The Following - Season Finale Review: Rich Man, Poe Man
Recap and review of The Following - Season Finale - The Final Chapter:
Until the last two minutes, "The Final Chapter" felt like it could have been a fitting series finale for The Following. Now, of course, this wasn't going to be the case, since the show has already been renewed for next season. But as the episode went on, I kept wondering how the show could possibly continue, following the death of Joe Carroll (James Purefoy), the capture of several of his followers, and the scattering of the cult's remnants. Honestly, if this had been the final episode of the series, and the business with Molly stabbing Ryan (Kevin Bacon) and Claire (Natalie Zea) had been left on the cutting room floor, I might not have hated this nearly as much as I did. "The Final Chapter" would have left a sour taste in my mouth regardless, but I might not feel so vitriolic towards it if it were simply an episode tasked with wrapping up the series with a concrete sense of finality. But that's not what happened. Presumably, Ryan's battle against Carroll's cult will continue, and it's at least likely that Claire will be killed off in the bargain. And I'm not sure I can stomach another season of a show that has no interest in evolving its storytelling beyond the business of shock and gore. With that said, there were some things that I felt the episode did well. But they were all in service to a story that privileged short-term shock for long-term resonance.
Credit: FOX
Picking up from where last week's episode left off, the hunt is on to find Agent Debra Parker (Annie Parisse), who's been buried alive, before it's too late. This leads Ryan and Weston (Shawn Ashmore) to an abandoned vehicle that was part of a trap set up by a member of Joe's cult, who opens fire on the police forces on hand. This doesn't exactly end well for the follower, as he's taken alive by the cops and handed over to Ryan and Weston, who take him to a secluded area to torture him into giving up the information about Parker's whereabouts. This is actually a scarily effective scene vis-a-vis the show's violence-indulging ideology, as watching the follower get the sniveling bravado beaten out of him is unnervingly cathartic. In a sense, the show is getting us to embrace the bloodlust that the cultists have embraced, and this is one of the more interesting things the show has ever done. And it gets taken up a notch when Ryan and Weston rush to the scene and prove to be too late. Parker ran out of air and slowly suffocated. When the follower gloats while Ryan and Weston mourn over their friend/colleague's dead body, Ryan officially loses it. He takes out his gun and nonchalantly shoots the kneeling, handcuffed, unarmed cult member dead. And it's telling that the episode doesn't encourage us to begrudge him this outburst.
Credit: FOX
The entire arc with Parker is another one of the things this episode does well, grim though it is. It's to the show's credit that the question of Parker's fate is as gripping as it is, given that, with the exception of one centric character episode, we never really learn all that much about her, or even get to know her at an emotional level. Her relationships with the characters are established, but they don't feel as substantive as they might have if this had been a 22-episode season instead of fifteen (although I'm the last person in the world who's going to complain about getting less of The Following). Annie Parisse, Kevin Bacon and Shawn Ashmore do terrific work selling the desperation of all involved. Ryan and West desperately cling to the hope that they'll reach Parker's location in time, while Parker, on speaker phone with the partners, weakly takes the time to tell Weston that he's a good man, before telling Ryan that she chose this life; thus, her death will not be his fault, and he needs to not blame himself for it. Both men fight back their tears and soldier on, but they're ultimately too late. The effectiveness of the scene is enough to temporarily make me forget that, had Parker just listened to Weston and conserved her breath instead of talking, she might have been able to hold out until they got there to rescue her. But I guess she just had to relay the final request to tell her sister and parents that she loves them.
In the coffin, underneath Parker's body, is a manuscript. It reveals that this was all orchestrated by Carroll: Parker's abduction, Ryan and Weston getting there too late, even Ryan's discovery of the manuscript. The only difference between the manuscript and real life is Weston's survival, as Carroll intended for the follower to kill Ryan's partner at some point during his captivity. Ryan turns the page and reads his instructions for the final chapter: he must go to a lighthouse, alone, and face Carroll himself. Over Weston's stringent objections, Ryan heads off to meet Carroll for their final showdown. Upon arriving, he's held at gunpoint by Emma (Valorie Curry), before being subdued by an injection to the neck by yet another one of Carroll's followers. We get hardly a mention of Emma's murder of Jacob last week, though I guess there's more than enough story to tell to where even mentioning Jacob seems like a waste of time. We have bigger fish to fry, and we get to fryin' in the lighthouse.
