BWW Recap: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Dead Brother on THE FOLLOWING

A full year has passed since the death of Lily Gray and the capture of Joe Carroll and Ryan Hardy is smiling, he's in love, he's at a wedding dancing (thank you) and having a great time. Ryan Hardy is happy. On any other show, that's delightful. On THE FOLLOWING, that's terrifying.

Everyone is attending Agent Mendez's wedding and it seems like they're all doing great. Max has found a new love, Tom, after she and Mike (apparently) broke up when he took off to (unsuccessfully) hunt down Mark Gray. Their first reunion is a little awkward, but they are professionals, I'm SURE they won't let their personal lives interfere with their jobs, right? Ryan is a relationship with Gwen, a doctor, who has nothing to do with the FBI. Mendez is happily married. And then, a waiter throws blood on Ryan and the two brides during his toast calling him a liar for killing his daughter in the slaughter last season. Ryan doesn't even remember his daughter and he tells security to let him go. After investigating who his daughter was, he goes through her file and pays a visit to the family to apologize. It is there he finds out, that the waiter was not the girl's father.

Turns out, he is part of a new psycho gang of followers that Mark Gray has acquired. The other two including a crazy in love, (Crazy being the operative word) couple Daisy and Kyle (Guest Stars Ruth Kearney and Hunter Parrish). In their first crime visible to Ryan and his team, there is a message on the wall reading, "Ryan Hardy Lies." In the second crime scene, the message on the wall is, "Max Hardy Lies." Hmmmm, what are they trying to say here?

Turns out, Mark and his cronies are recreating tableaus of the deaths of his family caused by the Feds. First was Mark's sister, Giselle, second was his twin brother, Luke. Knowing that Lily's would be next, the crew tracks down fake waiter heading to a charity event in NY where he does, in fact, kidnap a fake Lily. Ryan is able to take down fake waiter and capture him. But Mark, Daisy and Kyle escape with fake Lily and execute her, the way Mike executed Lily Gray. The tableau is set and this time it reads "While You Lie, More Die." Subtle.

So, a lot has changed and yet nothing has changed. Mark hasn't exactly gotten less psychotic as he still cooks meals for his dead brother, Luke, and puts a mirror where his head should be so he can look in a mirror. I mean, that's normal, right?( #wow) And when he does execute fake Lily, he has an emotional breakdown pretending that he just killed his actual mother. Needless to say, Mark is unstable.

Now, with his own little band of followers, I believe his immediate game plan is to get Mike to confess that he executed Lily and didn't just kill her in self-defense as he reported. However, I'm guessing there is a much bigger picture than that.

Daisy and Kyle, his assassins for hire for the time being, may have an agenda of their own as they strike me as a BONNIE AND CLYDE type who are blinded by love and think they are invincible. I don't know how long Mark is for this world, but if it isn't long, I think he has two even more insane successors at the ready.

No sighting of Joe Carroll in the premiere although we are told he is on death row in a private location with no access to the outside world. Although, I feel as though even that isn't enough to keep him hidden for long. And it was quite clear that he is still very much a presence in Ryan's life.

Ryan's new relationship is full of hope and joy and Gwen seems like she is finally a good choice for him, but can she withstand Ryan when he is in full FBI mode to catch killers? I did like that he chose to call her at the end instead of pushing her away as he tends to do. And what about poor Max and Mike. They are clearly still very much in love, but he left her behind and she moved on to someone who seems like is a nice guy. That makes it a little bit harder to be mad at her, doesn't it? But working together on cases like this tend to bring people together.

And off we go into Season 3. Can the Hardy kids (dated reference) ever find happiness or is this job going to haunt them the rest of their lives?

Follow me on Twitter @eponineq and follow @BWWTVWorld for all the latest updates, scoops and recaps.

Here's a preview for next week's episode:

Photo Credits: FOX

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