In last week’s episode of “The Strain,” after Kelly Goodweather infected her BFF, she had a private audience with the Master. Ephraim played a game of “he loves her, he loves her not” with Nora’s heart and we learned that Mr. Fitzwilliams is one of the good guys. Setrakian has all the weapons he needs at his bat cave, but who will go after the Master tonight? Grab your UV lights and follow me.
Experiments
While Fet and Ephraim experiment with UV light bombs to destroy, or at least keep at bay, vampires; Mrs. Martinez is looking for her special ashtray. This lady is suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Should we trust her with a lit cigarette?
Ephraim is constantly putting down Fet and it’s getting old already. Fet and Setrakian seem to be the only ones who fully understand how dangerous the spreading infection is to mankind and they are trying to do what they can to protect themselves and find a way to kill the master vampire. Where oh where would you find a master vampire? They go searching the subway tunnels.
Zach
As a grandmother and a mother, I would have to slap some common sense into the adults on this series. Why would Nora or Ephraim think it was okey dokey to leave a child in charge of a woman who is agitated, frightened and unable to understand the danger she is in? But, they do. While the adults head out on their own little hobbit adventure, poor Zach has to deal with a chain smoker. Mariela Martinez wants her smokes and she wants them now. Kids are kids and even though Zach knows it’s dangerous to leave the safety of the Pawn Shop, he’s still a kid. We teach our children to be respectful towards the elderly and so Zach goes in search of cigarettes.
Gus
Gus has escaped the prison van which held his infected friend and heads to the only place he feels safe; home. But, Gus is in for more heartache because his brother and mother have been infected. Killing his brother was necessary; hard, but necessary. His mother, well that’s another story. Whenever I watch horror movies that involve people becoming infected and turning into vampires or zombies, I always wonder if I would be able to kill loved ones if I was forced to so in order to live. I don’t know if I could and Gus apparently felt the same with his beloved mother. He allows her to live.
The Master
While ignoring the plight of his friends who are having a hard time squeezing through a tight crawl space, Ephraim stumbles upon the king-sized coffin while searching for his missing wife and comes face to face with the master. I don’t know about you, but the master reminds me of a bizarre version of Herman Munster. Before the master can infect Ephraim, Fet comes to the rescue. Herr Eichorst has been AWOL the last few episodes and he is sorely missed.
Conclusion
In the book, Ephraim wasn’t portrayed as the obnoxious person he is in this series. In the last few episodes, Ephraim does nothing but put down Vasiliy, who is trying his best to destroy the vampires. These constant barbs are ridiculous, especially since it was Fet’s UV light bombs that save Ephraim’s sorry ass.
Zach almost got caught by looters and a vampire, but he got away and returned to Mariela with her precious cigarettes. He did get to meet Gus, if only for a moment, while at the convenience store.
I always enjoy the scenes that feature either Gus or Herr Eichorst. Why? Maybe it’s because Miguel Gomez and Richard Sammel portray their characters in a believable way. Gomes plays Gus as a street thug with a heart of gold and Sammel plays Eichorst as the bad man we love to hate. Gus and Eichorst are interesting characters and they don’t whine. Ephraim needs to grow a pair and the writing on this series needs to improve.
See you next week, my little blood banks, and watch out for those UV bombs
