The Following Recap: “Whips & Regret”

The Following Recap: “Whips & Regret”
Original Air Date (Fox): Monday April 1, 2013
Season 1 Episode 11

by Julianne Snow:

In the eleventh episode of The Following titled ‘Whips & Regret’, Carroll is seen jogging through the countryside outside the compound before he makes a call to Ryan; his intent to taunt him, waking him up from a hangover to gloat. When Ryan tells him to go to hell and then hangs up, Carroll calls back immediately to give him a pep talk, explaining how he will win back Claire’s affections.

Meanwhile, Roderick and Vince arrive with Claire who is met by Jacob and shown to her room. When Claire demands to see Joey, Jacob simply leaves her in the room, alone.

After the phone call, Molly enters Carroll’s library, bringing him her journals. She mentions she still lives next door to him and that they occasionally hook up. In a flashback scene, Molly is visiting Carroll is prison. Turns out that she’s a nurse, an Angel of Death to be more exact. This is where Carroll asks her to follow Ryan. When the perspective shifts back to present day and the compound, Molly is handing Carroll all of the logs she maintained while tracking Ryan.

Parker seeks out Ryan at his home, her intent to check on him. She explains they’re tracking the IP address of the website portal Carroll uses to recruit his Followers. She also confides that she doesn’t trust many people but offers him a piece of advice: pull himself together. When she hears the news that Carroll called, Parker insists they get moving.

Back at the compound, Roderick is anxious to get started whatever the plan was once Carroll was reunited with his family. Vince, the militiaman echoes the sentiment, and when Roderick tries to explain that it’s selfish for Carroll to wait, Carroll shuts him up and then sends him away.

Switching back to the police perspective, Parker and Ryan join up with a SWAT team outside of the location they have discovered is the source for the website. And it just happens to be inside an afterhours club called Whips and Regret. When Ryan and Parker enter the club, hoping to find the owner, Hayley Mercury, they are drawn deeper into an S&M dungeon when she runs. They find her in the office deleting files. Upon further investigation, they learn that the site is hosted internationally. When they talk to Hayley, who runs the club but isn’t a part of Carroll’s cult, she gives up Vince who set up her computer and server in exchange for housing the server for the Following’s website. Hayley offers to give up Vince in exchange for a deal.

As the perspective shifts back to the compound, Jacob brings Claire a fancy evening dress along with shoes explaining that she is to have dinner with Carroll that evening. When she tries to run for the door he grabs her and violently throws her to the ground, explaining that Carroll has told him that he “can’t cut or bruise your face, but other than that, Joe has given me permission to physically hurt you when necessary”. After leaving the room, Jacob heads downstairs where Emma tries to talk to him. When Jacob is “being weird” to quote Emma, he returns with “the Jacob that you loved isn’t here anymore, it’s just me now”. Creepy!

Back at the S&M club, Hayley shows a package that recently arrived for Vince to Ryan and Parker. Inside the package are explosives and while they are being switched out for fakes, Hayley sends Vince a message to draw him out.

At the compound, Vince gets permission from Roderick to leave: he needs to pick up a delivery. When Vince sees Roderick is moping, he tries to cheer him up which results in Roderick pulling a gun on him. Vince very quickly pulls his own. After a strange impasse of sorts, Vince shakes it off and leaves while Roderick tries to pull it together. On the way out of the room, Roderick breaks the nose of a follower who just happened to be standing there and who saw the altercation.

At the club, they put a wire on Hayley to hear what is said as she hands off the package to Vince, deciding that the code word will be ‘red’ should anything go wrong. When Vince shows up at the club, he goes inside while members of the SWAT team check out his car. Vince picks up his package from the back room and asks Hayley to hold the door open for him out front. They talk outside and he tries to get her to leave with him, practically forcing her into the car. Watching from across the street, Parker wants to move, especially after Hayley uses the code word repeatedly, but Ryan argues they need to follow Vince.

The perspective shifts to the compound again as Claire comes down to have dinner with Carroll. He tries to put her at ease, telling her that she looks fabulous, but he can see she’s terrified of him. She accepts his offer of a drink and there is a table for two close by in the room.

