In The Strain recap, Abraham gets closer to the Occido Lumen, Eichorst shows Palmer who is boss, Gus finds an army and Feraldo gets an unexpected promotion…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Flashbacks have become a staple on The Strain almost as much as they were on Lost during its iconic run on television a few years back.
For The Strain, a look back in time has usually given us background about Setrakian’s first interactions with Eichorst during World War II or perhaps a visual showcase about how the Master stays alive by bouncing from body to body like Hugh Hefner does with Playboy bunnies.
For the latest episode titled ‘Fallen Light’, a look back only went as far as 2005 to the first time Dr. Ephraim Goodweather laid eyes on Dr. Nora Martinez at a medical conference where he was introducing ideas to stop infectious diseases from spreading on airplanes (ironic considering that’s how this vampire mess all started). Nora challenged his theories, but Eph didn’t get mad that she pushed him while he was the keynote speaker.
Instead he was impressed by her fire and hired her away to be part of his CDC Canary Team.
We also saw Jim return (Sean Astin), which was a nice moment, although he knew from the moment that Eph hired Nora that a part of him did it because she was an attractive distraction from his failing marriage. Eight years later when Kelly finally filed for divorce, Eph acted on his near decade long crush and got together with Nora but after cheating on her while he was in Washington DC, he’s beginning to realize just how badly he screwed up.
It seems whenever Eph’s relationships begin to hit the rocks, he looks for alternatives on his way out. When he started having issues with Kelly, he found Nora. When Nora wasn’t the perfect mate anymore, he found Lee. Eph is realizing his issues, but as much as he wants to reconnect with Nora, she might have finally had enough of him.
This isn’t the only love drama on The Strain this week so let’s recap the penultimate episode for season 2 titled ‘Fallen Light’….
An Unlikely Army
Gus is back in deep with the Ancients and their new soldier Quinlan and his latest job is to recruit more humans that are able to walk around during the day to eliminate vampires, who can only roam around at night.
To build his army, Gus decides to recruit members of his former gang — all of whom are currently being held at the Riker’s Island prison facility. Gus takes Angel with him to find his old friends to free them and help lead the battle against the growing vampire threat.
When they arrives, Gus and Angel find that most of the prison has been overrun by strigoi except one guard has locked himself inside a cell to escape the creatures. Gus doesn’t free him but he does make it to the gang unit where he quickly frees all of his old pals from their holding cells.
He informs them that a war is brewing but his benefactors will arm them with as many weapons as they need to fight back. Because Gus’ bosses don’t care about material possessions, the gang members can feel free to loot and steal as much as they want so long as the vampires are getting terminated wherever they go.
Everybody is on board with the plan, but on the way out of the prison, a couple of the gang members can’t resist killing the guard who would routinely pull them from their cells and beat them for the smallest infraction. The gunshot wakes up the strigoi and what was supposed to be a quiet exit, quickly turns into a fire fight blood bath.
Almost everyone escapes but outside, one of Gus’ friends declares that he’s the real leader of the group and they aren’t going to follow him into war. Angel blasts him with a shotgun and then wonders if anyone else wants to be the boss? Gus orders everybody aboard his bus and a new army has been formed.
Bad Romance
Following her torture and near death, Dutch is almost back to full health thanks to Fet’s search and rescue to keep her from becoming Eichorst’s new pet sex slave. She wonders why he would risk everything to save her after she broke his heart. He wonders why she’s even asking that question.
Despite their reunion a week ago, Dutch informs Fet that she’s returning to Nikki to begin their new life together. She believes despite all the issues they endured in the past that Nikki is her best chance for a healthy and happy future.
She kisses Fet one last time and Dutch is gone.
But she’ll be back soon enough after she returns home to find Nikki packed and ready to leave with her mother. Nikki got tired of waiting after Dutch didn’t return home for two days (never bothering to find out just what happened to her) and this is just recurring theme that something is always going to draw her away.
Nikki and her mother got travel papers to get out of the city and so they are leaving today and not coming back to New York City again.
Dutch is shattered because she gave up on the guy who loved her for a woman who has now left her twice.
New Leadership
Back in Manhattan, Councilwoman Justine Feraldo has enacted her one-percent tax on the richest people in the city and they are currently dumping off all kinds of goods as payment so the forces that cleaned up Staten Island and Brooklyn will now set up shop in their part of town.
The Mayor arrives and he’s not happy at all that Justine went ahead with her taxation plan despite his demand to the contrary. Justine explains that her police officers need to get paid just like everybody else and this was something the richest one percent could certainly afford. The Mayor finally snaps and tells Feraldo to resign or get brought up on charges.
Feraldo doesn’t blink and tells the Mayor to get the hell out of her office because she’s got much more important things to deal with.
