"The Strain" Recap: "BK, NY"

Written by Scotty

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

There are very few things that make me happy with TV announcements, but when I saw that The Strain had been renewed for a second season, that made me very happy.  All I can do is hope that they bring it back for one more season to finish the story as the books have done.  I have been awaiting the second season anxiously and now it has finally made it back to our television screens.  I don’t know what I will do without Eph, Nora, Fet and Abraham when they are gone, but for now, they are back and I am very excited to see them again in the second season opener.

Eph has decided that since he is really not a good vampire hunter, he is going to try and defeat this outbreak another way, using his know how in the lab.  Breaking into one of his old labs with Nora, they find some of the supplies that they will need to set up shop there.  But like every other place in New York, it is infested with vampires and they have to move their supplies back to Fet’s revamped home.  Starting to hit the sauce again, Eph makes more jokes about what he and Nora can do to find a cure for the virus, but one thing that the two can agree on is that they need to have test subjects to see what will affect the infected before they can move forward.  Wanting newly infected victims, the two will have to keep their eyes open to find someone they can start performing their tests on.

Fet and Dutch are diligently making improvements to Fet’s building, trying to make it as vampire proof as possible.  Having a better idea about the strength of the blood suckers, they have managed to reinforce all of the possible entrances of the building so that everyone can sleep soundly at night.  After Abraham goes missing, Fet tries to find his teacher, but with so many underground openings, he has to limit his options for the hunt.  When Abraham returns, Fet wants to know what he found, along with what the future plans of the group is, but the old man is not willing to give anything up at this point.  Knowing that Abraham is keeping a secret from him, Fet continues to prod him for information, but when that does not work, a complement makes the old man come out of his shell just a bit.

The Master has been defeated, but is not down for the count.  After his last battle with Abraham, he has been scarred and scorched, but is still ready for the next steps in his plan.  Telling Eichorst that nothing has changed, he insists that Palmer needs to buy the building that has been staked out so that the new home will be his.  Palmer is becoming more powerful in his mind since the Master has given him a second life and when he starts to back talk to Eichorst, the Master’s right hand man recommends that he calms down.  What the Master has given the old man, he can take right back and will feel no remorse.  Palmer slows his roll a little bit and continues with the plan that has been so well thought out.  Giving the city an open line of credit during these dark days, he is planning on becoming a savior for the impending doom that no one but he and the Master know is coming.

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Abraham is beating himself up for not being able to defeat the Master, again.  Thinking back to his childhood, he remembers the stories that his grandmother told him about Sardou and how the giant became what he is today, the Master.  Watching as the monster burned in the sunlight, it should have been enough to kill the beast, but escaping into the depths of the city, and the Master is still alive and will be waiting for his next encounter.  Finding a shred of the Master’s clothing, Abraham decides to follow it, but is captured by the different breed of vampire hunters that are trying to end the conflict before it gets any worse.  Being taken to meet with the ancients, Abraham is offered a deal, no, ordered to pass on any information he has on the Master and he will be commissioned to kill the great killer.  Knowing that the stories were true about the ancients, Abraham needs as much information as he can find once again to kill the greatest threat to the world.

Pulling the group together before they are ready to try different things to kill the outbreak, Abraham asks them for one last favor.  Needing his old supplies from a storage locker, he needs their numbers to help him bring everything back to their new base of operations.  When searching for Abraham’s locker, there is a strange sound in the distance and the group stumbles upon a couple that is hiding for their lives.  Trying to convince them to leave, the lights go out and then the corridors are infested with the blood sucking beasts.  Fighting their way out, the couple both become infected and now Eph and Nora can try to put their plan into action since they have viable hosts of the virus.

Not a bad start to the second season.  I would have preferred a little bit more blood, but all of the characters were featured in this one, and that was just as good.  With Zach being pissed off at his father for not trying to save Kelly from the virus, his mind seems to have forgotten what these infected people do.  Eph is a little bit livelier, telling some more jokes that was missing in the first season that might be due to the drinking that he has taken up again, so we will have to wait and see how far that goes.  And Kelly is back!  She has been given the gift of freedom from the Master since she is a very important member of his infected, mostly because she will be able to find her son, thus leading him to Abraham to complete the final kill against the old man.  Hooked, just like I was when the series came on and I am not planning on stopping until the series does.  Stay Scared!

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