Nothing like a little baby factory subplot material.
What They Say:
The Blood Tax – Imprisoned as a subject in a strigoi breeding program, Dutch is desperate to escape and find Setrakian; Gus recruits his cousin for the inside job that will put his gang at the top of the new world’s underground economy.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With its goofy aspects, The Strain is a show that really doesn’t work well at times. There were plenty of logic loopholes in the kickoff to the fourth season but I admit that I enjoyed it just because it has a kind of what the hell attitude about it that appeals to me. Not checking in with the whole cast definitely worked to its advantage but it also spent time showing us more of Zack than I think most people wanted. At the same time, we got the Zack we always knew existed and even if you could feel for him a bit in knowing how well he’s being manipulated he’s still responsible for the end of the world in a way with the nuclear explosion in the third season. So, bad Zack.
The cold open for this gives us a decent look at some of the food and blood processing aspects of this new world under the Partnership and it makes for a decent time in seeing some of the structure of it all through Gus’ cousin Raul. Gus does eventually connect with him as he goes through his day as Gus wants in on the building in order to do some “reallocating” of resources. It’s one of those things that’s presented as a difficult choice because Raul is doing what he has to in order to survive but it’s a thin line between that and full on collaboration. And Gus is presenting what he’s doing as something that’s intended to help his family, and family does right by each other. Knowing that Gus is still resisting what’s going on makes it easy to understand what some of his goals are and how he’d view all of this so it’s not exactly a surprise or anything but it has the right ring of truth about it.
Dutch, on the other hand, is essentially in the baby factory business at this point and it’s another reinforcement of how easily so many people fall into being authoritarians and serving that cause so that there’s a healthy supply of new blood for their overlords. Dutch is resisting this process as much as possible even though she’s essentially in perfect condition to become pregnant. We do get some flashback with her to three months prior to see how she ended up in this situation and not surprisingly it’s related to the Lumen, a book which they need but has caused far too much in the way of problems. We do get some decent if minor rooftop chase material out of it but we already know the gist of what to expect from the encounter with her fate so there’s not exactly a lot of tension to it.
Eph’s time with the new group he’s fallen in with for the moment are looking to do their best to resist and as we saw are lashing out wherever they can because they can, damn the consequences. It’s brief but it makes clear how there are a variety of approaches being used to push back against the strigoi. Their blunt measures are certainly contrasted with the (weak and poorly done) method that Gus is using to get into the processing facility as it’s anything but subtle and quiet, nor is the place all that well guarded. Though they have a plan it’s not even a skeleton of a plan. It’s little surprise that it kind of falls apart as it goes along but it’s more frustrating in that a place that has some things of real value, the food, that there’s basically one security guard and one strigoi keeping tabs on it.
In Summary:
There’s some decent exposition in this episode with Desai making it clear to Dutch in her Miranda alias as to the best way to fit in and survive in this world and that he knows he’s doing it willingly because the other choice is too difficult and it’s selfish in his view. There’s a lot of things going on in this regard to how the Partnership is working but it’s kind of wonky in a way that the Strain likes to deal with it. Eph’s story picks up a bit toward the end as he becomes more fully aligned with the group he’s with as their place is under attack and his “natural leadership” skills come into play. The show continues to have a lot of potential but it’s doing what it did in the past seasons with the kind of overly simplistic and not well thought through bit of world building.
Grade: B-
