We're off to Never Never Land.
Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.
Last week's episode of The Strain could almost have functioned as a season finale, what with it bringing about the deaths of several major characters and significantly changing the show's status quo. But the show still had one week left to go. And as dark and dramatic as this season has been at times, "The Fall" proved that things can and will become much worse for our heroes.
Things were looking up for our heroes this week, at least relatively speaking. Palmer finally made his stand against the Master last week, mortally wounding Eichorst and appropriating the Master's other suitcase nuke. Now all Eph and his allies needed to do was hold it together long enough to spring their trap and seal the Master away in a silver-lined coffin for all eternity. No pressure, guys.
This being a season finale rather than a series finale, it was pretty much a given that this plan wasn't going to be entirely successful. The question was simply how and when it would fall apart. And the answer was quick in coming, as Palmer found himself under attack by the Master's forces before he could make it to the safety of his penthouse. How ironic that Palmer finally got his life's great desire - immortality - mere hours after rejecting his partnership with the Master. It's a little sad to think that the show's most compelling villain is essentially dead now, but it does seem a fitting fate for Palmer. As crucial as he's been to fighting the Master this season, he's also a collaborator who's been busy profiting off the misery of millions of New Yorkers. He didn't deserve a happy ending.
There were a few obnoxious scenes to wade through early on as Eph and his allies prepared to spring their trap. This episode delivered exactly what I feared once it became clear that Eph and Dutch were becoming romantically involved - a lot of pointless bickering and character drama that gets in the way of the much more important and immediate problems at hand. What's the point of romantic melodrama right now? Why is Fet so hung up over Dutch in the first place when he "dated" her for a few days? All this material did was make him come across as a petty jerk.
Fortunately, this episode mostly left that behind once the showdown with the Master arrived. That extended sequence was great about building up a mounting sense of tension and dread. Would Eph and Setrakian realize what Palmer had become before it was too late? Would Dutch's jamming device be enough to overwhelm the Master? Would Quinlan make it to the penthouse before the Master could sneak away as Eichorst had before him? Victory was so close, and yet there were so many moments where everything could have gone wrong. That made the payoff all the more sweet once Quinlan finally did arrive to overpower his father and the Master was shut inside his eternal prison. After cheating death multiple times, finally this villain meets the hellish fate he deserves.
That showdown was marked by several strong performances, most notably Jonathan Hyde in what could wind up being his final appearance on the show (assuming the Master finds himself yet another new host body in Season 4). It was a lot of fun watching him try to maintain his cover, only for the distinctive rasp of Robin Atkin Downes to break through as the Master couldn't resist gloating over what he thought was a sure victory. That look of sheer terror and anger as the Master found himself being sealed away almost made up for the three seasons of death and destruction he's inflicted.
Eph always knew his son would blow everyone away.
But even that victory did little to break the tension. Again, this isn't he series finale. What were the odds the Master was going to be written out of the picture permanently. And even if he were doomed to an eternity of torment at the bottom of the ocean, what were the odds our heroes would be able to prevent his nuclear bomb from being detonated. So if anything, the tension only escalated even further as Eph stayed behind to tend to his wounds and the others hurried off to dispose of their cargo.
It was here that we finally learned how Zach fit into the Season 3 endgame. Zach all but dropped off the radar in the second half of the season, which is just as well considering his penchant for sulking and generally being bratty. You really have to wonder how aware the writers are of the fanbase's hatred for Zach and whether they were playing on that with the big twist. As far as sulky, bratty behavior goes, it's hard to top detonating a nuclear bomb out of sheer spite. Because Zach was mad at his father, he killed countless thousands of people with the twitch of a finger and doomed countless more to an agonizing hell of darkness, radioactive fallout and hungry strigoi.
Ultimately, I'm not necessarily against the idea of Zach being the catalyst for the Master's ultimate victory, but I do think the character needed to have been handled differently over the course of the season. The idea that he's now torn between his loyalty to his mother and the strigoi on one hand and his lingering love for his father on the other should have been better fleshed out. It's easy to blame actor max Charles for the fact that Zach comes across as such a one-note character, but when do the scripts ever give him the opportunity to do anything else?
But regardless of who actually pulled the trigger, that ending was an incredible way to wrap up the season. This series has always tapped into post-9/11 fears and paranoia, starting right from the very beginning when a plane was hijacked by what is essentially an undead terrorist. And now, seeing the iconic Statue of Liberty ripped apart by nuclear fire and the entire city of New York falling under permanent darkness is very unnerving. The balance of power has now shifted irrevocably in the Master's favor. Even as a few surviving stragglers flee underground to escape the fallout of the blast, the strigoi swarm the streets and savor the permanent darkness that now engulfs the city. It's a haunting way to wrap up the season, and it raises all sorts of questions about the direction of the series in its fourth and final season. How can our heroes hope to fight back now? What exactly happened to the Master after his coffin was ripped open? What will become of Zach now that he chose the strigoi over his own kind? Everything will change because of this latest disaster, and that's an exciting thought.
The Verdict
"The Fall" was a bit too flawed to rank with the best of Season 3, but regardless, it ended the season with both a literal and a figurative bang. It built up an incredible amount of tension as our heroes confronted the Master and victory seemed within their grasp, and then pulled the rug from underneath viewers as a nuclear blast ushered in the final phase of the Master's grand plan. This episode delivered exactly the sort of huge status quo shift the series needs heading into its final season.
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