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

Breakdown:

This week it is all about The Feelers! The episode opened with Councilwoman’s strike force working through an apartment building, moving people and picking off Strigori as the clear each room. They are very organized as the clear the rooms, until one of them stumbles on one of The Feelers. The action that takes place in the apartment is great and I will discuss the opening in more detail in the Action Scene of the Week. But one of the great part of this entire sequence is not only showing how much ass The Feelers can kick, but it also shows what the strike force know about their enemy. They do not know about UV or silver harming them, but that doesn’t stop them from blowing their heads off. They also don’t know how the infection spreads. At the end of the sequence one of the get bite in the leg by a Feeler. In a very heartbreaking moment he states “At least I didn’t get hit in the neck.”

While we as an audience know that it doesn’t matter where you are bitten, the scene showcases how little everyone outside of Eph’s group knows about the Strigori. As the epidemic spreads and more people sep up and out of the victim role, its good to see their stories comes to light in the series. Luckily, their team is about to get a crash course on Strigoris.

Last week I talked about how Eph’s group and the Councilwoman need to band together in order to take on the Strigori threat, and this week they delivered. I was wondering how they were gonna bring the two groups together after Fet was violently arrested. Nora and Dutch bail Fet out of jail with the promise to share what they know about the enemy and infections. This is great as the group has a lot of knowledge, but little resources while the Councilwoman has a lot of resources, but little knowledge on the Strigori. The team up shows its benefits from the start as Nora reduces their detention of possible infected people from 72hrs to 1-2hrs by showing them that the worms show up on UV light. As she shares this knowledge with the Councilwoman were are treated to a scene that shows both women dealing with death. Nora, who in the first season couldn’t kill her best friend who became infected, pulls the plug on the Councilwoman’s nephew as she is unable to cope with doing it herself. This shows a lot has changed in Nora, as she doesn’t even question taking his life stating that he would want to go as a human. Perhaps all the carnage or experimenting on people finally got to her. Whether this makes her stronger or shows how broken she has become has yet to be shown. She is ready to put aside emotions to what is needed, hopefully not at th cost of her humanity. Meanwhile, the Councilwoman is going to have to confront these same dilemmas as the show continues if her goal of taking the city back continues.

The other side of this new alliance has Fet and Dutch joining the strike force to show them other ways of killing the Strigori and joining them on a hunt. They show them how silver hurts the Strigori with their fancy nail guns which leaves the strike force unimpressed. After Fet takes out a Feeler in the wall using only his rebar, we are treated to the THE RETURN OF THE GLITTER BOMB! I loved this device when it was introduced a few episodes ago and am beyond excited that it makes a return this week in one of the best ways possible. After Fet finds a group of Strigori at the bottom of an elevator shaft, Dutch unleashes a glitter storm that would make any strip club jealous. This scene is great as the last time we saw this device used it was used in a defensive manner. But here, it is used to fully kill a large group in a small space. Great stuff.

Also in this episode we see Eph put his plan to goes to DC to try and weaponize his “cure.” He goes out and gets new ids for Nora, himself, and Zach because outside of New York, he is still a wanted fugitive who has been all over the news. Nora and Zach convince him that they can’t go with him as they would give away his identity too quickly. Eph eventually recognizes that bringing them would put all three of them at risk and so he goes solo. But not before he shaves his head!

This is a big moment, if only for everyone who ever complained about Stoll’s wig. To be honest, it never bothered me. Sure it threw me off because I was use to him being bald from House of Cards, but that was only for the first few minutes of the pilot. Leaving the city was not going to be easy for Eph, he would have to get through the heavily guarded borders where almost everyone knows his face, but his new look and id were enough to get by. That is until he is on the train and spots his former boss, Barnes.

He immediately recognizes Eph and trie to reason with him stating that he can be trusted and wouldn’t mess with Eph’s plans in DC. Eph doesn’t trust him and proceeds to try and run. I was temped to use their fight scene as the action sequence of the week, as it was one of the more realistic fights scenes I have seen on TV. Both characters are people who have had little to no fighting training who are put into a fight or flight situation, and it shows. The fighting is sloppy and brutal. Ultimately it ends with Eph throwing Barnes off the train. But before he does, Barnes makes it clear that he is working for The Master and states that Eph is on the wrong side of things. Corey Stoll says that Eph throwing Barnes off the train was an accident and it was in self defense, but I didn’t think it was. Either way, Eph has killed his first human. This will ultimately push his character in a new direction, most likely further down the bottles of liquor he has been so fond of lately.

