NOTE: Spoilers
Credit: Sky AtlanticWith Joe's final plan inching ever closer, Luke and Mark find it difficult to come to terms with the fact their "mother" has been killed and vow to get revenge and make Mike, Ryan and Joe all pay for her death.
Illegally shooting Lily dead, Mike's covered for by both Ryan and Max who claim she was shot dead as she was about to take Ryan's life, but things soon ramp up a notch again when Ryan discovers Claire had delivered her message to Joe through Carrie and her news show.
Credit: Sky AtlanticDisturbed about the message - a poem he'd created with his ex-wife - Joe insists that Emma is the only woman he wants in his life now, but capturing Claire would be beneficial to keeping himself and Emma alive for a longer period of time.
Ryan gives in to his emotions finally when he's with Claire and the two share a passionate kiss, neither knowing that their worlds are about to be ripped apart once more when she decides it's time for her to make her move and find Joe on her own.
Her journey this episode is one of the most satisfying moments this season, as she goes to the place Joe has been hiding expecting to find him there, but instead coming face to face with Emma and Robert.
They capture her and though Robert thinks they should follow Joe's instructions to bring Claire back to him safe and unharmed, Emma has other ideas and shoots Robert, hoping to pass off Claire's arrival as a trap so that she can kill her for good and be Joe's only woman.
Things go pearshaped however and Emma is stabbed twice in the dark as a fight ensues, before being thrown through a window.
Examining the body, Claire thinks things are over but Emma wakes up and attacks her one final time before she is stabbed through the chest with a piece of the window she was thrown through. And then as she finally thinks she's out of danger, things get utterly crap as twins Luke and Mark arrive with revenge on the brain, and a creepy smile on their faces.
Meanwhile, hijacked by Korban followers, Pastor Tanner is hoping to find his son Preston who is now being kept hostage - as well as around a hundred churchgoers - in a Cathedral.
Joe is there and takes over the service, slick with his strangely alluring charisma despite his psychopathic tendancies, and with a gun at his disposal should he need to start killing off innocent victims to make a point.
This is where he makes a mockery of religion, and being an atheist I'm wondering whether the series is being used as a platform to poke fun at religion as an institution, or say that those without religious belief could be as psychotic as Joe Carroll himself. I'm hoping it's neither, and simply a great plot point that causes much discussion.
Credit: Sky AtlanticAs he tries to goad the Pastor and his son to kill one another - resulting in the Pastor's suicide - he doesn't realise both Ryan and Mike are infiltrating the Cathedral despite the various tripwires set up by his loyal cult.
The pair fail to realise that they can simply go around and disable the booby traps so the entire police force can infiltrate the Cathedral and end this for good, and so, as Joe broadcasts live to the world over the internet, they get the CCTV working once again for the FBI outside and try to work out a plan to bring things to an early end.
Credit: Sky AtlanticHowever, when one guard notices an intruder he instantly fires, causing Joe to demand that whoever is lurking in the shadows come forward or hostages will start to be killed off.
Credit: Sky AtlanticAs he counts down Mike steps forward, allows himself to be captured and attacked, demanding that Joe kill him instead but attempting to lash out when he is teased about the death of his father at the hands of Lily.
Joe then realises that Ryan must also be in the Cathedral, and so asks him to also step forward unless he wants the blood of his best friend Mike on his hands. As he counts down once more a shot is heard ringing out but the screen goes black before we can see just who has been shot.
The Following season 2 concludes next week - Tuesday, April 29 - with its final episode at 10pm on Sky Atlantic and Sky Atlantic HD.