Book Vs Television: The Strain S1:E11 The Third Rail

Well here we are again, having patiently waited all week for an episode that would finally spring the series into action and once again let down.

I’m not even really sure where to start with episode 11, "The Third Rail." The group is in Abraham’s bat cave tinkering with their lowly supply of lights and whatnot, trying to figure out a way to fend off the vamps en mass. Eph and Fet have a few testosterone filled quips when an experiment fails while Nora and Abraham stare blankly and wonder if this is all a bad idea. Following their trend of bad ideas, the group decides to go out again searching for Kelly, the Master, who knows who – and Eph tries to tell Nora to stay back with her mother and his child in case Eph dies. For real Eph, you’ve already thrown her to the way side after hooking up in your ex’s bedroom, blatantly expressed your undying love for your obviously dead ex, and now you want Nora to stay back and take care of that lady’s kid? It’s really hard to believe these people are scientists.

Regardless, Eph and everyone leaves Zach alone in the basement with Nora’s ailing mother and tells Zach to stay in the basement until they get back. Hold up – am I watching The Strain or The Walking Dead? What is with parents and leaving their children places during an apocalypse? Also – what’s with children thinking they are impermeable to zombie vampire attacks? I actually don’t blame Zach for leaving because if Nora’s mother was freaking out and screaming about her cigarettes and that her daughter was never returning – I would probably take my chances with the vampires and looters too. So Zach decides he’s going to head out and find some cigs for the old bat and happens into a store with some dead clerk who he decides to photograph and poke with his foot to make sure he’s really dead. Is this what video games are teaching our youth? Zach gets interrupted by some teenage hooligans and decides to hide in the basement and realizes that he’s not alone. When he tries to go back up into the light, he drops his mother’s phone. Inside of cutting his losses he stares down the vamp and goes back for the freaking phone. Look, I’m the biggest advocate for nostalgia and sentiment, but a phone? Its battery is going to die and then it’s just a heavy brick to carry around. This is what’s wrong with millennials and their technology. Going back for a phone…sheesh.

Anyways on Zach’s exit from the store he runs into Gus who had just escaped his own harrowing events. Having to bash his deadbeat brother in the mouth with a bat and then finding his beloved mother nesting in the closest, Gus is pretty raw right now – but knows what he has to do-unlike the others. This atleast gives us a slight foreshadowing that Gus will cross paths and eventually join the main group eventually. 

Flipping over to the other group – Fet and Eph are still trying to outdo the other and they almost get themselves squished on the subway tracks. Which again, how the hell is the subway working with the electricity is spotty? A vampire gets electrocuted, Eph feels bad for it and they decide to go spelunking deeper into the tunnels after having a very Minecraft moment of creeping through a giant slumber party of sleeping vamps.  This leads us to to pretty much one of the only terrifying moments of the show. We get to see all four members try and slither through the tiny tunnel after Eph decides to go first after hearing Kelly whisper for help. Nora and Abraham get through with a little trouble while Fet is holding off the looming vamps. Fet tries to slide through and struggles quite a bit and is rightfully freaking out as some creepy lady vamp is snapping bones in pursuit of him. It was very Descent-esque and I don’t do well with enclosed spaces. And the actress who was playing the vampire chasing Fet did an awesome job physically.

Once Fet, Nora and Abraham are reunited on the other side of the tunnel, they have to chase after Eph who has decide he’s going to caress The Master’s coffin and dig through the dirt – accomplishing nothing, which seems to be his forte. A bunch of vampires show up and there’s a standoff with The Master and Eph in the middle. Again we get to see The Master up close and personal, which it’s been a while since I’ve read the books, but for some reason I want to remember his appearance as always hard to capture – that it was similar to looking at the sun and he was always shrouded for the most part. But whatever, we see him again, and he’s got his good and bad parts. His demonic rabbit teeth were pretty disturbing. He chokes out Eph, Fet throws the light bomb they ripped off from the Blade movies and ev everyone scatters. Abraham throws a temper tantrum because he thought he was going to skewer his blade through The Master’s back but failed. They fight among themselves for a bit and move along and end up in a giant nest in a subway corner that looked like the majority of the neighborhood.

We end the episode back at the bat cave as Nora’s mother chain smokes while Zach notices all the weapons on the wall and decides to start practicing his attack skills with invisible monsters. I think this scene was supposed to show how Zach isn’t as fragile and naïve as his father and how is willing to do what it takes to survive as Abraham has…however, it seemed more creepy and awkward like I was walking in on a pivotal moment in Zach’s development. I don’t know, it was weird.

We’ve got 1 episode left before the finale, and I’m not even sure I can tell you anything to be excited about with next week’s episode besides there’s a lot more flashbacks and that means that Abraham will be front and center. The assasian vamps re-emerge and I'm sure blow someone away – so maybe there will be more bloodshed too.  Oh and Bolivar makes an appearance so my inner goth will finally be satiated, if only momentarily. 

Thanks for all the conversation and retweets. Join in again next Sunday at 10pm on FX and on twitter: @cc_riots and use #TheStrain and @bghorror in your tweets!