In The Strain recap, Kelly finally makes her move to grab Zach while Setrakian and Eichorst battle for the Occido Lumen….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
One of the seminal moments during the first season of The Strain was the disturbing image of Eichorst transforming himself from a creature with skin barely hanging on the bone into the person first introduced to us as an agent of the Master.
You see once the vampire infection takes hold, a human body quickly deteriorates and what’s left is nothing more than a monster — complete with a deadly tentacle and ghastly features across the face, neck and chest. As fast as the transformation happens, Kelly Goodweather still possessed a few of the looks that once made her a beautiful human being, but they are rapidly fading away.
But Kelly got her good looks back this week after Eichorst began training her to act and behave just like him. The Master released enough of his hold over here that she could begin speaking and behaving like a human even though she’s not even close to that any longer.
With a wig to cover her balding head, makeup to color her skin and contact lenses to shade the real eyes hiding underneath, Kelly began to look like herself again. She’s one of the Master’s chosen special few and just like Eichorst, Kelly has a mission to complete and it requires her to look like something more than the bloodsucking fiends currently ransacking New York City.
Kelly needs to look the part to get into Brooklyn where she will find her son and his father and they will have a family reunion. Of sorts, anyways.
With that said, let’s recap the latest episode of The Strain titled ‘Intruders’:
The Rifleman
Following his declaration a week ago that he was going to kill Eldtrich Palmer, Eph decides to find a rifle to find out if he’s as good as a sniper as he is a doctor. Fet puts him onto a boat shop in Brooklyn that also fronts as an illegal goods operation.
Eph takes Zach with him and they head to the boat shop while the kid continues to quiz his dad about Kelly. No matter how many times Eph tries to explain that his mother is gone and the thing walking around in her body is merely a creature, Zach just doesn’t get it.
Before the conversation can get too deep, a man holding a bag exits the boat shop and runs past them in a hurry. When Eph and Zach get inside they find that the shop owner has been shot and he’s in bad shape.
Thankfully, the boat shop owner’s daughter is well versed in all the different goods they keep on hand — including a surgical kit and since Eph is a doctor, he can hopefully patch up the man with a bullet that just flew through him.
Some cuts, a lot of blood and an assist from his son later and Eph sews up the injured shop keeper and saves his life. Before leaving, Eph finally asks for the rifle he came to retrieve in the first place and since he was able to keep the shop owner alive, his daughter gives him the gun for free.
On the way out, Zach is impressed by his dad’s surgical skills but it only brings about more (annoying) questions like if Eph is so skilled to sew up a man whose been shot, maybe he can find a cure to turn Kelly back from vampire to human? Eph attempts to explain that it’s not possible but this kid is dense and clearly not understanding that his mom is (un)dead and not coming back.
Back at the hideout, Eph expresses his frustrations to Nora, who tries to explain that Zach is just confused and really just needs his father to stick around more often instead of running off to Washington D.C. for days at a time while vampire mommy is on the hunt for him. Eph decides to come clean to Nora as well about what happened in D.C including chucking their former boss of a high speed train, getting his friend Rob killed, shooting the assassin and how a woman named Lee died in his arms. Nora doesn’t need a paint by numbers to figure out Eph boned her and she’s not all that happy.
About five minutes later, everyone in this tale is going to be just as unhappy…
The Highest Bidder
With Dutch off trying to find her ex-girlfriend a new place to stay because she’s uncomfortable at the hideout, Fet teams up with Setrakian for a meeting with hopes of finding the Occido Lumen.
Across town at the Stoneheart building, Palmer and Coco are waking up for a little pillow talk after a night of bumping uglies, but he’s got to get his day started because there’s a very important meeting coming later that day.
He’s meeting with the cardinal we first met several episodes back, who apparently has information on the whereabouts of the mythical book that allegedly explains the origins of the vampire species and how to wipe them from the planet all together. Coco wants to assist, but Palmer doesn’t want her to see this side of his business.
When the cardinal arrives, Palmer wastes no time offering a half a million dollars, in gold mind you, for the book and he’s just waiting to find out when he can have it delivered. The cardinal has other ideas, however, because there’s at least one more bidder and he can’t sell until he receives a counter offer.
While this is happening, Eichorst arrives to meet with Palmer and he’s curious what kind of object would this cardinal have that is worth $500,000? Eichorst quizzes, Palmer sends Coco packing and the two engage in a bitter exchange of words.
