I can't believe I'm saying this but,...
I'm actually beginning to feel sorry for Shane. In a 30-minute time period he got hammered by some screwed up s**t 3 times rapid-fire. First, Lori hits him with her intentions and position about the baby's paternity in a way that almost seemed DESIGNED to drive him up a wall. Even if you excuse the "even if the baby was yours it will still be Rick's" portion of her statement, the follow-up was pretty much daring him to do something. "And there's nothing you can do about it!" Lori says, grinding salt into Shane's wound. That last part there...well, it's like I said, Lori is all but daring him to do something, ANYTHING about that vindictive little statement.
Next, Shane stomps away and into the RV. He immediately notices the guns and ammo are gone. I believe, based on what he did when he came back with the bag of guns that he was intending to get back at Rick and Lori both by killing 2 birds with 1 stone. Clearing the barn of Walkers, and at the same time crapping all over Rick's authority and decision-making concerning the handling of Herschel and Herschel's wishes. Having questioned Glenn, Shane quickly discovered who took the guns and how and why they left without being seen. I was glad to see Shane track Dale down, because this was 1 "Dale = Father Knows Best" course of action too far on Dale's part.
Lastly, Shane is talking to the rest of the group fairly heatedly and, while he's handed out the guns despite Maggie declaring Herschel will kick them out for it, Shane had yet to really DO anything out-of-bounds. Until the final element of "Shane's Perfect Storm" is added to the mix that is. Rick appearing with Herschel and Walkers on catch-poles a) blindsides Shane and the rest of the group AGAIN, and b) demonstrates that far from clearing the barn or even setting about immediately reinforcing it structurally, Rick is on board with putting more Walkers into that rickety barn. It was too much, too fast for Shane IMHO. Does that mean he isn't responsible for what he did? Of course not. He's a grown man and until recently a cop. However, all these screwed-up declarations, decisions and unilateral action are certainly factors of mitigation one needs to look at to really get what was going on with Shane when he lost it.
Personally, I loved how he double-tapped the female Walker on Herschel's catch-pole and then said "I just double-tapped her, center mass, you tellin me a sick person would be standing after that? Bang, Heart. Bang Lung, and it's still coming!"
Andrew Lincoln deserves an award for how beautifully he verbally set the actor playing Shane up. When Rick yells "That's enough!" and Shane strides back over and point-blank headshots the Walker as he says "THAT is ENOUGH!" That was powerful and raw stuff. The kind of portrayal that really pulls the audience into the moment with the actors, through their characters.
The breaching of the barn, and the subsequent Walker-extermination was a foregone conclusion from the moment Rick appeared with Herschel and the Walkers on catch-poles. The sight of an undead Sophia slowly advancing obviously takes center-stage in the scene's climax, but the range of rapidly cycling facial expressions and shifts in body language, PARTICULARLY from Shane the most and Rick a very close second, gave the scene's climax much of its power.
So yea, Shane was pretty much taking a page from Herschel's, Dale's and (lately) Rick's books and taking action unilaterally, and was certainly acting totally on his own thoughts and feelings without regard to the emotional and/or psychological consequences to/for anyone else, but it certainly isn't so simple as Shane just going buck-wild black-hat for no reason, while everyone else is an innocent bystander. Shane was simply reacting (badly, in some ways) to the SERIOUSLY screwed-up things said and done immediately before he went all Thunderdome on the farm. I really hope we see the others taking responsibility for building the pyre and setting it alight under Shane, but fear he's gonna take the fall for this alone.
Thoughts? Up until now I had perceived Shane as a man cut adrift whose dark side is overwhelming him. Now, and its unsettling in a way to feel like this, I'm starting to see Shane as a somewhat tragic figure whose messed up decisions/actions have a significant basis in the dysfunctional issues, actions, statements and decisions of other members of the group. Which doesn't even touch on the certain amount of validation for Shane's chosen course established by the discovery of Sophia's fate.
Shane, responsible..certainly. Powerfully influenced by the bad decisions of others? Most definitely, IMHO.
As always, conflicting assessments and the thoughts of others are more than welcome.
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Originally Posted by Wyldwraith
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