Television Series[]
Shane Walsh was Rick Grimes' partner and best friend since high school. He harbored feelings
Shane Walsh (TV Series)
for Lori, Rick's wife. He was one of the main members of the Atlanta survivors that camped outside of Atlanta.
Overview[]
Shane is Rick Grimes' partner in the King County Sheriff's Department and best friend since high school. When the apocalypse occurred (with Rick in a coma) Shane helped save Lori and Carl by fleeing with them toward Atlanta.
Shane Walsh (Comic Series)
Pre-Apocalypse[]
King County, Georgia[]
Shane and Rick were best friends when they were kids. Shane was an avid fan of football, playing on his school team as number 22 (which he's reminded of by the necklace he wears). He was a prankster, once stealing the principal's car. He had many casual relationships with girls - even once having sex with the high school women's athletics teacher. Shane eventually went into police administration along with Rick, and the two of them worked as local deputies for the King County Sheriff's Department. He became a close friend to Rick's family during this time. Throughout his adult life, Shane was never married, and had instead stayed a womanizer.
Days before the apocalypse, he encountered Rick getting critically injured during a shootout with gang members. Following Rick's shooting, he was in deep shock and forced himself to be the one to tell Lori. When the chaos around the world finally began, he attempted to evacuate Rick from the hospital but came to the assumption that he was dead due to the power going off (thus the heart monitor that was keeping him alive).
He then helped Lori and Carl leave their city and head toward Atlanta, which was supposedly a safe-zone. They were stopped however by a roadblock, and watched in horror as Atlanta was destroyed by Military helicopters.
Comic Series[]
Shane Walsh was the de facto leader of the Atlanta survivors until Rick joined the group. Before the zombie apocalypse a small-town sheriff's deputy who partnered with Rick Grimes, the main protagonist of the story. His weapon of choice seems to be his Glock-17 pistol.
Overview[]
Pre-Apocalypse[]
In the earliest events of the story, both Rick and Shane were stuck in a firefight with an escaped convict, both debating how to deal with the situation. Rick unfortunately, ended up getting shot in the incident, with Shane taking care of the convict.
While Rick survived, he was left in a coma, it is then the dead started rising. With the population being ordered into the major cities by the government, Shane, seeing the crisis worsen, accompanied Rick's wife; Lori Grimes, and her son; Carl to Atlanta to find shelter.
Shane proved instrumental in getting the two to Atlanta. As they neared the city, Lori became depressed over the fact that they essentially abandoned Rick in their town's hospital. Shane, however, comforted Lori and the two became closer. Eventually, Lori was so desperate for closeness that she had a passionate night with Shane on the highway to Atlanta, something Shane had wanted for a long time (hinting that he could have had a long-term fixation with Lori even before this). Afterward, Shane assumed the two were now lovers in a relationship and asked Lori, assuming the crisis would end soon, if she would tell Rick about "us". Lori, however, confessed she didn't know. Unbeknown to the two of them, Shane had impregnanted Lori. The three, unable to enter the zombie-overridden city of Atlanta, settled on it's outskirts and joined up with Dale and the survivor group he had formed. Shane, an authority figure, became the group's de-facto leader, and the group of survivors, eventually expanding, lived on the outskirts of the city, with Shane repeatedly preaching the government would arrive and save everyone.
After-Apocalypse[]
When Rick eventually arrived and joined the group, Shane was initially overjoyed. However, he gradually became jealous of Rick and Lori getting back together.Lori then brushed off Shane's advances and said it had to stop. While he had believed she referred to their romance, she really meant his fixation on her. He attempts to bring up their moment on the highway, which she immediately puts him to a halt saying "it was a mistake". He's sent into an emotional meltdown when he has a fight with Rick over the topic of staying at camp.
Rick supported moving the camp to a safer location, while Shane argued to travel to fort benning. Lori sided with Rick after a momentary fight, quickly getting in between them while lashing out at Shane calling him insane. The sight and realization of Lori going to Rick's side caused Shane to have a meltdown. Shane ran into the nearby woods, with Rick pursuing, until Shane stopped and held him at gunpoint. He began to yell at Rick, saying how he had believed Lori would have eventually come back to him (thus hinting to Rick about the brief romance between them), and felt Rick "should have stayed dead".