Wednesday, April 10, 2013

The Following - The Curse




It’s a stormy and gloomy day here so it makes perfect sense to watch shows about a serial killer, right? Once again, we are reminded that Carroll was sent to prison for killing 14 women and that he had escaped. I’m so tired of seeing that same clip every week. We get it. Molly turns out to be Hardy’s neighbor and is set to be the one to kill him. Roderick screwed up by letting Vince go to New York and end up leading the FBI to their armory compound where they had been storing their mass amounts of weapons as well as training their followers. Claire and Joey were finally reunited after Claire told him that under no circumstances will she trust him or love him again until she sees him.


Claire awakens and takes Joey down and through the house. They run up the drive and Claire tells Joey they’re going home. How dumb can you be? Did you really think you could walk out the front gate without anyone stopping you?


And these are just the people on the house-side of the fence; there are more on the other side. “We’re just going for a walk.” I hate Claire. She’s frustratingly stupid. Roderick escorts them back into the house. I do have say this about Claire, I love her coat.
Molly is playing doctor with Hardy in his apartment. She scolds him for his blood pressure big too low and interrogates him about if he’s staying current on his meds. Hardy thanks her and they have a nice little moment. I hope that reveal isn’t lack luster.

They decide to put an ankle bracelet on Claire and she sees all the monitors. She calls Roderick by his name Sherriff Nelson. Claire has a pretend moment with Joe and he tells her that trust must be earned.


Weston is back! Back at the compound every alphabet bureau has arrived to help investigate. Weston is pretty upset about what happened to him. The anger is building underneath. He gave a sketch of Roderick as best as he could remember. He’s figured out that there has to be a military connection somewhere, and maybe it’s Roderick, because a lot of these people don’t fit Joe’s profile. They found all their training and recruitment videos as well as all their logs.


Finally, some references back to Edgar Allen Poe. I was beginning to think they had abandoned that whole concept, which was what made it so cool to begin with! There’s references to The Tell-Tale Heart, Pit and the Pendulum and Mask of the Red Death. This shows their fixation on death. Parker sees that Joe is pulling concepts from many different religions to make his own, Carrollism, as she calls it.

Joe is writing his book, and he’s got a bad case of writers block. He’s trying to get some insight into Hardy and why he is the way he is and how he feels about his death curse. He picks up the phone and calls Hardy to try and get some more information. Hardy can tell that something is different with Joe this time. They talk about that the real hit came with Hardy’s father being gunned down in a local convenience store when he was 17. Hardy informs him that they have in fact found the armory. “I’m getting closer, aren’t I?” and Joe hangs up. He is officially unraveling.

IT Lady, who I don’t think has a name yet, 12 episodes in, finds that 5 of the members of the following are from a group called Freedom 13, a militia group lead by Daniel Monroe who is a black-market arms dealer. The group broke up a few years ago, but all the weapons in the armory are coming Monroe. The FBI seems surprised that someone like Monroe would be friends with Joe.

Vince tells Joe that the FBI has in fact, found everything. Roderick is mad that Vince isn’t more upset. Joe wants to know if there is any information at the armory that could lead the FBI to the house. Roderick doesn’t think it’s possible for them to find the house, and he is monitoring the FBI’s movements through the state police and reassures Joe that they’re nowhere near the place. Vince asks, “What about Daniel?” Joe looks to Roderick and puts the blame there for Daniel being Roderick’s friend. Roderick once again tries to play it off that there’s no way they’ll find Monroe. Vince begs to differ, that through the illegal contraband they could easily trace it back to Daniel and he’s the one that helped them find the house in the first place. Joe is seriously pissed. Roderick remains firm that they can trust Daniel and that he’s well hidden. Vince claims he can find him and Joe decides he, Jacob and Vince will go find Roderick’s friend and kill him.

The FBI find an IP address in Maryland that lead them to a Brian Fowler, who was a member of Freedom 13. They take the address and Weston has already snatched it up before anyone could even look at it. He’s biting at the bit to put some hurt on some people.


Remember how Emma was a huge part of the show before? She’s hardly made any appearances lately. She’s comes to take a peek at Joey and Claire. Of course, Roderick, who’s been snubbed himself and is licking his own wounds, comes in to poke at Emma’s. Emma says she’s not scared of Claire, like he suggests she is. She’s trying to be respectful and give her some time. Roderick throws it in her face that it wasn’t very respectful for her to sleep with Claire’s husband. “Ex! Husband” she says and storms off.

Claire is questioning Joey about the house and the property and any information he might have about where they are. Joey wants to know when they’ll try and run for it again. Roderick comes in and Claire tells Joey to go get a game for them to play. When they’re “alone” in the room full of followers they get to know each other a bit. Claire asks if he’s second in command and Roderick says he doesn’t really know right now. He confirms that yes, he is in fact a sheriff. She wants to know why he would be a part of this because he seems like a normal function human being. He says that he doesn’t feel alone with these people; he belongs with them. He tells her there are a variety of people at the house; some real psychos, groupies, first timers, the works. Claire asks what the end game is, and Roderick says he doesn’t know what Joe’s plan is, and that Claire should ask him since all he does is sit and write his book. There is some serious bitterness coming with that phrase. “You know Joe can’t be trusted, right?” Joe sort of looks afraid that that question might actually be true.

Hardy and Weston arrive at the house and Weston is a bronking bull ready to go. He breaks into the house since it’s a “Hardy approved” method. The house is empty but the tea kettle is still warm. There’s a creak of the floorboard and out jumps a dude, who Weston promptly pummels in the face. He’s getting some revenge.

