In ‘The Strain’ recap, Fet gets some horrible news, Eph and Dutch team up with Quinlan and Palmer makes a move against the Master….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Things are bad in New York right now.
After nearly three full seasons on ‘The Strain’, the full effect of the strigoi invasion is finally being seen after the attack on Central Park was nothing more than an elaborate set up to draw out the last remaining soldiers to lead them to the slaughter. Now many of the safe zones set up by Councilwoman Justine Feraldo have been overrun and humanity in the Big Apple is hanging on by a very thin thread.
The last line of defense may be the same people who stood up to the plague when it first started as Vasiliy Fet teams up with Abraham Setrakian to build the box that will hopefully one day encase the Master while Eph and Dutch get Quinlan’s help to retrieve the black box from the flight that brought the Master to New York in the first place to find answers on how he’s communicating with his minions while Eldritch Palmer — in the face of death — stages a coup against the vampires who promised him eternal life but instead are watching him march slowly into death.
Things are dire but not lost.
As Setrakian notes during his conversation with Fet this week that faith is a powerful weapon and he believes that this new plan of attack will be the key to bringing down the Master and his strigoi army once and for all.
Will it be enough or will it be too little, too late? Time will only tell.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of ‘The Strain’ titled ‘Collaborators’…
Family Shame
The flashback this week took the story to the Ukraine in 1941 when a pair of Russian soldiers were captured by the Germans and forced into work camps during World War II. One of the soldiers was named Fetrovsky — and it was actually Vasiliy Fet’s grandfather — before the family underwent a name change.
It turns out Fetrovsky was offered a special work assignment that would allow him better food, warmer clothes and nicer accommodations so long as he was willing to carry out whatever tasks that were required of him. His commanding officer was none other than Thomas Eichorst — because he was apparently everywhere during World War II — and the job was to execute Jews who had been captured and were no longer useful towards the German cause.
Out of fear for his life, Fetrovsky carried out the orders and killed the Jews until the war was over but the shame he felt from those atrocities eventually led to him taking his own life. It was a disgrace to the family and one of the reasons why Fet’s father changed their name and became a scholar when he was given the opportunity to choose his career.
Years later, Fet and Setrakian are on their way to visit another pawnbroker in New York — a man known to collect large amounts of treasures made from silver — but the former exterminator decided to make a stop along the way. The neighborhood where the pawnbroker’s shop was located was near the apartment shared by Fet’s parents. If you remember all the way back to season one, Fet had a falling out with his father but visited him just when the strigoi invasion began and he begged him to leave the city for his own safety.
After they arrive at the apartment, Fet finds both his parents laying in bed after committing suicide. Fet brands his father a coward for taking the easy way out, but Setrakian notes that both his parents were infected and rather than turn into monsters, they left on their own terms and that should be commended.
Fet is still struggling with all of this because he had been estranged from his father for the past six years over his choice to become an exterminator. Fet’s father felt he had so much more potential and the argument separated them and they never got the chance to make things right.
Later at the pawn shop, Fet helps Setrakian gain access to the giant safe in the basement of the building — and by access, I mean blowing it up with dynamite — and they find the large reserve of silver items hiding inside. Setrakian takes everything as he begins constructing his grand coffin that will be lined with silver and lead to contain the Master and keep him from communicating with his “children” from now until eternity.
Thanks to the Occido Lumen, Setrakian believes this will be the way to bring an end to the Master’s plan to take over the world. He also explains to Fet after hearing the story about his family that the only way to let go of these feelings of guilt and regret is to forgive his father. Of course, Fet’s father is dead but Setrakian explains that by forgiving him, he’s actually forgiving himself and letting go of the pain.
Fet may have lost his real father but Setrakian is doing a damn fine job to stand in as a surrogate.
The Black Box
The slaughter at Central Park didn’t end without at least one positive coming from the disastrous attack on the strigoi. Ephraim Goodweather and his new pal Dutch were able to record the communication between the strigoi army and the signal received from the Master that launched the offensive on the troops in the park.
Now Eph believes that he can track the Master based on these signals they’ve intercepted, but they need a point of reference — some sort of clue on how the Master is communicating — so they can pinpoint his location the next time he sends out a message to his troops. To his knowledge, Eph can only think of one way the Master has ever been recorded and that’s from the original Flight 753 black box that landed at JFK all those weeks go, effectively starting the strigoi invasion. Eph believes that the Master must have sent out some kind of communication to render the passengers unconscious and he thinks this could be the key to jamming or stopping his signal to the other strigoi.
Unfortunately, JFK Airport is far outside the safe zone so Eph and Dutch recruit Quinlan as a bodyguard for the day to help them get there.
On the trip, Eph and Dutch stop to help a family being held hostage — or technically they stopped and Quinlan did the hard work — but they are starting to realize just how bad things have gotten in New York for the people not lucky enough to live in one of the safe zones created by Councilwoman Feraldo.
Finally at the airport, Eph and Dutch find the black box and they believe this will be the key in tracking down the Master once and for all.
What’s On the Ship?
Eldritch Palmer is in bad shape and only getting worse but he’s still strong enough to inquire about the ship that was carrying cargo from Egypt to the United States under the direction of the Master and Thomas Eichorst. The “Aurora Cutlass” landed in New York but the cargo manifest only said tractor parts were inside.
Palmer — along with his new head of security Mr. Duncan — arrives at the ship to examine the contents of the container but he’s rebuffed by the people hired to protect the vessel despite the fact that he owns it. Later that day, Palmer receives a visit from Eichorst — who is already in a bad mood after cauterizing his own arm after Dutch lopped off his hand a week ago — and he admonishes the elderly billionaire for sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.
Before leaving, Palmer taunts Eichorst because he knows the Master’s lapdog would like nothing more than to drain him dry and leave him for dead, but yet he’s not allowed to do it. Palmer knows that the Master still has plans for him and that drives Eichorst crazy.
After the visit with Eichorst at his office, Palmer travels back to the ship with an armed garrison but when they arrive, all of the guards aboard the vessel have been killed and the container is empty. Palmer calls on Setrakian to tell him about this latest development while hoping that it will be enough to earn him a dose of the white that will stave off his medical emergency.
Setrakian refuses at first but then realizes that this information could be very valuable because whatever the Master had shipped from overseas must be extremely important to go to these lengths to protect it. He hands over one dose of the white to Palmer and explains to him how to administer it before leaving with Fet.
Setrakian believes that the Master may have struck a deal with the Ancients — it turns out there are seven of them, three currently in the U.S. and three more overseas with the Master being the seventh — and he thinks that they may have teamed up in an attempt to overthrow the world.
If you’ve never ready the books, which serve as source material for the show, my guess would be something else was in that cargo hold but no matter what it was, it’s probably not good for humanity.
Back at his office, Palmer administers the white and believes that he’s been fooled by Setrakian after nothing happens right away. A few seconds later, Palmer convulses and collapses before waking up with blood flowing from both of his eyes as he takes a deep breath into his lungs.
The white must have worked after all.
‘The Strain’ will return for a brand new episode next Sunday night at 10pm ET on FX.
