In ‘The Strain’ recap, Fet leads an attack on the huge nest of strigoi in Central Park but the vampires aren’t going away without a fight….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Almost since the beginning of ‘The Strain’, humanity has been fighting on the defensive against the strigoi threat that’s overrunning the population with a relentless attack every time the sun goes down.
Councilwoman Justine Feraldo was the first person in New York to truly fight back and go after the strigoi instead of waiting for them to land on her front doorstep. Her victories in areas of Brooklyn and other parts of the city made Feraldo a hero to her fellow New Yorkers but as time passes and the support from outside the city lessens with each day, her battles are getting tougher and tougher to win.
Safe zones where people have been cleared to live are now being attacked with humans being slaughtered without any kind of warning. The areas that were cleared out are now full of infected all over again. Feraldo thought she stopped the spread of the infected but instead new patches of strigoi are popping up all over the city.
As it turns out thanks to a reconnaissance mission from Vasiliy Fet, he discovers that the strigoi are no longer using the tunnels that already existed underneath of the streets of New York to travel from one place to the next — they are digging their own and it all leads to one master nest underneath Central Park.
With thousands upon thousands of strigoi just teeming at the bottom of a pit beneath the park, Fet believes he’s found the best way to slow down their advance by killing all of them at once. Feraldo knows this might be the only way to get the job done so she approves a plan to send Fet and several other teams into the park to hopefully stop the strigoi once and for all.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Strain’ titled ‘Battle of Central Park’…
The Hunt Is On
Fet is the person who will lead the charge down into the underground tunnels where he hopes to eliminate a whole nest of strigoi at once. He will be escorted by a group of soldiers lead by Captain Kate Rogers — the same woman Fet slept with at the beginning of the season while exchanging no names. Once the awkward hellos are exchanged, Fet takes Rogers to his old place in Red Hook where he picks up several packages of silver that he plans to explode with grenades as the best way to eradicate the strigoi.
At his old place, Fet sees that Dutch and Eph are starting to get closer while Dutch is clearly jealous that her ex-boyfriend has a new gal pal in Rogers. Dutch does manage to tell Fet about the breakthroughs she’s seen with Eph while they were experimenting on the strigoi to find out how they communicate with each other. This attack on the huge nest in Central Park may give Eph and Dutch the exact way they need to test this system on a larger scale.
Once Fet gets his silver bombs, he heads into the tunnels with Rogers and her soldiers to begin the long trek down to the nest. The group starts the journey in the morning but soon finds out that this won’t be an easy trip because they are attacked several times, which costs the lives of several soldiers. Still, Fet and Rogers move on in the mission to eliminate the strigoi next.
Back at home base, Feraldo reacts nervously while watching the time tick away on the clock because she knows as each minute of daylight expires, the less chance her team has to be successful.
The Sound of Silence
Eph and Dutch set up outside the park to test their new theory about the strigoi’s communication systems so they can hopefully block the signals and turn the entire group into one confused pack of mindless animals.
Meanwhile, Gus and Angel are brought into the tunnels as backup for the police who are making their way down towards the nest in an attempt to help Fet and his crew. Of course the cowardly police leader won’t venture into the tunnels himself until he sends Gus and Angel in first to wipe out any threats.
Once they do the heavy lifting, the cops enter and make their way through the tunnel until they find an opening that likely leads directly down to the nest. The lead cop orders a young girl picked up for looting the night before into the tunnels but that’s the breaking point for Gus, who ends up turning the table on the cops and taking the guns away from them. He tries to end the situation with a peaceful resolve, but shots are fired and in the end, both cops are killed.
Gus, Angel and the others decided they’ve had enough vampire hunting for a lifetime and they start to navigate their way out of the tunnels and back to the surface.
Halfway through the trip, they run into Fet and Rogers, who are along the same path on the way down to the strigoi nest. Fet asks Gus to team up with them and he agrees as long as Angel and the other girl are set free. Fet promises none of them will be sent back to these chain gangs and no charges will be filed so Angel and the girl leave while Gus goes along with his old buddy the exterminator as they go after the strigoi.
Maze Runner
Down in the vampire lair, Eichorst and Kelly give Zack a new pet — a feeler (the creepy child like strigoi who move insanely fast and follow Kelly’s commands) — that is now his very own. The feeler listens to Zack and follows his every command and in a strange way he befriends the creature because it’s the only real interaction he’s had for weeks since being brought down to this basement prison.
Before Zack can spend much time with his new pet, Eichorst and Kelly burst in and tell him to pack as quickly as possible because this place is no longer safe and they have to go. Zack packs his things but writes a note inside his copy of “The Maze Runner” which he leaves behind before whoever mind find this place.
As it turns out, Fet is the person who finds the book and he immediately calls Eph to come into the tunnel to check it out. Fet continues towards his ultimate goal of finding the strigoi nest while Eph and Dutch venture into the tunnel to see what was left behind concerning Zak.
When they arrive, Eph sees the inscription in the book that’s addressed to him from Zack saying he’s just fine and hasn’t been harmed. Eph is relieved but his happiness quickly turns to fear after Eichorst appears out of nowhere and starts taunting him about the impossible fight that he will eventually lose so why not give up? Eichorst finally charges after Eph fires off a couple of rounds, but misses. Just when it looks like Eichorst might add Eph to his collection, Dutch takes off his hand with her sword and he scurries away minus one appendage.
Two Steps Back
Down in the pit, Fet finds the nest and begins to prepare his bomb. The random strigoi around the tunnel start to attack but Gus and Rogers are able to fend them off. Fet unleashes the bomb and after the explosion, silver rains down onto the nest and thousands upon thousands of strigoi scream out in pain.
Fet feels like he’s earned a victory but it’s a short lived celebration.
Back at home base, Feraldo soon finds out that the Central Park mission was merely bait so they would send in all of their troops and police into one area and they dragged things out until it was past dark. Once the sun dropped, the strigoi came out in droves and tore through the military and police, overrunning barricades and storming through checkpoints. Feraldo realizes that her big play to take back Central Park was really just a way for the strigoi to attack and kill her best soldiers.
Eph and Dutch return to the surface and see the carnage unfolding in front of them. Fet and the others then see how this win was really a massive loss because the strigoi not only out number them now, but they are running rampant across the whole city again with hardly anybody left to stop them.
‘The Strain’ returns for a brand new episode next Sunday night at 10pm ET on FX.
