Luss and Bolivar, on the other hand, are perfectly happy to flip the CDC the bird and get on with their lives. Luss busies herself prepping a lawsuit, while Bolivar goes back to his rock-star lifestyle and begins an orgy with groupies. However, he soon vamps out on one of their necks and bites down hard. As they all run out in horror, one surely on her way to the hospital, Bolivar starts lapping up the blood like a thirsty dog on a hot summer day. Both him and Luss are hearing the same high-pitched frequencies, suggesting they’re undergoing similar transformations to Redfern.
The Strain is smart to incorporate characters who we all know would crawl out of the woodwork in situations like its plane disaster – ones so determined to buck the system and get their way that they’d happily disregard even their own safety. It’s more than little unnerving how believable the spread of the virus has been so far, and that’s a credit to the intelligence of The Strain‘s writing.
Another carrier is Isabelle Arnot, the dead little girl who returned to her joyful father last episode. When he gives her a bath in this episode, however, she’s revealed to have one of those horrible, fleshy proboscises and rips his neck wide open, letting the blood permeate the bathtub (that scene is the final scare I mentioned above). Is he dead, or will he wake up as another vamp? I’m leaning towards the latter, seeing as she just fed on him, not snapping his neck or tearing him to bits. It’s still a truly disturbing moment when you consider Setrakian’s words about love and hunger being the two most powerful forces in the world from last week’s premiere – this virus is damnably smart, using the blinding love that a father has for his daughter to find yet another victim. Eph and Nora are hopefully going to get on Isabelle’s trail now that the father tipped the pair off by calling to thank them for returning his little girl, and now that Nora has correctly surmised that the worms induce a state of temporary hibernation, “like tsestse flies.”
As dismally as things are going at work, at least Eph has his loving family to come home to, right? I’m afraid not. The custody hearing for Zach is coming up, and Eph hears straight from his son that, if he’s always going to be busy, perhaps giving full custody to wife Kelly isn’t a bad idea. Meanwhile, Kelly’s boyfriend Matt has moved in and is busy renovating Eph’s office into a video-game room. That one’s got to sting. We learn that Eph is a recovering alcoholic when he stops into an AA meeting, something that no doubt contributed to his break-up with Kelly. Corey Stoll is a fine actor throughout The Strain, but he’s truly tremendous in this scene, summoning up the same wounded pride that made his House of Cards politician so captivating to watch.
“The Box” also cements the romantic spark between Eph and Nora – he plants a kiss on her before heading off to see Zach – but I get the sense that work will always come first for these two. Stoll and Mia Maestro have a strong chemistry, so I’ll be happy to see them continue to work, and maybe play, throughout the rest of the season.
In other Strain-related news, Bolivar tells Eph and Nora that he “has a major concert on the day of the eclipse” as he walks out of CDC custody. Thinking back on it, I’m pretty sure there was a banner in the airport that said something about an eclipse back in the premiere, and Bolivar dropping that comment suggests to me that del Toro and Hogan have something major planned. The vamps are busy spreading the strain throughout New York City at the moment, but that Eichhorst wanted Gus to deliver the box before daybreak suggests that The Strain‘s blood-suckers can’t walk in the sun. So, what would be the perfect time for the vamps to stage a complete takeover of New York City? A daytime solar eclipse, when people are out on the street and perfectly vulnerable, certainly sounds good to me.
In this second episode, The Strain continues to thrill and intrigue. Stoll and Maestro both seem like rock-solid leads, never so dramatic as to sap the show of its goofy, midnight-movie story but still capable enough not to douse The Strain in overt campiness. Eichhorst, Palmer and the Master are three exciting but distinctive villains, and David Bradley’s Setrakian continues to be the show’s MVP. Now all we need is for him to get cut loose and put that sword-cane to good use, and The Strain will officially have become my favorite new show of the summer.