"You get to come back," ex-Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) hesitantly tells his ex-cop partner and best friend, Shane Walsh (Jon Bernthal), handing him his pistol after a near-fatal altercation between the two in The Walking Dead season 2, episode 2, "18 Miles Out." Not only was this a turning point in TV's longest shambling zombie show's better earlier years, but it became symbolic of The Walking Dead's relentless drag onward—not every season was great, especially in spin-off territory, but fiercely zombified moments arise even in the dullest occasions, keeping fans wistful that the franchise could roar back to its most entertaining storytelling.