Shane Walsh (The Walking Dead)

Shane Walsh is a fictional character from the comic book series The Walking Dead and is portrayed by Jon Bernthal in the American television series of the same name.

In the comic series, Shane is portrayed as a Cynthiana Sheriff's Deputy, as well as the longtime friend and fellow police officer of series protagonist Rick Grimes. After Rick is shot and put into a coma, and the zombie outbreak occurs, he rescues Rick's family and leads a group of survivors, becoming romantically involved with Rick's wife, Lori. When Rick returns to his family alive, Shane grows increasingly jealous of their relationship, as well as Rick's role in the group.

In the television series' first season, Shane leads the survivors until Rick's arrival, then becomes Rick's right-hand man. The reunion is not completely amicable; in the second season, Shane develops into an antagonistic character, becoming more aggressive and unpredictable, due to his growing obsession with Lori and subsequent jealousy of Rick. He also becomes willing to abandon or kill those he deems liabilities to the group and has no moral conscience for outsiders. This puts Shane at odds with Rick's moral leadership, as he believes that Rick is ill-equipped to lead and that he, Shane, would be a better leader. His only true concern becomes for Lori and Carl, and not the group itself.

Appearances

Comic book series

Shane, as depicted in the comic book series.

Shane was a police officer in Cynthiana, Kentucky, and best friend of the town's deputy sheriff, Rick Grimes. After Rick is shot and put into a coma,^[1] and after the dead begin to rise, Shane accompanies Rick's wife, Lori Grimes, and Rick's son, Carl, to a purported safe zone in Atlanta, Georgia. They later form a group of survivors living on the outskirts of the city, with Shane repeatedly telling them that the government will one day return to save them. During this time, Shane and an emotionally destitute Lori share a night of sex, something Shane had wanted for a long time.^[2]

Shane is first overjoyed when Rick joins the group, but gradually becomes jealous of Rick and Lori getting back together.^[3] Eventually, Lori brushes off Shane's advances and says their brief romance must stop.^[4] Sent into an emotional meltdown by Lori siding with Rick, Shane leaves in a rage. Rick follows and Shane attempts to murder him, stating that he has nothing left to live for other than Lori. Carl happens upon the scene and shoots Shane through the neck, mortally wounding him.^[5] Rick later returns to the grave site and finds that Shane has reanimated; he shoots him in the head to finally put him to rest, but does not rebury him.^[6]

Television series

Season 1

Shane is portrayed in the television series as a King County, Georgia sheriff's deputy, and is the best friend and partner of Rick Grimes. Shane is wracked with grief when Rick is severely wounded in a firefight with escaped convicts. When the dead began to rise, Shane tries and fails to rescue a comatose Rick at the hospital. He is tormented by having left Rick in the hospital, but also knows that he never would have been able to save Rick's wife and son, Lori and Carl, had he not done so. Shane harbors feelings for Lori, and the two begin a sexual relationship after assuming that Rick is dead. Upon gathering the group of survivors on the outskirts of Atlanta, Shane becomes its de facto leader.

Shane appears in the series premiere "Days Gone Bye", first seen in conversation with Rick in their patrol cars, until they are called to a high-speed pursuit; during a shootout with the suspects, Rick is shot in the back, leaving him seriously wounded and in a coma. Three months later, Shane appears as one of several people in a camp just outside Atlanta, along with Lori and Carl. In the episode "Guts", Shane is seen again in the camp with Carl and Lori, making brief radio contact with T-Dog as part of the group scavenging in Atlanta. In the episode "Tell It to the Frogs", Shane is shocked when he finds Rick alive and well among the group returning from Atlanta. Lori, believing Shane manipulated her into having the affair, ends their relationship. When Carol is abused by her husband Ed, Shane comes to the scene and takes his frustration out on Ed, beating him severely and telling him that if he lays a hand on his wife or his daughter Sophia again, Shane will beat him to death. In the episode "Vatos", Jim begins digging holes, refusing to explain why or take a break despite the extreme heat; when the survivors confront him about his behavior, he lashes out with his shovel, which forces Shane to restrain him. That night, the camp is attacked by walkers resulting in many casualties. In the episode "Wildfire", Shane finds his leadership within the group challenged by Rick, leading to Shane losing both his temper and self-control. Rick argues that the group should press on to the CDC's Atlanta compound; Shane urges Lori to talk Rick out of going to the CDC, but she backs her husband. Dale sees Shane contemplating whether or not to shoot Rick in the back. In the episode "TS-19", the group arrives at the CDC, where only Dr. Edwin Jenner remains. Shane gets drunk and nearly rapes Lori, believing she secretly loves him, but he backs off when she scratches him. Jenner reveals that the facility will explode when the power runs out, and the group flees before the building explodes.

