The Strain - S2E11 - Dead End

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Previously on The Strain, ‘The Assassin’

Eichorst’s Pet

Eichorst brings Dutch some company for the padded room he’s keeping her in. It’s a cop, who he forces to drink Schnapps. Then he drains the cop’s blood and snaps his neck. So when I said he brought her some company, what I really meant was that he brought Dutch a reason to shit herself.

“What are you going to do to me?” 

“Everything.” 

Then he kinda points “down there” and I was so confused!

Rudyard Fonescu

Abraham comes to and finds he’s tied to a chair. The Lumen sits on a desk across the room, taunting him. He tries to do a chair scoot over to the book, though I’m not sure what he thought he was going to do once he got there. Doesn’t matter because Rudyard Fonescu appears with a gun and tells Abraham to slow his scoot. Fonescu doesn’t recognize Abraham until Abe reveals he knows what happened to Fonescu’s ear. Well, even then Fonescu doesn’t know who he is so Abe has to play a quick round of “‘member that time?”

The fact that Fonescu doesn’t drop the gun but raises it higher to point it in Abe’s face means he doesn’t give a shit about “that time I saved your life.” Ingrate. 

Fonescu suffers from Everyone Picks On Me syndrome and will not give up his “silver ticket,” the Lumen. It will get him much money and respect. He’s not giving it to Abraham no matter how hard he scoots around in that damn chair, AND he doesn’t care that the book could possibly save the world. That’s right. Fonescu is all, “Fuck the world. Don’t ask me for shit. And everything you get you gotta work hard for it.”

He leaves Abraham huffing, puffing, and scooting.

Getting To Know You

Eichorst is playing a game of “Getting to Know You” with Dutch and asks her to tell him something about her that no one knows. She’s not really in the mood to play games on account of she’s chained up by her neck and probably sitting in soiled underpants. Then there’s the whole terrified of ending up like the dead cop across the room.

That’s okay because Eichorst is content to tell her all about herself or as my people call it “a read.” He notes she likes to be looked at and everything from her clothes to her perfume is calculated to achieve that. Dutch says she doesn’t wear perfume and I’m like, “Why are you arguing with a crazy vampire? This the hill you want to die on?”

By sticking his nose all up in her hair follicles, Eichorst admits she was right. It’s her shampoo he smells. A smell that reminds him of a perfume the woman he desired used to wear. A woman who wasn’t meant for him. So he settled for desiring the respect of other men and power.

“So, you joined the Nazi party because you couldn’t get laid?”

Girl. STAHP.

Heidelberg, Germany 1931

Eichorst used to be a really shitty door-to-door radio salesman. The other salesmen in the office teased him about his failures in front of the woman he fancied, Helga. She seemed really nice and told Eichorst to ignore the others. She believed in him. He was thrilled when she agreed to go out to dinner with him.

Harlem Shake

Gus is STILL WITH THE FUCKING GUPTAS. Ugh.

Aanya is going through boxes of damn knick-knacks in her family’s attic or something. Gus appears, says he’s not going with them across the border, and then they have sex. The End.

I wish.

Angel wants to go with Gus, but Gus makes him promise he’ll stay with the Guptas and make sure they’re safe. Angel relents. Gus snaps a photo of the family in their kitchen and then they head for the checkpoint.

Once there, the officer won’t let them through until Quinlan’s badass chocolate driver arrives. She hands the officer some papers and all of a sudden it’s, “Welcome to the Beverly PalmHotel!” Sorry, Beverly Hills Cop reference.

Gus kisses Aanya goodbye right in front of her parents, Angel decides to stay with Gus based on a loophole, and the chocolate badass is like, “Who the hell is this?”

Mayfield Hotel

Fet, Eph, and Nora arrive at The Mayfield Hotel to find its the National Guard’s HQ. Welp. They take their bread truck around back to a nearby alley where they find the cop car used to transport Dutch to the hotel. Fet notices that half of the hotel is actually sealed off and after a quick history lesson that seems to bore everyone involved, they decide to head inside to check it out.

Germany, 1931

While Eichorst slices a pineapple in present day, he remembers his first (and only) date with Helga. She talks about her passion for playing the violin, but how her dreams of going to Vienna to audition for the symphony were put on hold due to the crash. He talks about not being able to find anything he can excel at. They seem very good for each other and I predict it would have worked out if not for those pesky Nazis.

A Nazi enters the restaurant and gives a speech looking for men to enlist. Eichorst is smitten and on their walk home, he talks about his hate for Jews. Then Helga reveals she’s Jewish and he’s like, “Oh, but I meant those OTHER Jews.”

It Puts the Lotion on Its Skin

Eichorst brings Dutch the plate of pineapple and she slaps it out of his hand. She won’t be seasoned for his feast. Eichorst puts his foot on her chain and makes it clear it’s not a request. Dutch eats the pineapple. Later, she tries to use her feet to get the dead cop’s pepper spray. Eichorst comes in and finds her eating the pineapple like a good little girl.

He makes her take off her pants, applies lipstick to her mouth, and then sits on the floor behind her as he instructs her to spread her legs and bend over.

Lawd Jesus. 

His stinger is coming out (not a euphemism) when she turns around and blasts him in the face with the mace. As he writhes in pain, she takes the keys, frees herself, and makes a run for it. She’s slowed down after stepping on a nail, but keeps running.

Eichorst rinses his face and then gives chase. Meanwhile, Fet and team have used some secret tunnels to get inside the building. When Eichorst finally catches up to Dutch at the bottom of a stairwell, he drags her up the stairs by her feet.

The others hear her screaming, but they’re on the other side of the bricked off stairwell. Fet busts through with one of his explosives and the trio run through the halls, catching a glimpse of Eichorst dragging Dutch back to the room. A silver bomb around the corner does the trick and Dutch is reunited with her friends as Eichorst escapes.

Back in 1931

Eichorst was called into his superior’s office where he found Helga crying. Her family was trying to leave and she named dropped Eichorst.

“Do you know this Jew?”

Eichorst claims to have been nothing more than a co-worker and said Helga was accused of stealing from the company.

Later, Eichorst walked the streets in his Nazi uniform, reveling in the respect he got from strangers and his ex-boss. But when he sees Helga and her parents hanging in the town square, it shocks him. His superior was watching so Eichorst played it smooth, flicked his cigarette at the bodies, and kept it moving.

Wrap Up

While Fet comforts a crying Dutch in the back of the bread truck, Eph drives them all home.

Fonescu visits Creem and asks him to buy the book.

Questions and Thoughts: 

• Who the fuck is watching New Zach?
• Eichorst’s intentions were so much more disturbing than I imagined they’d be. Now, I don’t know which would provide more poetic justice: Dutch killing Eichorst or Abraham killing him.
• I am so glad the Guptas are gone. We really didn’t need to see them again. All I know is, Angel’s limping ass better be a help and not a hinderance.
• Again, where is The Master? I’m so curious how he spends his nights while Eichorst and the rest are out there fucking up and accomplishing little to nothing.
• This episode scored a 9 based on every scene with Eichorst. Can he be The Master, please?