The Strain Recap ‘Fort Defiance’: Fountain of Youth

In the latest The Strain Recap, Abraham reveals a massive secret, Eph and Nora have a breakthrough and Gus goes on a hunt with his new vampire friends….

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Before we get started with the actual recap of this week’s episode of ‘The Strain’ titled ‘Fort Defiance’, I have a small pet peeve I need to vent about this show and others like it currently on television.

Do all the children in an apocalyptic setting need to be such little assholes?

Sorry to be so blunt, but the re-casted season 2 version of Zach is virtually unwatchable as he pouts constantly because his dad couldn’t save his mom before turning into one little ball of rage so he can destroy a lab full of research that’s meant to save humanity and pull them back from the brink of destruction.

Zach even decides to take a bus ride by himself late at night to go look for his mother because a 10-year old kid wandering the streets of New York is a bad idea in real life, much less in the version where vampires are constantly on the hunt for blood.

Maybe the writers on ‘The Strain’ are trying to portray Zach as the last bastion of hope in humanity because he’s not giving up on the people who have been turned and instead wants to save them but it’s coming off as a spoiled brat who isn’t getting his way. For the better part of six seasons, that’s been the same complaint for Carl from ‘The Walking Dead’ every time he refused to stay in the freaking house and it inevitably led to people dying.

I’m not sure why kids on shows like these have to all fit into one kind of mold that usually turns every viewer against them, but it’s a little annoying and quite off putting. At this point, I’m actually rooting for Kelly to find Zach so he’ll either give up the notion that mommy is going to be just fine with some patience and a hell of a lot of ointment or she’s a lifeless, blood sucking monster who needs to be put down.

Either way, it’s unclear why the kids in these shows have to be such whiny little bastards, but it’s rather unnerving and quite off-putting for an otherwise enjoyable hour of TV.

That said, let’s recap ‘The Strain’ for this week titled ‘Fort Defiance’:

Battlegrounds

The episode opens this week with Bollivar transporting dirt that’s going to be the new resting place for the Master, but he runs into resistance from the cops. When they try to detain him, Bollivar calls for the cavalry and we see in brutal reaction how the vampires are taking over New York as his undead masses converge on the cops and kill both of them in an instant.

Meanwhile, Gus is finishing his training with the vampire hunting squad so he can finally be unleashed on the streets as the newest weapon to stop the strigoi from taking over. The reason why he’s going through so much training is Vaun and his group are planning to kidnap Eldritch Palmer that night and they need Gus to be at the top of his game.

While all of this is happening, Fet and Dutch are eyeing a subway station in New York that they plan to blow up to block any more strigoi from flowing into the city. It’s here that Fet tells her the story of Fort Defiance — a military complex built during the Revolutionary War that the Americans used to keep the British from advancing any further into their colony. Fet plans on doing the same for the freedom fighters against the strigoi.

Unfortunately, Dutch’s head isn’t in the game today.

She’s distracted by a missing persons poster she found outside of Fet’s apartment with somebody looking for Nikki Taylor — her ex-girlfriend that ran off with all of her money after she created the internet outage that helped spin New York City into chaos. Dutch knows the only person who could have put up the poster is Nikki’s mom and so she decides the best move is to go see her at her home.

But that plan really doesn’t help Dutch’s mindset much after Nikki’s mom blames her for all the ways her daughter fell apart after they got together. Nikki’s mom didn’t care that her daughter was gay, but she certainly didn’t care for her choice in girlfriends and she believes Dutch is at fault for everything that went wrong in their life together. Nikki’s mom says her daughter encountered a much scarier vampire than the ones roaming the street today — a vampire named Dutch who sucked the life and spirit out of her daughter a long time ago.

Dutch scampers off after the harsh encounter with Nikki’s mom and proceeds to have an in truck sex romp with Fet to make her feel better.

And finally there’s Setrakian roaming the streets alone late at night, but he’s not there without a purpose. When a strigoi emerges from the shadows, Setrakian quickly dispatches it and then scoops up a jar full of worms and brain matter from the vampire after beheading it. Why does Setrakian need this deadly goop?

Stay tuned.

The Disease and the Cure

Ignoring the afore mentioned temper tantrum from Zach, Eph and Nora are still working on a virus that will infect the vampires and eventually eradicate their very existence. The first version of the drug that they use kills Mrs. McGeever, but works too quickly, which means she would have never had the chance to infect the other vampires.

When Zach gets a little too lippy, Eph forces him to watch Mr. McGeever attempt to break through his steal mask to get a taste of the boy. Eph tries to prove again that once a person is transformed into a vampire, they are no longer the same as you knew them before. This goes for his mother Kelly as well.

