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After her character's fate is left hanging in the balance in "The Following" first season finale, Natalie Zea is confirmed to return to the show for a second season. TV Guide learns the news first, reporting that the actress has signed an eleventh-hour contract renewal.

Despite the contract renewal, it doesn't necessarily mean that Zea's Claire Matthews will survive the near-fatal knife attack in "The Final Chapter" since the actress won't reveal how long her comeback will last.

She even tells the site that the deal almost didn't happen because "my concern, and [series creator] Kevin Williamson's concern, was always, is there more story to tell with Claire? And we both discovered that maybe there wasn't."

Now that she's bound to come back, Zea, who will appear on CBS' summer series "Under the Dome", hopes Claire will undergo a transformation. She explains, "I feel like what would need to happen would be a change to her DNA. In other words, she might have to break bad a little bit. Although I don't know if anyone besides me would want that."

Rumor has it, Zea was initially set to be killed off at the end of season 1, but FOX's execs worried that the show would lose followers if the leading lady were cut from the cast. Thus, the season finale was edited two different ways.

The fate of Joe Carroll's ex-wife was not the only cliffhanger in the season finale. The serial killer himself appeared to be killed in a massive explosion after a showdown with Kevin Bacon's FBI Agent Ryan Hardy. James Purefoy, who played the antagonist, recently played coy when asked about his future on the show as he said he had signed up for the second season, "but that's not a guarantee."

"The Following" season 2 will air in midseason. To get more scoops on the next chapter, fans can attend the show's Comic-Con panel on July 19 at 3:15 P.M. in Ballroom 20.

"The Following" Comic-Con poster: