3.8 White Light Well this week, that order came crashing down as The Strain fully reveals exactly what the Master and Eichhorst are building. The episode opens with Eichhorst and a few of his cronies testing out their new human abattoir. Eichhorst gets pissed off (because that’s what Nazi vampires do), and hangs one of his minions on his hook and we get to see exactly how the automated slaughterhouse works. Because yeah, Eichhorst has built a functional human death factory, and we know there are hundreds more of these facilities all over the country, if not the world. So think about this, the Strigoi are modernising, they’re going through their own age of industrialisation to end their time as hunters and begin their time as a vampire society by using death factories built by a notorious Nazi. That’s some effed-up shit right there. With the factory in place, we now have high stakes. We know what the Strigoi are up to other than urban mayhem, and really, it’s all a powerful parallel to the Nazi Empire. The Strigoi used lightning-like offensives to shock the people of the world into submission before building their death factories. With this discovery, the actions of Eldritch Palmer look even more horrible. Palmer sold out humanity for a taste of immortality and funded the building of the blood factories. Now, Palmer is getting his renewed vigour from Setrakian and the White and an opposing force to the Strigoi imperialistic conquest of humanity. That’s some pretty cool intrigue coming from The Strain, and seeing how these factories are going to work stays with you. The slaughterhouse, systemic demise of humanity is coming and only our motley band of heroes can prevent it. As for Fet, everyone’s favourite Ukrainian exterminator accompanies Setrakian to the aforementioned blood factories. Together, the two discover the truth about the gravity of the Master’s plan. Of course, Setrakian is horrified because these factories so resemble the concentration camps the Nazis used to exterminate his people. This is everything Setrakian is fighting against and seeing these factories profoundly strengthens Setrakian’s resolve. This week also focuses on Gus’s past as we are privileged to witness the strength of his dear mama. Via flashback, it is revealed that when he was a young boy, Gus was a victim of an abusive father and his mama and her family made sure that father disappeared. Mama protected Gus in every way and as the boy got older, he just wanted to do right by her. This is why he took the job for Eichhorst back in the first season. It also explains why Gus is so desperate to protect his mama even though she is now a Strigoi. Protecting her is the sole focus of Gus’s existence and now that she is infected, Gus feels like he has failed. That’s why it is so huge this week that Gus actually finds the resolve to kills his mother. Speaking of Quinlan, things get intensely cinematic during the episode’s conclusion. Quinlan returns to the Ancients to tell them that he believes an ancient has been brought to New York from overseas. While delivering this news, Eichhorst and a horde of Strigoi attack. Quinlan fends off countless vampires and we even get to see the Ancients in action. But it is all for naught as Eichhorst sets off a powerful explosive that destroys the Ancients and their underground lair along with a large section of Manhattan! All of a sudden, there is a powerful shift in the power structure of the Strigoi and it seems like the Master’s plan is now unopposed. The episode leaves Quinlan’s fate open, but it looks like the Master’s brood is now in the most powerful position they have been in since the invasion of New York began. Let me tell you, the last five minutes of this week’s episode is probably one of the boldest, most daring conclusions I’ve seen on TV this year. Quinlan got all Blade on those Strigoi asses, but it may not have mattered, because when that bomb goes off, the hopes of defeating the Master dwindle. The next two episodes should be epic. Read Marc’s review of the previous episode, Collaborators, here.
