"Hope you're ready to be a hero."
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Since The Strain aired last week, we've learned that the show has been renewed for a fourth and final season in 2017. That end date comes a little sooner than expected, especially with all the recent chatter about a five-year plan. But it's rarely a bad thing for a show to have a specific end date in mind. It certainly helped Lost in its later seasons. And it may explain why The Strain has sudden become more tightly paced and focused over the past few weeks. There's no longer any time to waste.
That much is obvious in the progression of these last few episodes. The Master was beheaded and nearly killed in "First Born," but rather than follow its usual habit of lazily holding course until the next major showdown, the series has immediately taken the war between humanity and the strigoi to its next phase. This week, as the plague continued its spread across the globe, Councilwoman Feraldo and Fet launched a major counterattack against the strigoi nest they discovered beneath Central Park. Success meant that the strigoi would be dealt another crippling, possibly even fatal blow. Failure, however, might spell the end for Manhattan. And by the end it was pretty clear which outcome came to pass.
Last week's episode, "Madness," was a definite high point for this season, but it did miss some opportunities when it came to taking advantage of the claustrophobic setting during Fet's subterranean excursion. Luckily, "The Battle of Central Park" made up for that in a big way. This was easily one of the most action and horror-driven episodes of the series to date. And the frequent gunfights really did take advantage of the claustrophobic setting. The action tended to leave a lot up to the imagination, what with various characters being dragged into the dark, strigoi popping in and out of view and a generally foreboding tone that only intensified over the course of these 45 minutes. There was a very strong survival horror quality to this episode. It played out more like resident Evil than any of the actual Resident Evil movies.
Along the way, Gus and Angel finally became major players again. I haven't been keen on how the two have been utilized lately. Their story has too often felt divorced from the rest of the show, and the lousy resolution to Gus' ordeal with his mother didn't help. But there was a certain satisfaction in seeing Gus and Fet reunite this week and join forces to carry out Fet's bombing mission. Not to mention the thrill in seeing Gus and Angel turn the tables on their jailers and reclaim their freedom.
The Fet/Angel storyline culminated in a terrific finale sequence as they fought against the clock to deploy Fet's silver bomb. Between the rapidly depleting ammo and the shots of Feraldo and her men pacing in the command center, there was ample tension driving the plot at that point. And in the end, they pulled it off. Fet deployed his bomb and thousands of strigoi suddenly cried out and were silenced. It was a well-deserved victory for our heroes.
Gus takes charge once more.
Until it wasn't. What initially seemed like a major turning point in the fight to reclaim Manhattan quickly took a dark turn as the strigoi began attacking and overwhelming multiple security checkpoints. The story took a bleak, depressing turn as it became clear that the strigoi nest was simply a massive piece of bait designed to keep Feraldo and her troops off guard. There were signs all along that things weren't quite what they seemed. Clearly, Eichorst and Kelly were well aware that men were coming to destroy the nest, yet they made no effort to evacuate anyone except Zach. Then there was the brief encounter between Eph and the Master, reinforcing the idea that the villain is still alive and has found himself a new host body. All of this pointed to a dark turn of events, and that's definitely what happened.
As satisfying as it was to see Fet strike a major blow for humanity, I'm glad "The Battle of Central Park" took such a dark turn. The show needs to keep building up the threat posed by the Master and his hordes, especially in the wake of his defeat at Quinlan's hands. Seeing the situation in Manhattan so suddenly and completely deteriorate accomplishes that goal nicely. If the Master can afford to sacrifice thousands of minions as expendable bait, just how strong is his army now? Between the previous episode's two-week time jump and now this hellish turn of events, the show's has a much stronger post-apocalyptic feel lately.
This was a case where the main storyline was gripping but the smaller subplots didn't really measure up. The Eph/Dutch subplot didn't stand out much this week, but at least the show has avoided their inevitable love connection thus far. Mostly it seemed the two were relegated to sitting on the sidelines and bantering until duty called. The duo did have one memorable scene late in the game, as they briefly encountered the Master and did battle with Eichorst. Dutch even got a little well-deserved revenge for her torture from Season 2.
The Zach storyline was also a bit underwhelming, though at least not for the same reasons as usual. Seeing him treat one of Kelly's feelers like a pet dog was weird and creepy. Which I assume is the point, but it just seemed like a strange addition to the plot and a little hard to believe given how much Zach tends to wilt at the sight of any strigoi he comes into contact with. The saving grace in all of this is Eichorst's repeated assertion that Zach is someone with "great potential," implying the Master has a very specific plan in mind for his prisoner. Whether that involves taking Zach as his new host body or otherwise transforming the boy, I doubt Eph will be pleased when he finally does come face-to-face with his son again.
The Verdict
The subplots were a little weak, but the main storyline more than delivered in this episode of The Strain. "The Battle of Central Park" delivered plenty of action and horror as Fet and Gus teamed up to take down a massive strigoi nest. This was an episode that offered rousing moments of victory for our heroes before crushing them with the reveal that their enemy is more massive and more organized than they ever dreamed. This season has taken a darker turn, and that can only mean good things for the final few episodes.
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