THE FOLLOWING Season 1 Finale Preview: James Purefoy Teases ‘People Will Be Gasping For Breath’

THE FOLLOWING has taken viewers on one delightfully twisted journey of cat-and-mouse over the show’s first season, and the first book of the tale is set to conclude this Monday with the first season finale.

I spoke with THE FOLLOWING star James Purefoy (Joe) about what fans can expect in the finale, the scope of Joe’s reach, the master plan getting derailed, and why even he doesn’t know exactly what’s going to happen in the season finale…

The finale is almost here! I know you have to keep most things quiet, but what can you tease about the hour?
James Purefoy: I do know people will be gasping for breath. It’s going to be satisfying. That most of the end will get tied up. And it will be explosive. I think that’s the best word to describe it.

Literally or figuratively explosive?
JP: A little bit of both, as always.

That makes sense! With this kind of show, you’d expect that.
JP: Exactly. There is an element of closure, but we want to try and get that hook in the audience’s upper lip and drag them along to the next season at the same time.

I’m guessing it’s going to be a long hiatus as fans wonder what happens next.
JP: It’s an interesting show like that, and to tell you the truth, even I don’t know. I shall be waiting with slightly baited breath at how the last minutes turn out on THE FOLLOWING, because they’ve been holding their cards very, very close to their chest. There were slightly different endings, I was told. And I know there were slightly different things shot. As I’m talking to you, I really don’t know who survives and who doesn’t.

That’s a bit terrifying. I know when you and I spoke a few months back, you noted that you did know what Joe’s plan was —
JP: But let’s not forget that Joe is insane. So when I say that, that was how Joe was thinking at that moment. You can’t trust a psychopathic insane person to be consistent with their line of thinking. It changes. It changes all the time. His plan at 9 o’clock on a Monday morning can be one thing and give him a half an hour, it can change entirely. Because he’s mad.

He’s certainly not well in the head.
JP: And he’s always been like that. I think people have thought of him as calm and controlling all that kind of stuff, but he was also insane. So that is indeed [insane] in bold, italic letters. He’s also insane. So there’s remarkably little consistency. He goes polar opposites very, very quickly, and you can’t really trust anything he says.

Well, given that you do know part of what happens in the finale, do you feel like there are clues sprinkled in these first 14 episodes about how things get tied up?
JP: When I spoke to you in January, his plan then was something different than it ended up, because he became a victim of his own circumstance. He wasn’t quite expecting Ryan and the FBI — even if a lot of people thought they were bad at their jobs — there were an awful lot of little victories that Ryan and the FBI had that threw a [wrench] in Joe Carroll’s plan. So, in terms of his following on the Eastern Seaboard, in terms of that rather small geographical area of Richmond, Virginia, he sort of ran out of followers there. However, let’s not forget that the internet is a global thing and there may well be followers in other places he can rely on.

Indeed, one of the things he didn’t count on was Claire turning on him the way she did…
JP: That was a nasty shock! It wasn’t pretty and it wasn’t fair. She may well come to regret it.

That finale trailer certainly made it look like she might. But the finale does bring Claire, Ryan, and Joe into the same room together, so what can you tease about that dynamic?
JP:  Well, I think we’ve been waiting for that conversation for quite some time, haven’t we? Where it’s just the three of them, they’re in a secret location…sitting down, talking about what’s been going on. You know that Joe’s pretty handy with a ice pick. So I will leave that to your imagination.

Do you think the finale is the most gruesome episode the show has done so far?
JP: You know what, despite the fact that everybody says the show is really gruesome, I find it less so than a lot of other shows I watch on television. It’s psychologically very gruesome, that’s what it is. It plays games with your mind, and the possibility of who the person is up ahead of you in the grocery queue. That’s where the show is most successful.

But there are an awful lot of things that happen in the finale. There’s something, as I’m sure you’re aware, the lovely Agent Parker has herself in a not very large apartment underground. I was having a look at that as a final resting place, and that will be an interesting story playing out.

How much is Joe aware of Parker’s situation?
JP: Oh, I think he’s entirely aware of it. Not only is he aware of it, he thinks of it, plans it, and sends other people to execute it. I mean, before the attack on the community center, he was giving very specific instructions to each follower about what they were meant to be doing.

On that note, does he find out before the season is over that Emma has killed Jacob?
JP: [Pause] Oh, that’s a good question. And I’m not even entirely sure of the answer. I don’t think he does find out about that. I think she goes a little bit rogue on that one, and does that on her own accord.

Who is Joe’s biggest ally in the finale?
JP: Well, Emma is always there for him. Whether she makes it to the end of the finale is another matter all together. And obviously I can’t tell you that. I can’t tell you who lives or who dies, because that would spoil everything!

That is totally fair. By the time the season finale concludes, is Joe satisfied with what has happened? Or is there unfinished business.
JP: I think trying to discuss Joe in an kinds of rational way that you and I might be able to discuss whether someone is satisfied is very hard, because he’s mad. And what he thinks and how he thinks it goes, might be entirely different from the way you or I think. Let’s just say he is very satisfied with the outcome by the end, yes.

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THE FOLLOWING’s first season finale airs Monday, April 29th at 9 PM on Fox.

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