Why does shane die in walking dead

As the night falls, Rick, Shane and Daryl bring Randall to the barn and put him on his knees. Rick asks if he has any final words. Randall cries, begging for his life. As Rick raises his gun, Carl enters the barn. Shocked, Rick lowers his gun and orders that Randall be taken away. Shane storms out of the barn. While reuniting at the camp, the group hears screams coming from the field and everybody runs to investigate what it is. Daryl gets to the scene first, where a walker is on top of Dale, tearing into his stomach.

Daryl stabs the walker in the head, then shouts for help. Dale's intestines are spilling out of his body. He goes into shock. When Hershel arrives, Rick asks for him to save Dale, but he reports that Dale can't be saved.

Shane encourages Rick to shoot Dale and put him out of his misery, but Rick can't go through with it, so Daryl is the one that shoots Dale out of mercy.

Shane attends Dale's funeral. He later goes into the fields with Daryl, Andrea and T-Dog as they viciously beat walkers to death. Rick then later tells Shane to watch over everyone at the farm while he and Daryl leave to cut Randall loose. Shane doesn't fully agree with Ricks plan of letting Randall go. Rick then tells Shane, "This is what's happening.

Swallow it. Later, while loading lumber, Shane is visited by Carl. He gives Shane Daryl's gun confessing that he took it. He also tells Shane that Dale's death was his fault. He saw the walker that killed him stuck in the mud. He stated that he could have killed it. Instead he threw rocks at it until it got free and attacked him.

Shane tells Carl not to worry about it. While building a lookout spot, Shane is approached by Lori. She thanks him for everything he did for her and Carl since the start of the outbreak, but he needs to understand that they will never be together again.

Infuriated by this, Shane approaches Rick and tells him he needs to talk to Carl instead of worrying about Randall. While Rick talks to his son, Shane approaches Randall in the shed. He leads Randall out into the woods, and behind a tree where he snaps his neck. Shane hits his face against a tree to make it look as if a struggle ensued between he and Randall.

He runs back to the group and says Randall got the jump on him and is now free. Daryl, Glenn, Rick and Shane leave to hunt for him at nightfall. While in the woods, Rick and Daryl notice that Shane is strangely agitated. Shane insists that they need to split into teams and search through the forest for Randall.

Rick and Shane end up splitting from Daryl and Glenn. Rick soon realizes that it's Shane's plan to shoot and kill him. Rick turns around and tells Shane that nobody will believe him if he goes back to the farm without him and without Randall.

Shane explains that he killed Randall earlier and had everything planned to fool the rest of the group into believing that Randall actually killed Rick. He tells Rick he is a better father than he is and that him returning only messed things up. He also boasts that he is better because Rick isn't fighting for his family. Shane orders Rick to raise his gun so they can end this once for all.

Rick refuses to defend himself, telling Shane that he's going have to kill an unarmed man. Rick makes it seem as though he's handing Shane his weapon, once his gun is in Shane's hand, Rick pulls out his knife and stabs Shane in his heart, "This is on you, not me! You did this to us, not me! Shane then dies in his arms. As Rick tries to cope with what just happened, Carl appears, shocked to see Shane dead.

He aims his gun at what is first assumed to be Rick, but is actually a now zombified Shane. Carl pulls the trigger, killing the reanimated Shane. Rick looks back confused. The shot alerts a nearby large herd of walkers. Rick and Carl bend over to check the corpse of Shane while not noticing the wave of zombies approaching in the horizon.

During the prison group's attack on Woodbury to save Maggie and Glenn, Rick hallucinates Shane coming out of the smoke with his shotgun. Afterward, Rick walks over to the body to see that it was just a soldier from Woodbury. In a hallucination, Rick rides on horse back to Atlanta and finds Shane in their old police car.

Suddenly he's inside and they're back at the field on the day he was shot, eating burgers. Rick tells Shane he's looking for his family, and Shane jokes that it's technically his family and asks if he is taking care of his daughter. Rick jokingly calls him an asshole. Shane compliments him for killing him in that field, biting Joe 's throat out, killing Gareth , but then questions why he let Negan live.

