Warning: Spoiler Alert
When it comes right down to it, everything in the life of FBI Agent Ryan Hardy, revolves around his nemesis Joe Carroll in every aspect of the FOX series “The Following,” even with Carroll just 36-hours away from getting executed via lethal injection. He affects the way Hardy interacts with friends and lovers, he’s even taken to haunting Ryan’s dreams, as he did at the start of the latest episode, “Kill The Messenger.”
Our first image of the hour’s Hardy asleep with his girlfriend Gwen in his apartment, when a hooded figure breaks in and makes his way to the bedroom. Hardy opens his eyes, puts his fingers in front of his lips for the intruder to be quiet, the man pulls off his hood, revealing he’s Joe and he’s holding a knife. Ryan whispers, how are we going to do this and Carroll hands him the knife. He wakes up on the couch, Gwen coming out from the bedroom hearing him screaming in his sleep. The TV’s on with a documentary on Carroll’s crimes, she tells Ryan to come to bed, he shuts off the set.
Theo breaks into an office complex, turns out it’s the office of Arthur Strauss’ aide Julia Barnes. He’s looking for something, and ransacks her office trying to find it. He finally finds it under the wallpaper, it’s a codebook, which he grabs and starts to leave, when a security guard tells him to stop. Theo slices the guy’s neck open with what appears to be a wire.
We see him entering a home in Hoboken, New Jersey, dragging a suitcase, he’s sporting a mustache and sunglasses and the housekeeper, who greets him as Mr. Salman, says she didn’t expect him to arrive home this day. He gives her a hug and apologizes, saying he should have called, then asks where Penny’s at. The housekeeper says she’s been gone for several days, then she says she’ll let him get settled. As soon as she leaves he jumps on his laptop.
Ryan’s driving her to the hospital the next morning, when a police cruiser pulls him over, make him exit his car and lie down on the street when they see his service revolver. Turns out Theo Noble’s dedicated to turning Hardy’s life into a living Hell, through his hacking skills. The NYPD computer showed the car as reported stolen, with a man behind the wheel, matching his description, identified as armed and dangerous. Just the first of a bunch of tricks Theo pulls on Ryan.
They drive a little further and a car rams them at a four-way intersection. He gets out of the car to check things out and Noble’s on the other end asking if anyone got hurt? Ryan tells him that he may have won this round but he’s one man and Hardy’s got tons of agents looking to take down Noble. Theo responds all the agents Hardy has won’t be enough to keep him safe. Theo calls on a burner phone, if he’s sloppy enough to use the phone again they can get where the signal emanates from.
Theo decides he needs a new partner to complete his next task, he settles on a man from Virginia named Gary Benson, who got denied being admitted to the Rangers, due to flunking the his Captain’s evaluation. Theo decides to use that to his advantage and finds the guy at a gun range, they start talking and have some beers and when Benson gets drunk, he starts blaming the Captain for ruining his life. He says he lost his wife and his home all because of this guy named Robert Tubbs. Theo convinces Benson to take them to Tubbs house and they’ll scare him real good.
We’re in a strip-club in Atlantic City and our old friend Daisy’s a waitress there, some guy asks why she isn’t a dancer there, as she’s far prettier than the rest of the girls. She says she’s too shy for all the eyeballs, he asks her what about just two, then gives her a hundred-dollar bill and tells him he’s got a beach house up the road. She takes the money and says she loves the ocean.
Joe Carroll’s brought in to meet with his court appointed attorney, to inform him of the procedure on his day of execution. As she tells him about his final day, he sees the newspaper headline sticking out of her briefcase and he recognizes the photograph of Theo Noble.
He flashes back to Winslow University as he’s talking to some coeds about Poe, when suddenly Theo asks Carroll if Poe could have killed his brother, that he’s said to have grieved so for. Carroll says there’s no evidence pointing in that direction, Theo says perhaps Poe was smart, he stayed under the water and didn’t make waves. That was Arthur Strauss’ first rule for any of his students, Joe asks Theo his name and he says he’s late to class. As Joe returns to the present, his lawyer asks if he has any last requests, he asks that a message get sent to Ryan Hardy saying he’s got information on the man Hardy’s searching for.
Daisy heads to the beach house and starts making out with the guy when she tells him to be gentle. He stops and slows down and she calls him Kyle, he says his name’s Walt, she asks if she minds if she calls him Kyle and he says call me what ever you want. But he gets too rough again, so Daisy stabs in the neck with a knife. Then she starts to cry and takes off the black wig she was wearing. Suddenly she sees someone outside the plate-glass doors, it’s Mark Gray who screams boo then shatters the doors. She tries to run from him but he catches her, she calls him Mark, he replies Mark drowned he’s Luke.
He’s about to kill her when she shows him the feed of the cameras still set up in Max Hardy’s apartment. She says this way he can track Mike Weston’s movements and finally kill him and avenge the death of his mother, who Weston executed last season. He lets her live.
Benson and Noble break into Robert Tubbs home wearing ski masks, they knock him out then tie him to a chair. When he wakes up, Theo pulls off Gary’s mask, telling him that Tubbs needs to pay for what he did to Benson. Gary punches his former commanding officer in the gut, Theo asks if that felt good and Gary screams yes, Noble shoots him and says that should feel even better.
Benson pukes up in the sink, Theo tells him that he scouted him out and chose him because he’s special. Gary asks if he means like Neo in The Matrix and Theo says, yes you’re the one Gary. Benson left his ski mask in the house Theo goes to grab it and Gary calls his ex-wife Linda on the burner phone. He tells her she’ll be sorry she left him.
Turns out Gary’s a guard at the prison Joe’s kept in. Theo sought out Benson, to use to communicate with Carroll, he wants to know if Joe knows the code to Strauss’ book of numbers. Theo’s telling Gary what to say and listening to Joe’s responses through the prison’s surveillance system. He tells Joe if he gives him the code, he’ll make sure his name lives on after he’s executed and deaths will still be credited to Carroll long after he’s gone.
They get the hit from the burner phone, they track the call going to Linda Benson, she says it was her ex-husband Gary that called, the Bureau soon alerts the facility about Gary Benson. Joe starts asking Theo questions about Hardy and asks if he has a new woman in his life. Noble tells him that he’s dating an attractive doctor named Gwen. Suddenly an alarm sounds, the prison’s alerted to what Benson’s doing, Joe sees a pair of sunglasses in the guard’s pocket. As Benson starts to panic, Carroll strangles him to death, taking the sunglasses, without detection.
Hardy heads to the prison and asks Joe what Theo wanted from him, Joe says Ryan’s not acting like his friend. Hardy explodes, saying they’re not friends, he’s killed Carroll’s followers and soon Joe will die because of him. Carroll says they should chat about Hardy’s new girlfriend Gwen, he says he hears she’s quite the looker and a doctor. Ryan loses it and starts choking Joe, until the guards pull him off, Carroll’s delighted to see such passion from Hardy and tells him to admit that Joe’s the most important relationship in his life. Hardy says he’s a disease and when he’s executed Ryan will get cured.
He head back to the apartment, he thinks he’s alone and Gwen’s left him so he starts to pour himself a drink, he hears Gwen and panics, dropping the glass. He tells her he’s fine, then tells her he went to see Carroll, he thought it was the right move but he was wrong. He tells her he loves her, she’s looking at a positive home-pregnancy test in the bathroom and breaks down crying.
The Story Continues Next Monday Night at 9:00 pm on FOX.
