by Brendan Foley
Given how often The Strain has struggled with pacing and narrative balance, it’s a welcome surprise that Mr. Quinlan has been immediately folded into the main show only a couple of episodes after his introduction. I expected the show to dangle his history and agenda out for at least a couple more episodes, but instead they get right into the nitty gritty of who this vampire-samurai is and what makes him tick.
That means we get a scene of a vampire in ancient Rome engaging in gladiatorial combat. Because The Strain can be fucking awesome when The Strain wants to be.
Quinlan, we learn, has Blade’s backstory to go along with his, ahem, blade. The half-vamp was infected while still incubating in his mother and was born into the world with disfigurements and a bloodlust, but also with enhanced speed and strength. As we see from a quick action scene during which Quinlan shreds a room full of feelers, he is not someone to be trifled with.
(And I will reiterate my delight that The Strain has reached a place where they can have vampire children being vivisected and splattered and no one flinches. Quinlan’s casual stomping on a line of intestines from a bisected feeler that was still struggling to escape him was a particular highlight)
Anywho, Quinlan’s got a centuries-long grudge against The Master, and he’s hoping that Setrakian and Fet can lead him to right to his prey. He is correct in this, and he and Setrakian meet the newly regenerated Master (one downside to this regeneration: The Master now looks virtually indistinguishable from any of the vampire horde. I know I railed for a while about how poor the giant-Master was, but there has to be a middle-ground where he is both iconic and not so over-the-top as to be laughable. Figure it out, TV people).
Quinlan is all ready for his big showdown, but an explosion set off by Fet curtails that confrontation and Quinlan storms off in a huff. Hopefully he is going to force Gus back into being relevant again, but one never knows.
Every one of the heroes is feeling a bit of that frustration. Just when Fet and Dutch are at their most lovey-dovey, they stumble over her old ‘roommate’ and bring her back to the bunker. Romantic idyll broken. Given how happy Fet and Dutch were at episode’s beginning, you knew something was bound to come down on them (they laid it on so thick I assumed that Dutch was dying tonight) and Fet’s inability to deal with jealousy shatters the Russian’s usual reserve of cool.
Not fairing any better is Eph who apparently can just fucking teleport at this point, given how he manages to magic his way from DC to NYC and skip through a military blockade that he needed forged credentials to get out of. How the fuck is he back just hanging out outside the bunker at the beginning? Anyway, Eph gets good and drunk, causes some trouble and gets reminded (again) that he’s a terrible father whose decisions are always blowing up in his face.
Eph and Fet have both spent the majority of their duration on the show trying to be good men. Quinlan comments repeatedly that he is a student of human behavior, fascinated by our contradictions and frailties. Well, here are two guys who both have greatness inside of them, who have both worked to be their best selves in the midst of a crisis and work within their skillsets to find a quick and clean solution.
Yeah, well, given the events of DC it’s become obvious that Eph is done playing. He declares his intention to kill Eldritch Palmer, a declaration that would have been laughable coming from the same mouth last season. But after everything Eph has endured and forced others to endure, you can believe that this is now the only thing he has left to him.
It’s been interesting to see the show adjust Eldritch Palmer this season, with Jonathan Hyde now occupying the central-heel position that Eichorst and The Master held last year. This episode lays out his motives for wiping out the human race (he views the vampire Armageddon as a cleansing fire that will subside with him prevailing over an empire) and furthers his relationship with his assistant Coco (is that really her fucking name? Coco? Christ). So far, it seems as if selling out his species has been the most rewarding thing Palmer has ever done, and his clear delight at all the ways his life has improved has been memorably etched by Hyde.
The Strain’s strong run has continued, with the occasional dumbness (seriously if Eph is a fucking teleporter now that’s fine I just need to have it established with, like, rules and stuff) being overpowered by the sheer tonnage of kooky-bananas mythology and story. Things are primed to only get crazier as we head into the season’s big home stretch.