The Walking Dead: What are Shane's Options?

Shane Walsh is,in the AMC series The Walking Dead, a much different animal from his comic book counterpart. Rick Grimes' former partner, Shane is something of the co-alpha dog of the group, and his recent arguments with Rick over whose philosophy and leadership style work best in post-zombie world have quickly shifted into the spotlight and become the kind of overarching plot of the second season's second half. Of course, it's pretty unlikely that Shane will kill Rick--who is even more the main protagonist of the show than he ever was of the comics. So--what are the options that Shane has before him, and which seem most likely? Please note that while much of what is discussed below is speculation, it is speculation that's rooted in Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard's The Walking Dead comic books and the recent history of The Walking Dead on AMC. Using stories that are several years old as grounds for speculation about what may come to pass in the TV show may be completely fruitless, or may yield some pretty significant spoilers, so for those who aren't up-to-date on either the show or the comic, turn back now or be warned that there be SPOILERS AHOY. Readers of the comics will know that Shane has already made it farther in the timeline of the series than he managed in the comics, where he was killed at the end of the first full story arc. He has outlasted characters like Sophia, who still lives on in the comics, and Otis, who joined the group so late that he never actually met Shane in the source material. Too bad for him that he did in the television show. Shane's death (at the hands of Carl, who shot him when he saw that Shane meant to hurt his father) was a watershed moment for the Grimes family, bringing them together as a unit even more strongly than before and establishing a theme that continues even years later about the way Carl interacts with the horrors and death around him. At first glance, it would seem like the kind of moment that's almost impossible to excise from the story without changing an awful lot about what makes the characters who they are--but that's not something they've exactly shied away from in the TV series. Another means of death, perhaps? It's hard to imagine one that packs as much punch, either storywise or emotionally--and Shane's "second death," when Rick returns to his gravesight to make peace with his old friend and to ensure that he didn't rise up again, is a moment that really did help to establish the difference between the two men. Removing it would (again) lose something, and keeping it would give the filmmakers a truly fantastic visual to work with. If you thought zombie Sophia packed a punch with the fans, what about Shane? The controversial character may not be one of the most popular of the survivors, but that's only owing to the terrific performance of John Bernthal, who is so widely liked by the fan base that it's arguable that alone might justify keeping his character alive for a bit. All that said, this week's episode seemed at times as though Shane is feeling the itch to get away from the Greene Farm. Rick's coming back for him instead of saving his own bacon certainly must undercut to some extent the idea that Rick's more idealistic nature makes him less of a protector to his family and the survivors. He also seemed profoundly uninterested in Rick's talk of the future, and next week's preview shows that he's far less passionate about killing Randall. What if he were to strike out on his own? Even there you have a few options:

• If he were just gone one morning, then he could take on the role of Merle Dixon, a phantom among them who might reappear at any time and whose agenda would not be completely clear.
• It's also not completely implausible that if he were to leave, he might take Andrea with him. Between the pair of them, there are a lot of negative feelings directed toward the Grimes and Greene families, as well as Dale, leaving them very little reason to remain among this particular group of survivors, from whom they both feel (to varying degrees) as though they've been cast out.
• Whether they would survive or not--together or separately--is a different question altogether. Certainly one of these characters, who have tremendous significance to both the audience and the survivors themselves, would be a great zombie to one day stumble across, or the kind of character who could shake up the status quo completely by being the first to fall to the Governor and his Woodbury Army, thus establishing them as a threat to Rick's group without having to spend much time on the hows and whys.

It would be a mistake not to mention that Jon Bernthal is reportedly in talks to join L.A. Noir, a new TNT drama created by Frank Darabont, the former showrunner of The Walking Dead. There have been rumors that at least one star loyal to Darabont from previous work may have already been written out as well, which raises the possibility that Shane might take that person with him, in one form or another. Actors who have worked with Darabont in the past include Laurie Holden (Andrea) and Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale). If I were a betting man, I would put Shane's time of death at right around the finale--possibly before, if they wanted to include Rick's return to Shane's burial site as the season's final scene. It still seems likely that he'll be shot by Carl, as in the comics, simply because of the fertile ground that gives the writers, story-wise, but the longer he continues to live and the more we discover about his behavior and psychology, the more options it opens up as to what might happen to him next.