by Brendan Foley
Given its narrative focus and placement in the season, ‘The Battle of Red Hook’ feels like it is designed to be this season’s incarnation of last year’s siege episode, ‘Creatures of the Night’. That episode shrugged aside all of the various plots and characters to tell a contained story about a group of survivors trying to fight their way out of a Strigori infested convenience store, and the result was an episode that remains The Strain’s high-water mark.
‘The Battle of Red Hook’ isn’t nearly as tight, but it gives characters like Gus, Quinlan, Palmer, and all their attendant assistants and associates a week off. The focus this week is entirely on Eichorst and Kelly leading an invasion of vamps into Red Hook, and the efforts made by our crew and Councilwoman Justine to repel the invasion.
The end result was fine bit of mayhem, but one that felt like it didn’t push the narrative forward very much in either direction. ‘Creatures of the Night’ was a cataclysmic episode of The Strain, featuring as it did the death of Sean Astin’s Jim, right as he was beginning to move towards redemption. ‘Night’ also brought Fet and Dutch into the story of the main gang, streamlining the narrative and giving the show a much needed boost of momentum as it headed into the final episodes of the season.
‘Red Hook’ mostly brings back numerous old conflicts and grudges and resolves very little of them. We get another confrontation between Eichorst and Setrakian, but once again neither side prevails (although Eichorst gets shot to shit, which could have ramifications down the line). We get Kelly going after Zack again and being chased off again (although Zack at least has wised up to what his mother really is and he runs from her instead of opening the fucking door like a fucking twit like he did last week). And we get a vampire army swarming the military base that gates Red Hook, but the show’s low budget means the confrontation is relatively short and mostly features vamp extras and army extras grappling with each other until the lights get turned back on by Nora and the vamps get fried.
I don’t mean to over-knock the episode, since it was generally well-handled and well-paced. While I wish the show had actually ramped up to the vamp invasion over previous episodes, the way things escalated and eventually spun out of control was nicely executed by director Kevin Rowling.
(The big battle also nicely matched with the brand new opening title sequence, which features comic book-y character frames and stylized visions of vampire mayhem in New York City. It’s a nifty little sequence that nicely suits this season of The Strain. This isn’t the grimy body horror of the first season, this is kooky action/fantasy with a sprawling cast and colorful monsters. (Weird that they would wait until the season is almost done to debut it but maybe they felt like this episode was the place to best signify the shift)
The episode benefited from the increased presence of Samantha Mathis as Councilwoman Justine Feraldo. Feraldo was initially presented to us as an iron-fisted leader, displaying the corpses of killed strigori on public beaches as a public display of the brutal tactics she was willing to go to in order to restore order. As the season has progressed, the show has gradually allowed that façade to break down, first with her distress over her infected nephew and now in this week’s episode as her faith in her decisions breaks when she sees the army of strigori approaching the stronghold. A very strong episode for Mathis, who has quickly become a standout in a very crowded series. Feraldo (a character who does not appear in the books) is such a strong character, I sort of have to assume she’s going to die soon. That will be a shame.
A bunch of focus was paid to Dutch and her girlfriend, but I’m honestly having a hard time caring about these guys. Dutch is a character that needs to be in close proximity to the main crew to feel relevant, and having her and her girlfriend squabble over their relationship in the middle of the fucking apocalypse just feels petty and uninteresting.
There were a lot of good character beats sprinkled throughout, evidence of just how much good work this cast is capable of now that they’ve all settled into their characters. I particularly enjoyed Corey Stoll’s exasperated sigh once Setrakian launched into his usual patter about The Master and vampire laws. Eph has been down this road many, many times with Setrakian, but the old man just won’t budge.
The real highlight of the episode was Richard Sammel as Eichorst. Sammel has crafted a truly magnificent villain in Eichorst, playing him as a monster that is just delighted at how nasty and cruel he gets to be. Eichorst was sidelined for most of the season’s early goings, but these last few episodes have returned him to primacy and he’s a true hoot. The show probably can’t afford to drag his rivalry with Setrakian out for much longer (sooner or later, one of them needs to destroy the other or else their feud will be entirely toothless) and no matter who wins, the show will lose.
After last week’s wheel-spinning, ‘The Battle of Red Hook’ found the show back in its gooey groove. It’s sometimes laughable, sometimes strained (fuck you) but the show is a cheerful monster mash that knows exactly what it is and knows how to deliver. On to next week’s!