‘The Strain’ Recap ‘The Disappeared’: Why Have You Forsaken Me?

The team of slayers tries to track down Eph’s ex-wife and son, Dutch gets betrayed, Abraham plays babysitter and a flashback shows more insight into Eichorst’s history…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Following the most horror-centric episode of ‘The Strain’ last week, the series picks right back up with the new episode titled ‘The Disappeared’ as Ephraim and his band of vampire slayers make their great escape in a bread truck after a night filled with undead slaughter and the eventual death of his good friend Jim Kent.

Eph is joined by Nora, new team member Vasiliy Fett, Abraham and Dutch — the computer hacker responsible for bringing the internet and phone lines down for the last couple of weeks. Eph is on a mission to get to his son and ex-wife to make sure they are okay and invite them to join the team while this apparently is the longest night ever because sunrise never seems to happen.

When Eph gets home he’s greeted by a scary sight as he searches for his son….

Daddy’s Home

When Zach returns home from an eternally long sleepover, the lights are out and it seems as if no one is around until he sees a shadow moving around the living room so it must be safe to go inside. As he wanders into the living room, he sees his mom’s boyfriend Matt but this isn’t the kind soul who just wanted to be a good stepdad — nope he got infected a few weeks back and he’s thirsty for blood. He goes after Zach, but before he can get a snack pack, Eph shows up and lops Matt’s head off.

The only problem is once he settles his son down, his ex-wife Kelly is nowhere to be found. The team searches the house from top to bottom, but she’s not there. Matt had a notable slash across his face before Eph killed him, so he wonders if that wasn’t Kelly’s handiwork?

Zach has already seen enough for today so his dad sends him off on the bread truck with Team Slayer so he and Nora can stay behind to burn Matt’s body. Because, you know, seeing the dude get his head cut off with a shovel is fine, but watching his body burn would just be too much.

In the truck, Dutch wants to go home so Vasiliy takes her there while Abraham shares stories of survival with young Zach. Some of the tales were probably a touch mature for the little boy, but he’s about to live in a world where vampires are trying to take over. The time for sugar coating things is long gone. Abraham tries to explain the vampire virus to Zach while comforting him with the fact that these creatures go after the things they love first and foremost so at least now you know Matt loved you! Needless to say, Abraham’s grand parenting skills leave something to be desired but hey, he signed up to kill vampires not be a babysitter.

Hacker Central

Vasiliy walks Dutch up to her apartment just to be safe and she quickly reacts with horror when she walks inside. No, she doesn’t find a nest of vampires waiting on her arrival. Instead, it’s a hacker’s worst nightmare — her computers and all the backups are gone! Her girlfriend (or at least I assume it was her girlfriend) stole everything and all the money she got for finishing the job. Dutch’s grief is quickly dashed when her neighbor bursts in, but instead of looking for Twinkies after his normal weed binge, he’s after her blood. Yep, we’ve got another vampire on our hands.

Vasiliy uses an Andy Dufresne style pick axe to kill the vampire and then tells Dutch she’d be better off with the rest of the group and under his care of course. I kind of expected Vasiliy to be the fan favorite once this series got up and running, but even I can’t deny that he’s the best no nonsense hero of them all. I wasn’t sure I could by Kevin Durand as a good guy — considering the inordinate amount of villains he’s played to steely perfection. This time around, however, he’s playing the anti-hero and doing an excellent job at it.

Another One Bites the Dust

Gus is still trying his best to comfort Felix, who is now pale as a ghost and blowing up oatmeal all over the jail cell. The cops are no help. Medics won’t answer the phone and all they can do is transfer him to Riker’s Island and the on staff doctor will check him out when they arrives.

The only problem is Felix is beyond help — not even Pepto Bismol will do any good — and in the middle of the bus ride to prison, he geeks out and unleashes his tentacle at the driver, forcing the van to crash. He eats the other cop once he gets in the back of the van and just when it looks like he’s about to turn on Gus, his old friend pulls the gun from the cop’s holster and blasts him in the head with a few bullets.

Gus uncuffs himself and makes a run for it out into the cold, unrelenting night. I’m starting to wonder at what point Gus will finally meet up with Eph and Abraham. Given his quick escape, I’m thinking it’s any time now. Vasiliy can’t be the only muscle on the team — Gus will be a good fit.

