Matt Smith reviews the fifth episode of The Following season 2…
With last week’s episode feeling like a bit of a filler, with moments that could’ve been powerful or important seemingly sucked dry of major significance, The Following had to up its game. In terms of important moments and, perhaps, imagination.
With an episode featuring the use of a phone battery dying in order to raise the tension, imagination might not be the first word on everyone’s lips. But with Joe Carroll being the name on everyone’s lips this week, it seems it’s more about Ryan Hardy and his gradual fall into becoming what he’s always despised.
Separated from the FBI, and trying to catch up to one of the few family members left alive as she tails a killer, Ryan Hardy must feel like he gets all the rotten luck in the world and then some. He’s against the law, just like Carroll, and he has to push the limits of what’s right in order to reach his goal. But if he ever reaches Carroll, would he kill him or arrest him?
That’s another similarity that keeps cropping up as the series progresses. Would Carroll want Hardy dead, given the most opportune chance? To be cynical for a moment, Ryan Hardy is obviously protected by being the protagonist of the show (tension deriving mostly from who else is on which side). But there are many instances of Ryan Hardy in danger and it means the question must be asked. What would Joe Carroll make of the news of Ryan Hardy’s death? Shot down by some goons as he trails his next elusive lead?
Joe Carroll has enough to deal with this week though, what with his reemergence and his new surroundings. Two sociopaths play the flirting game and the power game at the same time. In a way, like everyone, but they’re aware of the struggle and positioning for power. He’s the leader of a powerful cult that have been cut down, while she’s on the rise as the producers decide to display a typical show of something I like to call ‘the mothers’, where a seemingly unstoppable killer (or killers) are under the whim of their respective matriarch.
This week’s episode also gives the opportunity to witness Joe Carroll figure out a problem all his own making. He’s shown to be at least a little self-aware, along with his self-indulgence and monstrous tendencies, showing he’s not a complete animal. Until, later in the episode, he does become an animal. It’s a mixed characterization at worst, or at best shows his instincts fighting with his brain.
Speaking of using their brain, for the first time I’ve ever seen during a shootout, someone plays dead. That someone is Ryan Hardy, displaying killer tactics only someone who knew they couldn’t be killed would use. He then uses these killer tactics to lock a woman in a cupboard (what happened to her after he ran off?) and murders one of the cult members.
And thus tiny moments are made important; with each step Ryan Hardy takes seemingly dragging him further into oblivion. Hardy realises the things he’s doing are both against the law and perhaps morally wrong. Is the price he pays worth Joe Carroll’s arrest or head? Is it even Hardy’s decision as to whether he pays it? Once again this series sets up more questions than it answers. This is along with the steadfast promise of gruesome images and situations that are unfortunately forever tied to this show’s palette at the same time seemingly every show uses them to shock audiences. With mixed messages abound in both the episode and opinion, this is at least a good step towards keeping on track after last week’s stopover.
Matt Smith – follow me on Twitter.
Originally published February 25, 2014. Updated April 11, 2018.