On the other side of the war, we see Palmer and Coco get a bit closer as they treat themselves to a nice dinner. This scene is a bit boring, but it does show two things. Palmer is talks to a Bishop who hints that they might have found what he was looking for, hinting that it might be the book Abraham has been searching for for years. Two, Palmer states that the rich have the luxury of denial, as shown with the lavish dinning they are enjoying while the rest of the city is in chaos. I love how the show presents classism in this pre-apocalyptic environment, and this is one of the best examples of it. After a nice meal, Palmer and Coco return to his office for a night cap and dance as a building burns in the background. This scene was weird and felt a bit unnecessary, except for the fact that it shows Coco becoming more corrupted by Palmer. Her character always seemed to be on the fence of good vs. evil and now it seems she has given into Palmer’s plan. Boy there was a lot of sexual tension in this scene.

Abraham Setrakian had a big week as well. He visited our favorite dealer of all things bad on his quest for the Occido Lumens. This lead may or may not lead to the ancient book, but ultimately Abraham proves yet again to be a badass and gains the respect of the gangsters to, at least, enlist their paid help in finding the book. Either way, they seem to have a decent lead on the book and hopefully they are right as this season is starting to ramp up as we reach the half way point. Abraham is also visited by Fitzwilliam, who agrees to help him out in his efforts. I am glad Fitzwilliam is onboard with Abraham’s plans to take on Palmer and The Master, but did it really need to take three episodes to do this? They are really drawing out his story this season.

The episode ends with the introduction of a hooded Strigori known only as Quinlan. Fans of the book will recognize him and know how much of a badass he is, so this introduction brought much joy to fans. Even if you haven’t read the books, this is a awesome introduction to a character that Guillermo Del Toro has stated in the past to be his favorite of the series. I am really glad this character didn’t get a soft introduction like others have gotten through out this season. I look forward to see what they do with this great character this season and if you watch the preview for the next episode, you know he will be off to a good start.

Zach’s Freakout of the Week:

He, actually didn’t have one. His interactions with the others were pretty well grounded. When Eph tried taking him to DC he mentioned not leaving without his mother, but it felt genuine. He reactions were granted, even if the motivation behind them were a bit off. Are they hitting a stride with Zach now? I hope so. Zach is still a big character in the show. I hope they make him fit better into the show and this week’s episode might be the starting point.

Fet’s Badass Moment of the Week:

Fet continues to kick so much ass, it was hard to decide on what moment was the best from him this week. Was it him taking on a Feeler in the walls? Nope. Was it him and Dutch interacting with the strike force after being bailed? Nope. His most badass moment is when we see him getting bailed out of jail. This charismatic vampire ass kicker was beaten and jailed last episode leaving us with the feeling that he is doomed. The next time we see him, he is just chilling and playing cards with his fellow detainees. Bravo Fet. Bravo.

Tongue-Punch of the Week:

This weeks tongue-punch goes to the little Feeler who caught the swat member. This is a first in Tongue-Punch of the Week history that the punch didn’t land on the neck, instead it got him right in the leg. This entire scene first plays out like typical creepy kid scenarios we have seen in horror films dozens of times, but the tongue-punch brought it to a brutal level. This was of course quickly followed by the Feeler jumping up on the walls, adding another level of WTFness to these little bastards.

Best Action Sequence of the Week:

The best action sequence will be two this week. Both scenes take place in the apartment building against the same foe, even if they are separated in the episode, one is a continuation of the other. And man they rule. The show takes full advantage of combining Dutch/Fet’s street smarts with the strike force’s precision and organized methods. Both scenes are chaotic, brutal, but still have time for bit of humor. Its a great reminder that there is still a war being fought on the streets, especially when put into contrast with Palmer and Eph’s stories.

Final Thoughts:

This is one of the most solid episodes this season, and even the entire series, has produced. Everything is starting to come together, the show still expand its mythology, and their is some great character development amongst the chaos. The action and drama were on point this week and everyone seemed to be at the top of their game with this episode. Almost every character in this episode had a big part and showed some great depth, almost none were wasted. Hopefully next week we will see more of Gus and his new wrestling friend, maybe even have Kelly find Zach. I’m glad to see Zach being used in productive way this week, as they seemed to be struggling with him over the last few weeks. Quinlan looks to be one awesome character and will be a great addition to the show. I can’t wait to see what happens in the next episode.

What did you think of this episode?  Do you agree with me or think I am wrong? Let us know in the comments and we will see you next week with “Identity.”

Next Week Preview:

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