The Strain Recap: "Creatures of the Night"

Written by Scotty

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

As the sun has fallen in New York City, people are starting to see that there are things that go bump in the night.  People are going to have to start working together to survive this new outbreak that has taken to the streets.  There seems to be no way to stop these creatures, with the exception of beating them to death, but if The Master can be killed, everyone may stand a chance.

Eph, Nora, Jim and Abraham have successfully battled off the attack of Thomas Eichorst in the subway, but allowed him to get away.  Abraham knows that there is a larger fight coming with The Master’s right hand man, but has to formulate a new plan of attack for the upcoming night.  With the group starting to understand how vicious this virus makes its hosts, they need to find a way to keep it from spreading, especially to themselves.

Knowing that ultra violet radiation affects these creatures, the group loots one of the local medical shops to load up on supplies, but someone has beat them to it.  Vasiliy Fet has already gathered up everything he needs to survive and hunt the threat down and makes it known to the group that he has already taken care of a few of the infected himself.  Wanting to know more about the vampires that have taken over the sewers and now walking the streets at night, he asks Abraham about the rules.  Finding out that guns are useless against the threat, Fet is happy that he always carries a piece of rebar with him at all times.

Gun shots only hurt the infected if it hits the bone.  The spinal cord must be severed in order to put down one of the infected.  They are also extremely sensitive to silver and to sunlight so silver bullets along with UV lamps would be great items, especially at night.  After attaining this information from the old man, Fet seems very comfortable with the choices he has made in his defenses and is ready to move one.  But Abraham has a different plan in mind for the exterminator, he wants Fet to join the team since he has been able to dispose of a few of these creatures with his basic instinct.

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Fet is not too keen on the idea as he has done just fine on his own and now knowing the rules he can dispose of the infected much more efficiently.   But Fet is not left with a choice as he and the group get trapped inside a convenience store while gathering supplies for the days ahead.  As the night walkers start to surround the store, the group tries to formulate a plan of escape and a few of the other customers in the store do not believe that they can wait it out.  The threat only seems to be directed towards the group themselves, not the others, so they all try to escape on their own and find out that the vampires don’t really care whom comes out of the store, they will feed on them regardless.

Running into Dutch Velders, the woman behind the internet blackout, Nora tries to keep herself composed when the young woman admits to being involved.  Not knowing what the overall plan was for the city, Dutch was just there to collect her check, but now is seeing that she has done something that is killing many innocent people.  Trying to keep a low profile while in the convenience store and waiting for the others to get an escape plan together, she offers her own suggestions and tries to help as best as she can.  But when the vampire numbers become too great outside of the store, even her ideas cannot help the group.

A struggle for power seems to be coming into the group as you have Eph and Abraham having to go head to head about everything that is going on with the infected.  Abraham is getting pushed to the brink since nobody seems to be listening to him and he has proved that he knows what the group is up against.  When Jim Kent gets scratched by one of the vampires stingers, Abraham begs and pleads that he be destroyed, but Eph is still stuck with his training and believes that science and medicine will prevail, but is proven wrong once again.  With little to no options left on the table, the group has to follow what Abraham has planned, or they will not live to fight another day.

A pretty easy episode to catch up on as the group has gotten trapped in a convenience store.  I am enjoying the struggles between the characters right now more than the actual vampires.  I am also happy that Jim Kent has been taken out of the picture.  I don’t know what it is, but he has not grown on me from the very start as he is a member of the CDC and seems to know nothing about diseases.  Whatever, that is a rant for another day.  The Master seems to be trying to home in on the group, especially Abraham and wants to take him out before he can do too much damage his cause.  I cannot wait until the next episode, they never seem to be long enough.  By the way, any creature lover fans out there, a fun cameo from the great Rick Baker in convenience store ends the only way it should end….Stay Scared!

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