The Following: The Curse Recap

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMxZHhaxYZo]

There’s a lot of reasons I could give you for why I have not yet posted up a review for this past week’s The Following, but the main one is just that I’ve been busy. So here it is, without much further ado. Also I was overwhelmed by feels for the return of Mike Weston.

Ladies and gentlemen, Agent Mike Weston is back! As much as I love my baby, I’m glad that they waited so long to get him back. Being physically beaten to the point where you are in a coma probably takes some healing time. Mike’s back, but he’s not the same person he was when he left. He’s taken his life back, but he’s a changed man. On the plus side he didn’t die at Joe’s hand and Ryan’s death curse didn’t pass on to him. He jumps right back into the action investigating Joe’s location with Ryan, and doesn’t blink before rushing into another engagement. Also Agent Parker comes up with a new name for Carroll cult followers, Carrolism. Which just gives a name to my obsession.

At the mansion, some domestic problems are stirring up as Claire and Emma butt heads. As Claire tries to figure out a way to escape, she ends up with a tracking anklet on her. Despite this, it doesn’t stop her from wanting or trying to continue to escape. She causes quite a lot of trouble for the group as she gets into a physical fight with Emma after Emma tries to reconnect with Claire. Claire sees right past her insanity and verbally slaps her hand of friendship away before physically slapping her. Although Joe hoped that showing Claire Joey would win a little part of her back to him, he quickly realizes that it’s not that easy. And instead of remaining with Claire, at the end, he comes home and turns his attentions towards Emma.

I mean, we really can’t blame him, given the fact that Joe’s been frustrated even with his victory in capturing Claire. Stuck in a moment of muselessness, Joe calls Ryan and tries to read more into him. It takes the phone call for Ryan to realize that Joe is unravelling. Joe’s book, meant to mirror Ryan’s own book about Joe, is all about Ryan and their relationship together. This ultimately is what creates the tension as well as what drives the episode. The team manage to find a home related to the FBI wanted criminal Daniel Munroe. He’s been wanted for years, but it seems like in comparison to Joe, he’s nothing.

Joe and his followers invade Daniel Munroe’s home after the FBI enter intending to finally take down the team, but also for Joe it is a way for him to get more inspiration for his book. While Roderick and the others might be calling for blood, Joe wants inspiration and that’s what he’s going to get. He gets Mike into a private room with him as Ryan watches while his protege is held at knifepoint. This is when we learn a couple things about Ryan’s past. We knew his mother left and his father was killed, but this episode gives us a look into what really happened, and delves deeper into Joe and Ryan’s obsession with death.

Although Joe doesn’t know it himself, we realize that the man who killed Ryan’s father was a drug addict who bought heroin with the money he stole from a liquor store hold up, one of the people killed in the hold up was Ryan’s father. Later that week, the addict died of an overdose. Initially it’s all we get, but when compounded with a flashback where we learn that Ryan fed the addict an overdose intentionally in an act of revenge we realize that our favorite crime fighter isn’t all that pure, and we can see why he seems to be so afraid of Joe’s attraction to death and his own death curse. Neither can live without it in their lives.

The final scene drops a bombshell on us, as Joe and Jacob escape. The FBI have come to gather at the house, and who else is there? Roderick. In his sheriff’s uniform. This should be fun. Not! Next week, Roderick takes Joey, Claire and Joe fight over it, then they kiss, and Roderick decides to play both sides?

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNDvHnAty4A]