by Chelsea Dee, Editor-at-Large

I remember when they said this show was only going to be a fifteen episode mini-series. I knew as soon as it got popular it was going to end up getting a second season, but right now I am wondering what they plan to do long term. A fifteen episode series would make sense in this show. You have Joe torture everyone for awhile and his cult coming out of the woodwork and eventually the good guys work it out and Joe either ends up dead or back in prison. Maybe a wink at the audience saying the story isn’t over yet with the cult still existing somewhere, but it would be a really solid and memorable show that way. I feel like if they stretch this out to multiple seasons, it’ll get very old. But what do I know. Maybe they have an ace up their sleeve.

Previously on The Following they almost had Joey back, but Emma got away with him. She abandoned her boys, although they are supposedly alive still somewhere. The leader of the cult is named Roderick and we haven’t seen him yet. I still think it’s one of the “good guys” and I still think Mike is one of them. Claire was taken by Charlie, one of the cult who has this weird nobility/soldier thing but he’s obviously a crazy murderer so whatever. She’s back now and bitter at everyone. Also Ryan broke Joe’s hand in prison because he was being a psycho, and Joe’s lawyer is being forced to help him.

Which is the first thing she does in this episode, insist on him being transferred to another prison because of FBI brutality against him. Even serial killers have rights, apparently. Parker just sorts of goes along with it, which annoys me because she’s pretty damn smart and she should throw some shade at the warden over this. Buuuut that would keep Ryan and Mike from being all renegade. They manage to get the warden and his daughter is missing, so they assume she’s being held over his head to help Joe escape during his move to another place. They are, of course, right. Parker is insistent she’s got him, but lol do you not realize how easy this probably is for him?

So Joe’s escaped. Claire goes into protective custody, and she tells Ryan first to find Charlie, he’ll know where Joey is. Joey on the other hand might be my favorite character this week. I’ve been harsh on the kid lately because he’s not like four, he’s smart enough to know some crazy crap is going on. He did manage to steal a phone and then escape at one point, so props to him, but he still trusts Emma. Probably he’s just scared as hell. She’s brought them to a warehouse where this extremely creepy and unhinged guy tells them to wait. He’s not a disciple, just a helper, which comes into play later. When Joey goes to the back office to pee, he hears someone crying and sneaks into this other place. There’s a girl being trapped there, the warden’s daughter. See how it comes together?

Emma asks creepy guy what she’s doing there, and wtf like you’ve never kidnapped and planned on murdering a girl before. She just doesn’t like it where Joey can see. Creepy guy scares the hell out of Joey, but he’s still brave enough to steal his keys and let the girl out. She goes running, and Joey runs after Creepy guy runs in and loses it at the kid. It’s important to know here that since he’s not Joe’s disciple, he really has no reason to care for Joey. The others will because it’s their savior’s son. Him, not so much. Emma threatens him at gunpoint but he gets the drop on her, and things are about to get super bad when Charlie shows up with the girl and makes the guy stop. He promises Joey the girl will not be hurt, and in that case they seem to keep their word.

So Joe was snuck out by his lawyer. He makes her bring her to a certain location and then he kills her while on the phone to Ryan. Seriously, you didn’t see this coming, honey? How can you not? He constantly murders women. Sigh. I can’t even feel sorry at this point, you helped him constantly, never told the police, and thought you could trust a serial killer. He goes to some kind of mall to meet up with his followers, and Ryan and Mike track him there. Eventually Joe has Ryan at gunpoint and he wonders if he should just murder him there. But instead he wants Ryan to see all the horrible things he has planned for the world and gloat over it. So he lets him go and flies off in a helicopter. Nothing is more annoying to me than when people try to shoot at a helicopter when it’s way too far away to do damage.

Joe is taken to some super secret location and he meets his huge crowd of followers waiting there. I think there’s around 50-100 we see there. He meets Joey for the first time after hugging Emma and seems genuinely emotional about it. I’m not sure how to take that. So far he’s shown no emotions and remorse, although he does seem to love Claire in a twisted way. He wants to get her back, so the next episode will probably go there. At least it means Joey is probably safe for now. I guess it was inevitable that Joe would get out so he could join his followers and really cause havoc, but I’m constantly depressed in how horribly dumb the police are. They seem really incompetent, don’t they? I wouldn’t trust them to save the day either! I am interested in seeing what Joe plans to do, but I think this would be a better show if this was the halfway point to the end of it.

Rating: – Despite wishing this was a 15 episode arc only, this was a decent episode, and I liked Joe’s escape and Joey’s attempt at bravery.

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