‘The Strain’ Recap ‘Loved Ones’: Mama’s Not Coming Home

Eph goes on a search for his ex-wife as we find out what exactly happened to Kelly when she returned home 32 hours ago…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Following two straight week of taut, horror filled action from ‘The Strain’ it was high time for what I like to call a filler episode and while this week’s offering titled ‘Loved Ones’ wasn’t bad by any means, it didn’t carry the same kind of weight of the last few. Fact is throughout a season of any series whether it’s ‘The Strain’, ‘Sons of Anarchy’ or ‘Breaking Bad’, there has to be some time to breathe or eventually you’ll run out of air.

The latest episode mostly takes place in the not too distant past as we find out what exactly happened to Ephraim’s ex-wife Kelly over the course of the last 32 hours since they discovered her boyfriend Matt turned into a suck head before he almost claimed Zack as a midnight snack.

Vasiliy and Dutch try to rectify the whole ‘no phones, no internet’ problem as well in the only other major story this week so let’s get right in to it.

Find My Phone

We pick up this week the morning after Zack was rescued and brought back to Grandpa Abraham’s pawn shop where he’s exploring the electronic section trying to find a computer to use. Why is he searching for a computer you ask?

Well, Zack knows a tracking program by which he can search for his mother’s phone and a GPS locater will pinpoint its exact location. It’s probably not a mistake that the producers ultimately chose a Macbook and some random unknown iCloud program to search for the phone — maybe a subtle jab at Apple’s recent struggles to protect user information online? Like the prodigy he apparently is, Zack finds out where his mom’s phone has been sitting for the past couple of hours and he sends his dad hot on the trail to search for it.

Eph is obviously concerned about his son’s unrealistic expectations about the condition his mother will be in when they find her, but he’s probably sharing in some of those same delusions as well. Eph does manage to give a half-hearted ‘I wanted to be with you last night’ speech to Nora after he blurted out to her friend Diane that he still loved his wife right after they had some sex on his ex-wife’s bed. Following a quick embrace with Nora, Eph grabs a gun and he’s off to find Kelly’s phone.

When he arrives at the location, he discovers the phone is being held by a homeless woman who eventually leads him to the location where she found it. The phone was dropped just outside the door of Kelly’s car, which remains parked and unlocked. Eph climbs inside and finds a tissue spotted with blood and he immediately begins to assume the worst.

Kelly’s Journey

So going back 32 hours, Kelly is sleeping in bed when Matt finally arrives home. He’s already been infected the night before, but the transformation isn’t quite complete so while he’s thirsty for some blood, Matt still has enough senses about him to not actually attack his girlfriend — yet.

Kelly wakes up and fights with Matt through a locked bathroom door before heading off to work. When she arrives at school, Kelly soon realizes that there aren’t any kids there to teach. Another colleague explains that half the school is out sick and they are calling a half day in the midst of the emergency.

Kelly heads home and by the time she arrives, Matt is already completely turned into a vampire and wastes no time launching his tentacle for her neck. She defends herself ‘Scream’ style by tossing appliances and anything nearby she can hit him and miraculously every single thing she throws lands! Still, Matt refuses to be deterred and he keeps coming. Finally, Kelly uses a sink stopper to grind his face like an orange, but the pulp that goes flying from Matt’s face carries those disgusting little worms with it. Kelly gets one on her cheek and then we finally see the infamous poster from ‘The Strain’ where the worm wiggles and squirms its way into her eye.

Kelly manages to get one last swipe at Matt (thus the cuts we saw on his face last week) and she runs for the door.

The next time we see Kelly she’s arriving at Zack’s school to pick him up, but it’s already night time and the kids are clearly nowhere to be found. Zack was sent home with Kelly’s friend Diane hours ago and his mother is acting rather strangely while walking around with a blood stain on the top of her head. The school administrator decides to call for help thinking Kelly has been a victim of a car accident and possibly a concussion, but before she can do much talking she has a stinger right to the neck. In the neck!!

