The Following - Recap: We Have To Stop Meeting Like This

Recap and review of The Following - Season 1 Episode 13 - The Curse:

The Following continues the Sisyphean task of redeeming itself from one week to the next, steadily becoming less awful (while still being pretty bad). "The Curse" avoids the dicey propositions of previous episodes (namely, it never asks us to sympathize with any of the cult members, save for one misstep towards the end), and it anchors its story with an arc that's fairly compelling, in the abstract, as we explore the influences that drive Ryan (Kevin Bacon) and Carroll (James Purefoy). As we learn, that influence is death, and while much of the episode deploys its exposition in schlocky fashion, this is the first episode where it feels as if the flashbacks actually contribute something worthwhile to the narrative. Through flashbacks to the night Ryan's father was murdered in a convenience store, and the resulting aftermath, the show gives us a keener insight into Ryan's character in the present. In essence, he becomes the more richly-realized hero that Joe needs him to be for his novel. It's something that I can appreciate, even if I'm still pretty down on this show overall.

Credit: FOX

The story this week had considerable momentum due to the fact Ryan and Joe both had the same goal: tracking down an elusive black market arms dealer named Daniel Monroe (Robert Bogue). The show ratchets up the tension by adding a combustible element to the proceedings, as Mike (Shawn Ashmore) is back on the force, having recovered from his near-fatal encounter with Roderick (Warren Kole). Mike is unhinged, still carrying a chip on his shoulder from his near-death experience. When they track Monroe to a secluded house, Mike goes rogue, not only breaking and entering, but viciously assaulting Monroe at the first opportunity. This recklessness provides an arc for Mike's character, as he attempts to assert agency over his own life once again, as if to refute the notion that any of these sickos have control over what happens to him. It's this recklessness that puts him in peril, when Mike finds himself captured by Carroll, and locked in a room with him. Ryan can only watch from behind bulletproof glass, as Carroll holds Mike at his mercy.

It's a surprising development, though not entirely, since we knew that Carroll would also be searching for Monroe. Early in the episode, after another passive-aggressive confrontation with Roderick, Carroll decides he can't trust his second-in-command to actually get any job done properly, so he chooses to go searching for Monroe himself. He takes Jacob (Nico Tortorella) along with him, which comes in handy for Joe, as Jacob is able to get the drop on Agent Parker (Annie Parisse) and take her hostage as well. Though Parker tries to form a bond with her captor, asking how a kid like him fell in with a crowd like Carroll's, Jacob isn't having any of it. It's clear that some of her words about his father seeped in, and the episode ultimately follows through on this by having Jacob call his father and hang up. I can certainly see what they were going for with Jacob's emotional phone call at the end, but I still felt it was the most significant misstep of the episode. Sure, Jacob hasn't killed an innocent person yet, but I would still argue he's firmly in villain territory. He's not beyond redemption, but it's almost impossible to feel any sympathy for him, since he openly made the choices that brought him to this point. Worse still, he initially seems to relish abusing Parker, punching her out and then threatening to do worse if she keeps up her sympathy routine, before holding her at gunpoint to leverage an escape for himself and for Carroll. This is a man who knows what he's doing, and has the competency necessary to do it. So I'm not going to feel a thing if he bites the bullet anytime soon, no matter how many tears he sheds between now and that possibility.

Credit: FOX

Yet that misstep is offset by one of the best things this series does: putting Ryan and Carroll face-to-face. While Purefoy occasionally descends into scenery-chewing self-parody this week, his prolonged conversation with Ryan about the nature of death is immensely engaging, all the more so for what we learn about Ryan's past. We get brief flashbacks to the night when, at age 17, Ryan watched his father die on the floor of a convenience store after being shot by the addict who'd been robbing the place. In many ways, Ryan is programmed with the most melodramatically tragic backstory of any TV protagonist in years (in no particular order, Ryan had a policeman father who was killed, a mother who lost herself to grief, and a firefighter brother who gave his life on 9/11), yet Kevin Bacon still makes that backstory compelling with his performance, selling his grief and devastation with little more than his eyes, or a half-whispered line reading. It's remarkable work, and Bacon continues to remain one of the few genuinely compelling reasons to watch the show.

Ryan and Carroll come to realize that they're both driven by death, and though Ryan fights the notion, a subsequent flashback reveals that Carroll is at least partially right: Ryan told Carroll that the addict who'd murdered his father was found dead three days later of a drug overdose. This is true. However, as the flashback reveals, it was an overdose overseen by 17-year-old Ryan, who held the addict at gunpoint and forced him to overdose. It's a stark image that makes Ryan instantly more complex and interesting than he's been in weeks, and it's this kind of characterization that will serve the show well in the future, even if it's somewhat annoying that Carroll and Jacob simply just escape, disappearing into the night without a trace after Jacob uses Parker as a shield until he and Carroll can make a run for it. That said, this was still one of the more worthwhile storylines the show has ever done, culminating in a confrontation between the two opposing forces of the series that, ultimately, delivers. Better still is the episode's final twist, as Ryan unknowingly comes face-to-face with Carroll's second-in-command, Roderick, who stops by the scene of Carroll and Jacob's escape to "assist" in the investigation. Putting a proverbial ticking time bomb under Ryan's seat is uncharacteristically solid storytelling for The Following.

However, not all the storylines can be as successful this week. Take the subplot between Claire (Natalie Zea) and Emma (Valorie Curry), for instance. Emma tries to apologize for kidnapping Joey (Kyle Catlett), while also attempting to form a friendship with Claire, insisting, much like Carroll, that she'll change her tune. Claire, however, is having absolutely none of it. She confronts Emma and tells her that they aren't friends, and if she comes near Joey again, she'll kill her. A catfight ensues and Roderick is on-hand to break-it-up. Claire, in a confrontational mood, confronts Joe about the manuscript he's written so far, telling him that this big criminal masterpiece of his won't work. She also insults his writing, and nearly gets a beating for it. Claire feels like much more of a character now that she gets to do more than simply worry about where Joey is, and why the FBI still hasn't found him yet. However, the feud with Emma feels like little more than a love triangle (hey, it's still technically a love triangle even if Claire wants no part of it). Joe, whose religion Parker officially dubs "Carrollism", works out his complicated emotions over his wife by sleeping with Emma again, and I'm not sure why the show is so deeply involved in the business of who Carroll is sleeping with, but I suppose it's a more rewarding storyline venture than asking us to spend time with any of the other lifeless followers in the house.

Credit: FOX

"The Curse" is as good as The Following has been in weeks, and while the show remains a dicey way, at best, to spend an hour, there are at least signs of incremental change. It's enough to give me slim encouragement that this show could be salvaged into something worth recommending.