Mid-Apocalypse Nookie

Eph and Nora burn Matt’s body and then they finally break down and talk about Jim’s passing a few hours ago. It was a rough time but what better way to pay tribute to your fallen friend that ripping off your clothes and jumping into your ex-wife’s bed together? Granted, Nora wasn’t hard on the eyes by any means, but it was kind of disturbing how quickly they forgot about the vampires looming all around them and decided to get in some sexy time.

Well it backfires almost immediate because while they’re still in post-coital bliss, Kelly’s friend Diane shows up and busts them and then proceeds to bust Eph’s chops for not only having sex with another woman but doing it on their bed. Eph quickly blurts out that he loves his wife as Nora sits there feeling all kinds of rejected. I have to say, Eph may be the central hero in this story but he’s kind of a dick when it comes to the ladies in his life. Stick to finding viruses, Doc, cause love just ain’t your thing.

The Batcave

Back at Abraham’s pawn shop, the team arrives and gets locked down in his ultra-secure basement where he starts to cook up some dinner. He comforts Zach, who is clearly shaken by the day’s events. He also gets a confession from Dutch — she’s the one responsible for this entire internet and phone blackout after receiving a huge payday from industrialist Eldritch Palmer. She had no clue this is what was going on and to his credit, Abraham doesn’t freak out one bit when Dutch tells him the news. In fact, Abraham now knows the human money man helping the Master spread his plague across New York.

It’s hard to say if Eph and the rest of the group will be so happy hearing the same news, but it’s out there now.

The Creation

Back in 1944, we get a few more flashback scenes of Abraham’s final days as a prisoner in the Nazi concentration camp as Allied forces bear down on the Germans. Abraham is clearly suspicious about everything going on around him, including the gigantic coffin he constructed at the behest of German officer Thomas Eichorst. To protect himself, Abraham keeps a silver blade tucked in his sock and bed at night.

The next evening, Abraham spots the Master rolling around the barracks, sucking more of his friends dry and dead before snapping their necks to make sure they don’t come back. Finally, he tries to make his move, but the Master was ready for it. He taunts Abraham saying that he’s seen the young man staring at him every night without ever doing a thing. At the same time, the Master is crushing his hands as punishment, but never actually kills him (obviously).

The next day, the Jews in the camp are being separated into groups — one of which is being shipped off to another prison, the others are being executed at gunpoint and dumped into a mass grave they helped to dig. When Abraham runs into Eichorst and the German sees his damaged hands, he hopes all those chats and evening spent around that coffin he was carving paid off. Eichorst will surely save him, right?

Wrong.

Eichorst dispatches Abraham into the group about to be murdered until Allied guns start going off in the distances and bombs explode overhead. In the panic as the Germans retreat, all of the Jewish prisoners run for it including Abraham as he makes his quick escape. Later that night in the woods, Eichorst is running in fear for his life after the Allied forces track down all the Germans responsible for the slaughter at the camp.

He finds a hidden passage way where he’s tucked the coffin built by Abraham over what has to be many, many months. Eichorst finally breaks down and asks why his Master has forsaken him after years of loyalty and service. It doesn’t take long for the Master to arrive, and he actually removes his hood so we can see his face for the first time. The Master looks very much like Eichorst without the makeup — no nose, teeth sharp and jagged and an almost grey look to his skin.

The Master pierces Eichorst’s arm and he first wheezes in pain, but soon he knows what’s happening as the ageless vampire then slashes his own arm to release a giant white worm, that quickly trickles down and into the open would on the German. This is the moment back in the middle of World War II where Eichorst stopped being a living monster and became an undead horror instead.

Now we know when and how Eichorst was created and when Abraham was able to escape his clutches. We still don’t know whose heart that was in the pilot that Abraham was feeding before this new vampire plague started and how is it no one else has seen this jar o’ heart since he opened up his batcave to the new team? Also did anyone else notice the poster of Bolivar at Dutch’s apartment? Where is the goth rocker these days? He’s the only survivor from the original fight not already turned into kibble and bits.

Tune in next week for another new episode of ‘The Strain’ kicking off on FX at 10pm ET/PT.