Season 2

In the season premiere "What Lies Ahead", Shane reveals to Lori that he plans to leave the group. However, he and Rick witness as Carl is accidentally shot. In "Bloodletting", Otis, the man who shot Carl, leads them to the farm of his employer, veterinarian Hershel Greene. To save Carl's life, Shane goes with Otis to retrieve medical supplies from a FEMA trailer at a nearby high school. In the episode "Save the Last One", in order to escape with the supplies, he shoots Otis and leaves him to the advancing walkers; he lies to the others, telling them that Otis willingly sacrificed himself. In the episode "Cherokee Rose", at the funeral for Otis, his girlfriend Patricia asks Shane to speak about his last moments, and Shane again lies. At the end of the episode, Lori learns that she is pregnant with what may be Shane's baby. In the episode "Chupacabra", while the group continues to search for the missing Sophia, Shane angrily tells Rick that they are wasting time searching for her, and that the group should head towards Fort Benning. In the episode "Secrets", Shane takes Andrea for gun training, and the two later go to a town searching for Sophia. When they come up empty, they wind up having sex in the car. In the mid-season finale "Pretty Much Dead Already", Glenn tells the group that Hershel's barn is full of walkers, and Shane demands that they kill all the walkers for their own protection. When Shane learns about Lori's pregnancy from Rick, Shane confronts Lori, who makes it clear that although she is uncertain who the biological father is, she and Rick alone will be raising the baby. Dale, concerned about Shane's erratic behavior, tries to hide the group's guns but Shane finds him and takes the guns back to the camp. Shane arms everyone in the group just before Rick and Hershel come back to the farm with two walkers. Hershel still believes that walkers are people, but Shane demonstrates this is untrue by shooting one of the walkers in its vital organs. Shane breaks off the lock to the barn, and as the walkers file out of the barn, he and the others shoot them; Sophia is the last walker to exit the barn, and when Shane can't shoot her, Rick does.

In the episode "Nebraska", Shane confronts Hershel about Sophia being in the barn, but Hershel denied any knowledge of this and said that Otis put the roaming walkers he found in the barn. Later in this episode, Lori goes searching for Rick, who went searching in town for Hershel, but she ends up having a car accident. In the episode "Triggerfinger", Shane rescues Lori, and they later talk privately, with Shane insisting that his feelings for her were real and they should be together. Rick comes back to camp with Randall, another survivor taken prisoner by the group after he attacked them and was injured, and Shane confronts Rick about this risky decision. In the episode "18 Miles Out", Rick and Shane tie up and blindfold Randall and plan to leave him at a school 18 miles from the farm. As they drive, Rick confronts Shane about what happened with Otis at the high school and his attraction to wife Lori. They find a seemingly secure building to leave Randall there, armed with a knife; as Randall pleads for his life, he revealed that he knew Maggie Greene from school, leading them to suspect that he knows the farm's location. Shane attempts to kill Randall but is stopped when Rick tackles him. They argue about what to do with Randall, escalating into a physical battle, which inadvertently releases a large group of walkers trapped inside a building. The three men fend off the walkers, and they return to the farm with Randall. Rick returns Shane's gun and tells Shane he needs to follow Rick's command from then on if he wants to remain part of the group. In the episode "Judge, Jury, Executioner", the group resolves to execute Randall. However, when Rick refuses to kill an unarmed man, Shane verbally taunts him, boasting that he would make a better leader than Rick and that Lori loves him instead. In the episode "Better Angels", Shane secretly releases Randall and kills him in the woods, telling the group that Randall attacked Shane and escaped. Shane then lures Rick into the woods under the pretense of searching for Randall, intending to kill Rick instead. Rick initially refuses to attack his friend and states that he believes Shane will not attack him if he is unarmed. To make this point, Rick begins to hand over his gun to Shane, which ends up being a ruse, as Rick pulls out a knife and stabs Shane to death. Rick sobs as he tells Shane that Shane made him do it. Carl, confused about what has taken place, happens upon the scene; Rick turns around to face Carl as Shane reanimates as a walker, and Carl then shoots Shane through the head. In the season finale "Beside the Dying Fire", it is revealed that Rick - knowing Shane's intentions in bringing him out to the woods - had played along; Rick says he had just wanted it to be over.

