by Josh Batchelder
Joe gets a new follower, love blossoms for an unlikely duo, a guest star meets an untimely demise, and the twist everyone saw a mile away unfold in this week’s all-new episode of The Following.
Joe Carroll, having just brutally murdered the pervy reverend from last episode and orgasmed at the same time, is in the middle of disposing of his body when along comes Judy to spoil the fun. Judy was trying to “fix” Joe all along, but clearly she failed. As Joe puts it, he realized “once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic” and the rest is history. Joe says he’s going to leave the two of them, but a quick and painless escape just doesn’t seem to be in the cards. You just know things won’t be ending pretty once Judy shoots Joe with a gun many many times, sans bullets of course. Mandy begging and pleating for Joe to stat doesn’t work either. Methinks this family should tweak their tactics just the teensiest bit.
Joe ties her up Judy (after almost strangling her to death in front of Mandy, was there really any other option?) and gets her ready for the kill. In an echo of Emma’s birth as a killer in season one, Mandy kills her mother, stabbing her several times, rather than do the right thing and end Joe’s life. Bye Bye Carrie Preston, we loved you for two episodes. See you on True Blood! By episode’s end, Joe has burned his temporary reprieve to the ground with mom’s corpse inside and the daughter Mandy following loyally by his side. Another day, another follower. What else is new.
Meanwhile, Ryan Hardy keeps having these weird nightmares that loop over and over and over and over again. I guess that’s what happens when you try to nap in a precinct? Mike wakes up Ryan to some saucy footage that reveal both twins in all their glory. The feds leak the photos to the media to get the word out. A video trail also leads them to Ryan’s beating with the car from the other night when he was stalking Carlos. The feds know Ryan was serving some vigilante justice, but vow not to charge him for anything.
When last episode ended, Luke was left with a gun wound, but turns out it’s just a pesky shoulder wound. Looks like Giselle can heal anything, eh? She’s still pining to kill Carlos, who seems just as annoying as ever. Mark is knee-deep in a readthrough of a hot book about the cult murders as Luke boats about his “official Ryan Hardy gunshot wound.” When their faces pop up on the news, no one in the room is particularly surprised. Everyone seems surprised when Mark has Carlos call Emma, who has been incessantly calling for days. Carlos tells Emma to come alone to some random creepy spot. Definitely sounds trustworthy to me.
Ryan gets more and more tangled up in the transparent mess that is Lily. He discovers Mike in his place, unsupervised, and immediately it becomes clear just how much Ryan was hiding from the feds. Ryan explains a kooky conspiracy theory he has about Joe Carroll still being alive involving a long-lost relative and some DNA switcheroo, which will undoubtedly be expanded upon further down the road. The two are forced to end on good terms as Mike gets called in. Surveillance cameras happened to pick up Emma and trace her path all the way back to the apartment from whence she came.
Emma goes to the random location Carlos told her to meet him which is, naturally, an abandoned building and comes face to face with creepy but endearing Mark, who’s there to meet with her all alone. Emma has trouble grasping why Joe didn’t inform her she was still alive while Carlos the most insignificant one is left in-the-know. It looks like Emma and Mark might share a kiss, but they don’t quite get to that point yet. I’m calling it now: some point this season, we will see Marma sex.
The police raid of Emma’s-place-that-she’s-not-currently-at-due-to-her-date-situation goes swimmingly, if swimmingly could be considered everyone in the house dead except for the random chick that got some screentime the last couple episodes. Of course, this furthers nothing for the FBI and Ryan gets told he’s banned from the case and from seeing Lily. Of course, his first instinct is to go immediately to Lily. She invites him to stay for dinner too, how sweet!
Mark brings Emma home to Luke, Giselle, and Carlos, and both of them are surprised to learn of the cult house raid. Carlos finally bites the bullet, too; actually, more like Luke’s knife to the jugular. Giselle doesn’t even get to do it, which is slightly upsetting, both for us and for her. Something clicks with Ryan when he watched back the surveillance footage and realizes that Lily purposely missed the express train when the sneaky gal previously claimed she was in a hurry. It’s the details that get ya, folks. Lily manages to get away after an intense chase with Ryan and after, of course, stabbing a new random FBI agent in the head.
Twist #2: not only is Lily a follower, but her sons are both Luke and Mark! Everyone flees as Lily’s identity has now been uncovered. Just what momma always wanted, a cute killer family that wanted to bring Ryan Hardy to Joe as a kind of trophy. Where things go from here is anyone’s guess, but if this episode is any indication, then the twists and turns are just getting started. We know how the twins and Lily tie into all of this, but we still don’t really know anything about Giselle or what the hell is going on with Joe.
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