The Following S03E10 "Evermore" Review

Monday is a busy day for yours truly and here we are with the 2nd review of the day, "The Following". Last week, The Bret Hart of Serial Killers, Dr. Strassus' star pupil Theo reached out to Joe Carroll in order to obtain a code, for what? I assumed it was the rest of Dr. Strassus' students, but in actuality, it turned out to be something different. Anyways, because of Theo's house call, Joe was able to obtain a pair of sunglasses to fashion into a crude shank. Now we come to the fruition of that and boy do we have a lot to talk about.

Here we are, The Execution Of Joe Carroll, never thought I'd actually see it, but I have to say this is good. Yes, James Purefoy made this show with this class British charm and dark humor, but Joe Carroll was such an essential character that it was shocking to see him go. Thankfully, the writers were competent enough to give him a send off worthy of him, albeit a few missteps, which I'll get into later. But first, let's discuss what happened. So Joe Carroll managed to get the drop on everyone and hold a few people hostage making only one request, Ryan Hardy, much to the surprise of no one. Even Theo had to give Joe credit for knowing how to make an exit. Theo may have all of the book learning, but Joe's got the flair. And flair goes a long way.

Missed opportunity.

Joe's goal? To get Ryan to admit that they're best friends. I have to say that this is slightly annoying but nonetheless interesting. The reason why I say it's annoying is because of the constant desire for people to want the hero (Ryan) to become the villain (Joe). In some cases that could work and they're making it work by building to it here, but at the same time I hate the fact that everyone's getting what they wanted. That being said, I like the fact that Joe brought up the past, mentioning that Ryan killed the guy who buried Parker alive  and killing the guy who killed his father and the way Joe went about getting Ryan to admit what he wanted was genius. I have to say, the build up (using that term a lot) with the dreams with this as it's pay off is how the game is played. So what's the result? Ryan's back on the ol' horse again and not only that but he's seeing Joe Carroll. How will this advance things? We'll see.

Shifting gears, let's talk about the ever interesting Theo. Going to a slight detour to Newark, Theo goes to what I imagine is a crack den to find his sister, Penny. I have to question how he became The Best. For starters, Dr. Strassus happenstanced on Theo. Did Theo introduce him to Penny? If so, what's her deal? She doesn't seem like a killer but she's okay with it, obviously and is just as apt on computers as Theo is. How she'll play into events to come is beyond me but I am interested, only slightly. I will say that Theo is starting to get more interesting but only in the sense that he's not as good as he's been built up to be. Sure. being a genius hacker is a great skill but at the same time when you're a serial killer, computers really don't matter that much. What does matter is finger prints, DNA and all that other stuff...which Theo hasn't been the best at making sure aren't left at scenes. Just sayin' I've noticed more than a few screw ups.

Here's where you screwed up, oh and here too.

Speaking of screw ups, let's talk about the prison break staged by Penny. This reminded me of "24", and I'm not saying that without precedent as Kevin Williamson has stated on the record that "24" and Jack Bauer was his primary inspiration for Ryan Hardy & "The Following". In the 3rd Season of "24", Jack Bauer stages a prison break in order to escape with Ramon Salazar. Those moments in the scene were fueled with some real tension as Jack was forced into a game of Russian Roulette, a lot of good people died, it was crazy. That could have been recreated here with Ryan & Joe having to defend each other against the prisoners. We kinda got that moment where both of them took down a prisoner, but the writers REALLY could have milked another episode of 2 out of the incident. I'm going to chalk this up to budget and leave it at that.

That being said, this episode saw with it the Death Of Joe Carroll, and it's odd to see him go but a good in a way that the show has the balls to do this. It'll be interesting to see if "The Following" can survive without Joe Carroll, and yes, of course he'll be around in the form of hallucinations but having him there legitimately is a different animal. Mark & Daisy are still a looming threat and I like that the writers haven't played that hand yet. It'll be interesting to see what Theo does next now with Penny in his corner. Also Gwen is pregnant and still hasn't told Ryan. I'm curious to see what happens here. In the end, where does "The Following" go from here? Does Ryan become the villain? That'd be awkward? How are we going to start next season? What's next? I'm interested. Let me know what you think. Later guys!