Season 3

In the episode "Made to Suffer", when attacking Woodbury to retrieve Glenn and Maggie from The Governor, Rick hallucinates that one of Woodbury's defenders is Shane and sees him shoot Oscar. Enraged Rick immediately pulls out a gun and shoots "Shane" but when he approaches him he realizes it was just another Woodbury soldier.

Development

Shane Walsh was created by Robert Kirkman, the writer and creator of The Walking Dead comic book series and franchise. The character first appeared in the first issue of the comic book series in October 2003, but was expanded upon greatly in the television show adapted from the comics in 2010. As a result, Shane lives much longer in the chronology of the story in the show than he does in the comics.^[7][8] Kirkman described the comic book version of Shane's character as a short and quick "wham, bam, thank you ma'am" arc compared to that of his counterpart in the television series. Kirkman said he preferred the show's version of Shane and that the differences between the two versions of the character illustrate the ability to explore and evolve elements from the comic book in different ways on the show.^[7]

Jon Bernthal portrayed Shane in the television series, marking the actor's most high-profile role to date.^[7] Bernthal and Andrew Lincoln, who was eventually cast as protagonist Rick Grimes, auditioned for the show together and were the first to be chosen for the regular cast. Series creator Frank Darabont originally had all actors audition for the role of Rick, including Bernthal, and then brought back the actors under close consideration to audition for Shane and other roles.^[9] Bernthal, however, wanted to portray the part of Shane from early on and fought for the part,^[9] despite knowing that the character would die early in the series.^[9][10]

Robert Kirkman said Shane's death was planned for the TV Series adaptation "before the first episode of season one was shot."^[11] "Frank Darabont had actually planned to do it at the end of the first season before he knew that the first season was going to be six episodes. Once the show was given a six-episode order it was decided that we would hold Shane’s death for the second season. But from the very first day of planning the second season it was mapped out that Shane would be kicking the bucket at the end of this season."^[12] Bernthal said he liked playing a role he knew would end early because it allowed him to craft a full story arc from beginning to end and "really show the colors" of the character.^[10]

Bernthal grew very close to Darabont and publicly voiced his disappointment when Darabont was forced out of the series. This led to speculation that Bernthal asked to be written out of the series due to Darabont's departure, but Bernthal stated that this was not the case.^[9] Kirkman said he loved Bernthal's performance as Shane and hated to see him leave the series, but felt it was necessary for the story.^[13] Likewise, Bernthal agreed with that direction for the character, and said he saw his role as "being a soldier for the story".^[7] Shane's death at the hands of Rick was the last scene Bernthal filmed for the show. The filming lasted all night until sunrise, and the entire cast attended out of respect for Bernthal, including Jeff DeMunn, who at that point had already left the series and flew in specifically to be there.^[9]

Bernthal did not realize until very late into filming that he would portray himself as a zombie, and said he had difficulty seeing due to the contact lenses he was fitted with. He tried to convince executive director Greg Nicotero, to allow him to say the word "Rick" as a zombie, which would mark the only time a zombie spoke in the show, but the request was denied.^[9] Upon departing from The Walking Dead, Bernthal was cast as Joe Teague in Mob City, a television drama series Darabont began developing for TNT about crime in Los Angeles in the 1940s and 50s.^[7][10] Bernthal later returned to film a brief cameo in the third season episode "Made to Suffer", in which Rick hallucinates that he sees Shane alive. Bernthal had just concluded filming his role in the Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street when he returned for the scene.^[14] The Walking Dead successfully worked to keep Shane's reappearance secret until the episode aired.^[15] Shane's death was accidentally leaked by the AMC TV store on March 1, 2012 in promotional materials for the Season 2 Blu-ray set.^[16]

In reviewing Shane's death, The Atlantic wrote: "With Shane out of the picture in the comics, Otis doesn't die until a zombie attack that happens many issues later. And 94 issues into the series, Sophia is still going strong. (Viewed in this light, the TV series is a kind of Bizarro-World version of It's a Wonderful Life for Shane: How many lives were worse because he lived?)."^[11]

Glen Mazzara explained why Shane became a walker in "Better Angels" much faster than Amy, and why he still turned despite not getting bit: "We worked hard to make sure that revelation landed. We knew what we were doing there. We knew it would land a punch. We've never had a main character become a zombie to this extent. Those [rapid flashes of zombie mayhem] represent the storm in Shane's brain to some extent ... Amy was a weaker character. Shane is in a murderous rage ... he's going to reanimate quicker. There's just more life in that zombie, believe it or not. We do have internal rules for that."^[17]

