What They Say:
Creatures of the Night – Setrakian gains a new and unlikely disciple after discovering the potency of ultraviolet light against the strigoi; a quick trip to a Brooklyn convenience store turns into a dead all-night siege.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The roller coaster ride of things happening in The Strain has been enough so far in the first eight episodes that it could fill a lot of other shows full twenty-two episode seasons. With a good sized cast, a lot of motivations and interactions at play and some rather detailed back story brought into focus with Setrakian and Eichorst, there’s a pretty rich if brutal and violent world exposed here. It’s like things were peeled back to expose this second skin to people like Eph and Gus and now they’re coping with it and figuring out what it is they have to do in order to survive and, in some way, put that second skin to rest so the world can go back to normal. Normal is hard to imagine after the things that we saw with Setrakian before and now we have this other new group that has appeared at Joan’s place at the end of the previous episode that has their own agenda.
With Eichorst having taken a bit of a wounding what the group has done now, that’s given them a bit of a morale boost while also sending a message to the Master that they’re on the offensive against the strigoi. And that means modernizing some of the methods that they’re using. Setrakian has done well over the decades with what he’s fought against, but he’s also a creature of his own time and upbringing that hasn’t thought through certain things. Having understood how sunlight makes an impact on them, that gets Eph to try and figure out if they can use ultraviolet light against them, if not to destroy them outright than to wound them in some way or even just slow them down. It’s a smart approach and it’s one that has them proactive instead of just reacting to being attacked and using the same methods that Setrakian has used for who knows how many years.
When they end up at a medical supply facility to get the UV lights they need, it doesn’t go well since it’s late and that means they have to break in. That’s not high on Nora’s list of things to do in her life, but there’s a definite need at hand to do it so they actually go for it. Amusingly, once they’re inside, they find that Vasily is in there as well, bringing the two sides into contact for the first time. Not that there’s any trust going on here since Vasily is the one with the gun and thinking that they’re looters. But when they reveal who they are, he claims to be a looter himself, which is amusing since it’s true to a degree as he’s getting supplies he needs to deal with what he’s seen. There’s an amusing kind of balance that comes with the interaction from all of this, but also a sense from Setrakian that they need someone like Vasily on their side because he knows the underside of the city where the strigoi are operating in the thousands by now.
Things go badly quickly in the middle of the night and while we get the group doing a resupply at the convenience store, it doesn’t take long for the strigoi that are walking the streets to close in on them. There’s some amusement to be had with it in some of the reactions and events going on there, but there’s also some good action as we get Vasily leaping in to help with some real skill that helps to bolster Setrakian a bit. But the others get involved as well with their weapons, which gets Nora fighting for the first time and reinforces with Eph what he has to do. The really interesting part is seeing Jim put one of the UV lights together and using it against one of the strigoi that got close to him. It’s not clear that it kills the strigoi, but it seriously wounds him and provides for at least some kind of potential defense and offense against them.
While the group tries to figure out a plan while stuck in the convenience store, Vasily again proves that he’s the smartest of the bunch as he essentially corners Setrakian and plainly says that he wants the rules of this. He knows Setrakian gets what’s going on and he wants to know what’s required to fight without any question. The two have a kind of understanding that really comes across well and makes the two of them show a connection that you wish more people would have in these kinds of understandings when bad things go down rather than arguing with each other. Vasily’s the type that you expect will survive anything based on how he operates here. The group dynamic here is a really interesting thing to watch as we get the core group, the casual customers who got caught up in it and the hacker woman who caused a lot of the problems the city is facing. They’re being closwed in on by the strigoi that’s growing in numbers and they all want to get their hands on Setrakian. To make things even more complicated, it turns out that Jim ended up with one of the silvery worms inside of him through his encounter with the strigoi. Jim just can’t catch a break.
There’s a lot of good tension as events start to ramp up and the strigoi make more incursions into the shop and the garage that it’s attached to. Vasily is the one to watch with a lot of it but it’s also interesting to see how the strigoi are using some good tactics, utilizing tools and making some smart moves in getting into the place. The focus on surviving by getting to the bread truck outside and making a break for it is definitely fun to watch once everyone sets a course of action, one that Vasily decides upon after Setrakian essentially sets the tone and control of it all. But this causes a lot of friction at a critical time because Vasily is one that will act, to do what’s needed, and we see that in the case of Jim and the worms that are inside of him. Eph and Nora are still trying to deal with this in a humane way, but you can see that Setrakian and Vasily are on the same page. While they may survive this, they may not be on the same page going forward again.
In Summary:
The Strain has worked a number of stories so far and jumped around a lot in a good way, but this episode is certainly different. What we get here is the group stuck in one place for pretty much the entire thing and that means a lot to learn about how they’ll handle a really bad situation. With Vasily a part of the group and Dutch brought into play as well, a few different paths cross and we get a solid holding action throughout it before it turns to trying to escape before it goes bad. Vasily really does dominate here and it’s really well done to have someone like him who can take over the mantle for Setrakian in a way. There’s an old school feeling to the episode in a way with what it does and the structure of it, but it’s handled very well and left me really loving just about every minute of it, though still not happy at some of the deaths that we got along the way. A strong episode that has me wanting to see if this group dynamic will hold and where it could lead to.
Grade: B+