He encourages him to find his rage and "get it done. Rick apologizes to Shane for what he did to him. Shane forgives him and furiously tells him to wake up, waking Rick back into reality long enough to avoid several walkers on the shack. As Rick realizes Shane has lured him in the middle of a field in the forest with the intention of killing him, Shane aims his gun at him.

Rick makes it seem as though he's handing Shane his weapon, as he refuses to be armed, telling him that they can forget everything and move on. As Shane grabs the gun and appears to believe in Rick's words, Rick pulls out his knife and stabs Shane in the chest, saying he brought this on himself. He aims his gun at what at first its assumed to be Rick, but is actually a now-zombified Shane.

Before he can get closer to Rick, Carl pulls the trigger, shooting Shane in the head and putting him down. Rick was Shane's partner and were best friends ever since high school. They were practically brothers.

Rick often turned to him when he faced problems concerning his marriage to Lori. The outbreak, however, had put a strain on their good relationship. Believing Rick was dead when he did not wake up from his coma, Shane started an affair with his wife. Rick quickly realized what happened but concealed his anger. Shane was extremely jealous of Rick because Lori still loved him. He believed that he was better for Lori and Carl and that Rick was weak and not built to survive in the post apocalyptic world and was blinded by good intentions too much.

Shane strongly disagreed with many of Rick's decisions such as abandoning the journey to Fort Benning to search for Sophia whom Shane claimed was dead and what caused Carl to be shot , to allow the Walkers to remain alive in Hershel's barn and most importantly Rick's decision to not execute Randall whom Shane viewed as a grave threat to the group's safety and set him free. In " 18 Miles Out ", their relationship begins to spiral out of control when Rick and Shane physically fight each other over Randall, with Shane triggering a swarm of walkers that attacked them.

In the end Shane decides that it would be best to get rid of Rick because, in his mind, Rick was weaker and unable to make tough decisions and therefore unfit to lead the survivors despite the fact that Rick saved his life when he was trapped in a school bus. Shane's ruthless behavior and dislike of Rick's leadership eventually caused his demise.

Shane appears briefly as a hallucination to Rick in the heat of a vicious gunfight, to which Rick promptly shoots and kills him, later realizing it was a Woodbury soldier. The hallucination reveals that killing Shane still weighs heavily on his conscience. In " After ", Carl, angry with his father, taunts him by pointing out that Shane taught him how to tie the knot they were using to keep walkers out of the house and questions if he remembers him.

Rick, visibly hurt, reveals that he thinks about Shane every day, showing that he still respects his best friend, most likely never forgetting about him. Rick's hallucinations of Shane in "What Comes After" further indicate his missing of his old friend and his regret of having to kill him and also how Shane's development into a hardened survivor played a role in Rick's own development as exemplified over his guilt of not killing Negan and "Shane" encouraging him to do so.

Lori and Shane had presumably known each other for years. Before the outbreak, they both lived in the same small town in Georgia.

After believing that Rick had died in hospital, Shane, sparing no thought for himself, accompanied Lori and Carl to Atlanta, where they believed a refugee center to be. It is implied that on the way there, Shane and Lori had a sexual encounter, both desperately needing physical contact amid the chaos and grief surrounding.

When the survivors are stationed outside of Atlanta, Lori sneaks off into the woods to meet Shane for a romantic tryst Shane later mentions that the pair "carried on quite a bit" in these times. Rick's reunion with his family and Shane is bittersweet, as Shane struggles to accept that Rick has rightfully resumed his role as a protector, father and lover.

Consequently, friction between the trio worsens and is further complicated by Lori's pregnancy- and the truth that Shane could very well be the baby's father. To Lori, he insists that their affair had been "a long time coming", implying that there could possibly have been romantic tension present prior to the zombie breakout, but she continues to deny that any real feelings had ever existed between them.

