by Chelsea Dee, Editor-at-Large

If you haven’t been watching The Following, you should be! It’s the new drama on Fox that’s actually worth watching, especially if you love thrillers and something that’s slightly a rip off of Silence of the Lambs. James Purefoy and Kevin Bacon star, how can  you go wrong with that? Previously on! Joe Carroll is a serial killer who Ryan Hardy put in jail years before. Ryan was stabbed by Joe and barely survived, so he has a heart problem and a pacemaker. He became an alcoholic when he was discharged from the FBI, and hooked up with Joe’s ex-wife Claire. That didn’t work out. Joe got out to kill his only surviving victim and told Ryan he was going to write a new book with him as the main character. He has a cult following who are doing things for him, they’re highly organized and have been planning for years, and they’ve kidnapped his son from Claire. For the rest you’ll need to watch the show or read my other recaps over here. I’m starting fresh on this site, so jump in with me.

We left the show in the last episode with Ryan taken hostage in the house, but the FBI are coming down hard on the location. Emma, Jacob, and Paul are going to be stuck soon, so their threesome is going to be kind of unimportant in the grand scheme of things to worry about. Paul doesn’t agree with me there, but more on that later. Right now Joey and Ryan are held hostage there (and Megan), and Claire is held hostage by a new cult member named Charlie. Since she stupidly got in the car with him not knowing what he was going to do, he brought her to an underground lair. She sees a bunch of tech equipment and weapons. It’s sophisticated, which I think means something. This episode drives home that there’s a lot going on in this cult, it’s like a huge conspiracy at this point, and they’ve been in wait for years. Charlie’s been stalking Claire for two years, and apparently Emma didn’t even know about him. Roderick appears to be the one orchestrating most of this right now, and Claire points out that’s a fake name from Poe. I’m sure whoever this person is will be a big reveal later on. I personally think Mike’s one of them, although I don’t know if he’s Roderick. I just have this spidey sense thing with him. The guy ‘s too perfect. I’ll talk about this later.

So the police have the place surrounded. Mike and Parker are there in the van outside and call to negotiate with the trio. Jacob is too terrified to go anywhere near Ryan, Paul is scared too and keeps his gun on him, but Emma’s like lol whatever and shocks him a few times. She may be crazy, but I do like her  fierceness. It seems that Joe attracts very fierce women, if she and Maggie and the police lady from later on have anything to show for it. Because Paul is obsessive and weird as hell, he keeps asking Emma and Jacob about their threesome, even though the freaking SWAT teams are coming in and Ryan’s going to use it to freak them out. I don’t know. It’s weird to bring up in this situation. Emma’s drugged Joey upstairs so he’ll keep out of the way. She keeps contacting Roderick for instructions on what to do. She buys time by agreeing to talk to Parker about things, especially her relationship with the mother she murdered.

This is relevant because in flashback we see that Parker is from a cult. Her parents are still in it, and she was offered up to their religious leader as a young girl. Incredibly, incredibly terrifying to watch. It made me feel sick inside, and that’s the intention of course. I thought when she left her parents again later on the feds would come pouring in, but I guess not. But it explains why she’s a cult expert, having grown up in one. During all of this Olivia keeps updating Joe with what’s going on, but he seems confident. He has good reason to be since Roderick gets Emma out of the house by having two of his people take out one little corner. She grabs Joey and goes, leaving her boyfriends behind. Ooooo ouch. They’ve been using Megan against Ryan, to keep him in control, but he’s managed to yoink a knife and he stabs Paul in the gut. Megan is free, FINALLY, and Ryan goes after Emma. At the same time Mike and police officer …someone catch Emma, but the female officer is in on it too and shoots Mike. Ryan manages to kill her, but Joey and Emma are gone again. Jacob and Paul are saved by two of the followers disguised as SWAT who come in and let them escape. It’s interesting to know that they do seem to protect their own, this group. They could’ve easily left those two or killed them personally. They’re furious that Emma abandoned them.

In this situation though Mike managed to hack into Charlie’s network, and they do find where Claire and Charlie are. Charlie is a former soldier who is obsessed with Claire. They did mean to keep their promise and give her Joey, but that didn’t go to plan. The police manage to find them and Charlie gets away. And … they just let him? The serial killers are so much better at their jobs than the police what’s up with that? They really are seeming incompetent compared to these people. They do have the command center, so maybe info will come out of that. Claire is pissed that Ryan didn’t get Joey back, but shut up Claire, you gave yourself over willingly to serial killers. Joe asks his lawyer to file charges against the FBI for abuse against him. This annoys me a little, because I did think there would be some consequences here. I thought at least one of the trio would die or some ground would be won, but they’re almost exactly where they started. It’s only six episodes in though and there’s 22 total, so what did I expect?

I want to state for the record I’m very suspicious of Mike. He got shot in the chest and had a bullet proof vest on, but he lay there a strange amount of time considering he was only winded. Ryan has a faulty heart and he’d be more stubborn than that. He also waited awhile to save Ryan back when his sister was kidnapped, and he’s like a fanboy of Ryan which makes me think of how Charlie was a fanboy of Claire. They’ve purposely infiltrated so many places in this show so far, I feel like they are just waiting to set up a really big ‘omg this char is in on it’ reveal and he’s the right person for it. He’s the right age, he’s in a powerful position, and I’m just very suspicious. If I’m right I expect full credit for this!
Rating: – I’m still really interested in the show and I’m glad they’re delving into how serious and well organized the group is. I was a little disappointed there weren’t heavier consequences and this episode stopped right where they started a few back, but it’s still pretty great.

Keep watching ComicsOnline.com for more Dee Discusses, more TV reviews, and everything geek pop culture!