‘The Following’ season 2 spoilers: Surprises, and villains worse than Joe Carroll?

The premiere of “The Following” season 2 on January 19 is now less than a month away, so what better time is there to start amping up some of the scoop all about what to expect? This time around, we’re putting the focus on a variety of different subjects related to Joe Carroll, and how there may be all sorts of even nastier problems out there for Kevin Bacon’s character of Ryan Hardy to handle.

First of all, a new report from TV Guide suggests that there could be a whole new legion of villains for Hardy to take on, and in some ways, they may be even worse than what the FBI has taken on so far … especially when it comes to their new and pretty mysterious leader.

On a different note, the fact that Joe is still alive could end up surprising a number of different people, including one of his primary protegees in Emma. Valorie Curry is going to have a huge role still in the new season, but she is going to have her own priorities that she needs to take on. She will eventually learn that Joe is alive, and it will be interesting to see just what she wants to do with that information.

Emma is just one of the storylines that will be unfold early on, but not before we find out what happened to Claire (Natalie Zea) in the season premiere. From there, the show will flash-forward to where Ryan is in a much better place, but in case you haven’t been paying attention for most of this article so far, you know that this is not going to be something that lasts for long.

Where do you want to see Emma head in the new season, and what sort of villain do you think could actually be worse than Joe? Share some of what you think below!