Walking Dead Postmortem: Which New Character Holds the Key to the Group's Future?

[WARNING: The following story contains major spoilers from Sunday's The Walking Dead and the graphic novels which inspired it. Read at your own risk.]

While Shane's death in The Walking Dead's penultimate Season 2 episode was the worst-kept TV secret of the year, the AMC drama made up for it with an awesome surprise in the finale: Fan-favorite comic book character Michonne finally made her debut.

The episode saw the group chaotically driven away from the farm by hordes of zombies. Two characters met their demise R.I.P Jimmy and Patricia! but most of the survivors were able to reunite on the highway where the group rallied earlier this season when Sophia disappeared. That group didn't include Andrea (Laurie Holden), who fell behind and seemed poised to meet her end when a zombie attacked. Enter Michonne, the hooded figure trailed by two armless and jawless walkers, who quickly saved Andrea from certain death.

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Meanwhile, Rick (Andrew Lincoln) faced the scrutiny of the group after revealing that not only did he murder Shane (Jon Bernthal), but also that everyone is infected with whatever turns people into zombies. (And thus, he revealed the long-awaited answer to what Jenner (Noah Emmerich) whispered to Rick at the CDC). Plus: The group ended up camped out only a few miles away from the prison, another fan-favorite location in the comics.

So what does this all mean? TVGuide.com turned to executive producer and comic creator Robert Kirkman to get the scoop on what's ahead:

Rick finally took control of the group, but he now seems to be no better than Shane. Will that be the journey we'll now see him on? Robert Kirkman: Exactly. This whole season has been about Rick emerging as a leader and taking that role. He was very reluctant at first, and he had to prove himself worthy of that role over the course of the season. But now that we have Rick taking charge and saying, "These are going to be my rules [and] by the way, I've killed Shane, this is who I am. If you do not like this you are welcome to go." The fact that the characters don't leave and they stay there huddled by that fire with him is very important. I don't think that all of them are there because of loyalty. A good number of them are there because of fear. I don't think that's necessarily where Rick wanted things to end up, but that's certainly where we are leaving things.

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Lori (Sarah Wayne Callies) backed away from Rick when he told her he killed Shane, yet she essentially dared Rick to take out Shane a few weeks back. Why the big turnaround? Kirkman: She was terrified of the situation that was coming up with Shane. She wanted it to be dealt with, [but] I don't think she knew where things were going. I don't think she knew that Shane was going to sink to the depths that he sunk to... [or] that she could have ever conceived of Rick handling the situation in the way that he did. So, this is a modern American woman learning that her husband is a murderer. That's very terrifying to her. And also [she] sees that her son has been thrown into the mix that he witnessed this, and actually shot a zombie version of Shane. That's something that's going to be weighing on her for the foreseeable future.

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Walking Dead Postmortem: Which New Character Holds the Key to the Group's Future?