Kelly then ventures off to her friend Diane’s place — she’s home now after walking in on Eph and Nora getting it on a few blocks away. Kelly asks about Zack but quickly puts her attention on Diane’s son who enters the room at just the wrong moment. Kelly’s finally undergone the full transformation and she whips out her blood tongue and laps up the little boy before turning on mom as well.

With her belly full and a lot of friends dead, Kelly starts wandering the streets of New York before a mysterious voice starts ringing in her head. It’s the Master calling out to her and when Kelly finds her way down into the subway system, she’s greeted by the massive vampire who stares at her eye to eye.

When he speaks to her, the Master says to ‘rejoice and embrace your fate’. A couple of weeks back, Abraham said that there’s a hierarchy of vampires with the Master at the top of the food chain and Eichorst has one of his generals. Maybe he has special plans for Kelly, knowing full well what her ex-husband is up to these days trying to wipe out the entire vampire race and all.

Breaking In, Breaking Out

While Eph searches for Kelly, the only other thing that happens this week is Dutch deciding to do some good by hopefully restoring the internet and phone services, but to do that she has to go back to the Stoneheart Group where Eldritch Palmer resides. She has to hack into the central mainframe there to hopefully sew up the hole she patched that put everybody in New York City back in 1985. Vasiliy accompanies her so he can flash his city inspection badge to get them in the building.

Once they arrive, Vasiliy smooth talks the receptionist while telling her he only needs 10 minute to sweep their cafeteria to give it a clean bill of health. She complies and Vasiliy is on cloud nine believing he’s a real silver tongued devil — until they arrive at the elevator stop and are greeted by security guards and Mr. Fitzwilliams — Palmer’s right hand man.

Fitzwilliams takes Dutch to meet with the old bastard, who is still bound to his bed and popping pills like they were Tic-Tacs. He yammers on and on about how he’s the ultimate hacker — finding a way to splice human DNA to thrive instead of decay as a person gets older. At some point soon, the Master better initiate him into his flock of the undead or this old guy ain’t going to make it. In the end, Palmer orders Fitzwilliams to eliminate Dutch and the rat catcher.

As they are being led to their deaths, Vasiliy and Dutch are met with a pleasant surprise at the end of the road — Fitzwilliams is letting them go. Turns out he’s not pleased with the course of action his boss has chosen and he’s not joining up to help cause the vampire apocalypse. Vasiliy asks Fitzwilliams to join them, but he just tells them to go now before it’s too late.

They scatter out of the back while not completing their mission, but still finding an inside man at the Stoneheart Group, who will certainly come in handy at a later date.

I’m Coming Home

Eph’s search eventually leads him to Diane’s house where he finds her and her son hiding in the dark, damp basement far away from the light of day. By this time it’s night, but you get the point. When mother and son both try to whip a tentacle in Eph’s direction, he has no choice but to put them both down while also realizing that Abraham’s prophecy about these monsters is true.

Once they are turned, the vampires first go after the ones they love.

Despite not actually finding Kelly alive or dead, Eph knows she’s one and has turned into one of the vampires judging by the scene he just left. He goes back to the pawn shop where he jumps all over Dutch when she arrives back with Vasiliy. She’s had enough of Eph’s insults so she bolts for the door and leaves the team behind. Once again, Eph is a dick just like last week. It’s hard to follow a truly unlikable character, but that’s what Eph is quickly becoming in this series. Thankfully we still have Vasiliy to root for the entire way.

Eph eventually shares what he knows with Zack while refusing to give up hope on finding Kelly. While waiting for his mom to come home, Zack scrolls through her phone, which is filled with pictures of them together as well as a video from his birthday where he got the bike he always wanted. The episode comes to an end with a single tear rolling down the little boy’s cheek as he wonders if his mom will ever make it back to him.

A sad ending for sure. Probably not the most action packed episode of ‘The Strain’ but still a good story to help bridge the gaps from last week. Although if we don’t see the weird vampire-vampire hunters again soon, I might go mad.

Tune in next week for the next episode of ‘The Strain’ on Sunday night at 10pm on FX.