The Following S03E07 "The Hunt" Review

So sorry again for the tardiness, kiddos but it was late, I was tired and I wanted to talk to my wife instead of write a review, sue me. Anyways, we're carrying on with "The Following" as Joe Carroll's execution draws near and near, "The Hunt" for the mysterious Theo continues with Ryan & Co. meeting an old friend. So let's get to the review.

I have to say despite being told again and again that Theo is Dr. Strauss' best student, I'm just not seeing it. Despite him being extremely proficient with technology and computers, he's made several rookie mistakes (leaving a trail of bodies behind, not killing his forager when he had the chance and stabbing a guy in a server room) these aren't the things someone who's supposed to be this The Serial Killer To End All Serial Killers is supposed to do. He just hasn't impressed me on any level that makes me go "Holy crap, this guy is good!". I love Michael Ealy, don't get me wrong and he's playing Theo with all the stoicism that would become a serial killer, but so far outside of being a technology expert, he's really not all that scary.

I'd like to explore him just a little bit more, after all he seems to have this perfect family who are constantly together and I'd like to see his relationship with them more, just to get a handle on who he is when he's not killing (and who knows, we just might get that next episode). But as it stands, I'm not entirely impressed. Also, I loved the twist that thwarted Theo's frame job. I have no problem with gay characters or characters being gay but I just want it to be just more than them being gay and the writers delivered and made that a very critical monkey wrench in Theo's plan. Also, if Theo is Strauss' best student, he should've already had a fall guy in place BEFORE everything went down. Just sayin'...

I forgot to make someone my patsy.

Now that we're done with Theo, let's talk about the return of Nick Donovan who was last seen taking a hair pin to eye in probably one of the most hardcore scenes of "The Following" (next to Parker getting buried alive, which I still think is one of the best episode enders). Sadly, Nick didn't swoop in on the scene wearing an eye-patch (c'mon, Nick, your name is already Nick, imagine all the Nick Fury jokes as a result!) or a glass eye (FBI health care must really suck) and sadly, he didn't change his tune on Ryan and his team. Like Mike said, you'd think taking a hair pin to the eye would make Nick realize how critical Ryan is, NOPE! Either way, Nick isn't an asshole and can at least do his job right, so it'll be interesting to see how he handles himself this scene. Also it's great to see old characters returning.

Switching gears, let's talk about the relationship (or more accurately, lack thereof) between Tom & Max. This couldn't have been a worser pairing of people if they tried! I know I've said this again and again but they have NO chemistry! In the few scenes they've had with each other I still can't decipher why they like one another, she doesn't seem to be interested in him and he doesn't seem to be all that interested in her, there's no tension in their relationship and whenever they're together it's just awkward. And not awkward because Max totally slept Mike and Tom knows about it, it's awkward because it's like watching two people who hate each other PRETEND to be interested in another and everyone know they're pretending.

WE ARE SO INTO EACH OTHER!

That aside, Tom is confusing me because he now knows that Mike executed Lily Gray and (like yours truly) doesn't appear to be all that disturbed by that, but he is disturbed by Mike abandoning Max to go kill Mark (a lot of "M" names in this show) which okay, fair enough, that is his "girlfriend". But at the same time he's now caught his girlfriend in 2 lies, a personal lie and a career ending lie that could possibly send her to jail. At a certain point in time he has to stop being a voyeur and tell Max that the jig is up and break up with her otherwise this is gonna explode in his constantly looking confused face and I won't feel sorry for him.

Since we're on the topic of significant others, Gwen was absent from this episode, not that we have to see her all the time but I'm noticing that the more Joe we see, the less Gwen we're seeing...I don't know what to make of that yet. I have to say, I absolutely LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the dream sequence at the end. I didn't realize it was a dream sequence until I saw Joe and kudos to the writing team for knowing their show so well that they had Joe praising Ryan's abilities while offering alcohol. Essentially, this dream tells us that Joe is Ryan's biggest success, Ryan's entire career is based on the capture of Joe Carroll and without him, Ryan really doesn't have much. Also the addition of the alcohol implies that despite Ryan being sober, he's still drunk off the high of chasing Joe.

Such a cool moment!

I've always said, a superhero is only as good as his villain and more often than not, it's the villain that understands the need of having someone to beat. If I may go on a tangent, in "Emperor Joker" when Joker had control of reality it's self, notice, he didn't kill Batman and just be done with him, he wanted to kill Batman EVERY SINGLE DAY again and again and again and it was that obsession with Batman that ultimately lead to his defeat. But that's where Ryan is, Ryan doesn't want Joe to suffer, Ryan wants Joe dead but when Joe dies, Ryan'll have no one to beat. Joe was beaten but as he said in the Season 2 finale, he's actually okay with Ryan living a happy life. It'll be interesting to see how these dream progress because these are fun!

In conclusion, pretty solid episode, still not impressed by Theo, happy to see Nick back and I'm hoping The Joe Carroll dreams continue. I'm NOT hope for Mark's return, hopefully he pops up in the finale and Mike nails him between the eyes or Theo catches wind of him and butchers him like crazy. Either way as long as Mark is out of the picture, I'm fine. Here's to next episode! Catch you kids later!