The Strain - S2E5 - Quick and Painless
Previously on The Strain, ‘The Silver Angel’
Clean Sweep
Feraldo’s team sweeps through an apartment building in Red Hook, evacuating people for mandatory testing. But when they encounter The Feelers, they prove to be too much for the cops. Here, we see just how uninformed they are: One is hit in the leg with a stinger, but he thinks he’s fine because it “didn’t get him in the neck.’
He’s totally infected, by the way.
Feraldo’s nephew is knocked down a flight of stairs and almost hit with a Feeler’s stinger, but another cop scares it off. As they assess their injuries outside, Kelly hugs her children on the rooftop, humming them a lullaby.
Why are they doing these sweeps at night?
Meanwhile, Eph is getting his government ID altered by one of Dutch’s sketchy friends who looks like Patton Oswald. This guy suggests Eph change his appearance as well as his name.
You Can’t Play a Playah
The next day, Abraham (the only one smart enough to travel during the day) visits Marlo from The Wire (the fence who Gus had dealings with in season one). Abraham wants him to locate the Occido Lumen. Marlo tries to pull an okey dokey and take Abe’s valuables in exchange for nothing, but Abe’s sword pressed against Marlo’s throat says otherwise. Marlo offers to show him some books in his possession.
Marlo doesn’t have the book, but when Abe offers up rare and expensive gifts in exchange for it, Marlo sends a message to a contact who might have it. He tells Abe he’ll be in touch if he hears anything.
Abraham is headed back to the apartment when he notices he’s being followed by a hooded figure. It’s Fitzwilliam!
To D.C.
Eph prepares to leave for D.C. and he thinks Zach and Nora are going with him. New Zach thinks he’s going to go home with his mom one day, and Eph basically tells him that’s stupid. Also, he’s not going to leave New Zach with strangers. You know, the strangers who’ve saved his and New Zach’s ass for the past few weeks. Nora pulls Eph aside and tells him it’s not a good idea for them to go with him. Nora won’t be swayed, even when Eph lays on the charm and holds her around the waist. Also, Ke$ha arrives with news of Fet’s arrest so Nora says she’s going to go with her to get him released since she’s sure Ke$ha will just end up arrested as well.
Eph drinks heavily as he shaves his head, as you do. Then he prepares an urn of ashes to hide the infectious disease he’s transporting out of state. He tells New Zach goodbye and gets a half-ass hug from his son before he goes.
No Idea What They’re Doing
At Feraldo’s HQ, there’s chaos. People don’t want to be kept from their homes for 72 hours while they wait to be checked for infection. Nora trades her knowledge of diagnosing in 1-2 hours for Fet.
Fet and Ke$ha are asked to join Feraldo’s captain as they re-sweep the building from the night before. Since they educated him on silver and UV lights, he figures they know what they’re doing. However, he’s able to tell them something they don’t know: spider children are a thing and they’re fast as fuck.
Nora helps Feraldo test people for infection. When they find one, Feraldo wonders if they should put him down now or wait until he’s turned. Nora says it should be his decision, or his family’s. Feraldo asks Nora to check her nephew - the cop knocked down the stairs. He’s completely infected and Feraldo is devastated.
Back at the Spider Children building, Fet and Ke$ha assist the cops in cleaning out more vamps. In the bathroom of one apartment, they find a vamp has crawled through a vent and is in the wall. Fet puts holes in the wall and when a stinger shoots through one of them, Ke$ha slices it with her sword.
Next, they find vamps nesting in the elevator shaft. A silver grenade does the trick. Captain is impressed.
Nora helps Feraldo kill her nephew.
I Have No Idea Why This Matters and This Whole Relationship is Gross
Palmer and CoCo have dinner at a fancy midtown restaurant, as you do during the vampire apocalypse. The other patrons applaud Palmer, who plays modest. Cardinal McNamara stops by their table to inform Palmer that a special item he’s looking for may soon be in his possession.
Back at his office, the two share a nightcap as a building burns in the distance. They almost share a kiss, but CoCo goads him into dancing with her instead.
Throw Barnes From the Train
Eph gets through Penn Station security with his new ID.
On the train, just as he’s purchased three beers, he spots Barnes. Luckily, Barnes doesn’t seem him and Eph hustles to another train car and takes a seat that affords him a view of the door - he’ll see Barnes coming. But then Eph acts sketchy as fuck to the man sitting near him and when the man leaves to get his own beers, Eph moves to another car.
Just as Eph is finishing one of his beers, Barnes enters the car so Eph’s forced to move on. He hides in a bathroom, but is only in there a moment before officers are knocking on the door for a mandatory medical inspection. Maybe it’s the beers or maybe Eph is plain stupid, but he tells them he’s one of the first to identify the symptoms of the infection so of course he’s forced to give his new fake name. After they clear him, Eph continues to the back of the train - he’s going to run out of cars!
Nope. He runs into Barnes, though. Eph grips him up and says he’s figured out a way to stop the infection. Barnes should let him go. Barnes agrees, but Eph remembers Barnes is a shady motherfucker and knocks him down. The two fight and Eph considers jumping from the train, but Barnes stops him. He warns Eph that he doesn’t want to end up on the wrong side of this. Barnes ends up on the wrong side when Eph throws him from the train. It was hilarious.
Eph arrives in DC and watches as Barnes co-workers report to the police that they can’t find him. He makes it through the checkpoint with his “dead wife’s ashes” and disappears into the crowd.
Who Dat?
At a small airport in New Jersey, officials confront the two-man crew of a small plane that landed illegally. They needed to land because they had an on-flight emergency: Their client was sick. Their client has since ran off into the woods, through a fence. The cops and their dog follow.
A black car picks up the client: a tall vampire in a black trench coat, hood, carrying a backpack with a leg bone sticking out of it. The driver tells him they’re “good to go.” Quinlan!
Overall Thoughts:
- Please tell me I’m not the only one who noticed New Zach sounded like Sylvester the Cat when he said, “I can take care of myself!” Suffering Succotash!
- Though I really don’t care about Palmer and CoCo, him mentioning that alcohol is a recently acquired taste was a nice touch. We know he’s been sickly his entire life.
- Good to see Marlo from The Wire and Fitzwilliam back in the story. Could Regina King be close behind? No. Homegirl still running, as she should be!
