The Strain Recap ‘Last Rites’: The Heart of It All

On The Strain this week, Abraham remembers how the vampires took away from him the thing that mattered most in the world and Dutch comes back to the team with a plan to help them spread the message about the ongoing infection spreading through the city…

By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer

Before I get started on the recap for tonight’s episode of The Strain titled ‘Last Rites’, let me first commend the creators of this series for the perfect execution in which they have used the old television trope known as the flashback so effectively throughout this first season of the show.

Flashbacks are essentially a tool to tell a back story of some kind or fashion, whether it’s a particular character or plot line that needs further exploration. Some shows use the flashback to their own fault and they end up taking away from the overall story being told. True Blood did this to exhaustion during the final season as flashbacks ate up huge chunks of time during the last 10 episodes with no actual payoff for why they were being shown in the first place. Boardwalk Empire seems to be doing the exact same thing for its final season as well with no rhyme or reason as to why — and just like True Blood if there’s no connection to the last frames witnessed before going off the air then it all seems like a big waste of time.

Now a show that used the flashback to absolute perfection was ‘Lost’, which also happened to feature Carlton Cuse as one of the lead writers and show runners — and now he’s in charge of The Strain on FX as well. The flashbacks on Lost were crucial to each episode and the character expositions grew exponentially thanks to finding out what happened to these people before they ended up stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific. The Strain is doing the same, although the flashbacks have all focused on the lead character in the series, Abraham Setrakian, and his lifelong quest to stamp out vampirism across the world.

From his days living in a concentration camp during World War II when he first encountered the monsters to the story told on tonight’s episode where even more questions about Setrakian were answered while we also learned the depths to which the vampires have gone to destroy this poor guy’s life for the last half century. Incredible writing and execution and it has to be applauded in a TV world where very few people seem to get how to do a flashback right these days. With that let’s get into the penultimate episode of season one of The Strain….

In Case of Emergency

The group returns home defeated after not only missing out on a chance to kill the Master, but finding out that his horde of vampires has grown into the thousands and they are all hiding in tunnels underneath the city just waiting to be unleashed. While Ephraim is happy to see his son Zack alive and well, there’s not much else to be excited about after coming so close to taking down the Master, only to fall short as he escaped their clutches.

Things take a turn for the better when an unexpected visitor comes calling with a plan to inform the entire city about what’s going on with the vampire invasion. Dutch comes back to the pawn shop offering her services as a hacker extraordinaire to invade the national emergency broadcast system to allow Dr. Goodweather a chance to explain to people what’s going on and how to combat the lethal threat roaming the streets at night.

Dutch’s return puts some swagger back in Vasiliy’s step as well as he goes to the roof to help her set up the antenna and satellite to break into the emergency broadcast system to allow Ephraim a chance to reach millions in just a matter of seconds. The two of them flirt while she talks about how she got into hacking courtesy of her father, who used to work for the New York telephone company. He died when she was 12 and Dutch eventually relocated to England, thus the accent, and now hacking is her life’s work.

Vasiliy finally gets around the awkward question just looming in the air — is she down with men or women? Dutch responds by saying she’s really into doomed relationships and those are Vasiliy’s favorite kind. If Ephraim and Nora can have a little mid-vampire-apocalypse nookie why not these two? Also considering Vasiliy is the new Darryl Dixon, he needs to score a woman just to separate himself from the redneck messiah on ‘The Walking Dead’.

Dutch gets the system up and running, but warns Ephraim that he may only have a matter of seconds on the air so get the important parts up first. When they break into the broadcast, he’s able to pass along a warning message along with the footage he shot of the airline pilot they encountered several weeks ago. The broadcast only made it for a few seconds, but it was enough to give ample warning so people on the streets would know what they’re dealing with.

Finally, a win for the good guys.

The Heart of It All

When this season of ‘The Strain’ started, we first met Abraham Setrakian in the basement of his pawnshop as he was feeding what is now recognized as a vampire heart he’s been keeping in a jar for who knows how long. As it turns out, this is the flashback for the week as we go to Shkoder, Albania in 1967 where we catch up with a slightly older Abraham as he hunts the countryside for a well dressed German looking to buy land. The German of course is his old friend Eichhorst, who he first met over 20 years ago as the Nazi soldier in charge of his imprisonment at the concentration camp. When the war came to an end, Eichhorst was turned into a vampire and Setrakian has been on his tail ever since.

In the down time between hunting vampires, Abraham has managed to meet Miriam, who just happens to be the woman of his dreams. She’s helped Abraham on his quest to eliminate the vampire threat from the world, but it’s taken a toll on her and their personal lives. She’s unable to bare children and Abraham promises that once he finishes off Eichhorst and the Master that they will finally settle down and adopt two children of their own.

Before he can experience a happy life with Miriam, Abraham first has to investigate a castle about a half a day’s ride away where vampires may be nesting. He makes it out to the deserted area where the castle resides and he immediately spots an old well that seems like the perfect hiding spot for vampires. He ties down a rope and climbs to the bottom and begins his trek in search of Eichhorst and his vampire horde.

After hours of searching, he finally gets to the spot where the vampires are hiding, but when he comes face to face with one that can speak to him, she taunts Abraham with the fact that he’s here to kill them while the one he loves most is unprotected and hours away by horse ride. Abraham panics when he realizes that the vampires are going after Miriam so he hightails it back out to the well, but when he arrives the rope he left to climb back up is gone and there’s Eichhorst smiling down at him while telling his ‘old friend’ that he fell right into their trap.

A night of clawing and digging at the stone walls finally get Abraham out of the well, but his horse has been gutted and he’s got a long way to go before finding Miriam. When he does arrive home, the entire place has been ransacked and a moment later as he turns he sees Miriam in the doorway with two small children on each of her hands. She’s started the family they’ve always wanted — the only problem is they’re all vampires. As much as it breaks his heart to do it, Abraham kills his beloved Miriam with one swipe of his sword before collecting her heart so he can have a creepy keepsake sitting at his desk alongside his monthly planner.

Now we know why Abraham is so invested in killing the vampire virus both to save the world and get a taste of revenge for what they did to him all those years ago.

Shipping Up Some Vampires

So Gus still hasn’t found his way to the main group in the show and after tonight’s episode I’m not sure he ever will, but thankfully his interactions this week not only showed the depths to which the vampires are planning for worldwide domination but the reappearance of those cloaked vampire killers that first appeared several episodes back.

Gus is on a mission to get as much guns and ammunition as he can carry to battle the undead freaks who killed his brother and mother so he visits a shady businessman in town named Alonso Creem, who he takes hostage while forcing him to give up all the weapons and cash he can spare.

It was an impossibly long scene to finally get to the conclusion, but it was well worth the time. Gus gets his bag full of guns but when an associate of Alonso’s shows up with a satchel full of cash to help extradite some shipping containers being exported, he wants to know what’s exactly being shipped? When they make it to the shipyard, the first container gets opened and immediately a flood of vampires comes pouring out going after both Gus and Alonso.

This is obviously the plan from the Master and Eichhorst to infect other parts of the world by dropping off shipping containers full of vampires to spread the disease quickly and very efficiently. Gus kills a bunch of vampires but before he can fend off any more of their attacks, an SUV shows up with our hooded friends, who proceed to kill all the loose vampires roaming around from the container before putting a hood over Gus’ head and taking him with them.

The hooded vigilantes certainly look like vampires, but they are also rather efficient with killing vampires, so their true intentions have not been revealed just yet. With next week being the season finale and Gus now kidnapped by them, it would seem there should be at least some kind of answer before the last minutes come to a close.

Get Busy Living or Get Busy Dying

The season long deterioration of Eldritch Palmer has been a big theme this year on ‘The Strain’ because while the powerful businessman has all the money in the world, his failing health can’t be stopped by dollar bills. The only hope for salvation is to do the Master’s bidding and in exchange he’ll be turned into a vampire of the highest order alongside Eichhorst. This week as Palmer seems like he’s flirting with death more and more, Eichorst pays him a visit while passing along a message — The Master won’t bargained with and he won’t be black mailed. No matter what Palmer has done for them so far, it’s up to the Master to decide when and if he’ll be turned into one of them.

Palmer is rattled by the conversation but in the end the Master shows his face and offers him the milky secretions that doubles as a vampire’s blood and he drinks it down like he was dying of thirst and this was the best water ever.

A few minutes later when his man servant Fitzwilliam shows up to bring Palmer some dinner, he’s out of his bed and on the terrace, doing his best Andy Dufresne impression with the rain pouring over him as he laughs and smiles after being saved by The Master. In case you didn’t notice, when The Master turned Eichhorst he gave him one of the little white worms that gave him life eternal as a vampire. If the previews for next week’s finale are any clue, it seems that his blood has a positive effect on Palmer’s health but doesn’t necessarily translate into turning him to vampire just yet. Maybe they need something else from the rich old coot?

Invasion!

Following all the flashbacks, Abraham finally confronts his team and apologizes for his mad dash to go after the Master at all costs, even with an army of vampires standing between them and any chance of getting to him in the subway tunnels. He’s been consumed by these monsters for most of his life and this was the first time in years where he had a real chance to strike down the Master and he failed. Apologies accepted and it’s a happy Scooby gang once again.

The team doesn’t get long to enjoy the spoils of victory with the message on the emergency broadcast system because minutes later there’s a scream of terror and Nora walks in on her mother being suckled like a baby’s bottle by Gabe Bollivar (not sure where the hell he’s been, but he’s back) and other vampires are breaking through windows and crashing through doors trying to get at Abraham and his band of vampire killers. Nora pulls her mother into another room to get away, but it’s clear she’s already gone.

Meanwhile, Abraham barricades them down in the basement when Eicchorst arrives to finish off the job he started decades ago. Thankfully, Abraham has a secret escape through the pawnshop basement and as the team loads up on weapons, Nora is frantically trying to convince herself that her mother can be saved. In reality, she knows better but when Ephraim offers to do the dirty work himself, she takes away his silver sword and lops off her mother’s head in sheer horror of the work that had to be done to make sure she didn’t come back for her loved ones.

Abraham consoles Nora because he knows exactly what she’s going through. Before they close the hidden door behind them, Abraham says one last goodbye to Miriam (or her heart anyways) and escapes the clutches of the evil Eichhorst. When he breaks through the steel door and makes it into the basement, Eichhorst spots the heart and believes deep down they’ve finally broken the life long vampire hunter and taken away every last thing he’s ever cared about or worked for over the last 70 years.

Possibly the best episode of The Strain yet this season, although I’ve bounced around deciding which one might be tops by the time the finale airs next week. Only one more to go so stay tuned for the season finale of The Strain next Sunday night at 10pm ET on FX.