Longtime "Walking Dead" readers have known for a while now that in this universe, it's not the zombies the survivors need to worry about: it's each other. The AMC TV series is no different; with every passing episode, former law enforcement officer Shane Walsh pushes himself to darker, more desperate places. Between killing Otis, unleashing the holy hell of the barn onto the farm, psycho-stalking Lori and threatening both Dale and Rick, it's safe to say that Shane's gone over the edge.
That's not to say that his number one rival, Rick Grimes, is doing much better. With a baby on the way (whether it's his biological offspring or not), a scared wife and recovering son to care for, Rick's starting to take drastic measures to protect his family—like fatally shooting two strangers in a bar, for instance.
In other words, Rick and Shane are clearly on a collision course. Fans of the comic books know how that war plays out, of course, though the show has veered away from the source material rather drastically on more than one occasion. No matter the outcome, though, creator Robert Kirkman promises one thing: Shane and Rick are going to reach a breaking point with each other very, very soon.
"In the very next episode, we're going to see some explosive interactions between those two men," Kirkman told MTV News during a recent phone interview. "We've been building to quite a bit of stuff this entire season, and it's all coming to a head. The fact that Lori's pregnant and nobody knows who the father is, these two are constantly butting heads over leadership and what's best for the group… it's really putting Rick and Shane at an impasse."
"In our episode on Sunday, I'm not trying to say they're going to come to blows… but they're going to come to blows," he added. "It's going to be a pretty epic episode. I'm really excited for people to see it."
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