In The Strain recap, Eichorst plots an all out assault on Red Hook with Fet, Eph and the others try to warn Councilwoman Feraldo of the oncoming attack….
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
Towards the beginning of this season, The Strain introduced us to Councilwoman Justine Feraldo and she was expected to be the savior of New York City after eradicating the vampire threat from her section of Staten Island.
She did such a fantastic job that the mayor put her in charge of cleaning up the entire city, section by section until the threat was officially dead and buried. Feraldo’s plan seemed to be working especially after she targeted the Red Hook section of Brooklyn thanks to that part of town being surrounded by water on one side and then easily cut off from other access points to stop the strigoi from wandering in from hundreds of different places.
Unfortunately as we found out on tonight’s episode titled ‘The Battle for Red Hook’, Feraldo’s plan to make the streets safe again only offered a false sense of security because until all of the strigoi are destroyed, no one in the city has really escaped the plague.
All it took to unravel her security check point was a boat filled with 20 strigoi and a lack of electricity to power the UV lamps that fry the vampires on sight. Thankfully, Feraldo rallied the troops and got an assist from the vampire hunting bad asses name Fet and Nora to help restore the peace.
For now anyways.
With that, let’s recap the latest episode of The Strain titled ‘The Battle for Red Hook’:
I’m On a Boat
The action starts on tonight’s episode with Eichorst negotiating a rather handsome price for a local ferry operator to transport 20 passengers across to the Red Hook section of Brooklyn with no questions asked. Entry into that part of the city has gotten rather rigid these days, but thanks to Kelly’s reconnaissance mission last week where she found where Setrakian, Eph and the others were hiding, Eichorst realizes this is the perfect place to stage an attack.
Eph and the others also realize that it’s time to fortify their positions because what Kelly sees, the Master also sees, which means their hideout is no longer hidden. Nora believes warning Feraldo is the right course of action and Eph volunteers to tell her what kind of danger will be coming to Red Hook as soon as the sun goes down while Setrakian only wants to prepare for Eichorst, who he knows will be coming for him very soon.
Eph convinces Setrakian that the best plan of attack is to have more people on their side so they decide to visit Feraldo while Fet and Nora go to check in on Dutch and Nikki, who are now living in a different apartment in Red Hook.
Dutch is fortifying the apartment with steel bars on the windows when Fet arrives to tell her about Kelly’s invasion and how the hideout is no longer fully secured. As much as Fet wants her to come with them as they plan to meet up with Eph and Setrakian to face the vampire invasion, Dutch chooses to stay behind and look after Nikki.
It seems Dutch and Nikki are falling back into hold habits, which includes shouting at each other about past indiscretions and hurling accusations about any number of misdeeds they perpetrated while together. In the end, the anger and frustration turns into a passionate kiss as they fall into bed together.
Meanwhile when Eph, Setrakian and Zack show up at Feraldo’s headquarters, the Mayor of New York is trying to convince her to abandon plans to clear out more of Brooklyn and instead focus her efforts on the upper east side of Manhattan. That’s where all the fat cat rich folks live and it’s through them that the mayor will get re-elected. Feraldo’s having none of it and things only get worse when Eph shows up and says that the vampires have found a way into the city.
The mayor panics and gets in a car back to safety while Feraldo listens to what Eph has to say about the looming threat to Red Hook. It’s all going well until Setrakian pipes up and starts name dropping the Master and discussing the strigoi and Feraldo goes from curious to out right skeptical.
She finds out by the end of the episode that listening to a vampire hunter who has been battling the undead for the better part of 80 years knows what he’s talking about.
Fight the Power
Later that night, Eichorst, Kelly and presumably 18 strigoi take a boat ride into Brooklyn courtesy of the well paid ferry captain. He definitely trusted the wrong people, however, as Kelly infects him with her stinger before the vampires descend into town.
The first stop is the power station that fuels electricity to Red Hook and the vampires quickly take out the two half-asleep security guards left there to protect it. Moments later, power is shut off across the entire section of Brookly, which means the UV lamps that Feraldo has been using to stave off any strigoi invasions are also no longer working.
You’d think with that kind of dependency on power that there would be better security at the power station, but apparently Feraldo had great faith in Scooby and Shaggy to get the job done.
With the power off, Feraldo knows shit is about to get real.
A few moments later, a pack of strigoi attack the fence in front of her command center and while the police are able to fend them off, Setrakian warns that this is just a scouting party meant to see just how viable their defenses really are with the UV lamps down. The next wave of the attack will be much larger.
Eph, Nora, Fet and Zack volunteer to go back to the power station to restore electricity while Setrakian heads back to the hideout to wait for Eichorst. Feraldo and her police captain get ready for whatever is coming next because they know it’s coming soon.
