Into The World of "The Walking Dead" Part 3, Shane Was Misunderstood, but Still Mean...

The first time we see Shane Walsh was in the first episode "Days Gone Bye" where in a conversation with Rick Grimes he ask how are things with Lori, Rick's wife. It is obvious that Rick and Lori's marriage is on the rocks and may be past the point of no return. Question: Was Shane and Lori having sex before Rick got shot? In a the second episode of the second season, Lorie has a flash back when she was at the school talking to other mothers and she talks about the fight she had with Rick. I am thinking she has already given up on Rick and is having sex with Shane.

Shane seems like a great leader of the group and Lori and him are at that point of being a family with Carl, but in the episode "Tell it to the Frogs" Shane's world is shattered when Rick is reunited with Lorie and Carl. When you see his reaction it's heartbreaking as it is bitter. Shane fights his demons but over time he becomes even more bitter as Rick slowly becomes a leader of the group. Shane fights with Rick on every decision he makes. However, was Shane always wrong to challenge Rick? I don't think that in the first season that any of the group had come to reality of the new world they where now living in except Shane.

I often wonder if Rick and Shane could have come to a understanding and Shane was the leader what shape would the group be in? Maybe they would have taken Woodbury and over powered the Governor and fortified the prison and held their ground and maybe even got the tank and maybe more weapons.
While I like Rick, Shane had no problem being tough when he needed to be. Rick seemed to want to make everyone happy because of Carl. He wanted his son to see him as a true leader.

To Shane's defense, he was being ignored and Lori just dumped him as if they nothing happen and moved back to Rick's arms. Or so it seemed. I mean face it how would you feel if you was in Shane's place? The world has just ended, you find happiness and move on, but the old world including your best friend that you thought was dead comes back from the dead as if you have done nothing right and takes over. That my friend is a big pill to swallow.

Shane felt that Rick could not keep the Lori and Carl and the group safe. What was he calling safe? was he wrong? In the episode "Pretty Much Dead Already"  Shane was right in killing the Walkers in Hershel's Barn. Hershel had some how convinced Rick to help him retreat two lost walkers from the creek down below his farm. Shane was pissed off and mad. In the world of the Zombie Apocalypse what is the correct way of communicating or educating people about the world around you?

But like greed, Shane had already lost control of his anger when he killed Otis in the episode "Save the Last One". But even I wonder if Carl would have survived if Shane had not of killed Otis. In war there is a term called collateral damage. Innocent had to die to save others. If they could have put Shane on trail, would collateral damage been a strong enough defense for a not guilty verdict? I think it was Shane's guilt of killing Otis that made him just not care and want Rick dead. In the episode called "Secrets" Shane makes it clear he wants Rick dead when he aims his shotgun at him while Rick is in the distance and unaware, but Dale confronts him. Shane denies what Dale thinks, but makes it  clear to Dale he would have no problem killing him also. It was a back handed threat. At that point Shane was going to do whatever he had to do to get Lori and the leadership of the group.

However in the episode "Save the Last One" When Otis and Shane where at the school getting supplies, I do believe that Shane intended to get Otis out of the school and return him to the farm. But there was a boy dying and that was Shane's first priority, so he shot Otis and sacrificed him for Carl. You could very well debate and say that Shane had other motives, and that is a fare argument. Shane returns to the farm as the hero,and that's when things being to unravel for him when they have a memorial for Otis. They ask him to say some words about Otis because he was the one that was there in his final hours. This is where Shane's guilt starts to eat at him, and I am not talking appetizer, but big chunks like a walker chowing down on new meat. This is where the battle for Lorie and leader of the group really starts or at least the way I see it. He does not have a plan at that point, but he knows what he wants.

After the memorial, and the rest of the season Shane takes on Rick. You could say they are no longer best friends. In the episode "18 Miles Out" Rick and Shane fight it out for the first time in trying to come to terms with Lori and the baby that is on it's way. Rick makes it clear that even if the baby belongs to Shane, it will know Rick as the father. That was another notch in a mind that is already ready to lose it. They make it back to the farm with nothing settled. Then Shane takes Rick on a walk in a episode called "Better Angles" The title of that episode says it all. With what happen to Dale getting bit and Carl knowing it was his fault, and then Rick kills Shane just to have Carl shoot Shane after he turns. It makes you wonder about Shane. Maybe he was a angel, but he was not the best. Carl was Ricks Angel shooting Shane the Walker, but Carl was no Angel to Dale.Come to think of it. Was Dale the better angel? He always watched out for everyone. But that is another part of the series.

