THE SECOND SEASON STARTED WITH A REAL RESURRECTION…OR SOMETHING SIMILAR
The second season of the tv show “The following” premiered with an intense and violent episode called “Resurrection” and any other title couldn’t be more appropriate than this one. The story resumes one year later the terrible events that ended season one. In the beginning some flashbacks remind the audience what happened to the three main characters in the last episode, then their destiny is revealed.
Former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) mended after being severely stabbed, stopped abusing alcohol and now lives in New York teaching Criminology in College. Claire Matthews (Natalie Zea), ex-wife of the serial killer Joe Carroll and love interest of Ryan Hardy, didn’t survived the stabbing and died, whether Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) himself is dead or alive is supposed to be a mystery. However, nobody saw his corpse and the episode is titled “Resurrection”, so it’s pretty clear were the story goes.
On the anniversary of Joe’s death, there is a subway car murder spree, where three killers wearing Joe Carroll masks, scream “Ryan Hardy can’t stop us. The resurrection is coming”. The only survivor of the massacre is Lily Gray (Connie Nielson). Ryan Hardy and FBI agent Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) are pulled in the case as consultants. While Mike Weston is keen to cooperate with the FBI in the investigations, Hardy wants to be left alone, saying that he is done with Joe Carroll and he moved on.
Of course this is not true, as viewers find out pretty soon: despite his apparent quiet life, split into teaching and spending time with friends, he is obsessed with Carroll and wants revenge, and in secrecy, helped by his niece Max (Jessica Stroup) a New York cop, he continues his search for Joe and his followers. He is a different Ryan: stronger and determined, not the emotionally damaged man seen in the first season.
Meanwhile Luke and Mark (played by Sam Underwood), the twin killers involved in the subway multiple massacre, go on with their criminal project and brutally murdered a young woman. A new sub-sect of Joe Carroll’s cultists is born while his surviving previous followers, as Emma (Valory Curry) are hiding. In the last ten minutes of the premiere episode even Joe makes his appearance, something very predictable (who seriously believed that he burned to death at the end of the first season?) but still a disturbing moment.
Many elements help to make “Resurrection” a promising start for the second season of “The following”, despite the violence, brutality and creepy scenes present in this first episode, distinctive features of the “The Following” that the last year caused some criticism.