Credit: FOX
Carroll has kept Claire in captivity along with another injured prisoner. When Claire confesses to Joe that she did love him once, and that she feels partially responsible for his crimes, Carroll proceeds to kill the prisoner by stabbing him repeatedly, in one of the show's most needlessly excessive acts of violence that made me want to turn off the TV -- not because I was disgusted or grossed out or even horrified, but because I was embarrassed that the show couldn't find a way to tell its story that didn't resolve bringing another warm body into the story simply so Joe could have someone to stab. It was just a clumsy bit of business. With that said, I did think James Purefoy really nailed his monologue, declaring that this is what it's like to kill somebody, and that Claire has no ownership of his crimes. They are his own. He takes responsibility for them, because he earned them. It's pure scenery-chewing, but I think it's Purefoy's best work of the season, and it's paired nicely with Natalie Zea's increasingly histrionic performance, as she's a bundle of nerves and tears.
Kevin Bacon also gets to do some of his best work of the season in the final confrontation when he baits Joe by saying that killing Claire is too predictable. Readers will be expecting her to die. But if Joe were to kill him? That would be unexpected. That would be a real twist, since Ryan is ostensibly the lead character of the novel, and no one will suspect that Joe would kill off the lead. It's a desperate ploy on Ryan's part, as "No! Kill me instead!" has been Ryan's go-to play all season, though no one ever takes him up on it, because it was too early in Carroll's story for him to die; thus, the followers always let him live, if it was within their power (although Emma claims to have clearance to kill Ryan if he doesn't cooperate, when prepping him to go to the lighthouse). But all bets are off here, and so Ryan seizes the opportunity to get under Carroll's skin, baiting him with disparaging remarks about his talent as a writer and as a teacher of the craft of writing. When that doesn't work, Ryan disparages the name of Edgar Allen Poe, declaring that the famed writer was little more than a drugged-up hack. Carroll's reaction gives Ryan the opportunity he needs to tackle Joe, resulting in a struggle that sees Carroll making a break for it to a nearby shack. It's not nearly the climax we might have expected, given the build: Ryan and Joe wrestle for the gun, which goes off and ignites several drums of fuel in the shack, because fist fights are better in a burning room, I guess. Ryan is able to wrestle Joe to the other side of the fire, leaving him to die as the shack caves in around him. Ryan makes his escape, and not a moment too soon, as the shack explodes, killing Joe Carroll once and for all. When the FBI surveys the scene, dental records confirm it: Joe Carroll is dead. And Emma, in a disguise at a restaurant somewhere, sees the news and breaks down into tears, although I don't think you could pay me enough money to get me to feel sorry for her (that might be the point, actually).
Credit: FOX
But it's not enough to leave well enough alone, as Molly (Ryan's ex, and the follower to whom Joe promised the mission of killing him), arrives in Ryan's apartment during his intimate time alone with Claire. She takes a knife from his counter and surprises him, stabbing him in the gut. Claire comes out of the shower and witnesses Ryan bleeding on the floor. She rushes to his side, despite Ryan's pleas with Claire to stay where she is. In the ensuing carnage, Molly sneaks up behind Claire and stabs her in the back, and that's season one of The Following, in a nutshell: violence-as-drama, in lieu of substance. Will Claire die? I'm guessing she's more than likely a goner. But I'm having a hard time wondering where the next season will go. And I'm having an even harder time mustering up enough Give A Damn to care. To those who love the show, God bless ya. I wish you all the best, I really do. And I hope you don't feel as though I'm passing judgment on your viewing habits. I mean it with all the due respect in the world. This review is merely one man's opinion, which ultimately doesn't amount to a hill of beans when contrasted against the kind of ratings this show rakes in. But this show, for better or worse, simply isn't for me. And I can't imagine a version of this show that would be. However, I at least hold out the hope that showrunner Kevin Williamson takes the criticism from various outlets into consideration when forming the narrative for the second season. The show doesn't need to be as violent or as miserablist as it is to create good drama. And I'm sure he knows this, at some level. Yet it remains to be seen. Though I doubt I'll be watching when it returns next year, I sincerely hope The Following evolves into a more nuanced show than we were presented with this season.
