List of The Following characters
The Following is an American television drama series, which premiered on Fox on January 21, 2013 about an FBI agent trying to catch a serial killer and his murderous cult. The series was created by Kevin Williamson and is jointly produced by Outerbanks Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
The series protagonist, Ryan Hardy, is portrayed by Kevin Bacon. Hardy initially works alongside Mike Weston, Debra Parker, and eventually his niece Max Hardy to put an end to antagonist Joe Carroll and his cult of killers.
On March 4, 2013, the series was renewed for a second season to air in 2014, and, on March 7, 2014, renewed for a third season to air in 2015.
Cast
Main">Main character">Main
! colspan="5" style="background:lightblue;"|Recurring">Recurring character">Recurring
Major characters
Ryan Hardy
Portrayed by Kevin Bacon, Hardy is a former FBI agent who, in 2003, led the FBI team that captured serial killer Joe Carroll. He was placed on disability and removed from active duty after being stabbed in the heart by Carroll. His injuries require him to use a pacemaker. Hardy is recalled to service as a consultant after Carroll escapes from prison. At the beginning of the series, he is withdrawn from the world, bordering on alcoholism, tormented by guilt as he failed to identify Carroll as a suspect after their first meeting, and Carroll claimed five more victims before he was caught; however, later in the series, Hardy begins to open up to his colleagues and, later, Claire Matthews. Hardy wrote a true-crime book based on the Joe Carroll case, entitled The Poetry of a Killer. In the season 1 finale, Ryan fights Joe in a boat house to save Claire, and Joe is left inside, presumably to die. After DNA records confirm Joe's death, Ryan and Claire resume their relationship at his apartment, only for his neighbor Molly, one of Joe's followers, to stab them both. Ryan overpowers Molly and kills her. While he survives, Ryan is told that Claire died, which devastates him.By season 2, after Claire's death, Ryan has started having a more active life, being healthy and sober, becoming a professor at the Hudson University, and opening up more, specifically to his niece, Max Hardy. However, his obsessive belief that Joe is alive is strong. His fears are proven true in "Fly Away" as he sees Joe drive away from Lily Gray's home, along with Emma and Mandy. He is called in to track Lily and her twin sons Luke and Mark, followers of Joe and murderer of Mike Weston's father. Discovering Joe's revival and finding a new cult, Ryan resolves to end Joe for good. After discovering that Claire faked her death, Ryan attempts to restore his relationship with her. In the season 2 finale, Luke and Mark kidnap Claire and force Ryan to work with Joe to save her, which they do. Luke is killed while Mark escapes. Ryan subdues Joe, resists the urge to kill him, and has him arrested. He and Claire go their separate ways as Claire believes her past will bring them down.
In season 3, Ryan has found love with a doctor, called Gwen. At an FBI agent's wedding, one of the waiters throws blood over Ryan and the two brides, for Ryan killing his daughter, who was a Korbin member. When Ryan goes to the house of the girl to apologise to the parents, he discovers that the man wasn't her father, and later finds that he is instead working for Mark Gray, who is attempting to avenge the deaths of his mother, twin and sister.
After Arthur Strauss walks from court after being charged with the attempted murder of Ryan and Ryan's former lover, Ryan and the FBI look to find out who made a fake email which helped release Strauss. They later discover that it was a man named Theo Noble, one of Strauss' former students. They discover that Theo has many different aliases and is a genius in computing and hacking, and had hacked the FBI's server on more than one occasion to remain a step ahead. However, when Theo realises that they have pulled his wife's records, he realises that his double life has been exposed and kills his wife and attempts to kill his kids, who were all part of his cover family. The kids survived. Theo blames Ryan for forcing his hand and making him kill his wife. Ryan then finds out that there is one person that Theo genuinely cares about, his sister, Penny, who, like Theo, was abused as a child and had gone from foster family to foster family.
On the day of Joe's execution, Joe kills two guards and takes 3 people hostage, and reveals that he will kill them unless Ryan comes and visits him. Ryan had previously rejected an invitation from Joe to watch him die. Ryan heads over to the prison, and manages to get Joe to release the hostages by admitting to having dreams in which he and Joe are good friends and Joe even helps teach Ryan to kill. However, Theo's sister, Penny, who was watching Ryan and Joe on computer monitors, releases the other prisoners, in an attempt to have Ryan killed so that Theo would stop pursuing Ryan. This fails however as Ryan and Joe work together and kill the attacking prisoners. Joe's execution then goes ahead as planned and Ryan watches as his long-term foe dies.
After the execution, Ryan goes to a bar, and repeatedly orders two shots of whiskey, as he imagines that he is drinking with Joe. Ryan then sleeps with the bartender, however he tells Gwen the next day as he feels guilty, Gwen leaves him.
Ryan starts drinking again, having been 18 months sober, and even drinks at work. When Ryan and Max keep look out for Penny, they spot her, but she seemingly escapes. However, Ryan has actually caught her and takes her to his apartment to torture her. Ryan waterboards Penny as Penny has a fear of water and drowning. However, after Theo learns that Ryan has his sister, Theo kidnaps Mike, and offers a fair trade, Penny for Mike. The trade goes according to plan, until Theo and Ryan begin shooting at one another, and Ryan shoots Penny, who was between him and Theo. Theo leaves but swears revenge on Ryan for killing the only person he cares about.
