The Following Season 1 Episode 4

I thought this was a good episode, although very slow moving in some parts. So glad Mike shot Maggie, but how many other followers does Joe have & yes that hostage could've gotten away but she didn't.

The Pilot was great, Chapter Two was bad, The Poet's Fire was decent, Mad Love was really bad.



Why? It failed to do what the Pilot and third episode managed to do so well- develop the characters and story arc in a meaningful and powerful way. The Pilot did a good job of introducing the characters and the Poet's Fire did a good job of delving deeper into the characters' relationships and personas. Mad Love was a huge step backwards.



The flashbacks were meaningless... literally. What did we learn from them? The flashbacks told us that Jacob had lied about never killing anyone, but we already knew that. They told us that Ryan had a sister named Jenny, but we already knew that. The flashbacks told us that Ryan broke it off with Claire. But we already had a pretty good idea that that was what happened. So the flashbacks failed miserably.



Also, this episode in particular strayed from what makes the show so intriguing and interesting to watch, that being the shock and scare factor. There was nothing particularly dark about this episode, and Maggie was going to kill Ryan with magnets... I mean seriously, that's gotta be the single lamest way to kill someone possible. And I don't think there was any doubt in anybody's minds that Mike was going to come in and save the day just in time. And that described the entire episode... Predictable. This storyline was predictable and amounted to nothing. All of that buildup, and at the end she was killed and Ryan's sister is going to So say goodbye to yet another supporting character.



The Emma, Jacob, Paul storyline was predictable as well. Once we knew that Jacob had never killed anyone before, it was fairly obvious that he wasn't going to be able to kill the woman here. And after all the buildup, he just carelessly let her go. And instead of running like hell (the smart thing to do), she decided to hide and get caught. And she ended up in the same exact place that she was in at the start of the episode.



Honestly, I want to like this show. I really do. Kevin Bacon and James Purefoy are both extraordinary actors and the premise of the show is very interesting. But this episode was nothing but a gigantic waste of time, because, after all, the FBI is no further along with their investigation, that girl that Paul kidnapped is no closer to being dead, and Hardy's sister is going to disappear and be gone from the picture just like she was before.



If the writers can stick to what makes the show great instead of trying to intensify the crap out of something that just doesn't warrant it, they could have a hit on their hands. But this just doesn't work. I'll be watching next week in the hopes that it will get better, but hope can only do so much. And also, I can't be the only one bothered at the ridiculous amount of commercials. It seemed as though there was a commercial every five minutes and it really broke up the storyline.



Here's hoping that next week will be better...

One of the better episodes

Mad Love was a superbly entertaining episode of The Following. I liked the character growth and plot developments. There was a lot of great scenes and some horrific. Events unfold and lives are threatend. It was interesting to watch the story lines interweave. There were definitely many surprises and I look forward to watching what happens next! !!!!!!!!

Soooo disappointed with how Joe killed his lawyer... With his INJURED hand. She's on the driver side yet can't get out? She's not bound yet can't fight against a gauzed stump choking her? I love this show, and I don't know if it was editing, but that scene was awful.