3.2 Bad White First, let’s take a look at poor Ephraim Goodweather. Eph must decide whether to take the Master up on his offer and steal the Occido Lumen from his pal Setrakian in exchange for Eph’s son Zach’s life. Of course, Eph would do anything to keep his son safe, but he is not into stealing from his Strigoi hunting pals. In Eph’s defense, Team Human doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere with the Lumen and Eph is not buying into the book’s supposed magical powers. I guess this is where Eph’s constant struggle between magic and science comes in. Eph can’t see what good the Lumen is doing because he doesn’t believe the quasi-religious text has value, so why not take it to save his son from the Master? But Setrakian does believe in the Lumen and continues to obsessively study the tome in order to find the Master’s weakness. Thankfully, Setrakian does a bit more this week than just study his book like a prospective lawyer before the bar exam. But before we get to what Setrakian does this week, let’s look into Eldritch Palmer. We also got to see how Zach is doing this week and the answer is ‘not very well’. Zach is still being held by Eph’s Strigoi ex-wife — and Zach’s mum — Kelly. Kelly made the Master’s offer to Eph last week — the Lumen for the kid — but this week, Kelly’s Strigoi nature is getting the better of her. Every time she sees her son, Kelly can only focus on the rush of his blood through his veins. Zach even manages to escape at one point and sees his mum feeding on some dying kid. Now Zach sees her for what she really is, a parasitical monster. I would feel bad for Zach if he didn’t cause the death of Nora Martinez last season. And let me tell you, Nora’s death is still felt on this series. Without Nora, there is now only one strong female lead and the show was suffering for it. I say was because this week thankfully checked in with Dutch Velders, the most kickass computer hacker outside the cast of Mr Robot (can you imagine how Elliot from Mr Robot would fare against the Strigoi? He’d probably just pop Adderall until they turned to puppies or something). When last we saw Dutch, she left the safe arms of Vasiliy Fet to take her chances with her ex-girlfriend. Well, her ex rejected Dutch and now she’s stuck ransacking condos for food with some of her old pals. Of course, these old pals leave Dutch to die the second they see a Strigoi so Dutch has to go it alone. This was a really dumb move by these hipsters because Dutch cuts through the Strigoi and even tracks these friends that abandoned her back to their pad in order to tell them to piss off. In a nice bit of catharsis, Dutch sees that the lead hipster has been infected by a bite and cuts his face in half. No more artisan pickles for that guy. I know, we covered a lot, but the episode is pretty loaded with white slimy goodness. Lots of intriguing storylines begin this week after last episode’s non-committal opening, so let’s hope next week’s episode sees the series keep its momentum from this week. And let’s hope we get to see Dutch kick a lot more ass because with Nora gone, The Strain needs a lady’s touch to keep things balanced. Read Marc’s review of the previous episode, New York Strong, here.