Despite his supposed "love" for Lori, Shane invited Andrea to him for a sexual encounter and never showed any signs of regret over it. At a bid to eliminate the threat of her former lover and bury her regretted mistake for good , Lori warns Rick of Shane's erratic behavior and implies that Rick should handle him before he does something dangerous.

However, after Dale's funeral in " Better Angels ", she appears to have had a change of heart, not only apologizing to Shane for putting him at odds with Rick, but also acknowledging that he hadn't misinterpreted the feelings between them. Lori is overwhelmed with shock, grief and anger when learning that Rick killed Shane, and she reacts even more horrified that Carl shot Shane once he turned into a walker.

Eventually, Lori felt remorseful for putting Rick and Shane at odds, which indicates that she possibly got over Shane's death and understood why Rick had to do it. Shane and Carl had a good friendship in the days before the apocalypse and later in The Atlanta survivor camp, with Shane trying to be a sort of father figure for Carl. Shane was also Carl's "playmate" during their stay at the Atlanta camp.

After Rick's arrival, more time passed, they became more distant, reducing their relationship to a mere group interaction. Despite this, he was still willing to be a protector for Carl, probably because he is Lori's son and Shane once even told Lori that she and Carl were the only things he truly cared about and would do anything to ensure their safety.

Shane's care for Carl was very evident as seen when he left Otis behind to die to ensure he would get much needed medical supplies to Hershel's farm to save Carl's life after he was accidentally shot.

Shane on a few occasions did show disgust and annoyance at Carl's childish behavior and for stealing a gun from the RV once, though he did show some praise for Carl wanting to grow up and learn how to shoot and fight the dead.

Carl likewise strongly respected and cared about Shane and even showed displeasure with making Shane upset with him, though he even showed displeasure at some of Shane's actions such as wanting to abandon the search for Sophia. However, Shane was the first person Carl told about his involvement in Dale's death, showing Carl's trust for him. Shane gives him back the gun he stole, saying he needs it to protect himself, and vowed that he would always protect him for as long as he was around.

During their last encounter, Shane told Rick that he saw Carl as "weak" and that Rick didn't have the first clue on how to fix it.

This comment implies that part of Shane's motivation for assassinating Rick was to turn Carl into a stronger person in order to ensure his survival in the apocalyptic world and Shane openly told Rick that he was a better father towards Carl than him, showing that Shane admired Carl and cared for him deeply and viewed him as being a son to him.

Despite the fact that the rest of the group turned on Shane, Carl still looked up to Shane as a good and trustworthy man and was shocked and saddened when Rick told the group that he killed Shane. In the episode " After ", he taunts Rick by saying Shane taught him how to tie a knot, which implies that Carl held much respect for Shane long after his death and likely never forgot about him. Shane died eight months before Judith was born, however before discovering of Rick's survival, Shane enjoyed a sexual relationship with Lori and the two eventually though unknowingly conceived a child; with Lori learning of her pregnancy in "Cherokee Rose".

Rick later confirms that he knows that Judith is not his biological daughter, implying it is more than likely she is Shane's child.

When Shane first found out of Lori's pregnancy, he automatically assumed that the baby was his though both Lori and Rick told him that the baby would never be considered his regardless, which infuriated him.

Jealous of Rick, and seeing him as a rival, Shane was strongly suggested to have been interested in taking Lori as his wife and raising both Carl and the baby as his own. Realizing that he would never win Lori with Rick being present, Shane plotted to kill him, but catching on to Shane's plan, Rick killed him first. While Judith is aware that Lori is her biological mother, she does not appear to know that Shane is in fact her biological father as she refers to Rick as being her father, which indicates it is likely that she does not even know that Shane ever even existed.

Although, Shane and Leon didn't seem to interact much on screen, it can be assumed that they had a stable relationship, as they were colleagues. Although, Shane and Lambert didn't seem to interact much on screen, it can be assumed that they had a stable relationship, as they were colleagues.

