As the end of the second season drew nearer the tension between Rick and Shane reached peak levels. Much of it originated from their different leadership philosophies, but there is no question that Shane's aggression towards Rick stemmed from his feelings for Lori. Rick's return had undermined him and caused Lori to turn against him. For a while it appeared as if Shane had gotten over it, but Lori's constant emotional flip-flopping towards Shane eventually inspired him to get rid of Rick so that he could be with Lori and Carl again. Rational thought was gone; replaced with pure unhindered emotion. And it rightly got Shane killed. The sad thing is that Shane was actually a good leader in the beginning; you could see that in the first season. And the little love triangle between Rick, Lori, and Shane could have been easily settled had everyone involved handled it more properly, Shane most of all. For whatever reason it got to his head and caused him to act stupid. No good could have come from killing Rick, neither for him or anyone else in the group. Plus how terrible of a person do you have to be to want to kill you friend? At this point Shane was no longer a decent person. He needed to be put down, so you can't blame Rick for killing him. Good riddance. However, as dumb as Shane was, nothing he did could compare to the idiocy of one other character...
