The Following - The Final Chapter

GUYS! WE MADE IT TO THE END OF SEASON 1!!! Is anyone else relieved? Are you excited? Annoyed? Happy? I’m sort of all of those things. Last time we watched Kevin Bacon he got suckered into Joe’s trap when a bunch of the followers acted out a Mask of the Red Death and killed a bunch of people that had come to an evacuation point, seeking safety. The house was deserted and Joe took Claire on the run. Our sad last image was of Parker being buried alive as she screamed for help.

The FBI found footage of Parker being put into the back of a car. They identify Alex; he’s a former sniper.  They look out the window and what do they see? POPCORN POPPING ON THE APRICOT TREE!! Sorry…but my day of singing in primary at church just had to finish the line. They see a child wearing one of those creepy ass Poe faces. He takes off the mask and says a girl named Emma paid him $20 to wear the mask and come to the FBI. There’s a phone number written on the inside of the mask.

They dial the number and it goes to Parker in the coffin. How exactly is she still alive? How long could a person last buried alive? I suppose that would depend on the size of the box and the depth to which you were buried. She is sobbing and telling them about what happened to her. “Please. Hurry.” Understatement of the decade, lady! Get your ass over there, Hardy!! Save her!!

She gives them a brief description of what she can remember of the drive. She tried to count to see how long they were driving. She’s upset with herself because she can’t remember how many turns they made. How insanely awful. They reassure her that they’ll find her. They leave IT lady with her on the phone while they try and figure out where she could be. Weston guesses she has 3-5 hours, maybe. Police surveillance found Alex’s car, and they dash off.

Claire wakes up in a strange house. The windows are all boarded up but it’s well furnished. She runs out the door.

It’s a bit on the nose for me. An abandoned light house? That’s straight out of a Stephen King novel. Joe comes up from behind her and tells her not to do whatever it is she’s thinking. Back inside, Joe is popping more pills. Claire tells him the ending at a lighthouse is predictable. “It’s a motif, Claire!” She keeps poking the bear with her criticism. He maintains that they’re still waiting for Hardy. The death of Claire is what Joe believes will be the one that finally does him in. After Joe has enough of her attitude, he takes her and throws her in a room and then surprise! There’s a random man in there with her.

The FBI find the car and see that the tires are slashed. This means that they wanted the FBI to find the car. Then boom! Alex starts shooting with his sniper rifle. There’s all kinds of assorted shooting and Hardy runs up from behind him and puts a gun to his head and arrests him after he won’t tell them where Parker is. Hardy insists that they put Alex in his car. The FBI guy gives him the nod of the head. “Do whatever you have to do.”

The random man in the room with Claire is Neil Meyer and he got hired to bring a boat up from Newport. They broke his ankle so he couldn’t run. When she tells him that Joe Carroll is the one that’s outside, he freaks out a bit, but who wouldn’t. Didn’t you know? Joe Carroll was arrested for murdering 14 young girls.

Weston and Hardy take Alex to an empty warehouse and treat him to the same treatment that Weston was afforded earlier in the season. Alex thinks he’s safe because they’re FBI and can’t touch him. Wrong, sir. They beat the shit out of him. Just as Hardy is shoving his thumbs into Alex’s eyes, he finally cracks and tells them where she is. According to the FBI they’re about 45 minutes away from her. That’s no good.

Back at Cape Cod, Neil and Claire are trying to find a way to break out. Just then Joe comes in and says he’s lonely out there and he’d like some company. Claire tries to bargain that he should let Neil go. Claire is forced into the other room and he ties her hands up.Joe says maybe she’s right and he should just kill the guy right now. Claire worries that Hardy won’t find them in time, but Joe assures her that he left pretty big bread crumbs.

Hardy calls into the headquarters and he’s patched through to Parker. She’s fading fast. Damnit! Stop it! She’s taking shallow breaths. She wants Weston to call her sister and tell her she loves her and her parents too, even though they weren’t close. She tells Weston that he’s a good man. She’s saying her goodbyes. She begs for him to not lose his quality of being a good man. Hardy’s next. She tells him that she chose this life, she knew what she was getting into so her death is not his fault. They keep begging with her to hold on, to stop talking and save her air. “I am not your fault.” They are driving and both are wet in the eyes.

The finally arrive and dig as fast ast they can. I read in an interview that in this situation they really did have to bury the actress. There was no way to film this part without her actually being buried. They finally get to the box, and she’s passed out. Hardy tries to do CPR but it’s not working. He only tries for about 10 second though. COME ON MAN! SAVE HER! But he can’t. She’s gone. They killed off one of my favorites. I hate you, Fox. Hardy is distraught. Alex starts taunting them about how they were just a little too late. Hardy slowly gets up, stumbles over, pulls his gun and shoots.