At the 2012 Emerald City Comic-Con featuring a panel with Jon Bernthal and Laurie Holden, Bernthal revealed what his version of Shane's death would have been. The ending would have been the same up until the point when Shane and Rick walk into the clearing while searching for Randall. Rick would have asked why they are stopping in the field as they need to find their prisoner, to which Shane would have confessed that he had killed Randall which is a job Rick should have done himself. Shane then would have pulled his gun on Rick leading to similar dialogue between the two men as in the final episode, with the second change being that Shane would have admitted he was there to kill Rick. Rick would then have had similar dialogue as in the episode asking why he was doing this, as he thought they settled their issues in "18 Miles Out." Rick would have then thrown his gun away, instead of holding it in a non-confrontational position, insisting that Shane would have to kill an unarmed man. Shane would have then charged Rick and putting his gun into Ricks' face using the same insults as in the final episode about Carl and Lori, but adding a new insult such as "I tasted your wife." Rick would have then stabbed Shane to death as in the final episode, having the same dialogue as in the episode telling Shane it was his fault that he was being killed, not his own. Had Shane came back as a zombie, Rick (having thrown his gun away), would have picked up Shane's gun to shoot him. When attempting to pull the trigger Rick would come to the realization that Shane never put any ammo into his gun, and must've brought Rick out there to have him kill him, forcing Rick to finally be more like Shane. Carl would have then had shown up and killed zombified Shane, similarly again to the final episode.^[18]

Characterization

In the comics, Kirkman resolved the love triangle between Lori, Shane, and Rick very quickly, but in the TV show he decided to spend more time exploring this relationship.^[19] Bernthal said of the character in the first season, "I love the way that he feels about Rick [...] I love the friendship there. I love the way he uses this unbelievable dialogue that Frank [Darabont] wrote to be a good friend to Rick and to be by his side. Any time you can have a character that starts in one place and go somewhere completely different, that's the journey that we're mostly hungry for."^[20]

By the second season, Shane becomes the show's antagonist as his character grows darker and he finds himself at greater odds with Rick Grimes. He deteriorates throughout his run in the series, going from a confident leader who keeps the group of survivors under control to an increasingly desperate man whose actions become increasingly reactionary and morally ambiguous.^[10] However, Frank Darabont and the series producers did not seek to establish Shane as a villain because they wanted the characters to be authentic and complex rather than black-and-white.^[10]

Robert Kirkman and Jon Bernthal have rejected the classification of Shane as a "bad guy" as too simplistic, noting most of his actions stem from good intentions even when they seem dangerous or irrational.^[7][10][21] They argue that Shane is primarily driven by his desire to protect the other survivors, particularly Lori, Carl and Lori's unborn child.^[10][21] Shane believes he has the most pragmatic view of the post-zombie world, and thus is best qualified to both lead and protect the survivors.^[10][21] Bernthal feels that the character becomes more and more antagonistic as he starts to lose control of the group and, in his mind, losing his ability to protect them.^[10] Shane becomes combative with Rick out of frustration upon ceasing to be the group's de facto leader.^[22] But Bernthal also feels it stems from Shane's genuine belief that Rick is too virtuous and not pragmatic enough to lead the group, and thus is a hindrance to their safety.^[10][23] This difference in philosophy between the two characters is illustrated in the episode "18 Miles Out", when Shane tells Rick, "You can't just be the good guy and expect to live. Not anymore."^[23]

Bernthal argued that Shane better recognized the reality of the world after the zombie outbreak and was able to adapt to it in a more severe and arguably better way than other characters like Rick. Shane shed such concepts of guilt, shame and moral correctness in favor of the concept of survival for himself and those he cares about at any cost.^[7][8] From that perspective, Bernthal argued Shane's killing of Otis could be interpreted as the correct course of action in this world because, by slowing Shane down, Otis was negatively affecting Shane's ability to protect the other survivors.^[8] However, Bernthal also believes Shane recognizes on some level that shutting down all emotions is an impossible task, even in a zombie-infected world, which makes the character that much more complex and multi-layered. Bernthal called Shane "probably the most emotional character on the show".^[7]

While Kirkman likewise called Shane "one of the most nuanced characters on the show", he differed from Bernthal's interpretation of the character in that he believes Rick has adapted better to the new world than Shane. Kirkman believes much of Shane's actions stem from fear and that he is not as prepared for the post-zombie world as he claims. In contrast, Kirkman feels Rick is more centered and better prepared, as illustrated by his ability to act cold and detached at one moment, while kind and sympathetic in another.^[21] Kirkman called The Walking Dead "really a tragic story" for Shane, and said of the perception of the character, "I feel like you should be feeling sorry for Shane more than anything."^[21]

References

External links

• Shane Walsh at the Internet Movie Database