Sometimes the good guys have a pretty good day - or, at least a day that's not close to a total disaster. One of the problems with The Following, otherwise excellent, is that the good guy innings have been few and far between. That was corrected in one of the best episodes in the series - 1.13 - which aired last night.
As Joe says more than once, he's having a bad day. Before that day and evening are over, Joe will have lost his son Joey to safety, Claire will have stabbed him as she pretends that she's trying to love him again, and Roderick will have broken lose and been killed.
Even so, one of Joe's following manages to stick some kind of needle into the FBI chief's eye at the end, and Claire is is more peril than ever. The needle in the eye was the following's response to Ryan's unauthorized plea that one of them turn in him or herself in return for immunity. One thing that The Following has been consistent about is the blind loyalty of the following - which now has led to a blinding or worse of the FBI guy leading the investigation. Too bad, he was just beginning to see the light about the value of Ryan's methods.
I'm still thinking, as I've been all season, that someone in the FBI may be a follower. We've seen deputies and, with Roderick, a sheriff in the sociopathic fold, so an FBI double agent makes sense. But who could that be? Mike was my early choice, but he was beaten to within an inch of his life by the bad guys, and he's killed or tried to kill them many times. Same more or less for Debra. So maybe I'm wrong.
But the very fact that I'm looking for this shows how successful The Following has been in cultivating the sense that there could be a homicidal maniac right next to you, whether in front of you in the classroom or behind the desk in the sheriff's office. As such, The Following is remarkably in tune with the tragic state of our world.
See also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.5: The Lawyer and the Swap ... The Following 1.7: At Large ... The Following 1.9: All in a Name, Or, Metaphor in the Service of Murder
As Joe says more than once, he's having a bad day. Before that day and evening are over, Joe will have lost his son Joey to safety, Claire will have stabbed him as she pretends that she's trying to love him again, and Roderick will have broken lose and been killed.
Even so, one of Joe's following manages to stick some kind of needle into the FBI chief's eye at the end, and Claire is is more peril than ever. The needle in the eye was the following's response to Ryan's unauthorized plea that one of them turn in him or herself in return for immunity. One thing that The Following has been consistent about is the blind loyalty of the following - which now has led to a blinding or worse of the FBI guy leading the investigation. Too bad, he was just beginning to see the light about the value of Ryan's methods.
I'm still thinking, as I've been all season, that someone in the FBI may be a follower. We've seen deputies and, with Roderick, a sheriff in the sociopathic fold, so an FBI double agent makes sense. But who could that be? Mike was my early choice, but he was beaten to within an inch of his life by the bad guys, and he's killed or tried to kill them many times. Same more or less for Debra. So maybe I'm wrong.
But the very fact that I'm looking for this shows how successful The Following has been in cultivating the sense that there could be a homicidal maniac right next to you, whether in front of you in the classroom or behind the desk in the sheriff's office. As such, The Following is remarkably in tune with the tragic state of our world.
See also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun ... The Following 1.4: Off the Leash ... The Following 1.5: The Lawyer and the Swap ... The Following 1.7: At Large ... The Following 1.9: All in a Name, Or, Metaphor in the Service of Murder
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