"Paul Levinson's It's Real Life is a page-turning exploration into that multiverse known as rock and roll. But it is much more than a marvelous adventure narrated by a master storyteller...it is also an exquisite meditation on the very nature of alternate history." -- Jack Dann, The Fiction Writer's Guide to Alternate History

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

The Following 1.4: Off the Leash

A new wrinkle in The Following 1.4 tonight: the followers can do their own psycho business.  They can strike out on their own, not only Joe's orders.  In fact, they can torture and kill not to please Joe, but just themselves and their own impulses.  This, if it's possible, makes the following even more frightening.

The specific story tonight concerns Maggie, who did kill her FBI security last week on Joe's behest.  But tonight, she's in it for revenge, pure and simple - revenge against Ryan who killed her psycho follower husband last week.

It's all about family, as it always is.  Maggie kidnaps Ryan's sister to lure him to a place where Maggie will kill Ryan by short-circuiting his pace maker - which, as Maggie cleverly psychotically says, will actually mean that Joe's wound will have killed Ryan, since the pace maker was installed to keep his heart beating ok after the wound.   So Maggie manages to make this something on Joe's behalf after all. And Ryan's sister, after being forced to wach this happen, will be killed, too.  Mike of course saves Ryan just in the nick of time - it's way too soon for Ryan to die - but it's a good little chilling story anyway.

The other family story tonight concerns the threesome now with a woman tied up in the basement.  One of the guys, it turns out, has never killed anyone - he lied to the followers to stay in the group.  He told Joe the truth, and Joe, the understanding "father" of this sicko brood, said not to worry, you'll be able to kill whenever you're ready.  Ah, nothing like an empathetic fatherly psycho.

So the question tonight is will the follower with a conscience still alive be able to man-up and kill the tied-up kidnapped woman.  There are some good twists and turns in this, so I won't tell you what happened, except to say the twists are appropriately twisted.

See also The Following Begins ... The Following 1.2: Joe, Poe, and the Plan ... The Following 1.3: Bug in the Sun

                                                                

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Frankly, I don't like the series. Though I watch it closely of course. The tension is being built here in so simple moves. It wouldn't be bad by itself, but if you add a cult plot based on Poe... Well, good to see a classic revived. But in the first place glimpses of the class do not convince me the psycho was such a great teacher and a possible guru or something.

Paul Levinson said...

Thanks for the comment, Mariusz. Your last sentence is the crux of the issue: can we believe that Joe could have such power. I do find him convincing. But, for me, the strength of the series is in the sheer audacity of the evil it portrays. I don't know whether a group such as the following could really exist - but it's a daring move to put them in a television series.

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