Dale never had a good attitude towards Shane. He always considered him a threat since he saw Shane aiming his gun sights on Rick while he was scouting ahead in the woods during the episode " Wildfire ".

Dale suspected that Shane in fact sacrificed Otis on their supply run to retrieve medical supplies to save Carl and seemed angry of the atrocity committed by Shane. Since then, Dale kept an eye on Shane and considered him danger to the group. Dale suggested that Shane leave the group and later in the same conversation Shane threatened to kill Dale when the older man revealed that knew what had happened to Otis.

After this the two men were at odds on almost every issue, most notably on what to do with Randall. Dale's voice of civilized reason often acted as a foil for Shane's increasingly unstable, survivalist attitude. Shane appeared to be shocked and somewhat saddened after seeing Dale in a dying state and did not appear to be able to watch when Daryl put him out his misery, showing that despite their deteriorated relationship, Shane still felt remorse and sadness for his sudden death.

Shane appeared to be upset at Dale's funeral. Shane and Glenn are good friends and looked after each other during their stay at the Atlanta Camp.

As the temporary leader of their group, Glenn respects Shane and his leadership. During their stay at the Greene farm, the group finds a walker in one of the water wells, and decide to use Glenn as live bait to hang a noose around its neck so that they could pull it out. Before heading down, Glenn tells Shane that he likes his haircut, while Shane assures him they will get him out alive. After the walker attack at the farm, Glenn and the others reunite at the highway and is saddened when he learns of Shane's death.

Glenn is shocked to learn of Shane's betrayal and plan to kill Rick, and seems to lose any respect he had for him. Shane and Andrea were good friends and looked after each other during their stay at the Atlanta Camp.

As the temporary leader of their group, Andrea respected Shane and his leadership. Once they were on the highway, Shane began teaching Andrea how to properly use her gun. They then went on to search for Sophia by themselves in a housing estate , and when a herd came through, Shane's shooting lessons paid off as Andrea began putting down walker after walker. The two then had a sexual encounter on the way back to the farm.

Andrea clearly saw Shane as a better leader for the group than Rick and once even claimed that Shane had done more than anybody, including Rick, to keep the group safe from danger. When Andrea was naming the people who died to Merle she excluded Shane, unaware of his death due to being left behind before Rick informed the group of his demise. Andrea is later informed of Shane's death by Carol when she arrives at the prison, and appeared shocked to learn that Rick was responsible for murdering Shane due to him staging Randall's death to lure Rick out to kill him.

She also appeared upset when Carol told her that Shane loved Lori above everything else, implying that Shane never loved Andrea in the same capacity. Shane and Amy are good friends and look after each other during their stay at the Atlanta Camp.

As the temporary leader of their group, Amy respects Shane and his leadership. When the group receives a call about Andrea and her group under distress in Atlanta, she declares that they need to assist them, but Shane objects, saying that it may be too late.

Amy becomes angry, yelling that Andrea and the others volunteered on behalf of everyone to get supplies. After Amy's death, Shane is saddened, and states that the group can't let her reanimate. Shane and Daryl didn't get along well during their time in Atlanta and the campsite, and had a poor relationship. Shane often showed disgust at Daryl's behavior and insulting remarks towards Rick and once helped restrain him after he was told of what happened to Merle.

Later on while discussing Sophia when Shane claimed that it was time to accept the possibility that she was dead, while Daryl stated that he was close to finding her, Shane then brutally insulted him by stating that Daryl's redneck personality and appearance when he wore walker ears around his neck would most likely scare Sophia away if she was alive out there, which causes a huge argument to break out between him and Daryl.

Daryl did however seem to be in agreement with Shane's plans to kill the walkers in the barn and execute Randall. Shane also appeared angered that Daryl almost died for nothing while looking for Sophia. During a conversation with Dale in " Judge, Jury, Executioner ", Daryl revealed that he had long-since figured out that Shane killed Otis without being told about it, having pieced together the inconsistencies in Shane's story.