That’s the end of another follower, that was given a name. So all we’re left with, is Emma and Molly, for names that we’re aware of anyways. I can’t believe they killed her. Apparently the plan was to kill her character right from the beginning. That has to suck. To go into it knowing you have a death waiting for you. Hardy looks down in the box and sees that there’s an envelope with Joe’s book in it. Much like the episode of Supernatural where Dean and Sam find Chuck, the prophet, was writing their life story as it happened, Joe’s book describes how they arrived at the grave, but just a little too late. “I’m reading about myself, reading about myself, reading about…myself.” Oh Dean. But that’s another fandom. Weston doesn’t understand how Joe could know all this would happen. Hardy says he doesn’t. According to “the book” Alex shoots Weston in the woods. The book says where he has to go to find Claire, but he doesn’t tell Weston that part. He says he has to go alone and when Weston tries to go along with him, he gets a gun pulled on him for his trouble.

At the light house Joe wants to know when Claire first really knew tha the enjoyed killing things. She says she didn’t know until he was arrested. Claire tells Joe that she sent Hardy to him because Hardy came to her with the symbolism and literary references. Joe isn’t pleased to hear this. Joe berates her for not seeing who he was sooner, and then apologizes. Claire then confesses that she feels as though she killed those girls herself. Joe is upset that she would think that. He hurries to go get Neil.

He stabs Neil over and over, so many times I can’t count. “That is what it’s like to actually kill someone. You see the difference now? You killed no one!” Well, if she wasn’t damaged before, she certainly is now.

Hardy pulls up to the location that he was supposed to. He goes to look at the end of the book, and he comes to the last page that just has the words “The Final Chapter” written on it. Nothing else. Emma comes out with a gun and tells him to ditch his own gun and phone. She tells him that they aren’t screwing around anymore and that she will shoot him if she needs to. Someone jumps him from behind with a needle and goes all Dexter on his ass. He passes out.

When he wakes he’s in the house with Claire and Joe. It’s nighttime now, of course. Joe is happy to see him finally awake. He tells him they’re writing the final chapter right now. Hardy asks Clarie if she’s ok. She’s a sobbing mess. “Why would anyone fall in love with either one of us? Totally bloody disasters.” Hardy keeps trying to egg him on in conversation. It’s the classic Voldemort/Harry scene where the villain plays with his food before he tries to eat it. Joe asks when Hardy fell in love with Claire. Joe asks when he knew he was the killer. Hardy says when he started following him, but Joe says he wasn’t following him, but Claire. Hardy admits he fell in love with Claire while following  her.

Joe then grabs an awl of sorts and goes to stab her eye out. Hardy jumps up and says it’s too predictable of an ending; that he should kill him instead. He’s begging for it. He then starts provoking him by telling him what a shitty writer he is. Joe sees what he’s trying to do, but it doesn’t mean it’s not working. He then starts digging in at Poe. Then he makes a rush at Joe and grabs a gun and shoots. Carroll runs for it. He runs down to the boathouse with Hardy in hot pursuit. He gets in there and Joe jumps him and there’s a struggle for the gun. It fires at a tank of gasoline, which is surrounded by about 6 others. They push each other and Joe gets pushed towards the inside of the boathouse, while Hardy has access to the door. He bolts for it.

Explosion. I’m gonna say, perhaps it was a mini? Claire then comes running down the pier, screaming for Hardy because she assumes he was in the boathouse when it exploded. They fall into loves sweet embrace and have a minute to relax.

The next day the police arrive and everything is getting sorted out. Hardy wants hard evidence that the body pieces they find are Joe’s. There’s been 7  followers arrested. Clarie wants to be 100% sure that Joe’s really dead. She gets a phone call and it’s from Joey. She walks off to talk to her son. The FBI send Hardy and Claire home with each other and are to be brought to DC the next day. Hardy asks Weston if he’s ok and he says no.

Claire is watching TV at Hardy’s apartment when they get a confirmation that dental records from the body match Joe as well as some early DNA tests. They have a hot kiss and then they decide they’re hungry. Clarie goes to get cleaned up while Hardy orders food.

We see Emma in a very bad wig in Mobile, Alabama watching the news that Joe is dead. She breaks into tears, throw some cash at the table and runs out. I feel like if they’re going to try and reseurrect th efollowing she will be the focal point, that is IF Joe really is dead.

Hardy gets a knock at the door and it’s one of the cops there to deliver the food they ordered. He goes to open the bag but somehow, can’t. So he grabs a knife out and goes to cut the bag. He hears a thud by the door and puts the knife down to go check. When he comes back, the knife is gone. Is anyone surprised? I know exactly what’s going to happen, and I’ll bet you do too.

Molly stabs Hardy in the gut. “You were always my chapter. Joe promised me I would be the one.” He’s writhing on the ground when Claire comes out of the bathroom all excited about the food. She sees Hardy on the floor and screams in panic. He tries to warn her, but Molly walks up behind her and stabs her right in the spine. Our last scene of the episode is of Hardy crying out, “NO!”

Did anyone else totally see that coming? I did. Clearly, as you’ve just read. I’ll be annoyed if after all this work, Claire ends up dead. I don’t like her, but I don’t think I’ll like a depressed, I-have-nothing-to-live-for-Ryan either. Well, we survived. Kevin Bacon gets to keep to his contract of only 15 episodes so he can go off and pursue other projects. We shall see what the fall brings us in September. I’ll end the season with a note from Poe. “I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.”