Wednesday, September 21, 2016

The Strain, Season 3, Episode 4: Gone but Not Forgotten


Last week the Master was “killed”. And yes, we’re all very very very very very sure the Master is not dead because it’s far too early in the season for us to have killed the big bad

But everyone is kind of hopeful – the Master is apparently dead and all the Strigoi are still round but they’re also acting rather unco-ordinated and more like individual animals than evil monsters controlled by a single powerful force. Both Kelly (who now has to protect Zach from uncontrolled Strigoi) and Eichorst are rather panicky about how everything has fallen apart

Things are looking up for team good guy. In theory.

Of course to bring us down we still have Ephraim the mopey because hey maybe the world has been saved but he still doesn’t have his very annoying son. To be grudgingly fair to his grouchiness, he’s also not certain that the Master is dead so the whole Lumen debacle may have achieved nothing. Certainly Vasiliy and Abe are not happy with him – though Abe understands why he did what he did.

Dutch also rejoins the group, basically drinking with Ephraim and being mopey together. But she does have a very excellent depiction of trauma after Eichorst kidnapping her last season. She’s vulnerable, hurting and not dealing well. I’m glad to have her back – even if she and Vasiliy are… tense.

Quinlan recovers – which worries him because he was totally prophesised to die when the Master did – more evidence that they didn’t get the job done. They go to the three remaining Masters and ask them about it and they ask if they killed the red worm. Red worm? Yup, Masters have a special red worm you have to kill – they totally forgot to mention that. Quinlan is not amused. Of course the Red Worm got away so it’s only a matter of time before it passes on to a new body

Meanwhile Gus is drafted with the other prisoners into the new gangs to sweep the tunnels. Angel and Gus do well – especially since the Strigoi are so unco-ordnated – but their fellow prisoners are just walking meat. Especially since “criminals” now can include “looting” for food and water or staying out past curfew. But I like that we’re seeing this through Gus’s eyes – yes he’s definitely not deserving of this and this is the point: he has criminal connections and a criminal past and he still definitely doesn’t deserve this.


Christine Ferraldo is informed of the press gangs but the last remaining journalists in New York – who aren’t super nice and don’t do a great job of endearing themselves to Ferraldo. They ambush her with their questions and she decides to follow up to see what atrocity is being committed in her name… and when she interviews Gus it’s clear she’s very disturbed and horrified by what is happening.

Until Eichorst makes his move – he sews bombs into the bodies of members of her staff that have been turned: they’re not very organised or intelligent – but they don’t need to be. They need to lurk into Christine’s headquarters (what happened to the security they used to have? Is it their day off?) and explode. It’s not the bodies that do the damage – it’s the rain of white worms that are the problem since they can infect anyone. And nearly infects Christine

We have a wonderful, deep, traumatised moment with Christine dealing with the worry and fretting – it’s an excellent scene and helps inform her following actions


Which are terrible – she apparently does nothing at all about the conscripted prisoners and she shuts down and arrests the journalists asking awkward questions. She’s refocused on killing the vampires, never mind the consequences. It’s a shame because I really really really want to explore and expand the whole destruction of human rights that is happening in New York as they fight the vampires.