Episode seven of “The Following” begins with two police officers transporting Duncan, diner owner and one of Dr. Strauss’ students, to a new location. Unfortunately, their intended destination leads them to the middle of nowhere where Strauss’ best student, Theo, is waiting.
After killing the officers, Theo enlists Duncan to help him tie up some loose ends and protect his identity, which was compromised when he secured passports for Strauss. Their first mission is finding Luis, who helped Theo acquire the passports. They arrive to find his friends playing a card game, but Luis isn’t anywhere to found, so Theo and Duncan brutally murder the card-playing men anyway.
Shortly after, Theo receives a message and has to leave, but not before tasking Duncan with finding Luis and destroying the files.
Meanwhile, Ryan pays Joe a visit and inquires about who the best student may be. Joe said Strauss kept his students isolated from each other so they could only depend on him. At the end of this scene, Joe learns his execution is only seven days away, which means Ryan only has seven more days to consult with Joe about the case.
After finding the dead officers, Ryan, Mike and Marshal Scott Turner team up to track down the killer and find themselves one step behind Theo along the way. Ryan runs into another roadblock with FBI agent Nick Donovan, who’s looking to control both the case and Ryan.
Ryan, Mike and Scott arrive at Luis’ and find the murdered men. Around the same time, Luis and his girlfriend see news of the murders on the television, when Duncan arrives at the girlfriend’s apartment. He then kills her and takes Luis with him to destroy the passports. The FBI show up shortly after and discover her body, but they’ve missed the killer once again.
Max, who’s still recovering from her accident, is cleared to return to work. She spent some time working to track down the hacker and finds herself investigating the cyber company where the email hack occurred. When she arrives, the staff is congregated to discuss the case, including Theo. He took some time off from his job at the company, but made sure to be present once Max showed up.
Theo quickly places the blame on a fellow co-worker, Peter Collins, by switching around a few files, leaving Collins without an alibi. A friend and co-worker of Collins explains he was with Collins at the time of the hack and said he could have easily been framed. Theo overhears this conversation and takes care of the situation while adding to the show’s death toll.
Ryan and Mike find the warehouse where Duncan took Luis and find him destroying the evidence of the passports. The team arrests Luis and shoot Duncan. They eventually find a passport with a photo of Tucker, the CEO of the cyber company. Theo’s handiwork is clearly evident here, but Ryan isn’t sure Tucker’s to blame.
The episode ends with Ryan and Joe playing pool and spending time together like the old friends that they are. Luckily, this is just another one of Ryan’s dreams, or nightmares.
Episode eight begins with Theo shopping in a closed grocery store, buying rubber gloves among other things, and he returns back to Tucker, who he’s killed and is dismembering.
Back at the bureau, Nick Donovan still thinks Tucker’s worth pursuing, but Ryan’s still working to convince him otherwise. During their argument, Nick tells Ryan that Agent Mendez is retiring, but Ryan convinces her to stick around until they catch the latest killer.
On death row, Joe’s numbered days are filled with mandatory psychological evaluations. He’s fiddling with his handcuffs, manages to escape and kills a few guards on his way out where Ryan picks him in the parking lot, but unfortunately for Joe, this was merely a daydream. The psychologist informs Joe that Ryan declined his invitation to attend the execution, which leaves Joe puzzled.
While searching through the cyber company’s staff, Max discovers that one employee, Sam Lewis, has a completely clean work record. Ryan and Mike investigate the home registered to his address, and they’re being watched on camera by Theo, who entered the workforce as Sam Lewis. Ryan gets a bad feeling once he notices the camera, and sure enough, the house blows up afterward.
Even though he managed to erase his identity, Theo’s facing some problems at home. His wife, Cindy, and her friend, Nancy, are suspicious he may be cheating, but Theo distracts her with talk of having another baby and throws her a surprise party.
Nancy corners him at the party and inquires about work, which made him angry. When Nancy and her husband return home, Theo kills both Nancy and her husband, staging their deaths as a murder-suicide.
Ryan, Mike and Agent Mendez investigate the home of a man who wrote a recommendation letter for Sam. There they find a basement full of ears and a dead body. Ryan convinces the man to give up a little information on Sam.
Once Theo receives a notification that the FBI are investigating his wife after finding a picture of the couple, he turns on his family. He kills Cindy and drugs their children before fleeing the scene.
The FBI now know they’re looking for a man named Theodore, and find his home and his family. The pressure of the case gets to be too much for Agent Mendez who officially decides to leave.
The episode ends with a phone call between Theo and Ryan. Theo’s confused as to how they found him but realizes he made a coding mistake while hacking several accounts. Theo threatens Ryan, letting him know he’s going to end his future.