Into The World of "The Walking Dead" Part 1

lets TRY not think about who the actors are, who wrote the episode, what network it is on. Lets just pretend for a moment that the Zombie Apocalypse is very real and out there is a group of people lead by Rick Grimes. I will refer to episode names and insert a few Youtube Videos here and there, but for the most part I want to keep this as real as possible. There will be a lot that is not explained, but as I was watching the series I just took a bunch of notes and now I am trying to put them in order for this Blog Series, however I will skip back and forth in the time line of the TV series

PART I

At the start of the series we find in the episode "Days Gone By" that Rick has problems with his marriage to Lori. Shane Walsh is Ricks best friend and they are both officers for the sheriff. Shane is very interested in how the marriage is holding together. Why is that? Is he truly worried about his best friends marriage? Is he waiting in the wings if things fall apart? He seemed very concerned about his friend Rick that was laying in the hospital from a gun shot wound he got from a stand off gone wrong when Rick and other officers stopped a group of outlaws at a road block .

Shane went to Rick's bed side several times before the start of the Zombie Apocalypse, when it appeared that he could do no more he blocked the door from walkers and soldiers getting into Ricks room and then told Lori and Rick's son Carl that Rick was dead. Could have Shane done more? How much time had passed since the last time Shane was at the hospital and when Rick was reunited with Lori and Carl.

Rick wakes up in a different world. He wakes up thinking no time has passed since Shane's last visit because at the moment he woke up, he made fun of the vase that Shane brought him with flowers from the Sheriffs office staff

Rick wakes up, stumbles through the blood cover hospital halls, Bodies laying everywhere. He comes to the Cafeteria that warns not to open there is dead inside

He keeps walking on, bodies of the dead are everywhere. As I am watching this I am thinking what would I do if this was me? What would be going through my mind. Rick goes home and hits himself and tells himself this is a dream , but he does not wake up, He tries several times to wake himself up, trying to convince himself that the Zombie Apocalypse is a nightmare gone wrong, but he does not wake up and must face the reality of the new world that now surrounds him. After getting cleaned up and dressed, he starts the journey into hell and there is no return trip back to the world he once knew. It starts when he  sees a little girl. He is looking at her feet from underneath a car and notices she bends down to pick up a teddy bear. So this girl must be ok. He then approaches her and speaks to her and she turns around and she is a walker. What kind of horror is going through anyone's mind when you would see a child holding a teddy bear that has become a monster.

 Rick keeps walking, and later finds a crawler with only the upper torso and uses it arms to crawl on the ground like a insect. This walker has a back story before Rick ends its un-dead life it never asked for. This is what she use to be. You can Find other parts of the story on Youtube or the AMC Web site

Before Rick kills the crawler in the park and starts his horse ride to Atlanta, he meets Morgan Jones after getting his head bashed in by Duane Jones who is Morgan's son. Rick wakes up recovering from the blow to the head. He is tied to the bed just to be safe because Morgan does not know who Rick is. Morgan pretty much gives Rick a crash course on how to handle a walker. But Morgan has a debate of the heart that comes up so many times in the story. There is a walker that use to be his wife and mother to his child. He knows what these walkers are but when he gets her in his sites from the upstairs window in his house he can not shoot her.

This is what amazes me with the whole Zombie Apocalypse experience. It is like when we see a loved one in the hospital on deaths door step. Very sick and we want the suffering to end, but when the loved one does die, the overwhelming grief hits us. I think that is the feeling the writers try to explain with Zombie stories. They are sick and not themselves but we still love them. The people around are yelling you need to shoot them in the head, but that person still sees something that that crudely intimates life. Much like the love a mother has for a child or the spouse that loves a abusive mate that suffers from alcoholism. You can't see the monster for love you have for the human it use to be.

Rick leaves behind his hometown on horse back for Atlanta, he is overwhelmed by a massive heard of walkers when he gets there, he escapes to a tank. At that moment he gives up and loses all hope and ask Lori and Carl to forgive him in a prayer and Puts the gun to his head and just as he is ready to pull the trigger, he hears a voice on the radio. He has got a new dose of hope and pulls the gun away from his head.

I can not in my wildest dreams imagine what it would take that would make me want to commit suicide, But it happens over and over again in Zombie stories. it is as if the ZA is the final push over the edge that will make people give up on life. The shock of waking up to a new world is a punch to the gut and your soul. What we have today we may not have it tomorrow, How would we deal with losing our cell phones, internet and TV. No more doughnut shops to go to meet our friends. The game of the week is finding food. The banks are gone, hospitals are closed and our doctors could be dead. Maybe you don't have a gun but the police are gone, your house is on fire but 911 is not working. How can it get any worse? You are about to find out.

TO BE CONTINUED