Then, if we consider the timeline of Shane's interest, it makes Rick look worse, since he just met Jesse and already kissed the married woman, then reaches for his gun in the sidewalk scene.
I'm not going to give any comic spoilers but suffice to say, Rick reaching for his gun may be related to what he suspects is happening in this family - unrelated to lusting after her.
That's what my thoughts are. Rick wasn't thinking "gun that man down and get my woman!" he was thinking she was someone who may need protecting. During his tenure as a sheriff deputy in an Georgia town I suspect he's seen his fair-share of domestic situations.
Thank you, because I'd been thinking kind of the same thing. He's the sheriff now, etc, & this whole town is going to his head to some degree, including being the law in it. I think for dramatic purposes, they purposely tried to make you second guess him more than is necessary, what with the oddball music backing & then his fascination with the walker on the other side of the wall, which can also be taken in another light, that of him
knowing a walker is right there. (The same way Daryl can tell the difference between a person & walker by their gate) He's in arm's reach of a walker, that he can hear & spot, & there's nothing to fear or worry about. I took that final scene as Rick being somewhat power drunk, from apparent safety, & civilization, & being thrust back into his old life somewhat
Don't get me wrong though. He still has issues. He's still that dark SOB that shot down a man he blasted with a car, just for running away. Telling a dead man you just killed to shut up is not normal by any stretch, badass though it may have been
Likewise, I've heard some support thrown Carol's way after this week too, in so much as WTF was she supposed to do? This is the kind of thing that blows the lid off her gambit if she let's it go. Now you can ague that she probably shouldn't be playing this gambit, because it's underhanded, and that she's let trust issues lead her down the wrong path, etc...
Honestly though, just because she's had to put a child down before, (Under very specific & painful circumstances) doesn't suggest at all that she is in any way entertaining actually making good on her threat to that kid. She knew that was the only way to play that, without being exposed. She's doing the hard thing, because she saw no other choice. That's her philosophy now. Be the hard thing doer. It may have been all along. Why else would you take marital abuse to keep a family together for your daughter? It was the hard thing she had to do because she felt she had no choice.
That said, it is a bad precedent, in so much as when she inevitably slips up again or makes a misstep, & has to cover herself like this again, she's digging herself in deeper, & it's only a matter of time before that house of cards tumbles. I'm assuming sooner rather than later. Carol's bad habit is boxing herself into corners where it can get terribly sticky. I don't know that this one is ending well for her