In this final chapter, we open about a year after the events that closed Season Two, where Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) was sent to prison and Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) ruthlessly gunned down Lily Grey in cold blood to avenge his father's murder. Mark Grey (Sam Underwood, Dexter) is still out there and Mike has been relentlessly pursuing him, while Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) and his niece Max (Jessica Stroup) have found happiness amidst the chaos and are both in good relationships. Ryan is with an ER doctor named Gwen (Zuleikha Robinson, Lost), while Max now works for the FBI and is with Tom (Gbenga Akinnagbe), a member of the Hostage Rescue Team, although part of her heart is still reserved for Mike.
Before long, bodies starting appearing in gruesome tableaus staged to mimic the deaths of Lily Grey and her family members, who were all previously killed at the hands of either Ryan, Mike or Max. The bloody messages are clear - the FBI agents have lied and covered up their wrongdoings and people will die until they confess. Thus unfolds the first half of the final season where Ryan, Mike and Max are forced to come to terms with the things they have done and the people they have allowed themselves to become.
With Joe Carroll in prison and scheduled for execution in the near future, Ryan finds that more "followers" are out there, only this time it is Mark Grey who is recruiting, and his two main helpers are Kyle and Daisy, a murderous young married couple. To make matter worse, Dr. Arthur Strauss (Gregg Henry), Joe's mentor, is on trial and his "followers" will stop at nothing to have it end in mistrial. Before long, the star pupil that Dr. Strauss previously alluded to last season is revealed. A brilliant and deadly hacker named Theo (Michael Ealy) places Ryan and his crew in his sites, especially since he is not a showman like Joe, but prefers to stay in the dark. Once Ryan has forced Theo's identity out into the open, it is open season on those Ryan loves and Ryan must do everything in his power to stop the mounting threats. It doesn't help that, as always, the bad guys have different people in their pockets, helping them avoid capture. Poor Ryan has his own demented help, though - Joe Carroll visiting him in dreams and hallucinations. Talk about the worst and most unproductive bro-mance ever! Throughout the season, moles will be revealed, characters will die horribly, and Ryan will leave a bloody trail of destruction in his wake. The question now becomes who is more dangerous - Ryan or Joe?
I honestly felt like The Following: The Complete Third and Final Season was the weakest of the three, mostly due to the direction that they went. Dr. Arthur Strauss and his potential storyline and followers were just ripe with possibilities and it ended all too short, with the focus shifting to Theo. While Theo was an interesting character, I feel the show sold itself short in not exploring Strauss and, perhaps if they had, this might not have been the final season. The ending is satisfying enough and seems a bit fitting for Ryan Hardy, but I would have preferred it if the show had taken a different direction and kept going, but more as it did in its former glory like in Season One.
All good (and bad) things must come to an end, so at least this final season gets a slew of great special features. There are featurettes on the main characters, both heroes and villains, one on the crime scene photos shot for each and every murder in the show for authenticity's sake, one on Ryan and his mostly-misguided romantic dalliances, the 2014 New York Comic-Con Panel, which was quite interesting, plus unaired scenes and a gag reel. All of these were fun to watch for fans, but my absolute favorite was The Following: Funny AND Die, a parody on the show starring Kevin Bacon, Dean Winters (Battle Creek), Michael C. Hall (Dexter), Sam Underwood and Bacon's own wife, Kyra Sedgwick. This hilarious parody is an absolute blast and put the icing on the cake of the show's ending.
While I was disappointed with this season is general, it's still good stuff - just not the stuff of greatness that was Season One. If you've been a fan, you'll want to see how it all plays out and wraps up. While, overall, the season felt a bit directionless, the ending is fitting and anyone following the show (no pun intended) will still want this season to cap off their collection.
