FOXIf Mark (Sam Underwood), one of the two terrifying twins from last season of The Following, wasn't crazy before, he's certainly gone off the deep end now.
The sole surviving psycho twin has been laying low for six months on Fox's serial killer thriller, waiting to put his revenge plan into play on Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon), Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) and Max Hardy (Jessica Stroup) for killing his mother Lily (Connie Nielsen) last season. And while he definitely had some issues before, losing his more confident better half has left him a total mess.
Now he's having full conversations with his dead brother Luke, allowing "Luke" to take over his own body and take control of the situation when Mark feels like he can't do it himself. It's creepy...and absolutely fascinating to watch. Plus, what a brilliant way for The Following to keep "Luke" around despite his shocking death last season!
"Mark's mentally not well, and it felt very organic to continue this symbiotic relationship he had with his twin," The Following executive producer Alexi Hawley tells E! News. "They literally spent every waking moment together their entire lives, and now Luke, who was always the more confident, dominant personality, is gone. Mark's alone. He doesn't have his twin, he doesn't have his mother, so he manifests his brother."
However, Hawley is sure to clarify that Mark isn't blind about Luke's reality.
"He knows Luke is dead," Hawley says. "It's not like he's delusional, but at the same time, he needs information, he needs help, he needs Luke to take over because he feels like he's not strong enough. It's really tragic while also terrifying at the same time."
Although Mark is clearly going through some heavy stuff as he grieves his mother and brother, that hasn't stopped him from putting his plans for revenge into play, as viewers started to see in tonight's premiere.
"He's very focused and as you've seen, he's brought in new people to help him," Hawley says. "But those people also have their own agenda. Ultimately, with Mark we're going to see him get spun off his revenge plan a little because of outside forces. And the Luke/Mark persona, we're going to play out if there comes a point when Mark just lets Luke take over fully once bad things happen. And what will that look that? There's a lot of fun stuff coming up with their personalities and their desire to kill the man who killed their mother."
As for those new people, killer couple Kyle (Hunter Parrish) and Daisy (Ruth Kearney) might be playing along with Mark for now, but expect their "own agenda" to mess things up for multiple characters in the future.
"That does come into play in a big way!" Hawley teases. "We were really lucky to get Hunter Parrish and Ruth Kearney for this because they're both phenomenal. They're Bonnie and Clyde-like characters. They're ruthless killers but at the same time, they're head over heels, desperately in love with each other. That's very real. In terms of their agenda, I don't want to spoil what's behind what they're doing, but it plays a very big part in the first half of the season. Ultimately, you're actually going to end up really rooting for them because they love each other."
The Following airs Mondays at 9 p.m. on Fox.