‘The Following’ season 3, episode 10 reaction: James Purefoy on Joe Carroll surprise

It should almost go without saying, but you really should stop reading this article on “The Following” unless you have already watched Monday night’s new episode.

Still with us? If so, let’s talk about the aftermath of tonight’s insane episode, which seemed to put an end to the Joe Carroll story. While we have seen this man cheat death many times before, we actually saw the man’s heart stop during this episode, and Ryan Hardy have a conversation with his ghost (or at least one that he was imagining). It is hard to imagine this show without Joe, if this is in fact the end. He has been such a dynamic character and key part of the series; while he was indeed pure evil, he is the yin to Ryan’s yang.

This character was anchored flawlessly by James Purefoy over the past three years, and in the posts on Twitter HERE, you can see some of what the actor had to say about his time on the show and what happened tonight. Seeing how Ryan moves forward from this will be complicated; he has already dived into alcohol again, and this could mean a variety of terrible things lie in the future for him.

Of course, there is still a story left to go, and at least one more villain for Ryan to tackle if not more. Let’s hope that in the end, he actually chooses to learn something from what he went through with Joe rather than just falling in to old vices, and struggling to move forward with the rest of his life.