4.3 One Shot That’s right, little Zack Goodweather has been hit with Cupid’s arrow and has fallen for a young lady conscripted to be his maid. Poor little Abby must not only clean up Zach’s pizza crusts and skid-marked underwear, she must also deal with his clumsy come ons. Poor Abby is not aware that Zach blew up New York City and plunged the world into thermonuclear war and a subsequent nuclear winter, but she still has to deal with the fact that Zach, history’s most prolific murderer, has a thing for her. Granted, Zach is helping young Abby by giving her food for the other kids she cares for and also takes her on private tours of the Museum of Natural History, so Abby is benefiting from this painfully awkward friendship. But, there’s no hiding from the irony that Zach is the one who pressed the detonator that killed Abby’s parents and when she finds out about that little bit of business, things are going to get ugly. As for Zach’s father, Eph and his new friend Alex are taking the fight to the strigoi. This week In Philadelphia, Eph, Alex, and their band of insurgents successfully taint a blood tanker and poison over two thousand strigoi. It is cathartic to finally see our heroes win one, as we just had to endure two weeks of sheer nihilistic hopelessness as Eph, Setrakian, Dutch, Fet, and Gus just keep taking it to the chin in this new dystopia. Hold your celebration, though, as Eph’s act of rebellion may have killed a shed-load of strigoi foot soldiers (and worms), but the poisoning also alerted The Master to Eph’s whereabouts. Now, Eph and Alex will have to deal with the soon-to-arrive Eichhorst, who will be more than happy to murder death kill any of Setrakian’s followers. Fet has long been the most human character on The Strain, and it’s sad to watch him have to kill his fellow humans in order to exterminate the strigoi infestation that has wormed its way into the world. Thankfully, Charlotte keeps Fet grounded and on mission or else the loyal exterminator would be in danger of becoming a cold killing machine like Quinlan. As for Quinlan himself, the vampire continues to define awesomeness and I’m kind of shocked you don’t see more Quinlan cosplay. There’s not many quality characters for us bald dudes to dress up as. Quinlan, Fet, and company celebrate a minor victory this week as they indeed secure the nuclear weapon. Unfortunately, the weapon is missing a vital component and now our heroes will have to take the fight with the strigoi to complete their mission and finish the weapon. So we have a nuclear McGuffin as Fet will have to plan a raid on the strigoi, a raid that might expose him and his crew in the same way the Eph was exposed. As I said, no Dutch, Gus, Setrakian this week, but I guess we have some powerful stuff coming with Setrakian as he is now being held in a strigoi prison camp. This will, no doubt, bring back memories of his time is a Nazi concentration camp under Eichhorst, and one has to wonder if the ever weakening Setrakian can survive being locked away once again. We will have to wait to find out, as even though Eph and Fet provide a ray of hope this week, things are getting bleaker and bleaker as the final season of The Strain continues to unfold. Read Marc’s review of the previous episode, The Blood Tax, here.