The scene shifts back to the club as the FBI does nothing when Vince pulls a gun on Hayley and forces her into the car. Parker and Ryan along with the SWAT team follow them as Vince and Hayley talk in the car. When Vince checks his mirrors for anyone following them, Hayley is able to tip off the FBI and Parker orders most of them to drop back, worried that they will lose Hayley. Vince pulls up to an old military armory in the middle of the woods, handing Hayley a flashlight and leading her inside, package in hand. Parker and Ryan pull up shortly thereafter and Parker orders the armory surrounded. Vince leads Hayley deeper into the structure, explaining to her that it’s used as a training ground for killing. When he tries to put the moves on her, he finds the wire. Angry, he speaks into the wire, telling the FBI that Hayley is dead and it’s all because of Ryan. As Ryan and Parker run inside to save Hayley, they have to try to navigate the tunnels in the dark. Out of the darkness Hayley wheels into view, viewers at first believe her to be dead but she is alive. Hayley is understandably angry, telling them that Vince said it would take longer for them to help a live person than a dead one, which is the only reason she’s alive.

Back at the compound, Claire is having dinner with Carroll when she calls him crazy after trying to make sense of the situation. Carroll rebuffs her assertion, telling her he suffers from a “monomaniacal need to kill that will only intensify over time”. In an odd exchange, he tells her that she will love him again. Claire takes his hand and asks again to see Joey in a desperate attempt to connect with him. Carroll tells her it’s the only card he has left to play and she gets up to leave. He tries to kiss her but she stops him, walking out shortly after.

At the armory, they find evidence they were running some sort of boot camp as the SWAT team is investigating. Down in the tunnels, a lone SWAT officer finds three people in a cage just as Ryan discovers that two weeks of sensory deprivation is part of the training. They warn the SWAT officer not to open the cage, but he doesn’t hear them and as soon as the cult members are out, they pounce on him. As the rest of the SWAT team, along with Ryan and Parker try to find the source of the screams in the dark tunnels, they hear gunfire. With only a flashlight to light the way, Parker doesn’t see one of the women standing behind her as she investigates. She trips over the SWAT officer’s body and the woman attacks her. Parker fends her off, but the woman has a gun and she’s now pointing it at Parker. Ryan comes around the corner and shoots the woman. He also sees another one of the followers behind Parker and shoots her too. The death toll swells to all three of the formerly caged cult members and two SWAT officers.

At the compound, Carroll gets word from Vince that the FBI have found the server. He tells Roderick they found the camp, but Roderick assures Carroll there’s nothing for him to worry about. When Carroll asks Roderick if he gave Vince permission to go to New York, he punches him in the face and warns him that he’s not allowed to make decisions anymore warning “if you ruin this for me…” The hint of a power struggle rears its head as Roderick returns with “Don’t you mean for us?”

Later that day, Carroll knocks on Claire’s door to tell her that he believes she’ll love him again. It’s at that moment that he allows Joey into the room to see his mother. After reuniting mother and son, Carroll, with a glass of alcohol in his hand, is watching the surveillance footage Molly collected of her time with Ryan.

Ryan returns home to hear someone in his kitchen. Drawing his gun, he finds Molly making herself at home. She apologizes for letting herself in, but he’s happy to see her. She hugs him. It’s at this point that we’re treated to a flashback showing Molly visiting Carroll in prison. She agrees to follow Ryan on one condition; when the time comes to kill him, she gets to do it.

I’m beginning to wonder if anyone is safe – who knows who could me a Follower…

DarkMedia contributor Julianne Snow was first lulled into the horror genre by her parents during an ill-advised viewing of Alien when she was only 4 years old. Since that date, it’s been a given that Julianne will watch and read anything that is horror related. Her short fiction has appeared in anthologies from Sirens Call Publications and Open Casket Press, as well as The Sirens Call and various other websites showcasing short fiction. She is the author of the Days with the Undead series, which can be found on her website dayswiththeundead.com. Her first novel, Days with the Undead: Book One was published in early 2012 and is based on her popular web serial. Find her on Twitter @CdnZmbiRytr.