The Following – Reflection S2 E5

Joe cleans up nice, eh? We all knew he couldn’t stick to the beard for too long. I have to ask though, who cut his hair?Will we ever know *why* Lily has been obsessed with Joe? Maybe she thinks he can be a father figure for her twins? Ryan may have been on to something there.

So Gisele is Luke’s #1? What about Mark? And who is Lily’s #1? Does Lily think she can be Joe’s #1?  Emma was only Joe’s #2, after all. So many questions!

Joe can speak Russian and French too? Goodness. And here comes Emma, for a “moment alone”. Lily tells Radmilla that she knew Emma was a “bitch” who was going to cause trouble. Oh dear. Joe asks Emma to forgive him. She says she would have done anything for him, and he left her all alone, then walks away. Tsk, Joe.

Max and Ryan catch up to Gisele, and Max gets to punch her lights out. w00t!

HQ discovers info on Joe’s pen pal, Judy, who was killed by her own daughter who then took off with Joe. They don’t know Joe was in on it; right now, it’s thought the Reverand killed her and took off.

“Mornin’ Sunshine.” Always so cheerful, our Ryan. Gisele wakes up handcuffed to a hotel room bed. Ryan tells her that he wants Joe Carroll, not Lily or her psycho twins. He also tells her that if she leads him to Joe, she and Lily’s brood will all be left alone.

Out on the estate, Joe meets up with Emma, who is out for a walk. He apologizes again, says he was wrong and selfish, and he’s so very sorry. Emma tells him everyone else is either dead or locked up, it’s just her. She also thinks that Lily and her “family” are all “crazy”. Pot, Kettle… Anyway, Joe tells her he has a plan, he knows a way they can start over. You can see that she wants to believe him, but she just can’t. Not yet, anyway.

Meanwhile, Lily tells Mark she would rather be rid of Emma. Mark asks her to give Emma a chance, he likes her. Lily says for you, sure, just keep her busy so I can have some time alone with Joe. Mark happily agrees.

Ryan tells Gisele that he knows what Lily is up to, that she wants to complete her family, make Joe a father figure for the boys. But here’s the thing, Joe isn’t a family man. The last woman he truly loved, he had killed. Max tells Ryan that Gisele is not going to cooperate. Ryan tells their captive that he doesn’t want her or Lily or her clan, just Joe, but if Gisele doesn’t cooperate, he’s going to have Max call the FBI. Gisele spits in his face. Ryan seems to go totally nuts and starts to strangle her. Max looks like she’s going to panic as she tries to get Ryan to stop before he kills the girl. After all, Gisele is the closest they’ve come to finding Lily, and potentially Joe. Ryan finally lets go as Max is on the phone “with the FBI” (no one, really, but hey, whatever works). Gisele gives in, says they’re in a warehouse on Bones Road. Of course it was all a big act to get information from Gisele. Max notes that Lily isn’t likely to be in a warehouse, but Ryan believes *someone* will be there. Max also realizes that Joe just might be alive as she admits that Gisele didn’t deny it.

Back at the lovely estate, Mark takes Emma into his mother’s art studio and keeps her busy drawing him. Mark says he read about her in the book, “The Havenport Tragedy”. Guess he feels he knows her, but there’s no way to know if her portrayal in the book is accurate or not.

Joe has questions for Lily, like why did she play the victim. She says she wanted to get close to the man who she shares an obsession with. Joe wants to know what it is Lily wants from him. Her response? “I have something to show you.” This should be interesting.

Ryan finally gets to the warehouse, but no one else is there yet. At the hotel, Housekeeping interrupts Max and Gisele. While Max is distracted, Gisele breaks her thumb to get out of the handcuff (ouch!). She’s still able to knock out Max, maybe even kill her, and gets away.

Luke and Jamel arrive at the warehouse looking for Gisele. Ryan gets the drop on Jamel, shoots him in the leg. Luke still has his gun, but Ryan gets him too. Once Luke is able to distract Ryan, Jamel reaches for his gun and shoots. Ryan plays dead, then when they got close enough, shoots Jamel before he takes off through the woods. We can see that Jamel injured him. A trail of blood won’t be a good thing here.

In the art gallery, Mark makes a move on Emma and says he likes her. He almost kisses her, but she touches him and he goes crazy. He quickly apologizes and explains that he has a “mild” case of haphephobia (Mild? Looked pretty severe to me). She touches him again to make him back off and tries to leave, but they’re locked in. Emma demands he unlock it, but he says he can’t, and apologizes again. Guess they’re stuck there until mommy decides to let them out, or at least until Mommy said Mark could let Emma out.

