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'The Following' Recap: Emma And Joe Reunite; Max And Ryan Get A Lead

Emma and Joe reunited with Lily’s help, and Max and Ryan Hardy get a trace on Gisele in The Following’s “Family Affair.”

Max (Jessica Stroup) and Ryan (Kevin Bacon) talk about Lily’s (Connie Nielsen) double life the morning following Ryan’s realization that she is a conspirator of the Subway Murders, not a victim. Looking at Lily’s record, Max just doesn’t understand how a successful at dealer ends up courting a serial murderer. Ryan, however, has it all figured out. She made herself a victim because she knew that Ryan had a habit of over-identifying with the victims and she wanted to get close to him. But why go through all that trouble in the first place when Joe’s ‘following’ has been destroyed by Joe’s death, asks Max. Ryan tells her, once more, that he believes Joe (James Purefoy) is alive and that Lily and the twins are trying to lure him out of hiding. Max, clearly seeing no other explanation, vows to help Ryan in his search for Joe. While she’s not completely willing to say she believes Joe is alive, she is willing to believe that he could be and decides they need to find proof together.

Max and Ryan weren’t the only ones doing some family bonding. At one of Lily’s mansion hideaways, the twins introduced Emma (Valorie Curry) to their colleges, presumably other psychotic killers from across the globe, collected by Lilly as lost souls who need a family. Emma is skeptical of the group, but Lily manages to turn her around. Lily needs Emma to be on their side and feel safe so that she can help persuade Joe to join them. Lily’s monologue about family and acceptance, the same values and ideas that attracted Emma to Joe in the first place, win Emma over and when Joe finally calls the burner phone, she tells him it’s safe to come meet them.

Joe and Mandy (Tiffany Boone) have a ways to go before meeting up with the new murderous cult. They stop at a woman’s home to get new identity papers and money. The woman, Jana, (Leslie Bibb) is an old follower of Joe’s who knew Roderick and had Joe’s escape plan ready for him should he need to disappear. She’s curious as to why he didn’t come to her a year ago, but Joe simply tells her that he “took a detour” and takes the fake passport, money and food she hands him and runs with Mandy. Before he leaves, he asks Jana to look into his son Joey’s whereabouts. He’s in witness protection with his grandmother, but the woman says she’ll find something – she always does.

Joe and Mandy then go off to meet up with Emma, who waits for Joe in the woods with Mark (Sam Underwood). Emma and Mark take them to Lily’s home, where she’s waiting for Joe all dressed up.

In New York, Ryan continues to clash with the FBI when Gisele stays behind to kill Lily’s business partner, David, and take some information off his computer. Though Lily insists he knows nothing of her true identity or their plans, Gisele’s actions suggest otherwise. Ryan shows up at the crime scene just as Gisele is fleeing the scene in a stolen car, but he manages to get the plate numbers to Max before he gets arrested by the FBI for obstruction of justice.

Mike (Shawn Ashmore) and Mendez (Valerie Cruz) try to dissuade him from pursuing Joe, but in the end Ryan is let go with a warning because the FBI director thinks he’s more valuable to them as a lead than as a prisoner. If he won’t cooperate willingly, they might as well follow him around. Of course, Ryan has lost his FBI tail a number of times in this week’s episode alone, so Mike also tries another angle: Max. Mike goes to visit her at her office and tries to get close to her, telling her he just wants to help Ryan and he can be on their side. Max almost looked like she believed him, and then Mike put his foot in his mouth and mentioned the Hardy family death curse, causing Max to promptly kick him out.

With Ryan held up by the FBI, Max chases down Gisele to a coffee shop outside Grand Central Station. Ryan is on his way, and warns Max not to follow Gisele, but Max doesn’t listen. After getting into a few scuffles on the platform, Ryan ends up standing there empty handed while Gisele escapes in a closed train car leaving the station. But, while Ryan was fighting with Gisele, Max managed to sneak onto the train, and she’s sitting just a few rows behind Gisele.

The tension caused by Max following Gisele without backup was only doubled when the other cliffhanger was revealed. Mendez calls her former FBI ex and says she can’t take care of the kids this weekend. The ex is Jana, the woman with two kids who helped Joe out earlier!

The Following airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on FOX.

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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