The Strain - FX

[rsutoratosu]

hmm, how did i miss that.. was that episode 4 ? i dont think i missed an episode yet..

 

[destrekor]

so basically nothing from Bolivar for how long and now he's like their right hand man?

Well I think he is the only vamp left that is a talker and fully conscious. I think the vamp squad and our protagonists were able to kill off the others, and got close to Bolivar but he escaped.

Spoiler

I figured the Nazi would be, but then again, he's already got a slowly decaying body. Bolivar is still full of youth and strength, might as well be groomed to become the next host for the master.

 

[Skel]

Well... I can KIND of reason of how/why it gets to that point in the writing: kid is afraid of dad's anti-vamp virus becoming successful and killing his mom, and mom is clearly just sick and not a totally lost cause.

Doesn't help, because I just want to strangle that damn kid. You know, the first few scenes with him, he actually seemed alright.

Spoiler

Then he ran away like a little punk. But I knew it he was about to become more of an asshole, the way he was staring at the samples in the lab. When they left, I was saying, "y'all stupid, that kids gonna wreck your samples." And what does he do? He doesn't disappoint, that's for sure. He wrecked more than I thought he would though.

Also, you know...

Spoiler

appearing to kill off the vamp squad like that... that just pisses me off. Those guys were too bad ass to be killed off like that. Something tells me they'll pull a classic and have them remain alive and get reintroduced in a few episodes... though I'm tempted to go read up the book wikis to spoil it for myself.
And Palmer really had that extensive of an anti-vamp trap in his office? Suspension of disbelief is dwindling...

Spoiler

I was a bit surprised they took out the vamp squad like that, but why wouldn't Palmer have major anti-vamp stuff everywhere? He hasn't been converted yet, and hedges his bets. Him having a major anti-vamp defenses is one of the few things that makes sense in this show.

 

[Elixer]

..and worse this episode. Seriously, kid, what's your fucking problem? What does your angst about missing your mom have to do with wrecking your dad's work?

Yeah, it is as if they want to make this punk so hated by everyone who has ever seen him, and he is doing some of the dumbest crap ever, try to "find mom", then trash the lab, since they want to "infect" his mom?
Kid has a IQ that is lower than his shoe size.

That must have been the B-team for the vamp squad, and why didn't they put on their hoods, or seek shelter under the drapes, out the window, or the elevator again?

And Mr. 'Boom boom' sure is getting 'lucky' lately...

 

[destrekor]

Spoiler

I was a bit surprised they took out the vamp squad like that, but why wouldn't Palmer have major anti-vamp stuff everywhere? He hasn't been converted yet, and hedges his bets. Him having a major anti-vamp defenses is one of the few things that makes sense in this show.

I guess it makes sense in that light, but it still seems kind of weird. Then again, I guess he realizes that sure, he's in bed with the enemy, in real deep, but not so deluded to think he is remotely safe. So, precautions are necessary.

Yeah, it is as if they want to make this punk so hated by everyone who has ever seen him, and he is doing some of the dumbest crap ever, try to "find mom", then trash the lab, since they want to "infect" his mom?
Kid has a IQ that is lower than his shoe size.

That must have been the B-team for the vamp squad, and why didn't they put on their hoods, or seek shelter under the drapes, out the window, or the elevator again?

And Mr. 'Boom boom' sure is getting 'lucky' lately...

I think that was the entire team. The voice/faces of the ones present are the only ones we've seen.

 

[destrekor]

oops.

 

[Skel]

I guess it makes sense in that light, but it still seems kind of weird. Then again, I guess he realizes that sure, he's in bed with the enemy, in real deep, but not so deluded to think he is remotely safe. So, precautions are necessary.



I think that was the entire team. The voice/faces of the ones present are the only ones we've seen.

In Palmer's defense, they have been dicking him around for a long while now. He only got his youth back at towards the end of the first season. I get the impression that he's promised even more that hasn't been delivered.

 

[Charmonium]

I think that the ancients have to be pretty unhappy with the master. I wonder if he can see through their eyes as he can with the strigoi. I'm guessing not. But if not, I wonder how they're going to fill in that part of the story.

The point is that the objective of the ancients must be to roll back what the master has done. They probably want to go back to living in the shadows and want to write the whole NYC incident off as some kind of mass hysteria. In lieu of that, they at least want to give the impression that the outbreak is over. Either way they get back to an existence where no one pays much attention to them.

I have to agree that the warriors sent to Eldritch seemed to go down a little too easily. Definitely some plot holes there. But at least it serves to highlight the power struggle.

