The creepy material continues, but small progress is made to deal with the threat.
What They Say:
By Any Means – Kelly searches for Zack; Fet and Dutch grow closer as they clear out neighborhood buildings; Eph and Nora experiment on their new patients.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The return of The Strain was definitely a welcome summer event for me as the show is one that I thoroughly enjoy for what it does in giving me old school style vampires, world ending craziness and a fun range of characters. I don’t expect hugely complex characters or amazing depth but rather a very fun time in seeing how they fight to save the world. With events slowly going darker and more menacing, a good chunk of the show focused on some of the origins of current events, greater ties that exist in the past for some of them and the small movements with the Master gaining his new facility and also putting into motion what he needs to take out Eph and his team through Kelly. The show definitely has its goofy moments, but those just endear me to it even more.
The cold open for this episode brings Bolivar back into play as he and Eichhorst talk about the transformation that the Master is about to go through and what it means for them, as well as the fact that a new host is to be chosen for the Master to inhabit. It’s a curious sequence overall with the way it plays out as there are portents of things to comes, especially as you can see Bolivar looking for an edge here. Just as creepy though is getting time with Kelly as she seems to be taking on ownership of the blind children now known as the Feelers. There’s some real darkness to it as they all scamper to her in hopes of being chosen, especially since those not chosen get their necks snapped. It sets the tone for what she’s become quite well and just how committed to it she is at this point.
With a few things in motion with Eph and Nora looking to explore their cure potential idea, we also get some “loving” time between Fet and Setrakian as Fet continues to do his best to look out for the guy but keeps finding that Setrakian is resistant. What this leads to is a new flashback sequence that takes us to 1965 in Vienna, where we see Setrakian teaching and being watched by Eldritch of all people. this brings an interesting connection between the two set quite a few years in the past, but it shows that Eldritch was looking for things from a young age, which makes sense considering his health. With Eldritch talking about Sardu, that brings some curiosity to Setrakian’s eyes and you can see the interest he has in what Eldritch knows, but also knows to be wary enough of a man in power with wealth that’s used to getting his way.
With a mission to find out more with what Eldritch has teased him about, that leads him to a dealer of antiquities, but also one that has a special hidden room that contains Nazi artifacts, which is a difficult thing for Setrakian to deal with. What he does come across in there though is the sword cane of Sardu and he’s intent on acquiring it once he recognizes it. The problem is that the man that runs the place, Steiner, claims that it’s already been purchased by someone else. But Setrakian knows Steiner for who he really is, a Nazi that he once had interactions with years ago that went into hiding. It leads to a mild chase through Vienna, which at least has some good visuals to it and a chance to see an active Setrakian going after him.
Knowing what we do of Eldritch, it’s interesting to see him at this phase and then to see him in the present, where he’s now drawn Marchand in as an employee of his and is using her to further cement his public position in the city with the opening of food distribution centers. Ones that his businesses supply and one that his security provides protection for. It’s disconcerting for her to be thrown into the fire like this to figure out what he wants, but he has an amusing sink or swim attitude when it comes to people.
Fet and Dutch show us some of the clearing out of the vampires that they do in the relative immediate area, in an effort to keep things down a bit with what they have to face, and that makes for some creepy fun here. Both are certainly getting the right idea in how to draw them out and deal with them, but it gets pretty grisly in a different way this time around as they’re now using some of the silver grenades that got from Setrakian before. Doing this in a health club where there’s a good batch of turned vampires in the changing area, that provides for a good mix of the strigoi and for the two of them. Of course, while there’s plenty of violence here, there has to be a little bit of sex as well as Dutch strips down afterward to enjoy the pool a bit, doing her best to tempt him into the water. Naturally, he’s not able to because he has to admit he never learned how. But that provides for the familiar bonding sequence between the two as she teaches him a bit. Though it’s predictable, it works out well as a sequence and provides for some human creature comforts to be had amid the chaos.
The bulk of the episode works through all these kinds of things, including a temperamental Zack moment that again makes you hope that there’s a real reason for him being kept around, and it does a good job of adding more to the overall mood and tone of the series with the struggles their face. Eph and Nora have to deal with the couple that they’re experimenting with and the way it impacts them in several ways and we also get some time with Setrakian really finding everything becoming harder, somewhat because of his age but also just the nature of the struggle itself. Teasing a bit about his quest for the book years ago, and the things Eldritch dangled in front of him is certainly interesting. I also liked the predictable way that Eph is coping with everything and the seemingly impossible task of finding a pathogen that works since nothing seems to. His drinking isn’t helping at all and you can see the toll that it’s all taking on Nora as well.
The final act has a great little moment where, after giving a speech about the new food distribution center, Eldritch finds himself in the presence of Setrakian. Though the two haven’t seen each other in years, there’s a real hardened and serious side to Setrakian that makes it clear he won’t stop until he’s dead when it comes to paying Eldritch back. And that makes for some great tension, especially as Fet’s involved in providing a little chaos in the mix. It may not make a lot of sense overall to do what he does here, but it provides Setrakian with the clues he needs when it comes to finding the book based on how Eldritch reacts to his talking about it. Setrakian continues to be one of the most fun characters to watch in the series and seeing him in past and present and at different ages really helps to build a much larger picure of what he’s dedicated himself to.
In Summary:
With only small movements in regards to the larger progress of the series, what we get here is more of the filling in of the blanks. Some of it may be areas that some won’t care for, but I liked what it brought to the table with the book that Setrakian is after and the kinds of connections brought in when it comes to Eldritch. Eldritch’s being set up for quite the epic fall as the show goes on and we see more of it here with the way he’s becoming more important to the city in maintaining some order. Between this and the progress Nora and Eph are making with the older couple that are now their test subjects, there are paths opening up but ones that are difficult to be sure. At least we get some semi-naked time with Dutch and Fet!
Grade: B
