Tyler and I are huge Guillermo del Torro fan boys and, therefore, we have both been waiting in anticipation of his vampire television saga The Strain. For those rolling their eyes, I know I know it was a book series first, but that would involve reading…we are not THAT big of fans. Given the series premiered recently, I will review each episode of the first season. Here is the eleventh of those reviews.

Episode: “The Third Rail” (11:13) Air Date: Sept 21, 2014 Directed: Deran Sarafian Written: Justin Britt-Gibson & Chuck Hogan

Desperate to destroy the strigoi, Setrakian (Bradley) leads Goodweather (Stoll), Fet (Durand), and Martinez (Maestro) to the Master’s nest. Using Goodweather’s desire to find his ex-wife against him, the Master corners Eph. Left behind at Setrakian’s pawnshop to look after Nora’s mother (Betancourt), Zach (Hyland) risks his life to satisfy Mariela.

After watching “The Third Rail,” I joked that the showrunners must have read my review of the last episode and how boring it was (I know, I know they shoot the episodes ahead of time) because this latest episode had the most moving pieces of any episode so far. Some pieces were great (the foursome’s journey through the Master’s nest) and some not so great (Zach’s quest for cigarettes), but you have to give the show credit for trying. Speaking of Zach and Mariela’s cigarettes, I HATE characters in television or films that their sole purpose of existing is to create artificial conflict for the protagonist(s) to overcome. I felt that Mariela was that character from the moment we met her, but this episode was the most prevalent example of it. While searching for those cigarettes, Zach literally runs into Elizalde (Gomez) who is a character I feel is the most under-utilized character on The Strain. Every time Gus is on the screen I think to myself, “Oh ya, he’s on this show…I wish they would show him more often!” It seems that Gus’ potential may have been somewhat realized this episode and I am looking forward to when his storyline intersects with the group’s plot. Can you imagine the how formidable the group would become if Elizalde joined? The other major plotline of this episode is the foursome making their way through the Master’s nest. The scene where the group is individually crawling through a tunnel in the wall while fighting off pursuing strigoi is the most effective mixture of tension and action used in the series so far. On a lighter note: Am I the only one who has to turn on the closed captions whenever the Master speaks? Would it kill the guy to enunciate?

(3.5 / 5)