On The Following season 3, episode 6, “Reunion,” Ryan Hardy comes face to face with Joe Carroll once more. Check out our recap and share your thoughts!
On this week’s The Following, we begin with Ryan meeting with Joe for the first time since he was imprisoned (again). Joe is as perceptive as ever, but they quickly get down to business. Dr. Strauss is missing, and Ryan needs Joe’s help.
“When I die, you die,” Joe says, and then tells Ryan he wants “us” back. Joe demands that Ryan visits him every day until the day of his execution, and he will help Ryan find Strauss. Ryan reluctantly agrees, so Joe tells him Strauss will be reaching out to a friend in the neighborhood for support.
Ryan seems calm and collected, but as soon as he escapes, he heads to the bathroom and throws up. We can’t exactly blame him. Joe is as chilling as ever.
At the hospital, Ryan sees Max and fills her in on what’s happening. The email of Agent Clarke’s “confession” was a fake, but Mendez was suspended because it happened on her watch. At home, Gwen insists on knowing what’s going on with the Dr. Strauss case and once again demands Ryan not to lie to her. He gives in, and starts telling her everything.
The two conclude that Strauss has a hacker genius on his side — that’s the only way someone could’ve put that email in the FBI database and created such flawless fake IDs. Ryan shows off his incredible deduction skills and figures out how to pinpoint where Strauss could’ve gone. Mike tags along, despite Ryan’s protests.
Max is back home, and her boyfriend Tom is taking good care of her. He’s dancing around the subject, but he’s definitely trying to get her to admit she slept with Mike. So far, it’s a no-go. That doesn’t stop him from still watching her on Daisy and Kyle’s laptop every chance he gets.
Mike and Ryan show up at the police station for the area where they think Strauss’ associate could be operating. The Sheriff gives them some push back, but the deputy is all for helping out. The trio take a trip into the woods to search the area where they found a Jane Doe that could possibly be one of the missing victims. They come across a burial ground set up with dolls hanging from the trees like talismans. When they spot a guy in a mask, they chase after him, but he disappears.
Strauss’ associate is indeed great with computers. He changes the CCTV cameras to avoid detection, and we get a quick flashback of him from 13 years ago where it’s clear he likes causing mayhem but doesn’t have to get the credit for it.
Hilary, the deputy, takes the Feds to her uncle’s diner, where one of the waitresses throws the sheriff’s son Justin under the bus. He’s not quite right in the head, and she thinks he could be the killer. The trio hike up to his trailer in the woods where they find a meth lab and the mask from earlier, but Ryan deems him too dumb to be one of Strauss’. The sheriff takes him away to process him.
In an incredible twist, we quickly find out that Uncle Duncan is a part of Strauss’ team. Definitely didn’t see that one coming.
We also get another flashback from the hacker, where he kills everyone at an insurance agency. This was the hit the other man had been planning for weeks.
Out in the woods, the police have uncovered all the bodies and matched them to some of the missing persons. Each one has had their heart cut out. They also find a body that’s older than all the rest which appears to be the genesis victim. If they can figure out who it is, they might be able to nail down the killer.
At dinner with Daisy and Dr. Strauss, Duncan admits they’re his bodies, and that he had started killing before Strauss taught him how to cover everything up. Strauss doesn’t seemed worried, though. His best student, the hacker, is on his way with everything he needs to escape.
In another flashback, we finally see how Strauss and the mysterious man first met. After his hit on the insurance agency, the hacker was stabbed and found his way to the hospital, looking to treat himself. Strauss found him and fixed him up, promising to teach him how to become a better killer.
The genesis victim has turned out to be Fran Banks, Duncan’s wife. Mike and Ryan show up at the diner, and Duncan takes his niece hostage. She manages to get away, and Ryan takes Duncan down, though the man isn’t talking. He does, however, crudely reveal that he killed his sister and her husband, Hilary’s parents. The sheriff offers his assistance, saying Duncan’s father used to have a cabin deep in the woods.
Strauss’ best student shows up at the cabin, but it’s not a happy reunion. He kills Strauss for forcing him to expose himself. Suddenly, the the King of the Killers is out of the game, and we have to take into consideration that this mysterious man is worse than Strauss ever could be. That does not bode well for our heroes.
The sheriff, Mike, and Ryan find Strauss’s body, with no sign of Daisy or the other man. When they confront Duncan about Strauss’ death, Duncan reveals that they’re looking for another one of his students, but that he’s a “ghost,” and he knows nothing about him.
Luckily, we get a little more insight into the hacker’s life, but things aren’t getting any better for the good guys. This man has a loving wife and two beautiful, happy children. He truly is a shark beneath the water.
Mike shows up at Max’s apartment, but she doesn’t want to listen to anything else he has to say. Mike is still angry, asking if she prefers Mark alive and well rather than dead, but Max says, “I’d rather never be forced to cover up another one of your executions.”
And who hears all of this? Tom, of course! He’s been spying on her all episode, so it’s no wonder he was witness to this exchange, too. Mike’s days as a cop might just be numbered.
At the end of the episode, Ryan visits Joe again. When he asks, “Who’s Strauss’ best student?” Joe’s face gives nothing away, but we wonder if there’s potentially some bitter jealously hiding beneath that calm facade. Joe’s never been content with second best, after all.
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