9. Rick Shoots A Child, Part Deux ("Pretty Much Dead Already")
After what appeared to have been the end of the barn massacre, the group hears one last Walker inside. Sophia stumbles out, zombified and missing a large chunk from her neck. She has clearly been dead for quite some time. Carol cries out and tries to rush to her daughter, and Daryl drops his gun to restrain her. Carl collapses in horror against Lori, who tries to make him look away. Andrea, Glenn, and T-Dog lower their weapons. Shane looks away from Sophia and what he has done. Nobody speaks. Rick strides forward and takes the headshot. It is the only shot that he fires in the episode. Zombie Sophia falls.
Why It's Great: Considering that this loss concerns the death of an innocent child, I shouldn't say that Shane and his fellow shooters had it coming, but...they totally had it coming. After dispassionately mowing down over a dozen of the people that the watching Greene family knew and loved, Carol's lost little girl appears as a Walker and neither Shane nor any of the other shooters can bear to put her down. Rick who had begged Shane not to open the barn and do this terrible thing in front of Hershel is the only one with the fortitude to shoot the child in the head. That's why he's the leader, Shane.