Sheriff Dan in season 2...

Is now a villain? Even though he sniffs out the corporate conspiracy in the town and everything, and helps save the day at the end, I can't get over his cold-blooded killing of Elena, which I'm still confused about. I know this show likes to mix up its moral groundings for characters, but this whole event seems arbitrary, like it was just thrown into the story to complicate Dan's character. Either that, or the Spanish chick who played Elena had another job and wanted to be written off the show.