The Strain: Experimenting with Danger

First Aired September 4th, 2016.

Scientists experiment with captured Strigoi and inject a comatose woman with a serum derived from Strigoi blood. The hope is that they can develop a cure, but she quickly turns and they’re forced to shoot her.

The surviving commandos leave to stop the spreading Strigoi outbreak in Washington DC. And Vasiliy (played by Kevin Durand) gets drunk and picks up a woman at a bar. Ephraim (played by Corey Stoll) finds Vasiliy and Abraham (played by David Bradley) and tells them about Nora’s (played by Mia Maestro) death and Zack (played by Max Charles) being kidnapped. Meanwhile, Zack becomes frustrated with Kelly (played by Natalie Brown) at being kept out of the loop and being locked up. Dutch (played by Ruta Gedmintas) joins a group of hacker friends searching a condo for food, berating one who sees the outbreak as a way to break down society’s barriers. While searching the apartment, Strigoi kill several of the group and the others flee, leaving Dutch to fight her way out. Eichhorst (played by Richard Sammel) forces Eldritch (played by Jonathan Hyde) to use his influence to get people to register their blood types before their new “facilities” are finished.

Well, that experiment failed miserably. I guess these doctors aren’t as good with dealing with diseases as Ephraim. If the plague is already spreading to other cities, Vasiliy must realize things aren’t looking good, so why not have a night of fun? Ephraim is clearly looking for an opening to steal the Lumen and Eichhorst is preparing blood farming facilities of some kind. Are they getting too lazy to hunt now? Most of the scenes in this episode just set up big story arcs for later in the season, it’s not a bad episode, but nothing substantial really happens. However, seeing Dutch back on the screen kicking Strigoi ass was a welcome sight after she was absent from the premiere. Hopefully, she’ll end up back within the main storyline instead of pointless subplots but really any scene with Dutch is usually going to be fun to watch.

Eldritch is revealed to be responsible for the experiments, in hope of healing himself after Eichhorst refused to until he showed results. Abraham continues to examine the Lumen over Ephraim’s derisive claims that it’s useless. Quinlan (played by Rupert Penry-Jones), however, is suspicious both of Ephraim’s continued interest in the book and his unexpected arrival. Dutch catches up to her hacker friends to take her share of the food, but before she leaves notices one of them is infected and swiftly decapitates him on her way out. Vasiliy tells Abraham that Rudyard, the man who previously had the Lumen, wants to meet him. He and Vasiliy go to the meet point that night where they are instead met by Eldritch, who offers to leave New York and withdraw his resources from the Master. His condition is that Abraham gives up the formula he uses from Strigoi blood to remain healthy, but due to previous betrayals, Abraham refuses the deal. However, he and Vasiliy decide to use Eldritch’s desire for the formula to their advantage to manipulate him.

The Lumen speaks about the face of God shining on the Master to kill him. If we start throwing Angels and that mythology into the mix that will be a bit much. Ephraim and Quinlan clearly don’t get along but I could see them becoming an unlikely team who get things done, like a buddy cop movie—but one of them is undead. Dutch needs to choose her friends more carefully. They always leave her behind when things go south, but at least this time she got sweet revenge. Eldritch finally wised up and realized the Master and Eichhorst probably wouldn’t give him the immortality he wants. Always be wary of those who work for you, because if you screw with them enough times they are going to screw you twice as bad. Eldritch can’t be trusted as far as you can throw him (although he’s very frail so that might be kind of far). But he’s susceptible to being used if you got the right bait, plus Abraham has a decades-old score to settle with him.

Zack leaves his room and when he finds Kelly feeding on someone he tries to run. He has an asthma attack and Kelly nearly turns him until Bolivar/The Master (played by Jack Kesy) stops her and feeds Zack white blood to help him. Quinlan finds Ephraim trying to steal the Lumen, but instead offers to help use the book to lure the Master out of hiding to kill him. If not for the Master’s interference, Kelly would have made Zack dessert. Let’s see if Zack is still happy being with his mother after that. Baiting the Master with the Lumen is going to be a bloody mess, but it beats having Abraham spend the next few episodes just reading.

Quotes/Thoughts

“Oh right, you’re half human, I’ve been meaning to ask you about that…did your mom go to a fertility clinic for the undead?”

Zack wasn’t allowed to see his father or leave his room and was nearly eaten, yet by next episode he’ll likely still want to stay with his mommy.

“We’re not going to win this war by deciphering a magic spell.”

People keep saying the city is making progress against the Strigoi, but in every episode buildings are on fire.

If you enjoyed Manny’s review, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You can also follow him on Twitter @KN_Manny.

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