luke kalamar enjoys some Bacon …
Plot: Thanks to the expert hacking of his followers, Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) now has an idea of where Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea) is hiding out. Roderick (Warren Kole) and two other trained gunmen are sent to collect her. The FBI catches wind of this and Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) attempts to move Claire to a more secure location. Meanwhile, Emma (Valorie Curry) and Jacob (Nico Tortorella) discuss what happened back at the farm.
Last week we saw The Following take a brief return back to the revolving door of follower’s format that was staple in the earlier episodes. “Love Hurts” wasn’t a terrible episode as the character Amanda Porter (Marin Ireland) found a very original way to torment Hardy, but I was upset that the show seemed like it was returning to old methods. Thankfully this week’s episode “Guilt” moved on from this format and instead focused heavily on Roderick assaulting Hardy and attempting to capture Claire. Only two new followers were introduced, but they weren’t a focus and took a back seat to let the plot progress. While I really enjoyed watching this episode unfold in such a manner, there were still some pretty glaring issues that held it back.
The main story this episode was naturally Roderick finding out where Claire has been hiding and taking the fight to her. It’s so far the second time we’ve seen Roderick lead a combined assault to damage the FBI’s plans, and it really was just as good as the first time. The ability for Roderick to easily take over the hotel and plan for any outcome was pretty spectacular. It was a great showcasing of how efficient this small-town sheriff and his friends really are. While the assault on the house didn’t have the intense fire fight that I was hoping for, the whole event was very tense and I was on the edge of my seat the entire time.
The introduction of an old FBI friend of Hardy’s by the name of Tyson Hernandez was great as well. Tyson is played by David Zayas who is best known for his role as Angel Batista in the critically acclaimed Showtime series Dexter. Totally ignoring the fact that Zayas has a definite attraction to playing characters in some type of law enforcement, I love the concept of Hardy having an extra sidekick on the side. Hardy’s only friends right now are Claire and members of the FBI, so it’s nice to have him connect with someone on the outside who probably isn’t secretly a member of Carroll’s followers (I hope). I was afraid that Tyson was going to die this episode, especially after he was shot twice, but thankfully it looks like he was brought to the hospital right in time. Maybe we’ll get some cool Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore), Ryan Hardy, and Tyson Hernandez team-up in the future? One can hope.
Jacob’s return to Emma was something that could have ended very poorly, but thankfully it ended with quite a surprise that saved it all. In case you forgot, though I doubt you did, Emma left Paul (Adan Canto) and Jacob at the farm in the middle of an FBI invasion. Jacob revealed this episode that he also blames Emma for him having to kill Paul because of his wounds. For a period of time, I honestly expected Jacob to completely forgive Emma for what she did. He was very adamant in his opposition of her for the majority of the episode, but after Emma used her charm to get Jacob into bed, I was concerned that everything was swept under the rug so soon. Obviously this would be really stupid. Thankfully that wasn’t the case, and after Jacob had some nice “conversations” with ghost Paul, we see that Jacob harbors a lot of hatred towards Emma now. His new taste for killing has changed him, and I’m excited to seeing what kind of shift this will bring to the show.
Despite all that worked, there was just something that really bugged me about this episode. Why the hell did Claire just give herself up like that? It was no mystery that Carroll had her son, and it’s been perfectly clear that the followers have been trying to get them together for some time. Every single time they tried however, Claire always ran away into the arms of the FBI. Innocent FBI agents died at literally almost every turn too trying to keep Claire safe. Three even died tonight as she was fleeing from the hotel! Yet, despite all this, she just gives herself up without issue. This basically makes everything the FBI has been trying to do all season completely pointless. It almost feels like the writers have either begun to run out of ideas or just needed a dramatic shift from the “Claire is found let’s move her!” formula. I guess making her give up completely out of the blue wraps that all up nicely doesn’t it?
“Guilt” had some really great moments ranging from those that I mentioned above to the FBI finding Carroll’s extremely creepy recruitment video. These all contributed to a very entertaining episode. However, the ending with Claire easily surrendering almost made everything that happened before a complete act of futility. At least put up some kind of fight before you march off to your fugitive ex-husband.
Rating: 8/10
I have a feeling that she’s doing it for one of two reasons.
1. To rescue her son and essentially get it to a point where the facility can get wiped off the face of the Earth (drones maybe).
2. To get close to Joe and kill him herself.
This show needs Hardy to team up with Jack Bauer. He can have this wrapped up in 24 hours 🙂
No comment on Hardy’s ex?
Jack Bauer is the man to get things done! I would comment on Hardy’s ex but I really don’t know where they’re going with it. Has Molly been a follower the whole time? Has she been spying on Hardy from the beginning? Why bring her in now? There are too many questions I have and I don’t have enough to form a strong opinion yet. The reveal was very shocking though, I’ll give you that.
This was another great week for “The Following”. Kevin Bacon is really rocking on this show, every week, and Purefoy is amazing, too. I’m a little nervous to see what kind of horrible plans he has in store for Claire, and I hope we get to see more of Agent Parker. I work at DISH and watched “Guilt” with a couple of my coworkers, and they loved it, too. We decided to have a marathon when the season is over, so I’ve been saving each episode on my DISH Hopper, which has 2,000 hours of storage space. This way I can keep the entire season and not worry about missing any of my other shows, either.