The Following, Season 2, Episode 1, “Resurrection”
Written by Kevin Williamson
Direction by Marcos Siega
Airs Mondays at 9pm (ET) on Fox
The Following had an interesting first season. With an intriguing central premise and good actors at the helm (seriously- how deliciously fun was James Purefoy?), everything should have worked out perfectly. Instead the show stumbled while balancing a heavy dose of camp and sometimes unnecessary twists. After the first few episodes it slipped into procedure and had trouble finding its footing. At its best though, The Following season one was frequently compelling, shockingly violent, and even darkly fun.
Judging by the second season premiere, “Resurrection”, the show seems less rigid, less procedural driven this year. The episode starts off quickly, picking up directly where we left off last season and finding Claire (Natalie Zea) dead and Ryan (Kevin Bacon) substituting alcohol with pills and working hard to forget Joe Carroll completely. The episode lays out its new characters, like Ryan’s niece, Max (Jessica Stroup), his AA sponsor, two extra creepy twins, and Lily Gray (Connie Nielsen), the only survivor of a brutal Joe Carroll-style subway murder. That assault is the lead in for Ryan and Mike (Shawn Ashmore) to get pulled back into the hunt for Joe’s fluctuating cult.
There are a lot of moving pieces to the premiere, mostly because there’s so much new information that needs to be presented, but “Resurrection” does work for a number of reasons. For one thing, it doesn’t waste any time in explaining how Joe survived the fire at the end of last season. One of The Following’s best assets has always been its quick pacing and ability to balance multiple characters. “Resurrection” has a lot going on and the beginning does get confusing, but this new season, or at least this episode, seems more character oriented. The subway murders are an excellent sequence, but the best moment of the night is Ryan and Mike’s scene in the park. “If we had done just one thing different,” Mike tells him. It’s clear that both hold on to a tremendous amount of guilt, Mike over Deborah’s death and Ryan over pretty much everything Carroll related. It’s clear both are looking for some kind of absolution.
“Resurrection” leaves us with a lot of questions, like where exactly is Carroll hiding out? How many new followers are there? How long can Ryan stay out of the FBI’s case? And what the heck is up with Ryan’s freaky use of the Carroll mask? Add in the new characters and it’s a good shakeup that should help the show get back some of the greatness it had at the beginning of its first season.
Tressa Eckermann