Daryl took Rick not figuring out the same truth as proof that the group was broken but didn't voice what he thought of Shane's act otherwise. Shane appeared disgusted that Rick eventually chose Daryl as his right-hand man over him, showing his disdain and lack of respect for Daryl.

It can be presumed that Daryl lost any slight respect he may have had for Shane after learning of his plot to kill Randall so he could lure Rick into the forest and kill him too. Shane and Merle were never seen together, but Shane did not like Merle much. He even went as far as to attempt and convince Rick not to go back for Merle and the bag of guns after Merle was handcuffed and abandoned in Atlanta, despite being aware that he was left to die of thirst and exposure.

In Season 2 , when Shane had a talk with Lori about Rick's abilities of being a leader, one of Rick's characteristics that was mentioned was when how he went back for Merle on a, "suicide mission to save a drug dealer," showing how strongly Shane disliked Merle.

Ed and Shane had a fairly violent relationship, due to Shane's protectiveness over the women in the Atlanta camp. When Ed erected a separate bonfire for his family, Shane attempted to peacefully remove it, but Ed objected, before Carol finally did it herself.

Following Ed's angry yelling and beating of the women doing laundry in the creek, Shane berated Ed, knocking him to the ground, and beating his face into a swollen, bruised pulp. Ed remained distant before his death, deciding to remain in his tent most of the time, shameful of his face's condition and fearful and angry at Shane's superiority. Carol, while never directly lashing out at him or antagonizing him, appeared to have a poor relationship with Shane.

This may stem from his habit of intervening in situations where Ed seemed like he was about to become hostile towards her, or someone else in the camp. When Ed slaps Carol across the face in " Tell It to the Frogs ", Shane beats him savagely, leaving a sobbing, remorseful Carol to tend to her injured husband. Their relationship sours much further in Season 2 due to how Shane handled the case of Sophia's disappearance and is directly responsible for her revelation as a walker in Hershel's barn.

Subsequently, as he is trying to comfort her, Shane trails off topic and instead gets on the subject of how everyone in the group is against him.

This causes Carol's disdain for him to increase even further. Despite Carol's strained relationship with Shane, she appears shocked to learn that it was in fact Rick that killed him and this likely further increases her disdain of Rick's leadership. However, Carol's faith in Rick's leadership following the taking of the prison improves dramatically and she claims that Shane could never have gotten them as far as Rick has. This indicates that Carol lost all respect she had for Shane.

When Sophia first met Shane, she seemed to like him, telling Carl "Your dad's nice" , believing Shane was his dad. Shane appeared to care for Sophia during their days in the Atlanta Camp and appeared to be angered at the way her abusive father treated her and threatened he would beat Ed to death if he ever laid a hand on Sophia again.

Shane appeared slightly worried when Sophia disappeared but very quickly it is clear he lost his care for her, and he only looked for her a few times and eventually wanted to stop looking for her as he claimed correctly she was more than likely dead and that it was a waste to endanger the group by scouting the dangerous woods and infested towns. Shane even blamed Rick's decision to look for her as the cause of Carl being shot.

As he began the barn massacre, Shane showed a belief that Sophia was dead and that they were wasting their time searching for her. However, when the zombified Sophia emerged from the barn, Shane was visibly devastated by her condition and couldn't bring himself to put her down despite only minutes earlier having been enraged at the group's inaction.

He later told Carol that he was very sorry for her daughter's death and that he never would have broken open the barn if he had known that Sophia was inside as a walker, showing some regret for his actions in that respect. He also became angry towards Hershel believing him to have kept Sophia's presence in the barn a secret from them while everyone was looking and almost attacked him but was stopped by Maggie.

T-Dog and Shane become friends and look after each other during their stay at the Atlanta Camp. T-Dog respects Shane and gladly stands with him in his decisions. Shane proves to be compared to him on many occasions, T-Dog instead is always helpful and available to him. T-Dog is shocked to learn of Shane's betrayal and plan to kill Rick, and loses any respect he had for him.

