After two status-quo changing episodes in a row, it's probably a good thing that next week's episode of The Walking Dead is the last of the season. I'm going to need the summer to catch my breath.

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This week, creator Robert Kirkman talks about the major events of "Better Angels," the evolution of the zombie plague, and how this episode informs the seasons to come.You've been warned.

Talking Walking Dead: "Better Angels"

I've stated many times that what Jenner whispered [to Rick] is something that we'll be revealing this season. You'll know what he said by the end of this season. We've just watched the next-to-last episode of this season, and we still haven't seen that reveal, but I will say that this scene – where Shane gets stabbed and comes back as a zombie without having been bitten – is definitely something that is going to inform that reveal coming up in the next episode.I will say that we did see a large herd coming out of the woods at the end of this episode, so it does seem like Rick isn't going to have a lot of time or opportunity to sit the group down at the farm and explain to them what just happened with Shane and what it could possibly mean. It may be something he's forced to keep to himself.

Read IGN TV's Review of "Better Angels"

They're not going to have a lot of time to react to anything other than the zombies that are trying to eat them. I don't want to reveal too much about our next episode, but it is going to be utter chaos on the farm. So be on the lookout for something that I feel is somewhat awesome! It's a really, really cool episode.Talking about Dale's death just for a minute, I will say that you have to recognize that Carl just shot someone who is very much a father figure to him; someone that he loved turned into a zombie and was trying to kill Rick. He definitely saved his father in that moment and that's a good example of what I think Dale's death has done for these characters. I don't think that Carl would've had the strength or courage to be able to pull the trigger on Shane if he hadn't just gone through that ordeal with the swamp walker that ended up killing Dale. So we're already seeing instances of these characters growing and maturing based on the events that they've gone through.That remains to be seen. All I can really say is that Carl is going to be one of the most complicated and interesting characters in the series. He's a child growing up in this environment. He's not an adult who knows what life was like before and has had to change his perceptions in order to survive in this world. He's a kid who has no expectations; he has no sense of what civilization is, or what the rules are.His rules, morals, and ethics are all being informed by these horrible decisions that he's seeing the adults make around him. His reaction to Shane's death isn't necessarily going to be a reaction like anyone who grew up in the same world that you or I did. So he's definitely going to be going down some dark paths and doing some strange things. Whether or not he leans more towards Shane's side of things or Rick's side of things remains to be seen.The outcome of this episode is going to affect Rick's role as a leader, Rick's personality, Rick's actions, everything involving Rick and the whole group for seasons after this. This is going to be a cataclysmic event that informs things that happen in season 3, season 4, and beyond. This is really a key moment in the life of the series. You're going to see a very different Rick coming out of this episode; bringing him to this level of violence and having him experience what he has to do in order to survive, making the decision to murder his best friend to carry on and protect his wife and son… This is something that's going to weigh on him and we're definitely going to see a transformation in Rick in the episodes to come.Well, you're assuming they don't all die next episode.[laughs] But assuming they don't all die, that's definitely going to be something we'll be dealing with. Lori has a very conflicted relationship with Rick and Shane, and it seemed to be see-sawing back and forth for a while there. I don't think she really knew where things were going to land and there was definitely a sense of her trying to deal with the different things that she'd been mad at Shane for, and possibly accepting them to the point where she didn't necessarily see him as much of a bad guy. How that's going to affect their relationship with Rick moving forward is definitely something that we're going to be dealing with next episode and beyond.I can say that we start the last episode with a certain cast that we do not end the episode with. I think that we're definitely going to lose the characters along the way and things are going to change quite drastically by the end of the episode. Be on the lookout for a pretty crazy episode.

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