8. The Messenger

Complete story — includes the ending

Ryan and Max attend the funeral for Weston's father. Afterwards, a journalist, Carrie Cooke, with an apparent history with Ryan shows up and unsuccessfully tries to get him to comment on Joe. Director Franklin of the FBI tells Ryan that he wants him working on the case and will supply him with whatever he needs to work off the books. Max and Ryan turn their focus to Joe's college professor, Dr. Arthur Strauss, who lives an hour away from the lighthouse where the events took place. Ryan goes to Strauss' home and questions him about Joe while planting a microphone in his living room. He leaves after Strauss insists he has no involvement. Carrie comes to Strauss' home for interview questions but is captured upon entering the house, which Ryan hears over the audio receiver and rushes back to the house. One of Strauss' students, Cole, sprays a chemical into Ryan's face, causing him to temporarily faint. Ryan wakes up tied to a wheelchair, across from Carrie who is strapped to an operating table. He has a flashback to a few months prior, waking up to Carrie telling him they slept together despite him not remembering after a night of heavy drinking. Strauss also has a flashback, of Joe showing up after the lighthouse events, injured and needing help. Weston finds Strauss' student Cole and shoots him. Ryan frees himself and then Carrie. Ryan and Weston tie Strauss to the table and whip his hand until he reveals that Joe had a connection to a female in the FBI. Back at Micah's cult, Emma insists to Joe that they leave, but then Micah officially initiates them and Mandy into the group. In private, Micah tells Joe of his interest in killing people and having Joe write a book about him. Joe and Micah discuss taking the cult to the next level, despite Julia being against the idea. Micah suggests throwing Joe a celebration, but Julia expresses her concern about having Joe around causing too much attention to their cult. At a party, Micah passes out communion wafers to some of the cult members, including a new friend of Mandy's, Erik. The wafers eventually cause them to foam at the mouth and kill them. Later, tension between Micah and Julia continues to grow stronger. Joe tells Emma that their next move is to tell the world he's alive.