^ I think it's a poor answer to Shane if that's what they were going for, because Chris is not multi dimensional like Shane and doesn't have his own allies being against him in many cases of him being right.

Differences of course and the character could work as an answer to Shane if they fleshed it out better and made a smoother transition to him being a scared kid, to a nut case. Fleshing it out meaning showing realistic and gradual psychological degradation like they did with Shane over the course of S2.

But yeah, Chris is currently one of the positives they've got going right now because he's unpredictable and we don't know what they're going to do with him.

 

I don't think Chris has needed any additional degradation. When we first met him, he was refusing to let Travis and Eliza drag him away from a mob scene. Then he spent all day on Travis's roof watching a light flash in a hillside window and talking into a video recorder. OK, maybe at that point he was just showing teenage stubbornness. But then there was the fence bit on the ranger's island. Then killing the bitten guy in the crashed airplane. Followed by killing that pirate Reed on the Abigail. Then he stood around watching Madison about to be bitten at the Mexican church. Then he was caught holding the knife over Alicia's and Madison's sleeping figures. In a lot of ways, he has an even more distorted view of life and death than Nick does.

I'm waiting for the flashback where we find out that he had a previous psych history, that's why Eliza moved them back to LA, and that's why Travis wouldn't let Chris go off on his own.

 

I mostly agree with you, aside from the bolded part. They guy on the airplane wasn't bitten, but rather had his back broken in the crash, with his spinal column visibly sticking out of his back. He wanted to be put out of his misery, and Chris did it. I think he did the absolute right thing there. Leaving him there alive would have been a horrible decision, and attempting to save him would have been futile.

 

Oops, my bad. But either way, he made a pretty quick jump to killing someone without much angst.

 

At the point that he helped the guy on the plane out by killing him he was reluctant to do it if you remember.
We don't really know why though while the writers clearly feel we should understand his mindset while giving us ZERO clues as to what he is thinking too,in typical style for this show?
I remember he had some considerable trouble deciding whether to do it even though this was one scenario where it might have been a simpler thing to decide all things considered?
Maybe this killing was a turning point for Chris overall where he embraced his inner "Stone Cold" and started counting kills here too.

Either way Chris is just a kid and not able to process all that is going on here and is a ticking bomb that just keeps going off and most recently to earn the approval of his newfound group.

There is an obvious fine line these days between Survival and Murder for them at times.
I think in some ways Chris has a more realistic outlook about this than his father does too. I bet that is the point of them being together right now.

 

This is the impression I get too. At this point, he had just gotten his feet wet killing the infected. I think he was enjoying himself to the point where he wanted to see what it was like to kill a live person too. And the broken plane dude offered the perfect middle-of-the-road opportunity for budding psychopath to dabble in live people too. It was like a bridge for him. Not to feel TOO guilty since he was putting him out of his misery.....but getting his feet a wee bit more wet.

Mission accomplished. The world is his playground now.

ON TO BIGGER AND BETTER THINGS! Ugh.

 

I don't agree with the opinion that Chris can't be saved. I think he can be saved.

But, to be frank, Travis is not the man to do it. I know, he's his father but Travis' power over Chris is waning on so many levels for a lot of different reasons. It would almost be a crap-shot if he could manage to snap Chris out of it.

As of right now, the only things that can save him are:

• if he meets a complete stranger (preferably around his age)) who calls him out on his nonsense and gets through to him
• if something absolutely devastating happens to him or someone he cares about which would then make him particularly vulnerable/impressionable

OR

• if he takes it upon himself to save himself

The third one, at this point, is virtually impossible.
--if he decides to save himself