The Following Episode 201
“Resurrection”
Written By: Kevin Williamson
Directed By: Marcos Siega
Original Airdate: 19 January 2014
In This Episode…
We open where last season left off, with Ryan and Claire getting stabbed. Both are taken to the hospital, but only Ryan survives.
A year later, Ryan has cleaned himself up. He runs in the mornings, takes his medications diligently, and is in AA - he has been sober for five months. No longer an agent, he works at the New York College of Criminal Justice, teaching crime scene analytics. He seems to enjoy it, and he is good at his job. Joey is with his grandparents in witness protection.
It is the one year anniversary of the Havenport massacre. A woman named Carrie Cooke is releasing a book on the incident. Ryan is keeping his nose out of it - he wants nothing to do with Joe Carroll, the cult, or the happenings at Havenport. He is having a small dinner party under the auspices of meeting his niece’s boyfriend, but really they are just concerned about him being alone on the anniversary. Attending is Ryan’s niece, Max, a cop; her boyfriend Chris; his AA sponsor Barry; and another woman from AA named Melissa. But it seems his family and friends were worried for nothing: Ryan seems to have really cleaned up his act. Which is good because later that night, shit hits the fan.
A man wearing a Joe Carroll mask moves between subway cars. He is joined by two more, similarly dressed men, who start screaming “Resurrection!” The melee begins, and they stab everyone in that subway car. “Joe Carroll lives. Ryan Harding can’t stop us. The resurrection is coming.” They escape up the subway tunnel.
Ryan hears the news when he wakes up the next morning. Five are dead; a lone survivor has been hospitalized. He goes to work as normal, but of course, he is hounded by the press. He offers a brief statement, that his thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families, but he is no longer involved in this case or the FBI. He gives his students the same spiel but the feds are there to talk to Ryan, so class is dismissed. Mike sees the same report from his home, but he is not on scene. Though he was never indicted for the murder of his attacker last season, he is still on suspension. These new attacks change all that, and an Agent Phillips requests his help.
Ryan and Mike see each other at the hospital for the first time in about five months. When they last met, it was in a bar. Ryan was smashed out of his mind, and Mike just wanted to get their stories straight. Mike is a bit annoyed that Ryan never answered any of his phone calls - he needed someone to talk to. They speak briefly with Lily, the lone survivor of the subway attack, who seems to blame Ryan for her injuries, at least in part. Agent Gina Mendez takes Ryan to the FBI command center and she runs down the facts. There are eight known acolytes still out there, that didn’t die or go to prison. They are running body scans on the surveillance footage of the three attackers, and one is probably Carlos Perez, a known Havenport cultist. The other two are unknown, and Ryan offers little help: they could be old, or they could be new. He insists he is strictly a civilian and leaves. Mike chases him down, but Ryan is adamant: he’s done.
Except he’s not done. He goes home to his tidy apartment with its state-of-the-art security system. There is one door that is behind an extra set of digital locks. This is the crazy room: every surface is covered with photos, clippings, notes, and miscellany to do with Joe Carroll and his cult. He also has a small arsenal of weapons. Max comes over, and Ryan shares this new information with her. They match Carlos with an alias they had been following, Robert Diaz. Max thinks it is time he take this news to the police; Ryan simply leaves.
He goes to a shambling walk-up in a bad-ish part of town. Picks the lock and enters, gun drawn. Carlos appears and the men fight, Ryan knocking him out. He sits on his chest and wakes Carlos violently. Carlos denies everything. Ryan wants to know where Joe is: “We both know he isn’t dead.” Carlos tries to deny it - he hasn’t seen Joe since the lighthouse fire. After being slapped around a bit more, Carlos admits that he picked up Joe on the beach after the fire. Joe survived the fire, but Carlos hasn’t seen him since that day. Ryan thinks they are using the attack to lure Joe out of hiding. Carlos breaks free from Ryan and runs. Ryan gives chase, but runs into traffic and is hit by a taxi. Ryan is fine, but Carlos is long gone. Back in Carlos’s crash pad, Ryan finds the Joe Carroll mask and a Playbill with the name Heather Clarke circled. He calls Max, who informs him that Heather Clarke turned up dead 45 minutes ago.
We know what happened to Heather. She had been flirting with a young man in her building, and the man followed her inside her apartment. They end up in bed together, but he doesn’t want to have sex - he just wants to touch her. Of course, this may be because Heather is already dead. He dances with the corpse, then brushes her hair and does her makeup before putting her to bed. Then he takes a shower - something that seems pretty natural after playing with a corpse. But there is a surprise (for the audience) in the bathroom: this guy has an identical twin brother.
Max is at the location where Heather was found after her twisted “date.” She is propped up on a park bench, dressed in a nightgown and posed as if reading from Joe’s book. She is dressed as Gwendolyn, a character from the book that was inspired by Claire. Ryan shows up, and Mike is there as well, begging for some help on this, that this is a specific message. Ryan claims he has nothing, and once again begs off from the case. Mike knows he isn’t over it - six months ago he requested Joe’s DNA profile. Ryan simply tells Mike to “take care of yourself.”
Carlos meets up with a girl at a motel. The twins who killed Heather, Luke and Mark, join them. Carlos’s face is all over the news, and Luke is pissed that they have been exposed like that. Carlos promises to get Joe, and Mark tells his brother to let it go. Luke is clearly crazy and forces Carlos into a hug - then karate chops him. Carlos is spastic, but he will live.
Meanwhile, Emma is still in the picture. She is punked out and living with a couple girls in a tiny apartment. News of the subway killings upsets her deeply. She is clearly jealous that a new Joe Carroll cult is on the rise. She had been in contact with Carlos, but as far as I can tell, she did not know that he was involved with the subway slaughter.
Deep, deep in the woods, a few guys have holed up in a cabin. There is a girl there, turning tricks. A teenager calls from the living room for his buddy to come check out what is on the TV. A big, burly, lumbering man with a thick, shaggy beard comes in. It is Joe Carroll. He is alive and well and biding his time.
Dig It or Bury It?
I am so excited for this new season to get underway. I also like the new conflict that this episode seems to be setting up: a war of the cults. I think Emma was in Carlos’s apartment looking for a Joe mask, to see if it was really him on the subway. But Ryan had already taken his mask, so there was nothing incriminating for her to find. But clearly, she doesn’t like the idea that someone else is taking - or trying to take - her title as lead cult girl. I’m not even sure if she knows that Joe is alive. But I think that two warring factions of the cult could be very, very interesting.
Prophecies?
Emma tries to regain control of the cult, and the twins get even creepier.