse that I have been anticipating for ages to finally happen. Rick and Carl, and Daryl and Glenn, will probably have to make a run back to the farmhouse and warn the rest. And maybe it’ll go a bit Night Of The Living Dead and they’ll board up the doors and windows and try and hold out as the zombies hordes try and get in. I don’t foresee it lasting, though. I fully expect that they will have to abandon the farm, and I expect one or two fringe characters to find their way to being devoured rather than escaping. Mostly, from this next episode, I am simply expecting a whole lotta zombie action to be letting rip and running wild.
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