With Kevin Bacon, a ton of creepy Edgar Allen Poe imagery and twists and turns that rival "24," "The Following" quickly became one of our favorite guilty pleasures of 2013.
But where does it go now?
toofab's Brian Particelli sat down with the cast and creator Kevin Williamson at Comic-Con, where they revealed a few secrets about Season 2, and talked about living in fear of being killed off the show and facing death threats from fans.
Keep reading for 10 Things You Should Know About "The Following":
1.) Poor Valorie Curry has it rough
James Purefoy's Joe Carroll may be the horrible mastermind behind the show's murders, but it's Valorie Curry that gets most of the hate mail.
"People would turn to me in the elevator and go 'I want to kill you,'" says Curry of playing the devious and deadly Emma. "I never understand why people think that she's the worst character while Joe Carroll is literally carving numerous women up, taking out their eyes!"
Despite the fan backlash, Curry says playing Emma is "the best job in the world" and she hopes viewers "continue to dislike me for years to come."
2.) Get ready to flash forward!
"We're pushing forward a year later," Kevin Williamson says of Season 2.
"Where's Ryan Hardy? He's no longer with the FBI. The grand jury has probed the events of last season because a lot of mistakes were made," he adds. "The FBI didn't behave as well as they could have. They have some explaining to do. Ryan Hardy survived the investigation, he's in another place, he's trying to rebuild his life and pick up the pieces of the horrible events of that last night."
3.) Joe Carroll will be back ... and potentially hairy.
Purefoy was very grizzly in San Diego, sporting a beard he says he's growing out for the show.
"He's gonna be somewhere in the United States, he's gonna have rethought the plan," Purefoy says of his character, who was presumed dead at the end of Season 1.
"He's gonna be learning from his mistakes and he's gonna be learning to love his followers again," James adds -- before saying "I'm just talking rubbish, don't believe me."
So, what can we believe? Williamson confirms "He's back," adding "He had a trick up his sleeve. What was that body? How did he pull it off? We'll answer that in the first three episodes."
4.) Fans love a bad guy!
"I get very little hate mail or hate tweets, which is interesting considering how diabolical he is," says Purefoy.
As for why he gets love while Valorie gets nothin' but disdain: "He has a certain charm, he also seems to care."
5.) Kevin Bacon has come to terms with "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon."
"I think that if it wasn't me, I would probably be very irritated about it," Kevin told the press. "Like if I kept hearing about the Six Degrees of Kevin Costner."
"It's fine," he adds. "I didn't get it at first, but it hung around for so long, I'm good with it."
6.) Everyone fears the Reaper ... even Kevin!
"I don't think anyone has job security on this show, I really don't," Kevin tells toofab. "That's one of the things when you think about it, is one of the more interesting things about television now. You look at the first season of 'Game of Thrones' and there are often major, major characters that just go away."
"They would give you a heads up if you were gonna die," Shawn Ashmore adds. "You would get the phone call a couple weeks ahead of time and say 'Listen, it's been great, you gotta go.' It happened to a lot of great actors and people we liked working with."
"After I survived so many times it would be anticlimactic to kill me off," Ashmore jokes.
7.) We'll see Claire again
When we last saw Natalie Zea's Claire Matthews, she had a knife in her back. So, will she return?
Williamson says Zea will be return "in a limited capacity," adding that "She was gracious to come back and finish up her storyline."
Sorry, that's all we got there, but it leads us to ...
8.) Ryan Hardy will be happy
"I think we're gonna see him at a better, happier place in his life, at least on the surface," Bacon says ... possibly meaning Claire survived her attack.
"His heart is better, he's running, he's not drinking. He's sobered up and he's feeling sort of hopeful and that is the first impression that we get of him," adds Kevin.
Of course, we don't expect that to last too long.
9.) Ryan & Westin's relationship will be strained
"I walked up and shot a guy in cold blood who had handcuffs on, so what was the fallout from that and how did that affect my relationship with Westin?" asks Bacon.
"Let's not forget that Ryan and Mike basically tortured and killed a prisoner, there are definitely repercussions," Ashmore says of Season 2.
10. Kevin's just glad you're watching
When asked about his favorite moment of filming Season 1, Kevin offered up a very fan friendly answer.
"It's such a ride and it happens so quickly and you work so hard and you do so many pages, it just kind of washes over you," he said.
His favorite thing: "The feeling that we realized there were people that liked the show and were coming back to watch it again and the feeling that we were connecting."
Season Two kicks up again in January 2014.
