Following the Following: ‘Let Me Go’

luke kalamar lets go…

Plot: Enforcing his 8th Amendment rights, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) subverts the FBI and is transferred to another facility. Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) is skeptical of how Carroll accomplished this and sets out to find the truth. Meanwhile, Emma (Valorie Curry) and Joey (Kyle Catlett) arrive at Charlie’s (Tom Lipinski) hideout and await further orders.

After last week’s action packed episode, “Let Me Go” has a lot to live up to. Roderick showed that he is definitely a force to be reckoned with and the FBI learned that Carroll’s influence extends much farther than they once thought. Carroll’s trio of Paul (Adan Canto), Emma, and Jacob (Nico Tortorella) has also split up as well. Basically, there was a lot of new ground to cover this week. Was “Let Me Go” able to enter new territory while keeping the momentum from “The Fall?” In some ways it does, but the old gripes still remain.

The best part of this episode by far was Carroll’s revelation that everything has been going according to his master plan from the very beginning. You’d think that after the FBI’s constant attempts, some parts of Carroll’s plan would have been derailed. As it turns out, that’s not the case at all. Carroll has been the puppet master this entire time with the FBI as his little playthings. It really does showcase his intellectual power in a manner that had yet to be seen on the show, at least to this extent. I also look forward to watching Ryan and the FBI attempt to perform unpredictable actions to catch Carroll off guard. If everything goes right, the conflicts should be more battles of the mind than actual physical strength.

Carroll meeting an entire house of followers at the very end was a great as well. For a while we’ve gotten a few identities, with a primary focus on the small group of Emma, Paul, Jacob, Rick (Michael Drayer) and Maggie (Virginia Kull). Roderick and Charlie were nice additions, but that was basically it. Now we have a whole group of 30+ people who all follow Carroll’s every word. I couldn’t help but notice that Carroll himself was a bit surprised when he saw that this many people now follow him. Obviously a lot of those characters will go unnamed like the excess FBI Agents, but it is interesting to see how much Carroll’s army has grown in his absence.

A glaring oversight in this episode however is the complete lack of closure for Jacob and Paul. We last saw them in a car with Paul bleeding out while Jacob failed to reach Emma for assistance. Their fate is still entirely up in the air, which is pretty bizarre for a show that is so focused on keeping an eye on every character. I hope this changes soon so we can finally see what these two are up to as they’re completely disconnected from Carroll and their friends.

I also found it extremely weird that Ryan never thought that Olivia Warren (Renee Goldsberry) was compromised and that she needed to be watched. I mean, it’s not like she has been following Carroll’s demands every step of the way for the past several episodes. Surely she can’t have any part of Carroll’s obvious plan to escape! It’s almost amazing how much slips away right under the supposedly vigilant eyes of the FBI. If Ryan could piece together that the Warden has been compromised based on his daughter’s disappearance, he could have figured out that something was up with the woman backing Carroll on live TV.

Lastly, how was Carroll able to openly walk in public with no one realizing who he was? He’s the convict of an extremely high profile murder case and his face has been plastered all over the news. Surely the public would be aware of his identity in case he escaped, for their own safety at least. Despite this, Carroll was still “some guy” seen running out of a car that obviously contains a dead body. Seriously, does no one watch or read the news in this world?

“Let Me Go” for the most part was an entertaining episode, but a lack of closure and some more unbelievable scenarios held it back. Hopefully we can learn more about Paul and Jacob next week. As for the unbelievable scenarios, it looks like those are a staple of this series, so expect much more to come.

Rating: 7/10