Storming the castle!
What They Say:
Extraction – Reeling from loss, the heroes regroup; the heroes devise a new plan to track the Master through human collaborators, beginning at the blood farm with someone Dutch knows all too well.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Strain felt like it was starting to finally pull things together more in the previous episode with the team now almost all back in the city and reconnecting. There’s tensions to be had after recent events but it’s also an episode that lets the bodies start to drop so that it feels like we’re upping the stakes. That doesn’t have as much impact as it should considering the drawn out way the season has been playing out but it’s a decent sign of what’s about to hit. The fun comes in seeing Eichhorst running around dealing with things as the threats tighten and his role under the Master feels a bit more threatened. This season has still been a struggle overall because of how scattershot the cast has felt and the lack of tension that it really needs but there are glimmers of minor hope for a halfhearted ending to be had.
The fallout from that fight is one that plays decently in the cold open with Eph and Dutch making their way to them and seeing what’s happened to Alex and Eichhorst. The difficult moment for them is discovering what happened to Setrakian and seeing him furiously working until he’s lost completely to the transformation. With both Eph and Dutch having been as tight with him to varying degrees over the series it’s definitely a tough moment both of them to watch play out before them. That intensity is nicely contrasted by what’s going on out at the pier where Fet and his group have made their way into the city on a small boat where they’re taking down a lot of collaborators within the Partnership. It’s quick and bloody, serving up some decent material for what Quinlan is capable of.
Eventually bringing Fet and Quinlan into the fold with the rest while Roman watches over the nuke at the Federal Reserve, it’s a decent sequence where everyone feels the weight of what they’re losing through Setrakian, even Quinlan to some degree. What’s important, however, is that Setrakian has taken a new approach to looking at the Lumen and has come up with a new plan to deal with the Master. The pitch that what really gives him his power are the collaborators is an interesting approach but one that feels a bit out of left field at the end here considering there were no real human collaborators for the most part for so long, though Eichhorst could be considered one to some degree. Setrakian even pitches this as his last work and wants them to avoid using the nuke in favor of dealing with it this way, which is quite in character for his stubborn self.
Of course, with this plan set, they have to kill him before he turns and everything he knows is given to the Master. It’s a surprisingly quiet and emotional sequence because it doesn’t overplay its hand and fits within the logic of it all. Having it done by Quinlan’s hand and with Setrakian knowing it must be done and keeping his dignity throughout it definitely adds to the situation as a whole. It’s an interesting group that’s left at this point, having been there for some time since all of this started, and using Quinlan as the one to give the real eulogy for him is almost poetic in a way that you wouldn’t expect. It serves as a somber rallying cry for what they have to do and gives them the edge and fire within to carry forward with the mission that Setrakian really did give them.
But that naturally means there’s dissent in the ranks about the best approach because Quinlan makes it clear that may not have been Setrakian and there’s Fet unsure about all the effort put in to get the nuke and then not using it. This group has never been fully aligned in the same way with how to achieve their goals so this isn’t a surprise, even pared down to just these four people while Gus is off rallying his guys to actively join the fight at this point. Between all of it we do get some nice character moments as everyone makes it clear who they are and their intent toward the bigger picture, though thankfully they don’t do a full montage sequence of everyone arming up and getting their gear together. The end result is the same, however, as the plan goes into motion and we’ve got the team fully on board, which sets things up for the action component that the show always needs to engage in.
Unfortunately, the plan really does involve everyone splitting up once in the building and going to achieve different goals. After everyone being split apart for so long you really do want them to be together with a bit of tension and banter. It does run into some problematic areas, notably with the pregnant women being taken hostage (doubly so, really) in order to buy time until the strigoi can help. The processing center side was a good revisit as we get Quinlan truly disgusted by seeing what the Master has put into motion here and the kind of simple horror of it all since the show didn’t go as big with it as it could visually. While there are a fun gunfight sequences along the way it feels like the big moment is Quinlan and Gus facing off one of the more primal strigoi that was used in the facility and given some prominence recently. It’s not bad but once again it just lacks the right impact.
In Summary:
The Strain works the kind of story and action intensity that it’s needed for pretty much all of this season. There’ve been fun moments along the way but it’s been pretty tame and without the tension that it needed for a final season. This episode gives us some decent closure on a few story points and characters while altering the path of others with what they’re facing. It’s a mixed bag of an episode but that’s an improvement over past episodes when you get down to it. Bringing everyone back together is a big plus but it’s also a reminder of how much has been lost along the way. Sadly, the end of the episode brings us more Zack that’s going to muck up things in a big way as we go into the last two episodes.
Grade: B-
