The Following S2E10 - "Teacher's Pet" Recap

Claire asks Mike how it's possible for Joe to still be alive and we also see a flashback of her being visited by Mike and another member of the FBI, telling her she needs to join Witness Protection and cannot tell Ryan. She's struggling with the idea of giving up her life but Mike tells her Ryan would want her to be safe. She cries, saying she can't do this to Ryan, and then we see Mike go in to Ryan's room to tell him that Claire didn't make it.

Following Carrie and Ryan's "post-traumatic sex," she tells him that he can trust her after she catches him coming out of his "secret room." She wants the story but also wants to help him. Emma is annoyed when Mandy interrupts her post-coital bliss with Joe but he tells her that she is simply a girl wh ois still coping with the loss of her mother. Mandy stands outside listening in on the conversation. Emma also wants to be included in the decision making.

Mike fills Claire in on who Lily is and the fact that Ryan is doing okay. Claire is apparently being relocated again and she tells Mike that her son won't be safe until this is over. She doesn't want to find Joe; she wants to kill him. Meanwhile, Joe and Emma are getting the down-low on the members of the cult and who will have skills useful to them and their murderous needs.

Ryan questions Strauss to try to get information that will help him track Joe down and Strauss is informed of Joe's theatrical declaration to the world. He also taunts Ryan about his obsession with Joe mimicking the devotion of Joe's followers. Meanwhile, Mike tells Claire that she needs to stay hidden and take care of herself and her son. Ryan tells Carrie that he wants to officially go on the record and Joe begins priming his new followers to believe that new blood must be spilt in order to achieve redemption. Mandy appears uneasy and it's unclear where her head and loyalties are.

The team watches as Carrie announces on the news that Dr. Strauss has been taken into custody. Of course, this is all part of their strategy. Emma calls Joe in to watch the story, as it's announced that Dr. Strauss is "cooperating fully" with the FBI. Flashback to 1982 as a young Joe is called in to Strauss's office. Strauss tells him that test results show him to be a psychopath.

Just as predicted, Joe calls Jana, but it's Ryan that picks up the phone. Joe is shocked but decides to continue the conversation while the call is traced. Ryan informs him that Jana is dead and they taunt each other. Emma tries to get Joe to hang up but Joe continues talking about Dr. Strauss. Joe tells Ryan he has a holy army ready to rain down on them. Joe is cryptic and poetic, claiming he's going to save the world, one soul at a time, before hanging up. They're not able to trace the call's location. Joe angrily smashes the phone at the wall, and sends Emma and Mandy out.

Some of Joe's disciples are skulking out and about. One of the girls spots a bloke on the street that reminds her of an old school bully and one of the followers admits that he used to pick on "fat" girls so to make it up to her, he goes over and kills the man, telling him "No redemption without blood" (Joe's new mantra) and puts a note inside his jacket pocket. No one notices him commit the murder and when he returns to the van, the girl Tilda wipes the blood from his knife. He tells her that no one should ever make her feel anything less than beautiful. It would be a cute moment, were it not for the murder.

Mike returns from seeing Claire and claims to have been visiting his mother. Max tells him, after Ryan is out of the room that he doesn't have to lie to them. She had gotten worried and had called his mother to check in and he wasn't there. The two exchange flirty glances.

Joe kills a cat to teach some sort of lesson that I didn't hear since I was cringing and shouting "no" at the screen. Young Joe is shown a fresh corpse by Strauss after she died in surgery. Strauss is coaching and priming him to be a murderer. Strauss says that they are the chosen ones. One of the followers tells Joe that she can't do this but Joe is able to twist it around and keep her and everyone else on track. Also, Emma is eying Mandy with suspicion. Joe sends her and everyone else out that isn't feeling right and we're left to assume that the security that followed was tasked with killing them. Also, Mandy steps out through a separate exit with tears in her eyes.

The followers go attack and kill a family in their home and the message "No redemption without blood" is written on the wall in blood. The previous body has also been found with the note reading the same message. Emma tells Mandy that she failed today and that those that came out were put in the hole. Mandy would have been put in there, too, but Joe instructed her to give Mandy another chance.  The two have a stand-off and it's clear that Emma has a more formidable opponent than she originally thought.

The FBI track down the followers after using facial recognition on one of them. She fails to kill her target in the restroom of a restaurant and a stand-off ensues between the followers and the FBI. One of the followers slits the girl's throat when she's about to reveal Joe's location. The FBI are researching cults that Joe might have taken over.

Joe performs a ritual to celebrate the return of two of the followers, Tilda and Lucas. He nicks his arm and puts blood on each of their foreheads. He whips them all into a frenzy. Carrie returns to Ryan's place. He tells her that it didn't work and that he would have told them the truth. He's disappointed but she commends him for saving all those people in the restaurant. She's also feeling frisky now that he's begun to show her some trust.

Claire is in her motel and tells the FBI person that she's not going back to Arizona and insists on seeing Ryan. Looks like Claire is headed back to New York!

The Following airs on Mondays on FOX at 9PM.