Chapter 29: Unfinished Conversations

<3rd Person Pov>

Near the tents, a small cluster of people were gathered around.

Carl sat on the edge of the picnic table beside Dale.

Lori stood stiffly, arms crossed.

Rick stood nearby Shane, hands on his hips, already knowing where this was headed.

"What's he thinking?" Lori asked, looking subtly towards Carl.

"Running around with knives like it's some game?"

Shane looks at Rick before looking back at Lori.

"He just wants to learn to protect himself and he wants to get his own gun later."

He looked at Rick, then back to Lori.

"Now it's none of my business, but I'm happy to teach him. Your call."

Lori frowned.

"I'm not comfortable with it."

Everyone just kept looking at Lori not saying anything.

"Oh, don't make me out to be the unreasonable one here," Lori said, turning to Rick.

"Rick?"

Rick met her eyes.

"I know," Rick said finally. "I've got concerns too, but—"

"There's no but," Lori cut him off.

"I don't want my kid running around throwing knives or carrying a gun."

Rick's tone stayed calm.

"Better than him being afraid of them."

He gestured loosely towards the barn, the fields, the forest beyond.

"There are weapons in camp for a reason. He should learn to handle them."

Lori didn't budge.

"I don't want him running around with knives and guns, Rick."

"And how do you plan to protect him from what's out there?" Rick asked.

"We can't be around him every second."

"He's as safe as he'll ever be right here." Her voice cracked a little. 

"Everything you're saying makes sense. But it still feels wrong."

Rick looked at Carl, then back to her.

"He's grown up, Lori. We've got to start treating him like it."

Lori folded her arms tighter.

"Then he needs to act like one."

She looked at Carl now, more directly.

"He's not mature enough to handle guns or knives. For God's sake, Rick, he's twelve."

Carl shifted where he sat. Then, he spoke.

"I'm not gonna play with it, Mom."

He looked at his mom.

"I want to defend the camp. I can't do that without a weapon."

Rick didn't say anything for a second.

"Shane's the best instructor I know."

He looked at Lori, speaking carefully.

"And Itachi… he's the most skilled person I've ever seen with a knife."

"I've seen Shane train younger kids before. And Sophia picked up some survival skills from Itachi."

Lori just kept staring at Carl not saying anything.

Then she nodded slowly.

"You will take this seriously," she said, pointing at him. "You will behave responsibly. And if I hear from anyone in this camp that you're not living up to our expectations—"

"He won't," Rick cut in. "He won't let you down."

Carl looked down, but nodded. Dale gave him a pat on the shoulder, and Carl quietly stood to follow him as the group started to disperse.

They walked side by side toward Hershel's house. No one else around. The grass crunched under their feet.

Lori finally spoke.

"I'm not sure I want Itachi teaching Carl."

Rick blinked, surprised, as he looked at her.

"Why?"

Lori didn't look back at him, just kept walking.

"Look… I'm grateful he helped bring you back, I really am. But I don't like how everyone seems to just… listen to him."

Rick's brow furrowed.

"I don't understand."

Lori kept going.

"You might not see it, but I do. You, Daryl, and everyone seem to just go along with whatever he says. And I get a bad feeling from him. He's not normal. No 17-year-old should be like that."

Rick looked sternly at Lori.

"And he's been keeping us alive."

He gestured around the farm and camp.

"The guns. The food. Even the farm. He secured everything. Most of us wouldn't even be alive if not for him."

Rick exhaled slowly, calming down.

"You want me to doubt him? Fine. Give me one reason to."

Lori turned back for a second, catching the serious look on Rick's face, before saying nothing and walking off.

Shane was walking back to his tent when Dale called out behind him.

"Shane."

Shane slowed down and turned his head to look at Dale.

"I was thinking," Dale said seriously, catching up to him.

"We have enough cars and plenty of fuel. More than enough for you to get far from here."

Shane turned all the way around now, eyeing Dale with suspicion.

"What, you telling me to leave?"

Dale continued.

"I know you've been planning to. Maybe now's a good time."

Shane folded his arms.

"What's this about?"

Dale looked sternly at Shane.

"I'm looking out for the group."

Shane stepped closer toward Dale.

