The Following - Evermore - Review: "The Death of Joe Carroll"

The Following - Evermore - Review

Last week on The Following, Ryan continued the hunt for Theo, Theo came face to face with Joe or as good as, and Mark finally returned, but only to follow Daisy.

"You are my real legacy Ryan, and I needed you to know it." Joe

This was surprisingly a rather emotional episode. Not because it was necessarily a sad episode, but because it was the end of a relationship. Joe saw Ryan as a friend, a devoted follower, and to be fair, Joe was right. Ryan had become Joe's follower, he may not have been murdering people or with Joe, but there was always that sense of him needing to hunt and find Joe as if he liked the adrenaline rush he got from doing it. Ryan needed Joe more than Joe needed Ryan.

Seeing Joe take hostages made me hope that he might somehow escape. I was waiting for the moment something would happen that would allow him to do that, but sadly nothing did. Joe's final act wasn't to escape or kill anyone; it was to get Ryan to admit that he sees him as more than a person who he locked up. Ryan did indeed confess this episode to dreaming about Joe and this really made Joe's final act worth it for him. He wanted the truth from Ryan and he got it, he got his wish, and then he didn't mind dying.

Watching Joe die though was painful, and for me in a way heart-breaking. Joe was my favourite character, and it's never nice seeing a favourite die, but what really got me was the facial expressions from Joe when he was being injected with the lethal injection and when he started to feel everything shutting down inside him. Purefoy was excellent in this scene, even without saying anything, the facial expressions said it all, Joe didn't want to die, and Purefoy portrayed that brilliantly.

I can see why the writers decided to kill off Joe, to make Ryan's transition even more believable and genuine, but I have to ask myself was killing Joe a bad decision? I would say yes. They could have used Joe to further develop Ryan's transition. I think what would have been interesting would have been to see Joe teach Ryan how to kill, like his dreams. This would have produced some interesting episodes as that would have meant Ryan would then effectively take on a villainous role, but instead all we're left with is Ryan alone.

"I do whatever it takes to give us what we never had as kids, control." Theo

While a lot of the attention this episode was focused on Joe and Ryan we did get introduced to Theo's sister, Penny. She is exactly like him, which was surprising. She is a hacker as well and also a killer, so they make quite the brother-sister pair. I said previously Theo would be getting help, but I didn't imagine it would be someone so close to home. Theo and his sister are smart, smarter than anyone we've seen previously, and since no one knows about Penny, she can and will be, a huge problem for Ryan and his team.

Theo's plans were finally unravelled as well this episode, him and his sister plan to leave, but can't until they've eliminated the threat they face from Ryan. It couldn't be any more obvious now that Theo and his sister will end up dead come the end of the season, whenever someone says they plan to take out Ryan Hardy you just know it's going to end badly for them. When Theo's arc does come to an end, I can't say I'll miss him. His arc has been different, and enjoyable, but there's been no plot behind it, no sense of purpose or direction.

Summary
The episode was very good, but at the same time devastating, for me, especially. Joe Carroll was an important character to the show, and they could have used him to further develop Ryan's transition from someone good to someone who is turning bad. I'm not sure if the writers considered that, but they should have. Overall, it was an exciting hour of television with the end result being the wrong one.

As always, thank you for reading! Let me know in the comments what you thought of "Evermore "

About the Author - Robert Fruin

Robert is a sixth form student from the United Kingdom, who is currently studying IT, Media and Business Studies. Robert is a huge fan of the ended ABC series LOST, he has seen it many times over and has even visited some of the filming locations for it. Robert mainly watches drama series such as Game Of Thrones and Person of Interest, but has a soft spot for the comedy The Middle. Some other shows he watches are Grey's Anatomy, The Walking Dead and The 100. Some other interests include Cycling, Kayaking and Photography.Robert is currently reviewing Aquarius, Black Sails, Helix, Intruders and Z Nation. Feel free to connect with him on any of these social media sites.

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