Finally while Eph downs another bottle of vodka, Nora comes up with a new concoction of the formula and this time it’s just right. Mr. McGeever is infected and showing signs of the virus, but he’s not dying.

Now the only thing left to do is to release him back into the world so he can infect the rest of the vampires roaming New York.

Staten Island Strong

Over on Staten Island, councilwoman Justine Feraldo has managed to officially eliminate the vampire infection from her district. She showcases her new plan of attack to the people living on the island while also marking her territory with a wall that now stands at the harbor to greet anybody coming aboard. It’s a fence with the corpses and severed heads of several vampires that they killed and while some people are appalled by the display at first, eventually everyone realizes that this is the best way to say the people living on Staten Island are not only vampire free, but willing to fight for their home by any means necessary.

Reggie Fitzwilliam (Eldritch Palmer’s former right hand man) finds out the hard way when he lands on Staten Island to visit his brother and the cops force him to take a test to ensure he’s not infected before allowing him to pass.

It might seem over the top and maybe event intrusive, but this is the way Staten Island is a strigoi-free zone and they plan to keep it that way.

Actually, Feraldo has done such a good job that the mayor of New York asks her to do the same for the entire city and she’ll have autonomous control to enact whatever she needs to do to clean out the strigoi, but there’s only one condition — she has to share whatever credit she takes with him when it’s all said and done.

It looks like there’s a new sheriff in New York.

Fountain of Youth

Remember the jar full of worms and goo that Setrakian picked up after killing one of the strigoi?

Well he takes that pile of excrement back to his lab where he boils it, filters is, mixes it with blood and eventually purifies it into a small jar before taking the strigoi juice and dropping it into his eyes. When Nora finds him the next morning, Setrakian has been bleeding from both of his eyes and it seems like he’s dead at first until she breathes life back into him.

Setrakian tries to brush her off just like he does everybody else, but Nora is sick and tired of secrets and she wants answers.

Setrakian makes her promise to keep this to herself and share with no one else, but long story short, the vampire worms once processed and filtered into his eyes, allow the professor to stay vital and healthy. He reminds her of his brand from being interned at a concentration camp during World War II, which puts him at a spry 94 years of age.

Hasn’t she or anyone else ever wondered how he’s so healthy and capable at such an old age?

It’s thanks to the vampire goop he makes and processes that help to keep him young long enough that he might finally confront the Master and bring his tyranny to an end. Remember the white muck that the Master gave to Eldritch Palmer last season that brought him out of his deathbed and gave him new life?

Same concept at work here.

Now with the strigoi juice giving him an extra boost, the professor is happy, healthy, and even playful with his fellow vampire hunters. One has to wonder, however, if this secret will ever backfire on the ageless professor?

Back Up Plan

Gus and the Sun Hunters enact their plan to kidnap Eldritch Palmer from the Stoneheart building, but little do they know that the money behind the strigoi takeover didn’t become one of the richest men in the world by being a dummy.

Before the kidnapping ensues, Palmer is forced to welcome a new bodyguard into his fold after Eichorst insists that Bollivar stay behind to protect him following the attack last week where Setrakian and Fet got within striking distance.

Palmer is also forced to kind of explain his dealings with Eichorst and other dark elements throughout the city when speaking to his lovely new assistant, Ms. Marchand. She doesn’t quite understand why Palmer is the savior of the city during the day and dealing with the underbelly of New York at night. He assures her it’s all for the greater good and he’ll do his best to shield her from the more shadowy parts of his business.

Outside the building, Gus and his hunting party are able to get entry thanks to an elaborate elevator maintenance plan that gets them inside and on the way to Palmer’s penthouse. Unfortunately while the sun hunters are close to their goal, Palmer is one step ahead of them and quickly escapes to a security room while waiting for the team hoping to kidnap him arrive in an abandoned office.

Once inside, Palmer unleashes his hidden weapon — a series of ultraviolet lights that he built into the room that begin burning the vampires who accompanied Gus on the kidnapping mission. It’s clear Palmer needed the Master, Eichorst and the strigoi to survive, but no matter how cozy he got, the billionaire never fully trusted them.

The sun hunters fall into a pit that Palmer designed to trap them and despite Gus’ best efforts, he can’t save them. Vaun tells Gus to get out of there because now he’s their only hope. Gus quickly exits via the elevator while Palmer concentrates on the new prisoners that he just captured.

So much for those feared vampire/vampire hunters huh?

With no way to communicate with the Ancients, maybe Gus will be forced to join Team Setrakian and make one big strigoi hunting group all focused on the same mission — to bring the Master to his knees.

Tune into ‘The Strain’ next Sunday night at 10pm ET to find out!