3. Rick's Turned A Corner Sanity-Wise
Season 2 Rick was pretty much intolerable. As a man who refused to step up to the plate and take matters into his own hands, he was chewed out by Lori, shouted down by the group and emasculated by Shane. Hell, when Shane attempted to Old Yeller him come the final episodes under the logic he was weak, I actually agreed with him. I think the show's done something wrong when you end up rooting for the villain, so they cut that sh*t out pretty quickly come season three. Yes, from the season two credits onward you knew the Ricktatorship was in effect, and despite his terrible use of geography (seriously Rick, the prison was right there, how did it take you months to get to it?) it seemed everything was coming up roses. He finally grew a conflicted conscience (rather than giving all the evil parts of his personality over to Shane) and a set of balls, ostracised his wife for being a useless cheat, took care of business with the more unruly prisoners and focused on getting the Prison into tip-top shape. Yet then Lori died, and Rick went gonzo. I admit, it was cool bringing back season one characters to tell him about a fictional safe-place over the telephone, and his scenes with Hershel where he was clearly insane were riveting, but you desperately wanted the Grimes patriarch to re-establish his ass-whupping mode, because Andrew Lincoln gives good badass when he's allowed. And to for money, season four looks like it'll have more of this moral conflict ignored in season two and sidelined in the middle of season three. After all, he's got a whole damned community to look after now it's inevitable that he'll engage that greying moral compass all over again, and that's marvellous from a plot perspective. My personal belief is that he's going to bring the hammer down over this 'sanctuary' rumour. A hammer involving bullets, most likely.