TV Review: THE STRAIN Season 1, Episode 7: FOR SERVICES RENDERED

We begin this hour with what might be my favorite cold open thus far. A man arrives at a desolate country club, he’s been out of New York for some time and has no idea what’s going on. The man is husband to Joan Luss, one of the four infected. He receives a call from his kid’s nanny Neeva saying that she has them and he needs to pick them up. He decides to go home instead and pick them up in the morning. After all, he’s a busy man, he just got off his plane and wants to go home. He doesn’t have time for this shit. So instead of picking up his kids, he goes home to find his neighborhood is desolate and his neighbors are bloodsucking vampires. After not getting killed by them, he collapses in his home, where he’s greeted by his wife, who then sucks his blood. I like this one a lot because we’re basically dropping in someone who has no idea what’s going on and seeing how they would react. And they react by getting killed.

There are basically two things happening in tonight’s episode: We’ve got the team’s plan to lure Eichorst into giving up the location of the Master as well as the subplot happening between Eichorst and Abe in the extermination camp. The main plot is great because it shows our characters actually doing something! Instead of running around like idiots not knowing what to do, they devise a plan, and then follow through with it. The plan involves getting Eichorst to Grand Central Station under the guise that Jim will give them the body of the pilot. The plan gives us a few really great moments of tension and drama, mostly with Jim. The scene where he and Eichorst exchange cross words was great especially since one of his vampire powers is apparently making it so he’s the only one heard, so kudos to the sound design team on making that one really work! Then there’s a great chase sequence followed by a showdown between him and Setrakian. Eichorst lets him live “for services rendered” during the Holocaust.

Flashbacks reveal that during his time in the camps, Eichorst kept Abe alive after he found out he’s an expert craftsman. He makes sure that all of Abe’s days in the camp are spent working on a single project: The Coffin. In the meantime, while Abe makes the coffin, he converses with Eichorst about war, humanity, achievement, and life. It’s really interesting how in the middle of the vampire drama we get a nice little morality tale/history lesson.

Not a lot happens with Gus and his buddy Felix, although they’re both now in jail and Felix is definitely infected and what better place for a vampire outbreak than the overcrowded New York City jail system? Hopefully next week we get lots of vampires in jail, should be nice and bloody!

The episode ends with a nice jolt to the system. Neeva and her daughter Sebastine take the kids back home to see if Joan is ‘better’. Spoiler alert: No. After barricading themselves from Joan, and Sebastine taking a minor injury, it seems like all is hopeless until she’s killed by… another vampire. The end scene introduces a host of new questions. We are introduced to a new, nameless vampire who travels with four other masked beings in death squad uniforms who apparently kill other vampires. We don’t learn his name or why he has sentience and some sort of personality while other vampires appear feral and mindless. Even though his appearance raises new and troubling questions, it definitely makes the game more interesting and properly builds upon the universe. I really can’t wait for next week now, my interest was a little touch and go for a while, but now we know the stakes a lot more and the gears are turning a lot faster!