Kill the Following: Why Joe Carroll and His Cult Must Die



Watching "The Following" was a "splinter in my mind," as Morpheus said about the Matrix...until this morning.  I had a epiphany about the show.  I saw three things about the following of Joe Carroll:

1. A Twisted Reality
2. A Perverted family
3. A Twisted Morality

Because these three are beyond repair in Joe's world, Joe and his cult must die.

A TWISTED REALITY
Like Hannibal Lector, Joe Carroll is annoyingly cultured and polite.  He acts as if he cherishes deep thought and genuine connections, even to the point of not wanting his little surrogate killing machine daughter to eat candy instead of apples.  The same is true with his following.  They live as though their drives and lives are normal and cordial.  The reason for this is the illusion of familial connection.

A PERVERTED FAMILY
Joe is desperately loved and craved as an exalted father figure...a father of death ironically.  He is embraced unconditionally based on this deep need for a father's approval and connection.  From this comes his own death religion, from which he creates his own right and wrong.

A TWISTED MORALITY
Here is Joe Carroll's Code:

• Killing for Joe is the ultimate honor.
• Being killed by Joe is the supreme honor.
• But don’t kill Joe. He’s too honorable.

In rapturous poetry Joe talks about "the gift of death," given by him, done for him, but never to him. 
His followers take in the poetry of psychopathology, murdering without hesitation.  Therefore there is only one solution for him and them:

Kill Joe Carroll on sight, and kill any and every proven Joe follower on sight.

Joe is Sauron.
His following is his ring of power.

As Gandalf said, “There is only one Lord of the Rings, and He does not share power.”
As Aragorn said to Boromir,"You cannot wield the ring. It answers only to Sauron.”
As Legolas said to Boromir, “Have you not heard anything Lord Elron said?  The ring must be destroyed!”

Joe’s spirit is in his following as Sauron’s spirit was in his ring.
Both must be destroyed. There is no other way with evil.

Image from seriable.com