UK Pace Review – Broadcast on digital channel Watch
The Strain: Wednesdays at 10pm
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WARNING this review contains SPOILERS.
Synopsis
Zack searches through the tech lying around in the pawn shop. Finds a laptop, plugs it in and boots it up (then wanders around the place with the cable missing!). Despite there being little or no internet, he manages to track Kelly’s phone via GPS. The signal is moving, so Zack convinces Eph to go look for her.
Nora and her mum are drinking (hot) tea for breakfast. Eph talks to Nora about finding Kelly. Abraham hears and tells him to go, but to be prepared for the worst.
Vasily shares his findings from when he was tracking the rats. He’s narrowed down the vamps’ location to the underground tunnels around the World Trade Center. He knew where to find all the maps online, but that’s useless now – Dutch owns up to the group. Maybe if she gets back into Palmer’s offices she should try and undo what she’s done. Vasily suggests that he might be able to get her in with his City credentials.
Eph’s on the hunt for Kelly on the street. He locates her phone in the possession of a homeless woman. He gets aggressive, but things calm down when he says that he’s a doctor. The homeless woman asks for help with a bad and infencted burn on her leg – Eph just so happens to have a bandage (and presumably other sterile equipment) somewhere on his person. She takes him to where she found Kelly’s phone. The phone was dropped next to Kelly’s car, in which Eph finds a bloody handkerchief.
32 HOURS EARLIER – An infected Matt sneaks up on Kelly in bed, then wanders into the bathroom. Kelly wakes up and tries to call to him. Kelly is at work teaching, but half of the kids and teachers are out sick. School finishes early, and Kelly decides to take Eph’s advice and get out of town. She arrives home, still trying to talk to Matt, who then appears and attacks her. She whacks him with a blender – and ends up with a worm in her eye! Uh oh. She runs off to the car, parks up and checks out her bloody eye. Later on Kelly wakes up, still in the car, feeling very sick. She gets out of the car, dropping her phone, and walks along the street. She gets to Zack’s school, trying to take him away, but they’ve all gone home. Kelly’s now wandering the streets. She sees another infected vamp, but he ignores her. She’s starting to move and behave like they do. She hears people’s blood, and is only interested rather than scared, when she sees an attack.
BACK TO THE PRESENT – Vasily and Dutch head to Palmer’s office. They chat and flirt on the way. Vasily has to sweet talk his way into the building, Dutch doesn’t look impressed. Getting out of a lift, they’re accosted by security. Not such a covert entrance, then. Palmer’s assistant Fitzwilliam takes Dutch in to see Palmer, while Vasily is stuck with the rest of the security team.
Eph is back at Kelly’s house looking for her again.
17 HOURS EARLIER – Diane is asleep on her couch back at home after bumping into Eph and Nora, when Kelly arrives. Diane’s son comes down the stairs and Kelly attacks and drinks him. Then also Diane.
BACK TO THE PRESENT – Dutch is on her way to meet Palmer, Fitzwilliam tells her how ill he is, and that he’ll kill her if she harms him. Palmer brags at Dutch. She asks him if he’s a vampire, which he’s not. He’s just (!) looking for the key to immortality. She punches him in the face. Fitzwilliam drags her out.
15 HOURS EARLIER – Kelly can hear the voice of The Master in her head. She’s still wandering the streets, but also she can see or perceive the blood and circulatory systems of humans as they go by. The Master says “come to me”… Kelly goes underground. The Master shows up and tells her to “rejoice”.. hmm!
BACK TO THE PRESENT – Vasily and Dutch are being led to their “deaths”, except Fitzwilliam lets them go. Despite appearances, he’s not quite on Palmer’s side. Vasily suggests they join up, but he’s not interested.
Eph arrives at Diane’s looking for Kelly, it’s night now, he’s been to 3 places and it’s taken him all day! In the basement he finds vampire Diane and son. He shoots Diane straight away, hesitates for the son, but kills him anyway. Dead Diane is holding onto a necklace – probably Kelly’s as Eph bursts into tears. He goes back to the pawn shop, as do Vasily and Dutch. No luck for any of them, then. They trade snarky comments instead. Dutch gets pissed off and threatens to leave, Vasily tries to make her stay, but she heads out. Zack asks if Eph found his mum, which of course he didn’t. Zack uses Kelly’s phone to look at old pictures, and we see an old birthday video in flashback.
Unanswered questions
- STILL No sign of the “good” monster army this episode
- The human authorities are non-existent, what’s the point of them at all?
My Favourite Bit
I’m struggling to find one this episode – no one actually achieved anything this week!
Overall Rating
1 out of 5 stars
Not much actually happened this episode. Nobody succeeded in doing anything useful, no one achieved what they set out to do. The only relevant plot point revealed was the fact that Fitzwilliam isn’t necessarily on Palmer’s side, but that hasn’t become useful yet either. Having Kelly’s whereabouts told in flashback wasn’t a particularly useful device – maybe if she were not infected right away – it feels like her fate is sealed already. But they’ll probably find a cure before the end and save her; but don’t ask me how, without any kind of lab, or anyone doing anything remotely scientific! What’s the point of having a main character who’s CDC, and not have him demonstrate any skill or knowledge in fighting disease? We were supposed to feel sorry for the death of Diane and her son, but they weren’t the most developed of characters, so their deaths didn’t carry the emotional weight that perhaps they should have had. At this point, I’m rooting for the vampires and a few more unpleasant and gory deaths! The humans are useless.
Crown Jules Presents 