Paul, Emma and Jake have spent the night together in the same bed, still working on that let’s all love each other plan.  The thing is that Jake isn’t happy with the plan.  He doesn’t want to pretend that he’s gay just to please Paul and he doesn’t want to kill anybody – especially Megan – she’s still in the basement.   Young Joey is starting to really miss his Mom and climbs up on a bookshelf to retrieve a cell phone.  He reaches Claire and begins to describe the house where he’s being held.  Before he can hang up, Paul grabs him from under the kitchen table and takes the phone away, with Claire screaming on the other end.  Agent Mike Weston has begun a trace on the call.

Emma decides that she should explain to Joey how some police officers can be the bad guys and that the FBI lie to you.   She then tells him that his Mom sent him to the farmhouse to hide from the bad guys.   Paul is growing more impatient with Jake and tries to instruct him as to the best way to kill Megan.   He tells him that it’s all about trust and believing in one another.

Joe Carroll has a visit from his trial attorney, Olivia Warren, and she seems very uncomfortable facing her former client.  She asks him what he wants, as they’ve exhausted his appeals and there’s nothing she can do for him.  Joe tells her that he has other plans for her.  He wants her to be his eyes and ears on the outside, reporting back to him about everything the FBI is doing.   He also has a statement for her to deliver in front of the media, which, when she reads it, turns out to be a quote from Poe’s “The Masque of the Red Death”.  It’s more than just another odd quote chosen by the even odder Poe-loving professor.  It’s a secret message to his followers, and we see two new cult members, Hank and Roderick, respond to it.   Olivia pays a visit to Claire’s house because Joe wants another message to get to her.  Claire is to be on a street corner at 3PM, alone, if she wants to see Joey again.  Claire is not to tell anyone else about what she was told.

Mike Weston has managed to narrow the location from where the call was made and ittappears to have as originated from Dutchess County, New York.  Agent Parker deputizes Ryan and gives him a gun before sending him and Mike to help the local police find the farmhouse.   When they arrive, one of the sheriffs thinks she recognizes Paul’s photo as being the same man who was a person of interest in Megan’s disappearance.  He’s seen on a security video from the store where Megan worked.

Things at the farmhouse are starting to unravel.   Joey’s missing and the wacko trio take off in search of him.  While he’s running through the woods, Joey falls and, when he looks up, he sees a man standing in front of him.  The man is a neighbor and offers to take Joey back to his house so that he can call his Mom.  When they arrive at the house, the man’s wife recognizes Joey from the television reports.  As they start to go inside, Emma appears, tells them that she’s the nanny, and walks away with the Joey.  She’s met by Paul and Jake in the woods, but Paul goes back to the house to “thank” the couple for their help, with a hoe in his hand, just as they’re calling the police.

Claire has arranged to have a lunch date with a friend, something the FBI agents aren’t happy about, but they tell her that they’ll be following her.   After eating, Claire tells her friend, and the FBI agents, that she has to use the ladies’ room and walks down the hall of the restaurant.  She swings the door to the rest room open, but leaves through the back door and hides between some parked cars.  When she thinks the coast is clear she makes her way to the spot where she’s supposed to wait for the caller.   The agents are looking for her, realizing that she slipped out, but Claire’s already getting in a car with a follower, believing that she’s going to see her son.

Ryan and a local officer respond to the call from the couple who saw Joey, but when they arrive, it’s too late.   From the condition of the house and the crime scene, it’s clear that the killers aren’t far away.  Ryan asks the officer where the nearest house is and they head towards the farmhouse.  They find the one that Joey described, see Jake and Paul outside and call for backup.   As they move closer, Hank spots the sheriff in the side mirror of the getaway car.    Hank follows the sheriff and confronts him in the barn.  When the sheriff pulls his weapon, Hank jumps him and shoots the officer.  Ryan enters the barn and shoots Hank, then radios Weston and the female sheriff to tell them that the officer didn’t make it.   Emma and Jake, having heard the gunshots, go to the barn and find both bodies.

Ryan makes his way into the basement and finds Megan, alive.  He assures her that he’s going to help her, and asks about Joey.   The young boy has manged to break down the door to his room with a skateboard and Ryan races up the stairs at the sound of the crashing.   He doesn’t get very far, though, because Paul comes up behind him with a gun.

Olivia Warren goes back to the prison to report to Joe Carroll about everything she’s learned so far.   He’s pleased by most of the news, and wants to know about Claire, but Olivia has no information for him about his ex-wife.  When she asks him why he wants her to be his messenger, he says that she’s better off being the messenger than the recipient.  In a flashback,  Hank visits Olivia, in her office, and says that he has a message from Joe.  In the present, as Olivia prepare to write down whatever it is that Joe wants now, we find Joe wanted to let her know that ignoring  and his messages wasn’t going to be tolerated.  The cult leader’s message, delivered by Hank in 2010, had cost the terrified lawyer two of her fingers.

Empress