Welcome to The Strain-ger Talk, where each week we breakdown and discuss this week’s new episode of FX’s The Strain. We will be going over major plot points, the game plan from both sides of the upcoming war, best action moments, new types of vampires, and of course the Tongue-Punch of the Week. If you missed last week’s talk then click here! Now a lot of drama happened this week that we need to cover, so without further ado, lets talk some Strainge!

*MAJOR SPOILERS AND MINOR NUDITY AHEAD! IF YOU DO NOT WANT THIS EPISODE SPOILED OR TO SEE KEVIN DURAND’S BUTT THEN STOP READING*

Breakdown:

This week’s episode begins with Eichorst talking to Bolivar, telling him about what happened with The Master and how he needs a new body. The conversation ends with Eichorst telling him that The Master needs unwavering support from the other Strigoris and him. This scene is a bit awkward, mostly because we haven’t seen much of Bolivar since his final transformation. He popped up and tongue-punched Nora’s mom randomly and was in the final battle of season one, but other than that he hasn’t had a big role. Suddenly he seems like he might be of bigger use in The Master’s plan, even if it hasn’t been shown until now. Apparently he is not only now capable of free thought, but he has the ability defy Eichorst and The Master? Has he shown signs of defiance before and thats why Eichorst is questioning his loyalty? Most Strigori don’t have independent thought, so when did he regain his? Did he ever lose it as one of the original infected? My biggest problem with this is the screaming question of WHY IS HE STILL WEARING HIS WIG!?!?!?! Sure he looks wicked creepy with it and it helps use the audience to identify him, but really, the wig shouldn’t have lasted this long without him constantly adjusting/saving it. Luckily before I could get too turned away from the wig, we are given more of what is quickly becoming the best past of the show: Strigori Kelly.

The scene opens with Kelly surrounded by “her children,” The Feelers. The interaction between the side crawling children and Kelly comes off as a mother-cub relationship. These children look to her for support and guidance as she calls them up, one by one, to be “inspected.” Suddenly when one does not pass her inspection, she snaps its neck. I love this interaction between Kelly and The Feelers as the relationship between them comes off as a twist parental kind, but in this moment we see that no matter what, they are all pawns/weapons for The Master. Even though her actions come off as motherly, she is still controlling them to do The Master’s bidding. At the end of the episode we see Kelly returning to her house to retrieve Zach’s clothing in order for the children to find him, only this time their numbers have dwindled to four. Clearly she chose the best of the group and slaughtered the rest. I also would be lying if I wasn’t cheering on those little bastards to find Zach because, well, he is annoying me.

Parts get re-casted all the time in TV series. Sometimes they try to hide it with great success and other times not so much. In the case of re-casting Zach Goodweather in The Strain it has been largely unsuccessful. First off, it came at an extremely weird time for the characters. This season we see Eph drinking again as a way to deal with his ex-wife becoming a vampire, allowing us to see the side of Eph that caused Kerry to divorce him in the first place. The drinking also helps him deal with the lengths he has to go with experimenting on a middle age couple they found in the first episode. So we are seeing him hide behind the bottle, causing him to become a dick. There is a rocky balance with handling the drama of show, especially with Eph’s drinking. Sometimes it is handled very well, but it has always been one of the show’s weak point. The episode starts to hit a good stride with Eph using booze to deal with what he has to do to find a cure. This stride is destroyed when his son walks into the room. Take a moment to look at the photo above. Now, understandably so, Zach is going through a lot after seeing his mother as a vampire trying to kill him. But his interactions with Eph feel extremely forced and weird. Why does he have a weird vendetta against his father? There is, what feels like, a lot of tension between Zach and Eph which often ends with Eph acting childish to Zach. Zach in the second season, often has a posture that would suggest that he is ready to fight, with his face tilted down leaving harsh shadows covering half of it. Zach is unintentionally coming off like a psychopath, which is a dramatic shift from the kind kid who risked his life to get an old lady her smokes in the first season. I am having a hard time getting over everything that is happening with their relationship and hope they fix this soon as it takes away from the best parts of the show. Luckily, Dutch, Fet, and Abraham are there to save the episode.

This week’s episode further develops Fet’s relationship with Abraham and Dutch. Fet checks in with Abraham who is completely absorbed by his failure to kill The Master and dealing with his old age getting in the way of his mission. Fet really cares about the aging hunter and acts as his guardian, making sure to remind him to eat and checking in on him. He even tries to get his mind off of the task of finding the ancient book by inviting him on hunts, making sure to show Abraham that he is still valuable to the team. Later, when Abraham goes to confront Palmer at the new Freedom Shelter, Fet is there to back him up and create a diversion so that they can escape. I am really glad they are exploring Fet as a bigger part of the team other than the muscle. His relationship with Abraham doesn’t feel forced and at times comes off as sweet, even when they are insulting each other. Fet’s relationship with Dutch also strengthens this week as well.