Small Victories
At the power plant, Eph and the others kill off a few vampires stragglers left behind as guards as they try to figure out how to restore electricity to the city thus giving Feraldo back her greatest weapon in the UV lamps. With the power plant cleared out of any immediate threat, Eph decides to return to the hideout to back up the professor in his battle against Eichorst. He leaves Zack behind because that’s what Eph always seems to do.
Nora and Fet restore the power but they soon get a visit from Kelly, who tracked them down thanks to seeing Zack through the eyes of one of the vampires at the plant. She quickly traps Nora and Fet inside a control room while begging Zack to come to mommy.
While Kelly beats on the glass to break through, Fet is able to stage his own attack to keep her away from the boy. The ensuing battle nearly costs Fet his life after he accidentally drops his gun and Kelly uses it to shoot through the glass at Nora and Zack. Eventually, Fet gets the upper hand as he begins to choke Kelly but the creepy white worms start crawling out and he has to let go of his hold or risk being infected.
Just when it looks like Fet is going to get stung and Kelly will get her hands on Zack, Feraldo’s reinforcements show up and fire a few shots into vampire mom to scare her off. So far Kelly is a big 0-2 when trying to steal her kid away from his protectors, but something tells me she’s not going to be unsuccessful forever.
Win Some, Lose Some
Feraldo knows she’s going to lose Red Hook if she doesn’t find some backup so she takes to the streets and gives her best Bill Pullman from Independence Day speech to fire up the trops and get them to join the fight. Dutch wakes up from her sweaty reunion with Nikki and realizes that she needs to be on the streets fighting to keep the strigoi from invading again.
Back at headquarters, the strigoi finally launch a full scale attack with hundreds of them pouring over the fences and past the barricades. Everyone fights with guns, swords, knives and bats taking out as many vampires as possible, but a slew of citizens also lose their lives. Dutch nearly meets her end as well if not for Nikki growing some metaphorical balls and getting out to help with the fight.
As the war wages on, human against vampire, it seems like a fairly even fight but at that moment the lights kick back on thanks to Fet and Nora and the UV lamps burn the strigoi into crispy critters. Red Hook is safe for another day but this is a huge warning that the vampires aren’t going down without a fight.
World War III
Back at the hideout, Eichorst arrives as expected with plans to eliminate Setrakian once and for all. When he arrives, the place has been abandoned but Eichorst knows Setrakian hasn’t wandered too far away. He rummages through papers, including a few about the Occido Lumen, while also finding a picture of Setrakian’s dearly departed wife Miriam. Finally, Setrakian yells from outside for Eichorst to meet him and engage in one last fight.
Eichorst steps out and Setrakian clearly overestimates his ability with that sword because the vampire dispatches him in a matter of seconds, but thankfully the professor had a plan to lure him outdoors where a sniper could take a shot at him from above.
Eph fires off a bullet that grazes Eichorst and the former Nazi commander abandons his plan to kill Setrakian and goes after the good doctor instead. Setrakian yells up to Eph to run because Eichorst is coming and he’s coming quick.
Inside the warehouse where Eph was positioned, Eichorst reveals some interesting information that he learned from Kelly once she was connected to the larger hive brain of the vampire contingency. It seems Eph had no desire to be a parent before and during Kelly’s pregnancy with Zack. Now it all makes sense why he’s always been so distant with his son while Kelly has been almost overbearing with him.
Eph does his best to get away from the vampire as he stalks him through the building, but eventually he’s trapped on the roof with Eichorst standing just a few feet away and his rifle running out of bullets. Just as Eichorst gets ready to attack, Setrakian saves the day with a gun of his own that launches silver into the vampire’s body. Eph also reloads his rifle and he gets off a shot as well and Eichorst is forced to jump off the roof and run for cover.
Celebrate Good Times
Everyone in Red Hook celebrates the dawn as the sun comes up after the vampires went down. It still came at a cost, however, as several policemen and a bunch of citizens gave their lives to stop the strigoi invasion. The good news is Feraldo now has the entire town behind her efforts to secure the borders to keep the vampires out. The bad news is the Master is relentless and he’s not going to take this loss lying down.
Fet and Nora arrive and join up with Dutch and Nikki, who tell them what happened while they were off restoring power to the entire borough. Fet and Nikki even share a moment, which was a little depressing considering she just slept with the woman he’s in love with. Either way, the strigoi attack ultimately failed, everyone from the main group lived to tell about it and Kelly still couldn’t get her hands on Zack.
This is just the first of many battles looming because the Master won’t give up his position and what happened in Red Hook was only a small demonstration of the full power he’s able to wield when unleashing his army of the dead against the coalition of the living.
The Strain returns with a brand new episode next Sunday night at 10pm ET on FX
