Ryan's visiting Joe to try to get information on Strauss. Joe will play ball but only if Ryan agrees to keep coming and visiting him until he is executed. After the first visit, Ryan has to run to the restroom and throw up due to being so shaken by it all. He then heads to visit Max in the hospital who is still recuperating after getting beat up by Daisy. Ryan delivers the bad news about her suspension since the FBI needed a scapegoat. But the investigation must carry on.

Ryan and Mike look through old missing persons cases hoping to connect them back to a student of Strauss, since Joe advises him to look for more of Strauss' friends, students, and associates. Six cases have turned up in the small town of Beacon, New York, so they head up to investigate. The sheriff doesn't want to work with this "rogue" agent, but one of the officers, Hillary, recognises one of the missing people in Ryan and Mike's file as a possible Jane Doe they had found earlier.

Tommy is still using the spy cam feed to creep on Max. She has yet to admit anything about her hookup with Mike but he knows she's hiding more than what she's letting on.

Hillary takes Ryan and Mike out into the woods to where the body was discovered. They find an area with creepy dolls tied up in the trees and briefly encounter a masked man who they chase to a particular area before disappearing. They're able to uncover nine buried bodies at someone's burial ground. Many of the bodies match these missing persons reports and determine that the killer has been operating there for roughly fifteen years now.

This killer is a man named Theo (oh look, it's Michael Ealy!). Over a decade ago, he opened fire in an office complex. Theo is a hacker and was wounded during that shooting. Upon going to get medical supplies, he had a run-in with Strauss, and the rest was history.

Hillary takes Ryan and Mike to a diner to grab a bite while they carry on discussing the case. The diner is owned by Hillary's uncle Duncan, who has been looking after her ever since her parents died. A waitress tells them they should look into the sheriff's son Justin, as there's apparently something off about him. They follow that line of investigation and discover a meth lab he's been running in the woods in which there is also the mask he had been wearing earlier when they previously encountered him. Justin tries to make a run for him but ends up cuffed and brought in. The sheriff comes in while they're questioning Justin and the sheriff is horrified to learn the extent of what his son has been up to. Justin insists that he doesn't know anything about Strauss and the sheriff says that though his son is stupid and irresponsible, he can tell he's not lying. He grabs his son up to process him and take him to the station. Ryan is fine with letting him go, telling Mike that Justin isn't smart enough to be one of Strauss' students.

It's revealed that Strauss and Daisy are indeed in town but they're being hidden in cabin by Uncle Duncan. He comes to visit them and warns that Ryan and the FBI are in town so they really need to leave quickly to avoid getting apprehended. Strauss says they can't leave until their new identities are delivered by his "best student," which is Theo. Theo has been laying low for the last decade and a half, never getting caught for any of his killing. Duncan seems jealous and angry that another student was contacted.

Ryan and Mike are able to determine that Duncan is the one who has been helping Strauss. Duncan tries to hold a knife to Hillary but she knocks her way out of his grip and is emotionally distraught to realise that everything she knew was a lie and that her uncle was the one who killed her parents. The sheriff knows about Duncan's cabin so he offers to show Ryan and Mike where it is. As they're on the their way there, Theo is seen approaching it. We see him reminisce over meeting and getting familiar with Strauss, who coached him through how to better cover his tracks, building on Theo's already strong killing abilities.

Throughout this episode, Theo has been helping Strauss by killing his lawyer and then of course getting these new identities together. He's also meant to be delivering some credit cards for them as well. They had previously had a conversation about Theo being a shark and not swimming above water (of course it's a metaphor for not being caught). But when Theo comes to apparently help Strauss, Theo strangles him to death in front of Daisy, saying he had to do it because Strauss had exposed him and sharks are never supposed to swim above water. Theo and Daisy leave each other alive.

Ryan and Mike let Duncan know about what has happened to Strauss. He is upset to learn about Strauss' death. He says he doesn't know the identity of the killer but says that Strauss only referred to him as "his best student." When Theo returns home, we see he has a wife and two children. Talk about a juicy double life!

Ryan goes to visit Joe to get more information about this "best student" of Strauss, Daisy gets into a car with some unknown (for now) associate, Mike visits Max and the two discuss her knowledge/cover-up of his execution of Lily Gray, and Tommy spies the whole exchange between the two!

The Following airs on Mondays on FOX at 9PM.

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Detective Ryan Hardy is at the wedding of his FBI superior, Gina Mendez, and enjoying being there with his new girlfriend Gwen. It's been a year since the events of the season 2 finale. Gwen wants to move in together and then Mike shows up. Things are awkward between him and Max, as she's got a new man, her fellow-FBI member, Tom. That's right, Max joined the FBI. Surprised? You shouldn't be!

Joe is scheduled to be executed in a month. But before we get to that, Ryan needs to give a wedding toast to the beautiful brides. But his toast is interrupted by a waiter working the wedding who throws blood on Ryan and the brides, calling Ryan a liar. The man sobs that Ryan shot his daughter, who was at the Corbin compound, and says her blood is on Ryan's hands. She was just a "lost girl who lost her way." Ryan tells security to let the man go, and the man does so without making any more of a fuss. Ryan still feels guilty about it so he decides to look up the man's daughter. When they arrive on scene, they find that the girl's actual father is someone else entirely.

Enter Daisy, a new psychopathic killer on the scene who poses as a prostitute to lure a couple to their deaths. Enter Kyle, Daisy's beau, also in on the murderous psychopathy. They're in cahoots with the fake-Dad, whose real name is Andrew. When Ryan and the rest of the group arrive at Daisy and Kyle's murder scene, they find that the corpses have been rigged up into a tableau, and the words "Ryan Hardy Lies" are painted on the wall.

Another incident occurs and when Ryan, Mike, and Max show up, they find another message. This time, it says, "Max Hardy Lies," and this causes Ryan to figure out what's really going on here. The killers are recreating moments that the FBI killed members of Carroll Gray's group. He determines that Mark is behind this. Poor little Mark is pulling a Norman Bates but instead of talking to his "mother," he's talking to his dead brother.

This new team of murderers is hitting up an art fundraiser in search of a snobby blonde to fulfil their tableau in which Mike killed Lily. But the FBI have figured it out now so they arrive on the scene but they're only able to capture Andrew and bring him into custody, while the rest get away with the blonde woman in the red dress. Mark pulls the trigger but is incredibly emotional afterwards, begging her not to leave him.

Ryan questions Andrew, who is revealed to be the one who picked up Mark the night that Luke died. He admits he's a sucker for a good revenge tale. Andrew wants to know the time because apparently there's somewhere Ryan needs to be. How ominous. Of course the next crime scene is that of some strung-up "FBI" agents standing over "Lily"'s body and another message left behind, "While you lie, more die."

Kyle implores Daisy that they can't leave Mark, who apparently has no idea "what's really going on," and it's important that it stays that way. Could they be Joe's followers too? Max has a hard drink after her long day. Ryan reaches out to Gwen after trying to push her away earlier. He apologises, saying it's a pattern he has developed of pushing people away but he doesn't want to do it anymore. As for Mark/Luke, he/they are planning to kill an FBI agent the next day. Welcome back, The Following!

The Following airs on Mondays on FOX at 9PM.

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