BWW Recap: What is it about the Woods on THE FOLLOWING?

There's a new big bad on the loose and it looks like the only person who knows his identity is Joe Carroll. Ryan is forced to rely on Joe one last time before he is executed and Joe couldn't be more pleased.

In visiting Joe at the prison, Ryan asks for Joe's assistance in locating Dr. Strauss. Joe says he will comply if Ryan comes to visit him daily until he is executed. He tells Ryan to research Strauss' students as that's who will provide him sanctuary.

Ryan puts out a search for missing persons reports and he and Mike end up in a town called Beacon. The Sheriff is apprehensive to assist them, but his Deputy, Hillary (Guest Star, Allison Mack) is eager to help them. At the town diner, owned by Hillary's uncle, Duncan, they learn through town gossip that the Sheriff's son, Justin, has some social problems and hides out in the woods. They locate Justin and call the Sheriff in, but Justin is just cooking meth, not killing people. Ryan realizes he isn't smart enough to be one of Strauss' students. Mike, Ryan and Hillary search the woods and come upon a burial ground containing nine victims. They are difficult to identify because the killer removed their teeth and cut off their fingers. There is one that isn't perfectly done and they are able to identify her even though the body is decades old. They identify it as Duncan's wife. Yes, Duncan is one of Strauss' students and he's hiding him and Daisy out in an old hunting cabin in the woods. He brings Strauss some money to disappear when he tells him Ryan and the FBI are in town. But Strauss has to wait for his best student, the Hacker. (Guest Star, Michael Ealy)

We still don't know his name, so I will have to refer to him as Hacker. Hacker first kills off Strauss' lawyer, then flashes back to when he first met Strauss. On one of his first kills, he gets stabbed and Strauss nurses him back to health and walks him through his next murder. Hacker is flawless at Fake ID's and, well, hacking as he managed to get a fake email from Agt. Clark on to the FBI server undetected. When Hacker finally arrives at the cabin, Strauss is so happy to see him. However, Hacker immediately kills Strauss telling him that Strauss went too public and he always taught hacker to lie low. Hacker lets Daisy go and she is seen jumping into a hitched ride. Hacker goes home to his wife and children, apparently he is a family man... weird. When Mike and Ryan show up and find Strauss body, they interrogate Duncan over who could have done it. Duncan tells them it was his best student, the Hacker, but no one knows his name as he is basically a ghost. Ryan goes back to visit Joe and asks him who Strauss' best student was. Oy.

In other news, Max is doing okay. Tom brings her home and gives her the chance to confess her affair, but she doesn't. Mike shows up to apologize, but she kicks him out saying she doesn't want to have to cover up another of his executions. Tom, still creepily watching them on surveillance overhears her.

So now Strauss is gone and Hacker is our new bad guy this year. What I did learn is that zip ties scare the crap out of me. There is NOTHING you can do to get out of them. Also, I have a growing suspicion and bad feeling about Gwen. The whole "too good to be true" speech from Max and then Gwen responding with "Those are the ones you have to watch out for, they're always hiding something," was just a little too creepy. Is Gwen setting Ryan up for the biggest heartbreak of his life? Please don't be bad, Gwen, please! Mike and Ryan are still on the outs after Mike's careless decision to leave Max alone and get hurt, but they are putting their differences aside to focus on work. I wonder how long that will last before one big blowup. So we're going into a whole new chapter now. Joe is waiting to be executed and we will have to watch the era of the Hacker unfold. Does he have followers? He must, right? Otherwise, this is just another cop show. Do they tie into Joe? Strauss? Have we seen the last of Daisy and Mark? Is Daisy going to avenge Kyle's death? Did Mark survive that fall? As Mike said "He's a cockroach, he's not dead."

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 Credit: FOX

To post a comment, you must register and login.