‘The Walking Dead’: Shane Walsh’s Return Revealed

Shane Walsh made his promised return to The Walking Dead in Sunday night’s new episode.

Spoilers for The Walking Dead Episode 9×05 follow. Major spoilers!

Following Rick’s serious injury, he began to hallucinate in his own mind and see characters who are no longer among the living and have conversations he had wished to have. It was a version of his own inner monologue coming out in the form of characters from his post-apocalyptic journey.

Shortly after Rick fell unconscious in a cabin, he began seeing and talking to Shane.

“Damn, cowboy, you look like s—,” Shane told him.

“What is this?” Rick asked, as the two sat in a police cruiser eating burgers and fries as they did in the show’s first episode.

“Come on Rick, look around,” Shane tells him, referencing the upside down car in front of them. It is the car they were chasing prior to Rick getting wounded and falling into a coma. “You know what this is.”

“Are those the idiots we were chasing?” Rick asks.

“Thatta boy. Dispatch said there was two suspects, right?”

“There was a third man.”

“Yes, there was,” Shane reiterates. “Third man. Changed everything, didn’t he?”

“I’m looking for my family,” Rick says, changing the topic.

“Oh, is that what you’re doing?” Shane responds, with a smirk. “Looking for your family, huh? See, that’s not entirely true. One could argue it’s my family you’re looking for, right? How is my baby girl, by the way? Got my eyes, doesn’t she?”

“She hasn’t got your nose,” Rick laughs.

“Good thing she ain’t got my nose, man.”

“You’re such an a–hole.”

“Yes I am, yes I am!” Shane agrees. “I am the a–hole. Same as you really. I don’t think a thing, really, I know you’re an a–hole. I like to take credit for that actually, Rick, when I think about it. I’m sure others did influence you but I’d like to take credit for it.”

“I didn’t want it, you know that,” Rick says.”

“But you took it, right?” Shane replies before starting to talk about Negan. “Boy, that s— you did in that field. That’s you and me. You took a page out of my book Rick. I’m glad you did it. Stepped up brother.”

“It had to be me,” Rick claims. “It still has to be me.”

“See Rick, see that’s where I think you’re wrong,” Shane starts. “Has to be me. That’s right. The only way this gets done, Rick, I want you to think about how you bit that piece of s—‘s throat out. A–hole in the church with the red machete. That is what I’m talking about, that’s the s— that I need from you that I always knew you had in you. I knew you had it in you.”

Rick is going to have to wake up soon, at this point. “You want answers? You want to know what this is all about?” Shane says, getting fired up. “It’s time. Kneel down. Dig deep, find it, Rick. The rage, the hatred, find it. The loyalty, it’s in there, find it…It’s the only way this gets done and it has to.”

“I’m sorry for what I did to you,” Rick says, referencing killing Shane on Hershel’s farm.

“You need to forget that s—,” Shane says before jumping in close to his old pal. “You know something, Rick? Wake up!”

Rick jolts back to life in the cabin with a walker right in front of him, just in time to kill it an break free.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays at 9 pm ET. Fear the Walking Dead will return for its fifth season in 2019. For complete coverage and insider info all year long, follow @BrandonDavisBD on Twitter and watch ComicBook.com’s After The Dead each Sunday night following new episodes.