Summary:
The issue begins with a flashback with Lori, she is waiting outside the city where her parents are located. She is confronted by Shane, and she tells him about how horrible she feels about leaving Rick in the hospital. After a short conversation, Lori and Shane kiss, and Lori adds that she “needs him.” The two of them end up having sex.
Now in the present, the survivors are burying Shane. As the rest of the group leaves, Lori stays behind and spits on Shane’s grave. Allen and Rick speak about Shane, and Rick is worried about how this apocalypse is affecting and altering their mental states. He says how much it changed Shane. Rick goes to ask Dale about Andrea. The two proceed to discuss Shane. Dale is not surprised that their former leader snapped because he started changing the moment Rick arrived at the camp. He points out that Shane was in love with Lori. Rick is now very aware of this. Dale then tells Rick that everyone in the camp thinks Rick is the best person to take over leading them all. Rick graciously accepts and tells Dale they will be moving the camp tomorrow. Dale then tells him that Andrea has a calendar and has been keeping track of all the days. He drops a bomb that tomorrow is Christmas. Rick gets upset and tells him to keep it a secret, as he doesn’t want to have to explain to Carl why “Santa can’t find him”.
In the morning, as everyone is packing, Rick wakes Carl up and tells him that if he ever wants to talk about what happened, he can talk to him. The group then leaves their camp using the RV. They continue on their journey until they need to clear some cars that are blocking the road. When they finish, they spot some figures approaching from the darkness. Rick pulls out his gun, thinking it’s walkers, but the figures turn out to be three survivors. One of them introduces himself as Tyreese, and introduces the other two as his daughter Julie and her boyfriend Chris. Tyreese asks if Rick has any food, as they ran out a couple of days ago. After feeding the family, Rick offers them room to sleep in the RV with the group and tag along in the morning if they want. Tyreese thanks him, but says they will be sleeping in the car for tonight, as Julie and Chris aren’t too comfortable around strangers. Lori criticizes Rick for inviting a stranger to sleep in the same room as them. Rick stresses that Tyreese has kids with him, but Lori points out that they do as well, and tells Rick not to be so trusting.
The next morning, Tyreese apologizes to Rick about not trusting him enough to sleep in the RV. Rick understands, as the apocalypse changes people. He tells him how Shane, who was his best friend, tried to kill him a few days ago. Tyreese, in turn, tells Rick about the time they went to scavenge in a grocery store. A man, who was really nice and sweet before the apocalypse, attempted to rape Julie. However, he was able to kill the man before he could rape her. Rick doesn’t judge Tyreese, and says any father would do that to protect his child. Tyreese says he’s beating himself up because he doesn’t feel any guilt from it and the apocalypse has changed him. Suddenly, the two discover walkers. Tyreese marvels about the name ‘walker’, and Rick explains they are zombies who just walk around, and that they killed Amy and Jim.
Tyreese and Rick take their primary weapons; hammer and hatchet. They trick the zombies, Rick takes one of them and Tyreese takes the other one. They beat them to death and say the situation is under control. They return to the RV and Rick tells Dale to drive around so they could look for some empty houses to stay in. Suddenly, they discover a crashed car on the road. Rick thinks they have to start moving it aside if they want to get to safety before dark.
Rick reveals he’s glad they bumped into Tyreese and his family. They came in handy, especially because Tyreese is strong. Carol and Tyreese are having some eye contact and do a little flirting.
At night, Tyreese says that Rick and his group have a lot of food. Rick says he has to thank Glenn for that. Glenn gets shy and says he was just doing his part, but Carol thinks they’d be much worse off without him. Tyreese agrees, he and Carol hold hands, and Glenn seems awful. Rick thinks it’s honorable that Glenn risks his life for others and supplies.
While Rick is talking about finding Lori and Carl, Lori walks away. Rick catches her and asks what is wrong. Lori reveals that she is pregnant.
Discussion / Thoughts:
The flashback we get of Lori and Shane disturbs me a bit. She is playing the damsel in distress here and leading Shane on. I’m really not sure where her thought process is in this flashback. But clearly, her actions have had a big part in Shane’s change. She seems to be making sure Shane falls for her. Maybe she figures well he’s a cop too so without Rick being around he will do as a substitute.
Shane’s burial is quick and unceremonious. Some people discuss how they felt about him. Across the board everyone who followed him now hates him. His attempt at a romance with Lori is what has soured them. They are not aware that Lori basically made the first move to ensure that he would be with her instead of any of the other women in the group.
The first thing Rick does as the leader is to get them all to a safer location. This location is not determined yet, but this close to a big city that has millions of walkers in it is not safe. They use Dale’s RV like a bus.
On the road they wind up meeting three other survivors. It turns out to be a father, his daughter and her boyfriend. Rick immediately bonds with and trusts the man. Lori does not feel the same and becomes angry when Rick wants to help them. Later, the two discuss how the apocalypse has changed them and others. The stories they share are of Shane’s change (which was not all from just the apocalypse unbeknown to Rick). Tyrese’s story is disturbing. That old man pretended to be someone he wasn’t and put on a show for everyone who came to that store before the world ended. But now that so little is left he feared no consequence and showed how evil he was with what he tried to do to Julie.
The final revelation is a bit of a shocker, but after the opening scenes flashbacks not so much. Lori tells Rick that she is pregnant. She had sex with Shane. It was bait and catch sex, but sex none the less. She did not tell Rick about this encounter with Shane, at least it’s not in the book. So she was keeping it a secret from Rick. Considering Rick has only been back for a little over a month, I don’t have any doubt that this is Shane’s baby. Rick’s facial expression in the panel is one of shock and surprise and horror.. He knows he has not been back long enough for it to be his. It’s not clear in the book if Rick and Lori have even been together since he’s come back. Nothing is explicitly stated about that. Shane is the only other option for a father at this point. Not the best way to learn that your wife had sex with another man after leaving you in a hospital still very much alive. Lori had no way to know if he had died. She assumed Rick was lost and made a calculated move with Shane. Her choices, and bad ones at that, are coming back to bite her. Shane is not the bad guy she made him look like at all. She messed with his head and led him on. He’s taken the bay guy rap for her actions. She was the bad one. I feel bad for Rick in this situation.
Categories: Podcasts, Wonder Woman Comic Book Podcast