A new alliance is forged.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
This week's episode of The Strain focused on a number of characters who were either totally absent from last week's premiere or played smaller roles. That meant more time devoted to exploring the deliciously entertaining rivalry between Eldritch Palmer and Herr Eichorst, but also more time spent on the show's weaker characters like Dutch and Zach. "Bad White" was very much a good news/bad news scenario.
The Palmer/Eichorst scenes were certainly entertaining. It never gets old watching their power struggle ebb and flow. These days, Eichorst is riding high on the Master's favor while Palmer is dealing with the fallout of his defiance from Season 2. The main appeal with Palmer is that he's the lone sympathetic villain amid an army of ruthless bloodsuckers. He's in a particularly pathetic state right now. He just cost the Master ownership of the Lumen. He lost the one great love of his life. To make matters worse, his body is beginning to fail him once more.
All of this fed into a very compelling status quo for Palmer. He's in a desperate place right now. He needs the Master's blood to survive, yet Palmer is finally forced to accept that he may have backed the wrong horse. Which led to a surprising development as Palmer reached out to Setrakian in hopes of striking a mutual bargain. It was tough not to feel bad for Palmer upon seeing his crushed reaction to being rejected. As always, Jonathan Hyde brings a sense of frail humanity to this ruthless billionaire villain.
Sadly, Dutch's subplot went over about as well as usual, which is to say it was a major drag on an otherwise decent episode. The problem is less with the character herself than the fact that nothing about Dutch outside of her ties to the rest of the main cast is particularly interesting. Whenever the show chooses to focus on her old lovers or hacker buddies it tends to fall flat. This week was no exception. Their raid on the high-rise apartment building offered a small, necessary dose of action, but the whole time I found myself waiting for these characters to be killed off.
As for Zach, it was depressing to note how little has really changed with his portrayal. All through Season 2, Zach spent most of his screen time sitting in bed and sulking about the loss of his mother. Now that he's been reunited with her, he spends his time sitting in bed and sulking about the loss of his father. As easy as it is to complain about Max Charles' one-note performance, can you really blame him? The writers give him very little to do but play a petulant, angry preteen. The one bright spot in Zach's storyline this week is the fact that he's now seen his mother for the monster she's become. Hopefully his escape attempt will result in the character becoming less sulky and more proactive.
Apart from these subplots, "Bad White" focused mainly on Setrakian's slow, fruitless attempts to make use of the Lumen and Eph's moral dilemma. It's a little frustrating that, after all the buildup to Setrakian acquiring the Lumen in Season 2, we may have to wait another full season for his new prize to pay off. I mentioned this last week, but the shorter, 10-episode format of this season doesn't seem to have quickened the pace at all.
Still, it was a lot of fun seeing Eph and Quinlan butt heads this week. It's easy to forget how fragmented the group has been lately and that Eph wasn't aware that Setrakian and Fet had joined forces with an immortal half-vampire. Corey Stoll has been doing a great job so far this season as Eph wrestles with his grief and the knowledge that he may have to betray his friends to save his son. I appreciated that this episode flashed back to Nora's tragic death and acknowledged that Eph is hurting as much over her loss as Zach's. As annoying as Dutch's storylines are, it's a bit frustrating to think that she's still around and Nora isn't. The least the show can do is keep Nora's memory alive.
Quinlan, for his part, saw right through Eph's friendly facade and uncovered his true intentions. But rather than simply expose Eph, Quinlan saw the opportunity to forge a new alliance and take a more proactive stance again. Anything that results in more of Quinlan slicing his way through strigoi is okay in my book. And if it gets us more banter between Quinlan and Eph, that's icing on the cake.
The Verdict
This week's installment of The Strain had its good and bad elements, though at least the former outweighed the latter. Dutch was predictably underwhelming as she made her Season 3 debut, while Zach was his usual, petulant self. But on the other hand, the Plamer/Eichorst rivalry proved as entertaining as ever, while the new alliance forged between Eph and Quinlan has its own appeal. Hopefully that new alliance will provide the momentum boost this season needs.
Editors' Choice
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