TV Review: THE STRAIN Season 1, Episode 8: CREATURES OF THE NIGHT

After last week’s thrilling hour, which brought up many new exciting plot points that one would hope to see expanded upon next week, it would be quite a risk to drop them all in favor of a bottle episode taking place almost exclusively in a convenience store. Did that risk pay off tonight? Oh boy, you better believe it did!

Save for the beginning of the episode taking place where we left off last week in the subway, and a brief rendezvous at a medical supply store to steal UV lights and become more acquainted with Vasiliy Fet, “Creatures of the Night” centers the entire story on a horde of vampires descending upon a gas station and the clashing personalities inside who have to survive. It may sound like a cliche ridden horror film, but god damn if it isn’t effective.

The players are the CDC Team of Eph, Nora, Jim, and Setrakian, the newest member Vasiliy Fet (who abandons his “I work alone” statement pretty quickly), Dutch Velbers, the hacker Palmer hired to kill all phone/internet service in New York as well as her unnamed friend, a bread truck driver, a cowardly clerk, and an expendable customer. Abe and Vasiliy quickly become brothers in arms in the fight against evil. Fet asks Abe what the “rules” for the vampires are, and then immediately does what he does best: Exterminates.

This episode also sets up the classic horror film trope that anyone can die. During one of the fights Jim gets nicked. At first we assume it’s from him hitting the pavement, but a worm in his cheek quickly disproves that theory. After an on the spot surgery from Eph to remove it, we assume that he’s well and ready to get back in the fight, but soon after we see his back is crawling with hundreds of worms. After a life and death debate, Vasiliy puts Jim out of his misery causing a rift between him and Eph. So before Jim was dead to Eph, now he’s just dead.

We also get a lot of explanation into the vampire hierarchy with Abe. He explains that the longer they remain vampires, the more intelligent they become and less like mindless beasts. In about a months time they will be “fully evolved” and a much worse force to be reckoned with. However, “The Master” allows a select few to retain their personalities from their previous lives. Thomas Eichorst is one of those chosen few. The more we learn about the vampire biology/hierarchy, the more interesting it becomes.

The episode concludes with the survivors of the raid getting in the bread truck and driving away from the carnage. I’m excited to see where this goes, because there’s a lot of tension between the group here. Previously, we had someone who was responsible for the world the way it is: Jim. Now, we’ve got Dutch Velbers. I wonder how Eph will react when he finds out she’s responsible for the lack of cell service. There’s also not a lot of love between Eph and Fet right now and I expect next weeks episode to play up on that.

This episode does have a few small hiccups. The writing, for instance, can be improved upon. I feel like it’s pretty insulting to the audience for the characters to have to go over the rules as much as they do. We’ve heard the rules for vampire killing about once an episode now and I don’t think we need to be reminded anymore. In the same vein, we don’t need to be constantly reminded that cell phone service and internet is out. Also, I feel that Eph’s reluctance to believe Abe is getting stale. Abraham has shown time and time again that he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to the vampires, and to have Ephraim keep questioning him like he does is pretty repetitive. Hopefully the events of tonight’s episode will be the final nail in the coffin for both of those issues.