Welcome to The Strain-ger Talk, where each week we breakdown and discuss last night’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. Now a lot happened in season premiere that we need to cover, so without further ado, lets talk some Strainge!

 

*MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! IF YOU DO NOT WANT THIS EPISODE SPOILED THEN STOP READING*

 

Breakdown:

The season premiere is here it did not disappoint, mostly. The episode opens up a prologue directed by Co-Creator/Storytelling Badass Guillermo Del Toro and it plays out like a lot of Del Toro’s previous work, especially the opening to the Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. The prologue covers the origin of The Master’s current body as told to a young Abraham by his grandmother. This sequence will defiantly be a highlight of the series as Del Toro changes up the tone a bit from previous flashbacks to bring a mythic fairytale feeling to the story. The tale follows a overly kind nobleman named Usaf who is brought onto a hunt because his brother believes the blood of grey wolf will cure him of his illness that is causing his body to be extremely fragile. We see the origins of the silver cane here. What the group finds instead is the 7th ancient Strigori. After a very short fight, his is over taken by The Ancient and becomes The Master we know and love. The story not only shows the 7th ancient getting his massive host, but also shows how the evil embodied by the vampires corrupts absolutely, and it is done beautifully. Not only that, how he takes over the kind and gentle giant is gnarly.

Thats right, after stuffing his face with dirt and vampire parasites, The Ancient then gives his soul to a new host by puking it into his mouth. And it was awesome. The prologue then wraps up with The Master returning to his castle never to be seen in the daylight again. Abraham’s grandmother tells him that evil lurks in the world and he must stop it. As the focus turns to modern times with Abraham staring up at the theater where last season ended, you can see these words still raining in his mind. Abraham’s story and character become a lot more complex with this episode as we see him torn between fighting evil and the limitations of his old age. He ends up going down underground where he encounters the vampire swat team and the other ancients.

It is here we learn that they want to create an alliance with Abraham, adding more conflict to the man who swore to destroy all evil creatures. We see him struggle to accept this as the episode plays out. I am really glad they give his character this conflict. Abraham was always one of the more interesting characters in the show, but he spent a lot of season one making grumpy faces at people as he gave them disgruntled speeches. I am glad he is growing more as a character. I wish I could say the same for Eph and his son though.

When we last saw Eph, he started drinking again after seeing his ex-wife as a vampire. This is handled in a bit of an over the top fashion and at times feels forced. Do we really need Eph drinking when he still doesn’t seem totally convinced about what is happening? The worst offense made is when he gets in an argument with his son about the mother. The sudden introduction of a new actor playing his son makes this interaction even more painful to watch as the both struggle to bring depth to their characters that just isn’t there in the moment. You can tell thy tried to hide this recasting by not showing the son’s face in the beginning recap, but it painfully shows once he’s on-screen. In fact, if it wasn’t for Eph’s search for a cure and the badass action sequence in the storage units, his character would have been of to a much worse start for this season. Luckily though, the show gets back to its main focus, vampire apocalypse.

 

While Eph and the others try to find a cure the bad guys are moving forward with phase two of their plans. It is also here we see the damage the gang did to The Master from last season’s finale. As we learned in the prologue, this body was not the master’s first nor will it be his last. Even though they didn’t succeed in killing him, they hurt him bad enough that his body is now dying, which means he will be looking for a new one. It is also during this meeting that he calls for “the children.” We will get to that in a bit.

The scenes between The Master and Eichorst are on point and haunting as usual, but I found the scenes between Eichorst and Palmer lost their footing a bit. They put emphasis on the fact that not only did The Master’s white blood rejuvenate Palmer, but might have made him “bolder,” which I am guessing they mean he is gonna be a big creep to everyone around him now. I hope they start pointing Palmer into a new and interesting direction now that he is no longer bed ridden. Maybe make his more than just the money behind the whole evil operation. One can hope.

Another character that has grown more since the last time we saw them was resident badass Fet. Last season we mostly saw kick ass and be an all around nice guy, but not much else. When we first see him he is fortifying his apartment and making it vampire proof. He tells Eph his plans to fortify the entire building, then block, and so on. This shows that even when facing crazy evil he is thinking about others. He is defiantly filling in the shoes of the working class hero in show. Along with having some of the more badass scenes of the episode, we start to see his attachment to Abraham more than the previous season as be treats him as a cross between a mentor and a father figure. I look forward to seeing the relationship grow more as the series goes on.

After an awesome action sequence in a storage warehouse, we get to see what has happened to Kelly as she is given back her own thoughts. We learn that she is being brought up in the vampire ranks and will given control over The Feelers, Children of the Night. What were once blind children, they can now see what other can’t, and not Kelly controls them. This is awesome as she was probably one of the most boring characters in the first season until her last episode as a human. Glad to see she is becoming a bigger character in the show and will be used against Eph and the others. Also, these kids are wicked scary looking.

Tongue-Punch of the Week:

There is no contest that the coveted reward goes to the ancients. When the three Ancients are drop their dinner in the form of a chained naked man we knew we were in for some brutality, and yet, they still went further than I thought they would. The Ancients wake up, start tongue-punching and slashing the defenseless man until the camera finally pulls away. It’s a brutal scene that serves as a reminder to Abraham and Gus that even if these vampire want to rid the world of The Master, they are still evil.

Best Action Sequence of the Week:

Hands down the scene where the group get over whelmed at the storage facility is one of the best action sequences in the show. They did  great job utilizing the automatic lights turning off to create some good suspense. They also had the lights turn off in the middle of the fight, using only the strobing of the gun flashes to great affect. Almost everyone has at least one badass moment in this sequence showing their strengths and weaknesses. The sequence also ended with a random couple getting tongue-punched and becoming infected hosts, giving Eph the test subjects he need for his cure.

Final Thoughts:

This episode continues to showcase what makes the show great with an awesome action sequence, great kills, and awesome flashbacks. Sadly, it seems that the writers are still struggling to make some of the drama believable and not ham-fisted. This is a big issue if it isn’t addressed soon can be the shows undoing. Other than that though, I am excited that they are exploring the different ranks and type of vampires as the mythology of the show grows. I am beyond excited to see where the show goes from here out as they set up a lot in this episode.

More Screen Shots:

What did you think of the season premiere? Do you agree or disagree? What were your favorite moments? See you all next week!