Ryan and Mike started working together again and Emma joined the new group of followers in The Following “Trust Me.”

The episode began with Judy coming home to find Mandy (Tiffany Boone) and Joe (James Purefoy) standing over the Reverend’s dead, bloody body. Mandy was hoping to untie the Reverend, wrap him up in the carpet and dispose of him before her mom got back – “resourceful,” quipped Joe. Judy (Carrie Preston) walks in on them just as they are getting started and she is more than disappointed that Joe has gone back to his killing ways.

Ryan And Mike Work Together

In New York, Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) wakes up with a start. It’s dark in his apartment, but he can feel the presence of an intruder. He goes to search the apartment and comes face to face with Joe Carroll. He shoots, but Joe is immortal and stabs him. It’s a bad dream, and, after waking from yet another level of dream (a la Inception), Ryan finds himself slumped against a wall in FBI headquarters being woken up by Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore). Mike is not happy with Ryan for going out on his own, and he and Mendez (Valerie Cruz) lecture Ryan about his reckless involvement in the case. Either he’s with the FBI or he’s not on the case at all and can be arrested for getting in the way. Ryan admits he took a few things from Carlos’ apartment and swears to bring them by later. He leaves with a tracker in his phone and Mike sets up surveillance on his internet use and other technology, per Mendez’ orders.

Later, Weston breaks into Ryan’s apartment, disables the alarm and finds Ryan’s secret war room. Ryan busts in on him, but not before Mike has the chance to read his files. Mike confronts Ryan about his theory that Joe is alive. What about the DNA that Mike tested, which confirmed the body they found in the lighthouse belonged to Joe Carroll? Ryan theorizes that Joe’s father was a drunk and a sleaze, and there were rumors in Joe’s hometown that his father had had another son out of wedlock. Ryan found this son, and saw that he disappeared 14 months ago, just before the lighthouse. At the same time, those 14 months ago, there was a break in at the lab where samples of Joe’s DNA were kept. Someone could have broken in, switched the DNA samples, and nobody would be the wiser. (Because of the shared DNA between brothers and father and son, the DNA of the body would also match Joey’s, so that would not be effective in ruling out a possible body double.) Mike is sure that Joe’s dead, and he tells Ryan so. Nevertheless, Mike decides to keep Ryan’s investigation a secret from Mendez, but warns him that he has to trust Mike now and Mike has to be able to trust him. Ryan agrees.

Mandy Kills Her Mother, Joins Joe

Joe is having less luck getting Judy to trust him and let him go. Now that his cover has been blown and he has tasted fresh blood again, he has decided to go back to his old life as a serial killer. Judy is still freaked and insists that she thought she saved him from that life. She did, Joe tells her, but now he must go and if the police come around, she better not talk. Or else.

Judy is not pleased by the thinly veiled threats on her and her daughter’s lives. She takes a gun, aims it at Joe’s back and pulls the trigger. Nothing happens. Joe emptied the gun, and now he’s just mad at Judy. He can’t trust her to keep quiet, so he has to kill her. He takes her inside and ties her up on the couch while Mandy watches. Mandy is devastated at the idea of Joe leaving her. Joe goes to the kitchen to look for the knife he used to kill the Reverend, and Judy motions to Mandy that it’s on the side table next to the couch. She wants her daughter to take it and stab Joe so they can get away. For a moment, it seems Mandy might be convinced. She walks slowly towards Joe with the knife out and her hand steady, but then she whispers, “I don’t want to die.” She turns and stabs her mother repeatedly. Either she dies at Joe’s hands or she dies living there one more second without him, she says. Joe looks on, thoroughly impressed.

Emma Joins Twins Luke And Mark

The FBI catches a lead on Emma (Valorie Curry) from the surveillance video of Carlos’ apartment. They track her to her apartment in Jersey, which she shares with all seven of the remaining cult members from season 1. The FBI burst in, killing six and wounding one to take into custody, but Emma is nowhere to be found. When Mendez spots Ryan at the crime scene, she is not pleased and informs him that he is now not allowed anywhere near this case. And that includes Lily Gray (Connie Nielsen), the survivor of the Subway Murders.

Emma wasn’t home because she was meeting with Mark (Sam Underwood) – the sensitive twin – who decided to reach out to her despite his brother’s disapproval. He has studied Hardy’s books and believes that, while Emma is completely out of the loop about Joe’s current situation, she means something to him and she could be useful to them. He arranges to meet her at an abandoned house. Surprisingly, the two bond. Mark is clearly smitten while Emma is impressed with his knowledge. Mark also casually reveals that he doesn’t feel fear and then invites her to meet the others (meaning his twin brother and Gisele). At the motel, Gisele is still complaining and begging Luke to let her kill Carlos. All three of them are upset when Mark returns with Emma in tow. They have been watching the news, and they know Emma’s been made by the FBI. She can’t go back, Mark argues, and she could be useful to them. When Luke confronts her about why she didn’t know Joe was still alive, she says that Carlos was his errand boy, but Emma was the right-hand man. Luke, somewhat swayed by Emma, can see that Mark likes her, so he turns around and cuts Carlos’ throat. Emma stays, Carlos goes. Gisele is pissed she didn’t get to kill him and storms off. Emma further proves her usefulness when she suggests that they get ice from the ice machine if they are planning on keeping Carlos’ body in the motel tub.

Lily Is A Follower And Mother Of The Twins

Ryan goes to the art gallery to say a final goodbye to Lily when he notices something. Lily tells him that she believes in fate. For example, she never takes the subway but was in a hurry to get home the day of the Subway murders. Ryan remembers something in the surveillance video that gives him pause – she’s lying. Mike stops by in an effort to keep Ryan’s visit to Lily a secret from Mendez and reluctantly shows Ryan the surveillance tapes of Lily standing on the platform before getting on the train. Noticing that she let the express train go by and then got on the local train, Ryan knows she’s lying. She was planted there to be the “surviving victim” and get close to Ryan.

Lily realizes she’s been made before Ryan and Mike can catch her and she escapes. In a taunting farewell call to Ryan, she admits that Ryan was meant to be her gift to Joe but, now she will simply meet him empty handed. Lily turns a corner and gets into a car with Luke at the wheel. He calls her ‘Mother.’

Finally, Joe and Mandy are also making their getaway. They douse the house in gasoline and set it on fire. Mandy swears that she will not disappoint Joe, and he pledges the same. They share a sweet moment and drive away.

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

– Olivia Truffaut-Wong

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