I Watch 'Em So You Don't Have To

The Walking Dead: Characters We Love And Hate  


Shane Walsh (Jon Berenthal)


This is kind of a tough one. This character also had the effect of polarizing TWD fans, both loving and hating him. Shane Walsh was killed off early in the comic series, but lasted for two seasons of the television show. He was the best friend of Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) and after Rick was shot and the zombie apocalypse started, took Rick's wife and son and other survivors and headed for the hills so to speak.


Shane obviously had had feelings for Rick's wife Lori before everything happened, and so afterward took no time at all to start an affair with her. He also took Carl, the son, under his wing so to speak and seemed to be an effective leader of the surviving group.


Then Rick Grimes came back. And Shane - well, we don't know how mentally stable he was before, but his sanity began unravelling pretty quickly. He constantly confronted Lori, who dropped him like a hot potato without so much as a 'thanks for saving me and sleeping with me but...' and tried to remind her of their feelings for each other but apparently in Lori's eyes he sort of betrayed her by abandoning a still-alive Rick at the hospital instead of saving him. Flashbacks show that rescuing Rick was pretty near impossible as the military began shooting everyone inside discriminately and would have killed him as well. Besides, he swore he could not hear a heartbeat, plausible because of all the gunfire.


Shane's sanity continued its downward spiral. When Rick's son Carl is accidentally shot and Shane and the person who shot him (Otis) go for medical supplies, the zombies overtake them. Shane grabs the supplies and, in order to get away, shoots Otis in the leg - making him zombie bait. This became such a heinous thing that among TWD fans, a person who sacrifices another human to save his own skin is know to have 'Shane'd' him.


Many memes were created about him too. As I've said, people loved him like crazy or hated him and wanted him dead fast.


In the second season, his antagonism against Rick increases and he starts to show obvious signs of totally losing it. After sacrificing Otis he shaves his head, isolates himself pretty much from the group, and becomes more violent, more amoral.


When Sophia, a young girl, goes missing he objects to the extended search for her, stating that others shouldn't risk dying for a child (very ironic since that's precisely what he did - sacrificing Otis for himself and for Carl) and becomes even more hostile. After a young tough is captured from a gang of violent survivors, Shane wants him shot, pronto. This time, Rick kind of agrees with him. This causes major dissention within the group, but Rick finally agrees that the youth must die so he cannot reveal the location of the group. He tries to shoot him, almost succeeds but Carl shows up (more about that little, ummm, boy later - he's a piece of work too) and tries to goad his father into shooting him. Rick can't.


This is the last straw for Shane. Taking the youth into the woods, he breaks his neck, smashes his own face and tells the group the youth jumped him and took off. They arrange search parties in groups of two. Shane wants to go with Rick and Rick is pretty sure he knows why.


In the evening it comes to a head. Shane draws his gun on Rick, as Rick had suspected he would. Talking rationally doesn't work, but Rick manages to get close enough to Shane to push the gun down and stab him to death.


Again, here comes Carl, seeing Shane dead on the ground. Rick starts to try to explain when Shane gets up, now zombified. Rick doesn't see or hear this but Carl does and draws a gun he stole earlier (again, a piece of work this kid). Rick thinks that Carl is about to shoot him when he raises the gun and shoots the zombified Shane in the head. Which was pretty unreal, I mean c'mon, it's dark, he's what, 9 or so, Shane is moving and Rick is in front of him but he makes the shot. Okay, whatever.


The death of Shane is a shock to the group, some worse than others. The most people mourning the loss of Shane, however, are the fans. Love him or hate him, he added so much to the show that he is impossible to replace. Thankfully they will continue the story forward and not even try, but love or hate him, we will all miss Shane.


Jon Berenthal has had an interesting past. Born and raised in Washington D.C. he studied at The School Of Moscow Art Theatre in Moscow, Russia. He has performed in plays as well as film and television, of course being best known for his work on TWD. He will still be plenty busy however, he has been cast in TNT's LA Noir as Joe Teague. That should make the series plenty interesting.