Dutch has changed quite a bit from the one-dimensional hacker/damsel in distress in the first season to the present badass vampire hunter. Last episode we see her contributing more to the protection of their headquarters than most of the other characters. She is also the only other person to join Fet on his mission to take back the neighborhood. After killing a group of Strigori in close quartered fighting, she shows a more affectionate side with Fet as she “teaches” him how to swim. She is becoming a well rounded and awesome character in the show. I am hoping they will continue to make her a strong female character in a show that is mostly male dominated. I love the fact that the three most out there characters (the aged vampire, the rebel hacker, and the badass exterminator) are becoming some of the most developed characters in the show, even if it is leaving Eph, Zach, and Nora in the dust.

In this week’s flashback bits, we see how Palmer and Abraham’s paths were connected before the outbreak. It turns out that when Abraham was a professor at a University, Palmer hired him to find both the silver wolf cane and the ancient book, Occido Lumen. This perfectly ties in how Abraham came into possession of the cane (through an extremely awkward chase apparently), the genesis of Palmer finding Eichorst and becoming a part of The Master’s plan, as well as driving Abraham’s long hunt for the Occido Lumen. The scenes between the two both in the past and present are fantastic, as we also see Palmer grow out of his money bag pawn role for The Master and into a major player in the war. Palmer attributes the success of their evil plans to Abraham and basically admits that the book is still out there. This give Abraham what he needs to fuel his quest for the book. It is obvious the book will play a big part in both the flashbacks and present story lines which I look forward to greatly, so long as they can figure out how to make young Abraham not look like a Muppet.

New and improved Palmer seems to be more rounded with this episode. Last week I talked about how his character became a dick with little to no reason, but this weeks episode proved he has always been a dick and that it was his illness that made him too weak to be a dick. His plan unfolds as he gives a rallying speech to the public about the strength and endurance of New Yorkers, all the while his Freedom Shelters are collecting citizen’s blood type and other information. I still don’t understand what they are doing with the relationship between Coco and Palmer, hopefully they will work on that in future episodes.

Tongue-Punch of the Week:

This week’s award is given mostly because it is the only tongue-punch to happen in this episode. Even though it is the only one to happen, it is still a pretty great moment. We see a former Nazi doctor who has been broken from years of hiding and finally being identified, giving himself over to Eichorst in the final flashback of the week. This is a great moment to show how Eichorst manipulates people, as he sells The Master as the new and final fuser for them to follow. This is also the first time we see Eichorst in the flashbacks using his Strigori “abilities.” Extra points to the show makers for including a mirror in the background for this moment as we not only see the moment from the perspective of both characters, we get to see Eichorst’s image vibrate in the mirror’s image.

Best Action Sequence of the Week:

Dutch and Fet start Fet’s plan of reclaiming New York one block at a time at the local Rec center. This leads to them finding a bunch of Strigoris hiding in the shower room of the facility. This is a pretty sweet action sequence as we are introduced to a new weapon: Silver glitter bombs. Dutch and Fet use these to injure a group in a small space and then priced to chop of heads in slow motion. The scene is short, bloody, and awesome with a hint of camp. Thank god because this episode was getting a little slow as the only other moving scene was a poorly executed chase sequence in the flashback.

Final Thoughts:

This episode sadly was a bit of a let down for me. Even though they continued to develop my favorite characters and to continued making Kelly one scary awesome bad guy, they haven’t addressed the issues with Eph and Zach. This is a big problem that will continue to plague the show and possibly ruin it if its not fixed. The first season had a big focus on their relationship and it helped to ground the craziness of the show in reality. Now Zach comes into the show for one scene looking like he has been sulking in his room all day listening to My Chemical Romance playing with dead squirrels. And what with him messing with their board at the end? Such a prick move. Luckily the show has always found a way to keep me interested, as shown with Kelly’s transformation/role in The Master’s plan and Abraham’s life story. It is looking like next week Kelly and The Feelers (good band name) will collide with Eph, and I can’t wait to see the team deal with the Feelers. BRING ON THE GLITTER BOMBS!

More Screen Shots:

 

 

 

 

What do you think of this week’s episode? Am I being too harsh on Zach and Eph? Do you like where they are going with Kelly? Do you love Dutch, Fet, and Abraham as much as I do? Let us know in the comments and we will see all you Strain-gers for next week’s episode “Fort Defiance.”