10 Smartest Villain Plans In TV Shows

10. Pulling The Strings - Joe Carroll (The Following)

Usually in a TV show, a villain's story comes to an end as soon as they are caught by the good guy and thrown in jail.

In the case of The Following, this is where cult leader and serial killer Joe Carroll's journey begins.

A former English teacher, Carroll was put behind bars for murdering fourteen of his students. The man who sent him away was former FBI Agent Ryan Hardy, played by Kevin Bacon.

Catching killers, dancing, selling phone contracts, is there anything that man can't do?

Carroll's intelligence and charisma allows him to amass a group of fanatical followers from inside his jail cell. Whilst incarcerated, he orchestrates a series of terrible events in order to escape prison, reunite with his wife, and mentally torture his captor.

The plan brilliantly tows the line between intricate and complicated, never straying over into unbelievable. It also plays perfectly to Carroll's strengths as a persuasive leader.

It doesn't end well for the criminal - he gets blown up outside a lighthouse at the end of the first season - but you know what they say, it's the thought that counts.