Gisele gets to the warehouse to find Luke standing over a dead Jamel. They put Jamel in the trunk of the car and then go after Ryan. Yep, that blood trail is going to cause a problem.

Finally, we’re back to see what Lily wants to show Joe. It’s a room with a table that has restraints, and all manner of knives and other tools for torturing and killing. She assumed he’d want to get back to work right away, and asks if he has he been writing. There’s a desk with a typewriter in the room for him, too. He jokes about having been in Arkansas. Lily shows him a girl in a cage, then shows him an even more specialized set of tools. She tells him that the girl is sedated because she can be “noisy.” Understandably, Joe asks what she wants in return. She says she just wants to be a part of his greatness. Right. He gets mad, asks “Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am?” and then storms out. Bummer. It looks like Lily miscalculated.

In the woods, Ryan finds a house and sneaks in the back door. He starts to look for something to treat his wounds and finds the first aid kit. Not exactly having the best of luck, the lady who lives there realizes he’s there. She tries to run, but Ryan grabs her and makes her tie a scarf over her eyes so she won’t recognize him. Ryan tells her that she cannot look at him, and asks if she understands. Yes, she understands; if she sees him she can identify him, so then he’d have to kill her. Ryan looks rather horrified as he contemplates that potential eventuality.

Unable to restrain herself, Lily finds Joe outside and asks him if her proposition was really so unappealing. Joe tells her that he won’t be controlled, but she says she doesn’t want to control him. She wouldn’t want him if she could. As she walks away, Joe looks rather thoughtful as he contemplates *that* potential eventuality.

Ryan spots Gisele as she and Luke approach the house he’s hiding in. He drags the lady to a closet and, before shutting her in, he tells her that the people who shot him are here so please, not a sound. He sees Gisele come in and grabs her. He wants to know where Max is. Gisele sneers at Ryan and tells him Max is dead, she killed her. She whips out a knife, but Ryan manages to stab her in the stomach with it, and she dies. Then Luke comes in with a machine gun and shoots at Ryan, who manages to escape. When Luke sees Gisele dead, he breaks down crying. So, what happened to the lady in the closet? Did Luke’s spray of gunfire kill her? Or was she safe until her husband came home and found her?

That evening, Joe goes back to the “office” Lily had shown him. He waves the key in front of the girl, and unlocks the cage. For a moment I actually thought he was going to let her go just to spite Lily. Nope – he quickly has her restrained on the table. He turns on music and finds it’s Tchaikovsky, comments on how perfect it is. Really? Music to murder by? Not sure Tchaikovsky would appreciate that.

I almost forgot about HQ. They get information on the location of the Reverend’s car with pictures that show the dead lady’s (Judy’s) daughter (Mandy) and a man presumed to be the lady’s vet brother (Darryl), but the record says she doesn’t have a brother. Mendez shows the pictures to Mike and asks if it’s related to Lily Gray. He says he doesn’t know, but thanks. It’s easy to see in his face that he recognizes Joe in the picture.

Speaking of Joe, he is covered in blood, having finished butchering the girl. He takes a swig of Scotch. The next thing we see is Lily getting ready for bed. Joe barges in, still covered with blood. She stands and moves toward him. I can’t describe the rest of the scene without sounding like cheap smut, but I’m sure you can imagine what happens next.

There’s a quick shot of Luke in his car. He’s holding Gisele and still crying. Apparently she meant a lot more to him than anyone knew. I wonder if it’s possible to make Luke even more unhinged than he already is?

The final montage continues as Emma looks at Mark, who is asleep in the art gallery. She reaches out to touch his hair, but we see that the picture of Mark is finished with Joe’s face.

Another quick shot of Joe and Lily in bed as they have hot sex.

Last, but certainly not least, Ryan bursts into the hotel room to find it apparently empty. He’s petrified until he sees that Max is okay. We end on Ryan as he grabs onto Max and holds her tight. He really thought Gisele had killed her.

Personally, I’m glad Max will be with us for at least a little while longer. I hope she’s a permanent fixture, like Joe and Emma. Ryan and Max with Mikey, against Joe and Emma with Mandy. It doesn’t seem like a fair fight until you remember that Joe and his girls are psychopathic murderers who won’t hesitate to kill any or all of them at the first chance. Suddenly it seems like Ryan and his “task force” are the ones at a disadvantage, yes?