"You think the group would be better off without me, Dale?" Shane asked, voice tight.

"Why don't you tell that to Rick or Lori?"

Dale didn't hesitate.

"The group would be safer without you."

Shane's jaw clenched, his expression tightening.

"I've done everything I can to keep you people alive."

Dale stepped closer, eyes narrowing.

"By raising your gun on Rick?" His voice rose slightly.

"Come on. Jesus. You had him in your sights, and you held him there."

There was a heavy pause as Dale stared straight at him and said in a lowered voice:

"I know what kind of man you are."

Shane took a slow step forward, lowering his voice to a near whisper. His eyes darkening.

"You think I'd shoot Rick?"

He got closer to Dale again, being only arm's reach away from him.

"That's my best friend. That's the man that I love. I love him like he's my brother."

Then, his voice grew sharper.

"You think that's the kind of man I am?"

Dale met his gaze, nodding.

"That's right."

For a moment, neither spoke. The tension between them rising.

Then Shane tilted his head slightly, his tone cold.

"Well… maybe we ought to just think that through."

He took another step forward.

"Say I'm the kind of man who'd gun down his own best friend."

His eyes darkened even further.

"What do you think I'd do to some guy I don't even like when he starts throwing accusations my way?"

"What do you think?"

Dale didn't answer. He just stood there, watching him, mouth slightly open.

Shane was still glaring down at Dale when a sudden voice cut them off.

"That's enough."

The voice was quiet but firm.

Both men turned to see Itachi stepping into view.

Dale stepped back slightly, saying nothing.

Shane didn't move. He just stared at Itachi.

After a few seconds, Itachi glanced towards the trees and back at Shane.

"Come with me."

Shane didn't respond at first. But after a moment, he exhaled sharply and turned, starting to walk behind Itachi, looking at his back, not saying anything.

Eventually, Shane broke the silence.

"You heard all that?"

Itachi didn't look over.

"Everything."

Shane scoffed.

"Well, go on then. Why did you bring me here? You gonna tell me to leave the group like Dale?"

Itachi didn't answer right away.

"I'm not here to tell you to leave."

Shane narrowed his eyes, hand hovering closer to his gun.

"Then why bring me away from the others?"

There was a beat.

Then Itachi spoke again.

"To talk to you… and maybe to understand you more."

Shane stopped walking for a second.

"You—what?"

Then Itachi sent a glance back at Shane.

"And you better remove that hand from the gun. It wouldn't do much against me anyway."

Shane kept staring at Itachi before slowly moving his hand away from his gun.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Shane paused before asking:

"So you heard about me and Rick?"

Itachi just nodded, looking back at the road ahead.

Shane looked at him hard, expecting some kind of judgment.

"And?"

Itachi calmly responded.

"And I understand why you raised that gun."

Shane's expression flickered. Surprise. Confusion. Then anger.

"You don't understand shit."

"I understand what it feels like to be pushed aside," Itachi said. "To lose the people you thought you'd always have. I understand how anger builds when you can't even talk about it to the people you care about."

Shane looked a bit surprised.

"You know about me and Lori?"

Itachi sent a glance at Shane.

"Yes. And some in the camp know about it as well."

Shane clenched his jaw, responding to Itachi in a serious tone.

"I thought he was dead. I stepped in because someone had to. For Lori… and Carl…"

He trailed off, shoulders tense.

Itachi's voice stayed calm.

"And Rick doesn't blame you for that."

Shane snapped his head to him sharply.

"What do you mean?"

Itachi didn't flinch.

"He has some suspicions about what happened. He's not stupid. He started piecing this together at the quarry."

Shane clenched his fists hard, staying quiet.

"And I believe that you care about Rick as your brother. That part is at least true."

Shane just kept staring at Itachi's back without saying anything.

"And you feel like you lost everything when he came back."

Shane walked up closer to Itachi, looking at him seriously.

"Stop talking like you know everything when you don't know shit!"

Itachi turned around, looking at Shane.

"I told you I don't understand everything. That's why I'm trying to talk to you now."

Shane looked angry at him.

"And why do you care!"

Itachi calmly responded.

"Because you're breaking apart… each day, more and more."

Shane just stared at him for a second longer.