Eichorst taunts Palmer’s secrecy but doesn’t realize he’s going up against a man who didn’t become one of the richest people on Earth by being stupid. Palmer fires back at Eichorst by asking where Bolivar has disappeared to lately? Of course, Eichorst has to reveal that Bolivar was the chosen vessel for the Master while he is left as just another servant. Palmer does enjoy the little bit of torture he gets to enact on Eichorst.
Later that day, Setrakian and Fet meet with the same cardinal and quickly up their offer to $750,000 to get possession of the Occido Lumen. The cardinal agrees but Fet is curious where Setrakian is going to come up with three-quarters of a million dollars?
Well the simple answer — he isn’t.
Setrakian knows that Eichorst and/or Palmer will just steal the book long before they’ll pay for it so they will get the head start and take it themselves.
But by the time they arrive at the church, it’s nearly too late. Eichorst got their first and after dispatching of the cardinal’s right hand man, he tries to convince him to give up the location of the Occido Lumen and the person who possesses it. The cardinal refuses so Eichorst quickly snaps him with his tentacle, which means as the vampire worms wiggle their way into his systems, it’s only a matter of time until he’s converted and the Master will be able to read his thoughts anyway.
Setrakian and Fet show up just in time to scare Eichorst away with a few gunshots, sword swipes and a silver laced grenade. Eichorst flees, but there’s still a problem — no one knows where the Lumen is or who has it.
Setrakian promises to end the cardinal’s suffering and send him to God if he will at least reveal who it is that has the coveted book. Finally, the cardinal comes clean — the person with the Occido Lumen is Rudyard Fonescu — the little boy Setrakian rescued in Vienna back in the 60’s after discovering the book’s whereabouts. It was there Setrakian killed some vampires to save the boy while upstairs, Palmer was meeting Eichorst for the first time and getting an offer he couldn’t refuse. Following that meeting, Palmer’s association with Setrakian ended and the Master began.
Now, 50 years later they are all about to be reunited as the hunt for the Occido Lumen continues.
A New Army
Gus is still hanging at the Indian restaurant with the Guptas and his new pal Angel, who he’s riding with this week to pick up an order for the people kind enough to take him in these past few days. Gus tries to explain to Angel that everyone needs to get the hell out of New York right now and that includes the Guptas, who don’t want to leave after building up their restaurant from scratch.
When they arrive at the food warehouse, just like Gus predicted the entire place has been torn apart and there’s nothing left.
Back at the restaurant, Gus finally convinces the Guptas to leave town with him and Angel so they can avoid any further attacks. Gus even gets a kiss from their daughter Aanya for all his good deeds these past few days.
But the first kiss is interrupted when a hooded man emerges from the shadows — it’s Quinlan and he’s there to recruit Gus back into the order of vampire hunters tasked with killing the Master.
Gus is quick to dismiss Quinlan, but the age old Barbarian Gladiator reminds his human friend that walking away from this battle is much easier said than done. The Master has already taken his friends and his mother — how much further do you think the Master will go to get to Gus? It only takes one look at Aanya standing in the doorway for Gus to realize his part in this war hasn’t really been played yet and if he truly wants to protect the ones he loves, the Master has to die.
Little Pig, Little Pig Let Me In
Back in Brooklyn, Eph and Nora are still hashing out their issues when Zach can’t help but hear a gentle rapping at the window. He peaks outside and there’s his mother Kelly, looking just like she did before the vampire infection and one look is all he needs to know that his mother is alive and coming to get him.
Kelly made it into Brooklyn by wearing her human disguise while a van full of strigoi parked strategically behind her distracted the guards who were just about to hit her with ultraviolet light to see if worms were wiggling under the skin.
Eph and Nora rush to stop Zach from opening the door for Kelly but of course he opens the door.
Nora fires off some shots, but Kelly and her feelers quickly rush into the building to try and take Zach while killing Eph and Nora in the process.
Zach stands frozen in the middle of the room while Eph and Nora fight off and kill the two feelers who Kelly brought with her. Finally, it’s time to come face to face with his wife and Eph gets into a struggle with Kelly while he’s trying to kill her, she’s trying to bite him.
And through it all, Zach screams for them to please stop fighting!
Finally with part of her human face ripped off and the real vampire skin showing underneath, Zach can’t help but look away and Eph and Nora fire off a few more shots until she flees the building.
It’s not bad enough that Zach nearly surrendered everybody to the strigoi, but even in fighting them off, Kelly can now report back to the Master the exact location where Setrakian and his vampire hunting army reside.
Score one for the bad guys
Tune into The Strain next Sunday night at 10pm ET where the vampire invasion in New York gets ratcheted up a few levels as the Master sends an all out assault on the city.
