I didn't think it was certain he was going to die though.

True. I just assumed it meant that considering the way this season was going.

well no kidding. And in the graphic novels, he is already dead by this point. Which would have improved things SUBSTANTIALLY.

Here's how Mish Mish comes back, which means I was making shit up. Episode synopsis for 7.17:

MISHA COLLINS RETURNS! - Lucifer (guest star Mark Pellegrino) drives Sam (Jared Padalecki) to the breaking point and Sam ends up in a mental hospital. Desperate to save his brother, Dean (Jensen Ackles) calls every hunter he knows for help. One of the hunters gives him the name of a healer who turns out to have a very familiar face (guest star Misha Collins).

Here's how Shane's supposed to bite it:

If these reports are to be believed, this is the episode where Shane finally dies — which feels like it should hardly even qualify as a spoiler anymore, but moving on — and it's at Rick's hands. Specifically, Shane spends a while explaining how there's no way the two of them can both be around anymore, and he dares Rick to kill him in cold blood, which he feels sure Rick won't have the guts to do. Rick then puts down his gun and approaches him — only to stab Shane with a hidden knife. However, Shane comes back as a zombie, at which point Carl shows up and kills him.

I was wondering how they were going to reveal the CDC shit. man.

Apparently in the comics Carl kills Shane and Rick offs his zombie?

And this is the reveal that you don't have to be taken down by a zombie to be turned into one, I'm guessing?

Carl killed Shane because Shane was getting ready to kill Rick. There was an imminent threat and Carl handled it. It was an important moment in the series and happened early.

Rick killed Shane's zombie after he had already discovered that the zombie virus was in all of them and if they died (no matter how), they would come back as zombies. It was pretty dramatic in the graphic novel when a person died in his sleep and came back as a zombie and killed 1 or 2 survivors. We all were like WTF? And then Rick figures out what this means in terms of Shane, drives miles and miles to dig Shane up from his grave and put a gun to his head.

I was hoping (for example) that the daughter with the high fever would have died in her sleep and come back as a zombie (without bites) and that would be how the reveal took place. To me, this was a really messed up development that no matter how you died, that was your future.

And btw, if Rick has known all this time about this, and didn't share this with the others, that is even more irresponsible. Even if Sophia had evaded the walkers, if she broke her neck, drowned, what have you, this was her fate.

It made finding her alive and well FAR less likely to my mind. Not to mention they need to sleep in shifts to keep watch.

Finally, this would have been my way of conducting a test. I would have shot Randall in the head and asked Shane to watch him to see if he turns and about how long it takes. There is a malevolence with this asshole, so might as well put him to good use. Humanity be damned.

If Rick doesn't realize that someone he killed could come back as a zombie, why the double taps on the bandits from Philly in the bar?

so you are saying that he has known, but didn't share this with others?

I think you are right. I agree.