A few hours later, Feraldo gets a visit from Eldritch Palmer, who is there to inform her that he’s backing her with the city council, who have the power to shut down any kind of indictment the mayor might try to spring on her. Little does she know that she’s getting in bed with the devil, but Palmer is more than happy to play the king to her pawn.
Things get even crazier when Feraldo finds out that the mayor was shot and killed in his home and a NYC police detective is investigating her for the murder. Beyond the fact that she was arguing with him hours before his death, the city council just voted and approved her as the new special security director for New York, which gives her virtually unlimited power in her new capacity.
Feraldo is now in charge but with Palmer looming in the shadows it’s impossible to tell what kind of reign she’s about to have.
Lost Love
A phone call comes in for Nora at the hideout that she’s been waiting to hear about for days. It seems when she was at Feraldo’s office, Nora left the names of some of Eph and Kelly’s family that lived in town just in case they were able to get out of New York and are still alive.
Well it turns out that Kelly’s parents were actually in an island in Georgia, far away from the madness in New York. Zack talks to his grandparents and finally breaks down about his mother, but this new information also gives Eph a chance to take his son somewhere safe, far away from his wife’s venomous clutches.
Nora suggest that they take Zack to his grandparents to stay because hanging out at home while they go out hunting vampires isn’t exactly a good place for a child, not to mention the fact that his mother is sending out a pack of ravenous kid vamps to hunt for him on a nightly basis.
Eph finally agrees that it’s best for everybody but he also has another plan he wants to enact but he’ll need Nora’s help. He enlists her to join up and pitch his biological weapon idea to Feraldo to see if she’ll fund a lab where they can mass produce the chemical that could wipe out the strigoi once and for all.
When they visit the new queen of New York, Feraldo agrees to let Eph and Nora build their weapon and she’ll have her police force drop it on the city when it’s finally ready. In addition to that, she’ll even give Eph and Nora travel passes and tickets to get Zack out of the city.
One big happy family will leave New York bound for Georgia, but something tells me this idyllic trip is going to end in tragedy because mommy dearest isn’t done trying to get her hands on Zack just yet.
A Bidding War is Lumen
Fet and Setrakian take a trip to visit Alonso Creem, who has called upon the former pawn broker to let him know that he’s acquired the Occido Lumen just as they discussed several weeks ago.
When Setrakian arrives he can’t help but notice how the apocalypse has made Alonso quite a wealthy and powerful man. This attachment to profit and vanity is exactly what the vampires wanted because people like Alonso will help plunge the city deeper and deeper into disparity for their own gain while the strigoi are quietly taking over with one attempting to stop them.
Setrakian turns over the rare watch he promised Alonso when they first met, but the new power broker informs him that the Occido Lumen is no longer for sale.
It’s up for auction.
The bidders are of course Setrakian and Eldritch Palmer and whoever offers the most money will walk out with the rare book that apparently contains the secrets to destroy the entire vampire race.
Setrakian leaves and goes to visit Quinlan, who speaks for the Ancients in these business matters. Setrakian requests enough gold to outbid Palmer and win the book. Quinlan says the money isn’t a problem, but the Ancients are concerned that Setrakian will double cross them and keep the book to not only destroy the Master but wipe them out as well.
Setrakian promises once he has the information he needs to eradicate the Master, the book can go back to the Ancients for sake keeping.
Quinlan doesn’t buy it so he informs Gus and his new army that they will play back up for Setrakian on bidding day and once he has the book, if it looks like he’s going to double cross them and keep the Occido Lumen for himself that the old man has to go. Gus doesn’t seem to comfortable with that idea, but Quinlan isn’t concerned about hurt feelings. He just wants to find a way to kill the Master while still staying alive himself.
Under the Master’s Thumb
Following his earlier meeting with Feraldo to make her the new de facto leader of New York City, Palmer is riding high and ready to engage in a bidding war with Setrakian to finally capture the Occido Lumen and score some points with the Master by returning it to him.
Eichorst has other ideas.
Palmer finds out that it’s Eichorst who will be attending the bidding for the Occido Lumen because this treasure is too valuable to entrust to his protection. Palmer threatens to pull funding while his lady love Coco says that Eichorst is just trying to bully his way into a position of power.
Eichorst then reminds the both of them that they are only alive today by grace of the Master and they all serve him. He also tells them the unfortunate side effects of ‘the white’ — the liquid drippings from the Master that brought them both back to full health — it eventually runs out. So if they want to stay alive and well, Palmer and Coco should try to follow orders a little more closely or risk the consequences.
At that moment, Palmer realizes that he’s no partner and he’s certainly not equal to the Master. Coco was just another weapon to keep him in line and really Palmer has just been a pet that’s kept on a very long leash and now Eichorst and the Master are tugging on it to remind him who’s in charge.
It appears next week for the season finale of The Strain season two that Setrakian and Eichorst are headed for a showdown with the winner possessing the rare Occido Lumen and the future of the vampire war hangs in the balance.
