“Unmasked” begins with Carrie Cooke talking about Lily Gray (still on the lam, off-screen) and Joe Carroll on the news, which turns out to be Ryan’s plan to lure Joe out. Simultaneously, states away, Micah tells Carroll how much money Carrie is making off of Joe as they watch the broadcast. Micah unwittingly spawns Carroll’s evil plan/return to prominence, at his own expense. It also wouldn’t be a Following episode if there wasn’t sexual tension between Stroup’s Max and Ashmore’s Mike, Max walking in on a nearly naked Mike this week. I like how they’re drawing out the Mike-Max angle. It doesn’t feel forced like most of Ryan’s relationships. This week—yes, another woman—Ryan rekindles an old romance. As Micah and Joe record a video—the dimwitted Micah fumbling his Manson-esque, Carroll-penned speech—Emma, Robert (an intriguing Shane McRae, The Help), and the demented Lance (David Call, Gossip Girl) travel to NYC to enact Joe’s plan. Joe admits he’s tired of Micah, so we know he has something up his sleeve. Joe effectively wedged himself between Jacinda Barrett’s Julia and Jake Weber’s Micah last episode and it’s not hard to see where this is going. As Joe dispatches of Julia, letting her know as she struggles to breathe that his prophecy to control Micah has been fulfilled, Micah thanks Joe for killing her as off-handedly as if Joe had held open the door for him. It’s a pretty cool scene in a week full of them. Micah’s character is too trusting, and also too delusional, to see that he’s next. “Unmasked” ends with, among other things, Joe and Emma becoming the leaders of the cult. As I said before, I found Micah and Julia’s cult to have much more real-world believability than Carroll’s, so seeing Joe and Emma lead this cult feels justified. The Manson Family, Heaven’s Gate, The People’s Temple—Micah and Julia’s cult echoed these real cults, while Carroll’s cult always felt fake. Truthfully, I find Joe and Emma much more frightening leading this cult than Season 1’s. Even with the spoiler warning, I can’t bring myself to write the big reveal of “Unmasked.” What happens at the end of the episode has an earth-shattering effect on the plot of the series, while also acting as the catalyst for where the plot is headed in the upcoming weeks. I don’t know how they’re going to explain it yet, but I’m excited about it, and my faith in the show has returned. Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for all news updates related to the world of geek. And Google+, if that’s your thing!