"So what? You want to tell me to just move on? Leave Carl and Lori behind?"His voice rose slightly."I'm nothing without them. They saved me—not the other way around."

Itachi just listened to him, absorbing his words before sighing.

"Just don't let those emotions eat you alive. Look, I'm not the best at it… just talk to me."

Shane looked at him, a bit surprised, before scoffing.

"And what good will it do?"

Itachi responded immediately.

"I won't judge. Even if you tell me that you're planning to kill Rick the next day."

Shane looked at him a bit longer before turning around and walking away.

"I'll keep that in mind. And clean the glitter off your hands."

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🧪 Author's Note:

Thank you all so much for the support — we've officially passed 900+ power stones!

Hope you enjoyed this one! Let me know what you thought of the story and the character interactions in the comments — I love reading your reactions.

💬 Now a bit about Shane's character — for those who want to read my rant and thoughts about him 😄

I rewatched practically every scene Shane was in from S1 to S2 and also read some Reddit posts about him.

🕵️ Is Shane a villain or an anti-hero?

Most people either consider him a villain or an anti-hero. In my opinion, he's both.

He starts as an anti-hero… but ends up a villain.

I couldn't call him a villain based on how he acted early on, and I couldn't call him an anti-hero by the end — trying to kill your best friend, someone you consider a brother, is a villain act in my book.

💔 What truly broke Shane?

There are a lot of opinions on this, but I honestly think it was Lori's pregnancy — and more specifically, when she told him he couldn't even father his own child.

(For those who didn't know or didn't pay attention to the show: Judith, the child Lori is pregnant with, is actually Shane's. This is confirmed in the show when Rick says it himself, and there's even a hallucination where Shane talks to Rick and asks about Judith "How was my baby girl by the way.")

Shane confirms that the only reason he's still alive is Lori and Carl. You can interpret that however you want: maybe he would've killed himself, or maybe he just would've lost it entirely. With them, he felt alive. He finally had a family of his own.

And when Rick came back, his "life support" was ripped away.

He lost everything — his family, the people who kept him sane, and his leadership.

Then, on top of that, he realizes he wouldn't even get to be a father to the baby that's biologically his.

That's what pushed him over the edge.

🫂 Did Shane care about the others?

A lot of people say Shane only cared about Carl and Lori, and I honestly think that's false.

There are clear moments where Shane protects or helps the group —

The highway scene, where he shoves Glenn under the truck before going himself.

Helping Andrea with gun training, even though he didn't have to.

Of course, his priority is Carl and Lori — and that's normal.That's how humans work: we all have a "priority list." You'd try to protect your family before thinking of strangers.

So I don't believe Shane was indifferent.

Yes, he prioritized Carl and Lori.

But that doesn't mean he didn't care about the rest.

🧠 Did Shane care about Rick at the end?

Again, I've seen people claim that Shane didn't care about Rick anymore. That all he saw was

Lori and Carl.

I'd say that's false.

Just looking at the final scene — you could tell he wasn't indifferent.

He had so many opportunities to kill Rick… and he didn't.

He hesitated. He listened. He gave Rick a chance to talk.

And when he's finally bleeding out, the last thing he does is hold Rick's face and just look at him. 

🧾 My conclusion 😅

Honestly, I think Shane was one of the most tragic characters in Season 2 — constantly misunderstood and slowly stripped of everything he cared about.

One scene I always remember is the barn reveal.

When they find Sophia, already turned.

Shane — the one who said she was dead — hesitates he just watches her and doesn't shoot.

And Rick has to be the one to pull the trigger.

I truly believe Shane tried to keep the group safe. But because of his aggressive, blunt

nature, no one really saw it.

Shane adapted to the new world faster than anyone…

But he didn't have the mental strength to live with his actions.

There are moments that show this:

His talk with Andrea, when he says:

"You do what you have to do to survive. And then you live with it."

Then adds:

"I just haven't figured out the second part."

(something like that, I'm not sure about the exact words as I pulled it out of my memory)

Or even Rick's words when he tells him that he couldn't live with killing him.

Okay, that was a long-ass rant 😅 and I didn't even go over everything — so I'll just leave it here.

Thanks again for reading 🖤

Let me know what you think about Shane in the comments — I love hearing different perspectives.