Shane and Morales were good friends during their days in Atlanta and were respecting to each other. Shane seemed to be disappointed and worried when Morales and his family decided they didn't want to follow Rick and his group on their journey to the CDC and wanted to follow another path in order to find their relatives. After Shane is killed, Lori spits on his grave, showing that any affection she might have had for him is gone, and has been replaced with resentment.

Best friends with Shane throughout childhood, they would always stay loyal to each other until the outbreak occurred. Shane and Rick were both police officers before the outbreak, Shane was Rick's partner. Believing Rick was dead, Shane had an affair with Rick's wife, Lori.

When Rick arrived at the Atlanta camp, Shane was upset that his relationship with Lori had to end, but, was somewhat glad to see Rick. Rick thanked Shane with all his heart for protecting his family. Shane invited Rick out hunting sometimes, as a kind gesture.

After the first zombie attack on the Atlanta camp, Shane shows his first sign of jealousy towards Rick and Lori, after Lori cowers in Rick's arms. When Rick suggests moving camp, Shane becomes infuriated with his suggestion, believing that they are safe where they are. This was the first sign of Shane getting angry towards Rick.

Shane continued his anger by having a go at Rick whilst out in the woods with Dale , because of his constant complaining. Shane devises a plan to kill Rick whilst the two are out hunting. Before going out, Shane punches Rick in the face in front of the group, physically expressing his anger towards Rick for the first time.

This lead to Rick and Shane having a verbal argument, with Shane holding Rick at gunpoint. Shane cries about how he has nothing in this apocalyptic world and Rick took away the only things he had: Lori and Carl.

Once Shane is about to shoot Rick, Carl ends Shane's life with a shot to the neck. Rick is shown to be haunted by Shane's descent into insanity, calling Shane his best friend and stating that if the current world could change a man like Shane that much, then "we're in deeper shit than we thought. Rick returns to put Shane down when he learns that everyone is infected, showing he still had a small amount of respect for Shane even after the snap. However, he refuses to bury Shane again and leaves him to rot this time around.

Shane was generally nice to Carl, but, the boy was wary of his interactions with Lori and thus never fully trusted him. After the tension between Rick and Shane began to grow, however, Carl was forced to kill Shane in order to save his father's life. In Issue 6 , Carl killed Shane by shooting him in the neck in protection of his father.

Dale was very protective of Rick when he came along, because he was scared that Shane would steal Rick's wife, Lori. Dale mentions that Shane has done a lot for the group, and he respects him. Dale's opinion of Shane changed after he had a go at Rick, believing that Shane has "problems".

Amy and Shane are never seen interacting much. At her funeral, he states that she always kept the mood bright, and that he would miss her. Walking Dead Wiki. Walking Dead Wiki Explore. Comic Series. TV Series. Unnamed or Unseen. Characters Seasons. Video Games. Characters Unnamed or Unseen Characters. Browse wiki. Explore Wikis Community Central. Register Don't have an account? Shane Comic Series. View source. History Talk 5.

Do you like this video? Play Sound. This article is about the Comic Series character. For other pages with the same name, see: Shane " You really did it for me, buddy! You really did it!

The trauma transformed Rick, changing his demeanor from that point onward - evidenced by how he treated the group after the farm burned down. Though Shane was a compelling character in The Walking Dead , he was always just an element of Rick's story and a problem that needed to be fixed. Kara Hedash is a features editor and writer for Screen Rant. From time to time, she dives into the world's most popular franchises but Kara primarily focuses on evergreen topics. The fact that she gets to write about The Office regularly is like a dream come true.

After graduating college, writing began as a part-time hobby for Kara but it quickly turned into a career. She loves binging a new series and watching movies ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to hidden indie gems. She also has a soft spot for horror ever since she started watching it at too young of an age.

When Kara's not busy writing, you can find her doing yoga or hanging out with Gritty. The Walking Dead — Volume Risk - Walking Dead Survival Edition. The Walking Dead Board Game. The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 4. This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses.

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