There’s no Shakespeare in the park this time around.
What They Say:
The Battle of Central Park – Fet strikes the strigoi army at hits heart and Justine tries to drive it out of Manhattan for good.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With The Strain now having been picked up for a fourth and final season, events are certainly moving in a familiar pattern overall here. The big events are likely all coming in that upcoming season but I suspect we’ll still have some good stuff to look forward to in the back half of this season. The previous episode largely dealt with the fallout from the way taking down the Master didn’t work and all that’s related to it. There were moments to like, including the flashback piece with Setrakian, but none of it felt like it added to the whole in a compelling way. With just ten episodes this season the show is making the mistake of not making each episode feel like it counts and is important. You can get away with that when there are thirteen episodes as there’s more breathing room, but ten tends to leave viewers wanting something meaningful considering the gap between seasons.
With the focus on the seemingly sprawling nest that exists under and within Central Park, Justine is looking to go big in eliminating this so that they’ll be able to cope with other areas better. It’s a big risk and gamble considering how many things are being deployed but it’s the kind of potential game changing event. Fet’s got his wariness over everything considering what he’s seen but it works well as he deals with Justine here and how the plan is coming together with his own special involvement with it. It may not be big or done with sprawling visuals but it has the right kind feeling to it as all these pieces are coming together. You know that it won’t be the endgame since we’re just past the halfway mark here but it should make an impact and you want to believe. That the first phase of it has Fet coming across Kate and some kind of flirtatious elements is kind of awkward but I actually liked how he and Kate connected before. It’s hard to imagine a good end for her, however.
It’s a fairly slow build to get to the mission but it has some interesting things to work with. Eph and Dutch get interested in the event to try and see if they can learn more about how the strigoi talk by being close to it and using what they’ve put together so far. There’s also some interesting and curious scenes with Zack’s mother and Eichhorst giving Zack one of the feeler creatures to protect him so that they can give him a sense of freedom coming while still having a tight lock on him. There are some decent bits to this in seeing how Zack adapts to having the feeler girl there in his room and begins to look for ways to take advantage of it. Granted, he’s a young kid so you don’t really expect much but you can see him wanting to figure out how to do this for his own gain.
The various approaches to the sweep of underneath Central Park works well as they provide for different things. Gus and Angel along with the other convicts are basically clearing fodder for the couple of cops running behind them so there’s a lot of uncertainty even after seeing how skilled Gus is. Fet along with Kate and her small team work in the clean and professional way that you’d expect and there’s a lot to like as they do what they have to do with very little problem. It’s a stark contrast from the slow building chaos that we get with Gus and his team as the convicts take control and probe deeper into the labyrinth of hallways and rooms to find a way up and out. It’s certainly good to see Gus finally get away from the things that were binding him, first his mother and then the police, because when he’s charting his own course it’s definitely more interesting.
Of course, Gus and his group don’t get too far before running into Fet and Kate as the only survivors of their own team. The whole working together thing is expected but Gus sends off Angel and the convict woman Maria since he wants them safe. That doesn’t give Fet a lot more to work with but at least they all know each other and a base idea of their respective competencies. Amusingly, their journey takes them further down and Fet comes across the Maze Runner book that Zack was reading and marking up to get a message out to anyone. It’s the kind of thing that you expect Eichhorst to know about and do something with but you can’t help but to feel like there’s really a bigger plan in motion that allows for these deviances.
In Summary:
While the title of the episodes bills it as something big, The Strain is fairly subdued overall. There are some decent moments of action as the teams we’re following move further down and have to cope with the losses along the way. And I really like seeing how the sleeping horder of strigoi are presented with what they discover. But like a lot of episodes in the series it’s the last few minutes where things begin to feel a bit frantic as it moves into the action sequence itself. You really want more of it spread out so that we get a better sense of the attrition. There are some neat moments to be had to be sure but it’s something that feels far too subdued for what it needs to do here.
Grade: B-
