'The Following' Season 4 Spoilers: Will Shawn Ashmore's Mike Weston Raise Ryan Hardy's Baby?

The Season 3 of the crime thriller, The Following, met its series finale on Fox. Though the show was cancelled, plans for Season 4 of The Following were already underway, was Mike Weston (Shawn Ashmore) meant to raise Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon)'s baby as the boy's father?

As we previously mentioned, after chasing him down and putting an end to his followers, Hardy (Bacon) witnessed the execution of his nemesis and closest ally, Carroll (James Purefoy). With the news of fatherhood on the way, Ryan has to sober up and find a way to regain his lost sanity. After killing Theo (Michael Ealy)'s sister though, Ryan has an enemy who will not give up until his vendetta is fulfilled.

In the finale recap, Ryan had his final standoff with Theo, with pregnant Gwen (Zuleikha Robinson) caught in the middle. After getting shot in the head, Theo came back for one last score to settle and thew Ryan over the bridge. Gwen helplessly watched as Ryan slipped and fell into the waters.

In the closing minutes, Ryan faked his death in order to protect Gwen and his unborn child. Mike Weston (Ashmore) and Max (Jessica Stroup) promised to take care of Gwen. Knowing they were safe, Ryan went after the organization of serial killers that forced him into hiding.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, executive producer and co-showrunner Alexi Hawley reveals Mike and Max will raise Gwen's baby together, "We couldn't just have a love story happy ending, we needed to have a little stabbing in it. That felt like the most compelling-even though it was the meanest thing we could do-version of their proclaiming their love and also dovetailing with Mike and Mark (Sam Underwood) on the resolution to their story. Once we landed on that scene, I was really excited by it on the storytelling level. You do struggle with Mike and Mark clearly wanting to kill each other and we've been dancing that dance all season. The idea that they actually almost do kill each other felt really satisfying."

Hawley adds, "I do think that The Following can't be a show without hope. In order for the darkness to be powerful, you need the light to be equally powerful. Max and Mike is the great love story of our show, so it felt like we wanted Mike to survive."

We have 5 reasons why we're missing The Following after its series finale.

Season 3 of The Following ended on Fox.

Readers, what do you think of the series finale?