After using Ryan's former colleague, Gina Mendez, and her family, as bait, Ryan goes to a safehouse where Mendez was staying, but brings a small team of agents that he trusts to bring Theo down; however, Theo runs away and wounds an FBI agent in the process. Theo ambushes Ryan as he tries to call an ambulance for the wounded agent, and Theo takes the two agents hostage.
After killing the other agent, Theo prepares to murder Ryan, but is stopped in the nick of time by guards of a rich financer, Eliza, who falsely believes that Ryan knew her dark secrets and wanted Theo to bring Ryan to her so she could find out what he knows. While Theo is being tortured, Ryan frees his hands which were tied behind his back, and escapes. However, Theo also escapes and tells Ryan that he is going to get to Gwen, and kill her once Ryan's baby is born. He also says that he will ensure that the baby will be exactly like Theo, abused and neglected.
After Theo kidnaps Gwen, Ryan chases them down and shoots Theo, seemingly killing him. However, as Ryan and Gwen embrace, Theo tackles Ryan and they both fall off a bridge. Theo falls into the water, while Ryan holds on to the side of the bridge, but lets go after telling Gwen that he loves her. Neither Ryan's nor Theo's body was recovered.
In the last scene of the show, the camera follows a limping man moving through the hospital where Gwen, Mike and Max are. The man goes to Agent Campbell's room, where she is recovering from a gunshot wound. The man is then found to be Ryan, who tells Campbell that he knows that she was a double agent and was responsible for Gwen's kidnapping. Ryan tells her that those he loves are not safe with him around, and says that he will pick apart those who pose a threat to his loved ones while the world thinks he's dead. It is then implied that he kills Campbell. Ryan then walks through the halls, stopping to look at Gwen, Mike and Max, before leaving the hospital to begin his new life as a vigilante.
Joe Carroll
Portrayed by James Purefoy. He is a former professor of English literature at Winslow University. Little is known of his early life, other than that he was born in England and has a half-brother. Carroll's teaching emphasized the romantic period. He believes, like Edgar Allan Poe, whom he admires intensely, in the "insanity of art", i.e. that it has to be "felt". Carroll began making "art" by eviscerating female students. He killed fourteen of them before he was caught by Ryan Hardy. While serving out his sentence at the Virginia Central Penitentiary in Waverly, Virginia, Carroll gathers a cult-like collection of followers who are willing to murder, kidnap, and sacrifice themselves for Carroll to execute his plan of revenge against Hardy. In the season finale, Carroll is apparently killed in a massive explosion outside his lighthouse after a brutal showdown with Hardy.In Season 2, it is confirmed he survived and has been hiding. When Joe attempts to return to his old ways, he meets Lily Gray, a follower of him and a brief love interest, as they spend the night at the end of "Reflection", but he leaves her after she drugs him and Joe expresses his contempt for her. He then travels to a cult called Korban and, after manipulating the leader Micah and his wife Julia, becomes the new leader of Korban with the intent of raining havoc on New York. As Joe explains to Ryan, he has moved on from Poe to the Bible. He starts a "Holy War" with Kingston Tanner, a televangelist who views Joe as the anti-Christ. Joe kidnaps Tanner's son and forces him to kill someone, then has his father get on his knees to admit there is no God. He tries to force them to kill one another, but Kingston kills himself while Joe kills Preston later. In the season 2 finale, Ryan is forced to work with Joe to save Claire from Luke and Mark. Joe is then captured again by Ryan and sent to prison despite his efforts to goad Ryan into killing him.
After being absent for a few episodes, Joe is eventually seen again when Ryan comes to him looking for information regarding Joe's escaped former mentor, Arthur Stauss. Joe agrees to help Ryan should he visit him every day until Joe's impending execution. When Strauss's favourite student, Theo Noble, convinces a former member of the military to pose as a guard in Joe's prison, Noble and Joe speak via a microphone on the guard's person, and Theo can see Joe through a pair of sunglasses in the man's pocket. When the facility is made aware of the man's presence, Joe strangles and kills him, taking the glasses to make a weapon out of.
On the day of his execution, Joe kills two guards and keeps three people hostage, and demands that Ryan Hardy attend the execution, otherwise he will kill the hostages. When Ryan arrives, he has to handcuff his hands behind his back before entering the room. Ryan is then attacked by Joe using a stun gun. After coming around, Ryan gets Joe to release one hostage. Joe then gets Ryan to admit that the relationship between him and Joe is the most important in his life, after speaking of how Ryan killed the man who murdered Ryan's father.
After the remaining hostages are released, all the gates to the cells are opened by Penny, Theo's sister, who was trying to get Ryan killed. One inmate, who Joe had told earlier wasn't worthy of his soon to be empty cell, took Joe into the cell. After killing or incapacitating the inmates, Ryan saves Joe and they kill the remaining inmate. Joe is then executed as planned, as Ryan watches.
Ryan goes to a bar and drinks that night, ordering two shots every turn, as he imagines that he is drinking with Joe. Ryan's illusions of Joe continue, particularly as he over-steps the lines and tortures Penny.
Carroll's only published novel, The Gothic Sea, was inspired by Poe's The Light-House, but was a commercial and critical failure.