Claire and Joey are playing in Joe’s office. Claire sends Joey to be a look out at the door while she sneaks a peek at Joe’s computer. She tries going online but gets denied and then finds the book Roderick talked about.  She seems surprised that Joe talks about Hardy being killed.

The guy that Weston beat on is Brian Fowler and they want to know where Daniel is because by the looks of the place, there’s more than just Brian living here. When Brian refuses to help with information Weston once again springs to action and beats Brian’s face. Hardy wants to know why they have so many alarms in the house; what are they protecting? Hardy goes to look around and Weston goes with him. They head down the stairs to find a backroom and Daniel Monroe. That basement feels huge!
Parker is trying to make a phone call and Brian tells her that there’s a phone jammer so she won’t be able to make any calls. She goes to go outside and then hears a noise. Brian is concerned that there’s more FBI. Parker goes to investigate and hears Brian cry out. She comes back in the room to find Brian’s throat slit and gets knocked out by Jacob.

Emma goes and finds Claire in Joe’s office. She’s trying to make her let’s-be-friends speech and Claire isn’t having any of it. Emma is all smiles and realizes that Claire must feel awkward. She says she took such good care of Joey. Claire forbids her from even looking at Joey. Emma tells her that’s not really her call.


Girl fight in the hallway! Claire struck first. Roderick breaks it up and Emma runs upstairs. Uh oh…more trouble in creepy-killer-paradise!

Hardy, Daniel and Weston are talking rather politely. Daniel tries to put up a fight until Weston announces they found the armory. He knows he’s screwed. He says he has nothing to do with Joe and his “house of psychos”. Daniel doesn’t want to say anything more until he speaks to his lawyer when Hardy pushes for a location on the house. An alarm goes off that means someone is down in the basement.
Hardy goes to check it out and Vince shoots at him. “Well this sucks” is all Vince can come up with and then Hardy shoots him dead.  Hardy then goes and finds Daniel dead on the floor. Well shit! He goes to look for Weston.


Hey, Hardy! I found him! He’s tied to a chair in a room with a window with Joe! Hardy tries to shoot through the glass when the door is found to be locked but its bullet proof glass. Joe is torturing Weston and then Weston spits at him and Joe knocks him out. “Now don’t be crude!” They then begin the Voldemort and Harry dance where they talk and talk and talk and nothing ever really happens.

Parker is awake and talking to Jacob. She asks about Paul and Emma. Jacob reassures her that he will in fact kill her. Parker says she just wants to be humored. Jacob was a golden boy from a golden family when he dropped out of medical school to become a follower. Jacob says he didn’t want to be a doctor. Parker says no family is truly golden, and she just wants to know what it is she’s not seeing.

Hardy and Joe are once again talking about the death of Hardy’s father. His dad walked into the convenience store and young Ryan heard gun shots so he ran to go in. The shooter ran out and stopped in front of him, stared for a minute, and then ran away. He was a junky and he was scared. He walked in the store and there was blood everywhere, but Daddy Hardy was still alive. He watched his father die as other people around were trying to help. This was the first time he’d seen death in the face. Hardy says that the shooter was found 3 days later of a drug overdose. Joe wants to know if the death fueled Hardy in some sort of way. It gave him meaning and motivation. Joe admits that death drives him and Hardy agrees for himself.  
J
acob then comes down with Parker and a gun to her head. Hardy drops his gun and kicks it over to Jacob. Joe then comes out of the room and says Hardy has been of great him to him now and runs away with Jacob after he pushes Parker away. Hardy runs after them as fast as he can, but emerges to find no one at all. Too slow!

Joe comes into Claire’s room with 2 big glasses of wine, and apologizes for being gone so long. “I’ve done all the pretending I can do today.” Joe is disappointed because he hardly saw her that day. Claire tells him that his plan isn’t going to work, because she read the book. Joe is mad and flustered that she read it before it was done. “It wasn’t easy, clearly you haven’t learned anything since you wrote your first book.” BURN! Joe goes to hit her and then pulls back. His feelings are actually hurt. He storms out of the room.

Jacob is watching TV and sees there’s a story about himself. They talk about how great family and upbringing and that he dropped out of medical school. He picks up his phone and calls his dad, says hello, and then cries and hangs up. Another follower is reaching is breaking point.

Emma is alone in the kitchen, pouring herself a glass of wine. Joe slinks in and says he knows she’s upset with him. She agrees and says that he’s been ignoring her. I want her so badly to say, “I’m not gonna be ignored, Dan!” Go all Glenn Close on his ass! But she doesn’t. He says yes he has, and then…


So maybe now Claire isn’t so safe, now that Joe knows that he’s been rejected on an intellectual level as well as an emotional one.

Weston is in the ambulance and he admits that he went too far. “I’m not used to almost dying.” Ha. He’s learning that there are gray areas. Hardy advises him to never do something he’ll regret for the rest of his life. Weston knows he’s talking about his dad. “What could you’ve done about it?”

Flash to the junkie shooter, and heroine cooking up on a spoon. “I don’t need no more.” It’s Young Ryan! He’s cooking it up and making him take more and more until he’ll overdose. So there is a killer in Hardy after all! Disturbing.

Parker says there’s someone she wants him to meet.


Sherriff Nelson from the local PD. Roderick, you so sly! “So you really think Joe Carroll and his people are in the area?” Are you there testing the waters? Or are you there to throw a wrench into Joe’s not going along with your timeline? So many questions!

That’s all we have! With 3 more episodes to go, my question remains of whether or not Joe will make it to season 2. And more importantly, HOW is there going to be a season 2. My fingers are starting to fall off the edge here guys, we’re down to just a couple of fingers left. Something better turn around, and quick in these last few episodes.

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