The Walking Dead: 10 Best Episodes
8. Better Angels (S2 E12)
Rick and Shane’s different ideologies of how to survive finally came to a head in the penultimate episode of season two, as Rick was forced to murder his former best friend.
On the back of Dale’s death in the previous episode, Shane’s demise was somehow both shocking - in that another major character would be killed off almost immediately - and inevitable, considering how unhinged we had watched him become later in the season.
The shocks kept on coming as Carl emerged to shoot the reanimated Shane (after some clever direction made it look as though he was lining up a bullet for his dad), with the noise attracting a huge herd of walkers onto Hershel’s farm to tee up a memorable season finale.
This episode showed how far Rick would go, when pushed, to protect his family and closed the chapter on Shane’s story, which remains one of the best delivered by the series. The character of Shane was so well written and portrayed by Bernthal that saying goodbye was difficult, even for those viewers who despised what he had done and what he stood for.