The Strain - S1E9 - The Disappeared
Previously on The Strain, ‘Creatures of the Night’
After such a fun episode last week, it’s a shame that The Strain stumbled this week. Not a huge one, but a stumble all the same.
Our group splits up this week after Eph finally remembers he has a kid out in the vampire apocalypse. And good thing for Zach because his dad shows up just before infected Matt was about to kill him. After dispatching of his wife’s boyfriend, Eph decides that he and Nora will remain at the house in case the missing Kelly turns up. There’s also the matter of disposing of Matt’s body. Eph tells his son that he should be safe with Abraham who really knows his stuff. Maybe one day Eph will remember that.
Abraham, Fet, and Zach head off to take Ke$ha (Dutch the hacker) home. While Fet escorts her inside, Abraham explains what they’re dealing with to Zach, who takes it a lot better than his father did. Inside, not only does Ke$ha discover that her girlfriend made it home safely, she did so and then stole all of the money Ke$ha received for shutting down the internet. She also learns that her pothead neighbor is infected, but Fet takes care of him quickly enough. He tells her to pack a bag because she can’t stay there.
Back at Kelly’s, she’s still not home so after Eph and Nora take care of Matt’s corpse they decide to have sex on the floor. You know, because that’s appropriate. But not only that, they don’t even have the good sense to get back to business, well, real business, after they’re done. No. They lie there in post coitus bliss so that Kelly’s good friend, Fran Drescher, can arrive and bust them. Eph tells her that she should get out of town, but no one ever takes that advice on this show. And when she questions Eph’s audacity at giving orders after having sex in his wife’s house, he states that he loves Kelly and he will do anything to find her. Meanwhile, Nora sitting there looking butthurt because he just solidified her Side Piece status.
At Abraham’s shop, Nora’s mom is not too pleased that they left her alone and jumps up their asses about five seconds after they entered the door. Abraham introduces her to the group, and Fet isn’t surprised that she’s Nora’s mom seeing as how they have the same sunny disposition. Everyone is properly impressed with Abraham’s Bat Cave. Abraham gives Zach some Vampire Hunting Homework and Fet takes a gun and says he’ll be back. He’s going home to put his infected parents out of their misery, is my guess. Oh, come on! You know they’re infected.
While Abraham cooks dinner, Ke$ha admits that she shut down the internet for Mr. Palmer and his friend, Eichorst. Well, she doesn’t mention Thomas by name, but her pretty accurate description of the waxy German is enough for Abraham to piece it together.
It seems as though next week there will be more Searching For Kelly and possibly some flashbacks as to why she’s missing and what happened when infected Matt came home. I’m not sure why they’re devoting so much time to this. We don’t care about Kelly. We barely care about Eph!
Speaking of flashbacks, this episode had a few bright spots including another look at what happened at the concentration camp. After Abraham swiped a silver dagger and hid it in his sock, he listened as the Master killed more of the sleeping men that night. He purposely sliced his finger, hoping to draw The Master to him so he could kill him, but his plan only half works. The Master grips up Abraham and after taunting him with talk of “Where is your God now?” and “I drained all of your friends, Wood Carver,” the Master breaks all of Abraham’s fingers. When Thomas notices Abraham’s damaged hands, he makes him join the group of prisoners to be executed instead of evacuated. Before he can be killed, the allied forces finally penetrate the camp and Abraham runs for freedom. Later, the Master appears before Thomas and infects him as a reward for all of his hard work.
We also got a bit of Gus this episode. Felix hadn’t completely turned, but he wasn’t looking good. As they’re being transported to prison, Felix uses his stinger to drain the driver, causing the transport van to crash. After Felix kills another guard, Gus uses the guards gun to finally put down his friend before running for freedom, much like Abraham did years ago.
RIP Felix.
I’m still holding on to my prediction that Gus will find out his brother went to Abraham’s shop with the hopes of getting that clock back - I suspect he stashed drugs there and that’s why he was so concerned with getting it back. Gus will head to the shop and finally join Abraham and Fet, forming a trifecta of badassery. *fingers crossed*
Questions & Observations:
- Nora looked truly shocked that when she gave Fran Drescher her name, she knew exactly who Nora was because Kelly told her. I didn’t understand this at first, but then I remembered that in episode one, when Nora mentioned their relationship as it pertains to Kelly, Eph specifically said he hadn’t told his wife about their romantic relationship. I remember this because I commented on how offended Nora looked.
- Could Kelly’s disappearance have anything to do with The Master or the fact that Eph is probably still wanted by the FBI? I can’t imagine that she entered that house, had an altercation with Matt, and then left before making sure her son didn’t come home to be killed. At the very least, I would have stayed out side, hidden, but nearby.
- Why did it take Ke$ha describing Thomas for Abraham to realize that the internet outage and Mr. Palmer were connected? Hasn’t he been saying all along that the misdirection of what happened on the plane and the internet issues were all a part of the Master’s plan to get people distracted and unable to speed the word about what was happening? The moment she said that Palmer paid her to cause the issue, he should have known that meant Palmer had a connection to Thomas and/or The Master.
- The “I gotta go home and check on something” is getting pretty old.
- The Master wears more rings than Liberace.
