Matt Smith reviews episode 11 of The Following season 2…
Belief that things are going to get better is what keeps us going in life. A better job, a better lifestyle, better things in our lives. It’s like we can’t sit back and just enjoy life.
Someone who takes that to the next level is Joe Carroll in The Following, and this week he’s taking belief in himself to a new level of ego-centrism. He’s got a promotion, a new atmosphere at home and has happened to have turned his job into his hobby. And he still doesn’t quite believe in life.
This week, Carroll’s back putting on the calm, cult leader voice as he takes control of his next band of vicious murderers. As if to prove the point, a horrible scene involving a stabbing frenzy plays out to let us all know Joe Carroll is really back. And there’s a wonderful irony that someone wearing a replica mask is telling people to join in and be unique. Found within is a small commentary on peoples’ fascination with terrible figures like Carroll, who while not an allegory can certainly be linked to infamous killers in US history.
With Carroll’s thinking that religion will be a stronger bond builder, and something that people can get behind better than an obsession with Edgar Allen Poe, there’s a lot more religious thought going on in this week’s episode. With biblical references being made, I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the twin brothers had to murder the other. This season can perhaps find it’s true niche where, just like the first had Poe as Carroll’s ‘inspiration’, religion comes calling to the man all murderers look to. Every killer except Mandy, who is a lost soul among all the casualties. Where will she figure in the cult war that’s apparently being set up?
Someone else who shows up this week is Lily Gray. The show’s done admirable work in juggling most of the plot lines, but Lily’s has rather clumsily been left to the side while she apparently doesn’t have as much on her to-do list as everyone else. Perhaps now she’s back, there will be a war of the faiths. Believers in Carroll. Believers in Gray. And in the middle, the FBI, where Hardy’s ironically made happier just as it’s revealed his death curse isn’t real and his love from the previous season is still alive.
In summary, to those who come to this show for the charismatic performances, to watch and listen once a week without question, religion is where The Following is taking inspiration from now. Like the grasping of Poe’s ideas, perhaps Carroll and the show’s writers can make the situation interesting by taking ideas from biblical stories. If they do, it’ll show The Following is following the apparent rule of sequels to be bigger, taking things to the next level. Perhaps in this case being more operatic and darker than even Edgar Allen Poe. And I believe that that will be what’s going to make the show more exciting, and what will keep me eager to just sit back and enjoy the show.
Matt Smith – follow me on Twitter.
Originally published April 8, 2014. Updated April 12, 2018.
