The Following - Recap: Guilt trippin'

Credit: FOX

Recap and review of The Following - Season 1 Episode 10 - Guilt:

The Following has sort of worn me down to nubs. At this point, the only worthwhile function in analyzing the series is in seeing whether its approach actually works from week-to-week, as opposed to looking at the show as a whole. When looking at the show from this perspective, episodes like "Guilt" play a bit better, because it's an episode that doesn't really depend on past knowledge of the characters beyond the barest skeleton of their back story. Of course, this is only because the show goes out of its way to continually remind us of what's happened in the previous weeks, in what comes across as a transparent attempt to hook new viewers. I can't really blame the show for taking this approach, though it makes for occasionally rough viewing when characters are constantly restating things we already know. I really, really could have done without the ghost of Paul (Adan Canto) giving Jacob (Nico Tortorella) a hard time about Emma (Valorie Curry), but at least it culminates in Jacob embracing the killer within and becoming a much more interesting character in the process, even if the possibility of his redemption is now dead in the water. If nothing else, making Jacob a darker character means I'm free of any obligation to actually care about him as a person, even while I find that his journey from meekness to cold-blooded savagery is among the few interesting things about the series. And that element is plainly, if clumsily, in evidence in "Guilt", which adds new layers to Joe's overarching plan, while also pulling the trigger on Ryan (Kevin Bacon) and Claire (Natalie Zea).

Credit: FOX

The episode mostly follows the cat-and-mouse chase between Carroll's followers and Ryan/Claire, who are on the run following Carroll (James Purefoy) and Roderick (Warren Kole) discover her whereabouts. Roderick leads a gang of two other followers, Vince and Brock, on the hunt to bring Claire back to her loving, psychotic husband, and to prevent this from happening, Ryan does everything within his power, from shooting one of the men in the chest (though the follower was wearing a bulletproof vest) to taking her to the cabin of his friend, Tyson (David Zayas). Ryan and Tyson came up in the force together in Quantico, and Tyson privately informs Claire of Ryan's entire backstory and why he hasn't really been with anyone. He mentions a girlfriend that Ryan once had, and how it got serious but, ultimately, didn't work out. Her name was Molly (Jennifer Ferrin), and though she was great and all, Ryan couldn't take the relationship because Molly wasn't Claire, and never would be. Claire confronts Ryan and confesses her love to him, and though Ryan insists that this is a bad idea, he can't help but come clean to Claire as well, admitting his love for her and embracing her in a kiss. As if on cue, Roderick and company arrive, though Tyson luckily has a cache of weapons stockpiled. It's a tense, dramatic action setpiece that is among the best the show has done, as there's considerable restraint shown in what could have been just another forgettable, mindless firefight.

Credit: FOX

Brock gets taken out as the firefight reaches its climax. Tyson takes a hit as well, and while Ryan is tending to his friend, Claire, lured by the promise of getting to see her son, is finally swayed into leaving with Roderick and his men. As Ryan chases after the car, Claire looks out the back window and mouths the words "I love you", though I'm sure that's cold comfort at this point. If nothing else, the storyline shows the lengths to which Claire will go to be reunited with Joey (Kyle Catlett), particularly since the FBI is proving so embarrassingly ineffectual in their role. Of course, as if on cue, they make headway in the investigation by cracking a password that grants them access to the followers' website. The agents are greeted by a video of a man in a Poe mask, telling them to enter an email address, and saying that someone will contact them shortly. The video itself is creepy in that "Jigsaw killer" kind of way, but it's simply another piece to a puzzle that has been stalling since episode seven or so. But at least the potential confrontation between Carroll and Claire should be scintillating, though it wouldn't surprise me if Roderick messed this up somehow, as he seems to have a subtle rivalry going on with his boss. That confrontation, however, is going to be a long time in coming, I would predict. For now, Joe simply must bide his time making s'mores with Joey, and phoning Ryan to tell him he can't quit, since this whole story is about him, or something equally absurd. How he's even able to continually remain in contact with an FBI consultant while under no real risk of capture is beyond me. But then, I've never been one for the nuances of procedural investigation. Or the lack thereof.

Credit: Sarah Shatz/FOX

Meanwhile, Jacob is reunited with Emma, who begs his forgiveness for abandoning him back at the farm house. She swears she was only doing what Roderick ordered her to, in addition to doing what was best for Joey. But Jacob really doesn't want to hear it, and his animus against Emma is exacerbated by his constant dreams/hallucinations of Paul, who urges him to kill Emma for betraying him. These visions include Emma, hacked to death in a bathtub full of blood, because each episode needs at least one scene in which a woman is covered in gore. Ultimately, Jacob appears to forgive Emma, and they make love like old times, until Jacob has one last hallucination of Paul while in the bathroom. Things get serious when Paul demands that Jacob kill Emma, and Jacob retaliates by repeatedly stabbing this hallucination of Paul, over and over and over again, before finally slitting his throat and coating himself in a spray of Ghost Paul's blood. He returns to bed and grabs Emma by the face, telling her that he killed Paul by smothering him with a pillow, and that he's gotten a taste for murder. He warns her to watch her back, and it's a chilling moment well-played by Nico Tortorella. Let's see how that boner for killers works out for you now, Emma.

Credit: FOX

However, with all that said, this is still a pretty dire episode. I've resigned myself to the idea that The Following can only get better in increments, as opposed to getting better in the form of a full episode. I guess the episode benefits from being relatively lean and focused, though I had to roll my eyes at the final twist of Ryan's ex-girlfriend Molly apparently being a follower, as she shows up at the mansion and embraces Joe like an old friend. At this point, it would be a shock to learn that someone isn't a follower.