The kid is definitely annoying but they're obviously laying the ground work for him to become an important character. I don't really see the show following the path of the books. Not closely anyway.

 

[Elixer]

That reminds me, the old man with the worm harvesting...didn't see that one coming.
Not really clear what he is doing to them, and then checking them in a microscope.
You would think the doc would like to know also...

 

[Charmonium]

That reminds me, the old man with the worm harvesting...didn't see that one coming.
Not really clear what he is doing to them, and then checking them in a microscope.
You would think the doc would like to know also...

They did explain it in the show.

Spoiler

It's similar to the standard vampire lore about vamp blood being able to cure humans.

 

[Elixer]

You mean the "I am your friend" scene?

Spoiler

Yes, he said he has to absorb them through the eyes to keep on living, but, that isn't what I meant. I mean, what exactly is going on that he needs to view the 'solution' with the microscope? Is it like a worm count thing, checking if they are dead or almost dead, or what? How did he figure that out, and so on...

 

[HumblePie]

Okay spoilers from the book to answer questions if anyone cares. This is beyond what I wrote earlier. Do not read if you do not want to know how the story progresses in the books up to the end. This is fair warning!

Spoiler

Eph and group look for cure but there is none. They do find a way to stop the vamps because of the Master.

The Master and Ancients are all pieces of the original vampire. Basically this story is based on Sodom and Gomorrah. The author expands upon it and says one of the angels he sent down to destroy the towns went a bit crazy after he liked killing humans. He started sucking blood of humans and decided he liked it. This is the angel Azreal. To which Azreal then tried to suck the blood of another angel which cursed him to become a vampire. Before he could be completely become an demonic vampire angel, the other angels rip his body assunder and bury the 7 pieces across the world. The blood from the pieces eventually comes out of the body pieces and infect the worms near the body pieces. The blood still has the will and essence of Azreal. The worms eventually figure out how to escape the ground, capture humans, and become what you see in the story. The Master is called the master because his worms come from Azreal's head which was the most powerful. The Ancients are called the Ancients because this blood escaped first long before the Master's blood infected any worms due to the extra remote isolation the head was placed at in comparison. Also of note, since they are technically all the same "being" they can all read each others thoughts if they aren't actively trying to block each other out. Which they tend to do. Although the Ancients tend to work a bit more in cooperation against the Master as they are afraid of him being more powerful being he was is from the head.

Each vampire "master" is like a bee or ant queen capable of controlling almost any number of vampire drones. The drones though all die when their master dies. The 7 master vamps on occasion switch bodies, but only specially prepared bodies. Which means a human without an loved ones. The german is one such vamp and same with bolivar. Those like Bolivar and the German tend to have more autonomy of action and actual freedom of thought. Other vamps are mostly mindless drones although the older they get they do get somewhat smarter. Not a whole lot more, but somewhat. The special vamps like the german and bolivar can retain most of whom they used to be, especially if they were particularly "evil" prior to becoming vamps. Bolivar ends up becoming the new Master's body when the old jewish dude dies. He poisons his own blood right before the Master goes to suck him dry when trying to detonate the nuke power plant in the city. He basically overdoses on the nitroglycerin for his heart. Which forces the Master to use Bolivar for a new body faster than he would have liked to have switched. That is basically the end of the first book I think as well as some info for what Eph and the others need to do next for book 2.

So Eph and others learn the only way to destroy the vampire infestation is by destroying the original body parts of Azreal. The Master does this to the other Ancients because he wants to be to only ruler. His actions are how Eph and the others find out how to destroy him.

The next bit of the story is tracking down some ancient book that has all this info and reveals Azreal and all the burial places. Which is most of the second book.

The last book is basically the post apocalyptic world in which the vamps feed on human and are in total control. Eph and a few other rebels are hold outs and finally figure out how to get a bomb and finish reading the book that allows them to find the Master's burial spot. Then it's a race to get there and a fight between Eph with the Master's son against the Master and Zach. Eph both wins and loses since they are all on the island when the bomb goes off.

The story overall is a bit of a let down in the end. None of the characters are anything you really get behind even in the books. The TV show with the german nazi is seriously the best character in a strange way than anything in the books or elsewhere. There is a lot of Deus Ex Machina and horrible plot devices that one must suspend massive disbelief upon when reading book 2 and 3. Going into the religousness crap after trying to build up a scientific explanation for vamps was a major annoyance to me. The story goes too far into the realm of "something happened because MAGIC!" sort of feeling with the last 2 books. Especially the third one. There were some interesting tid bits here and there to sort of keep me reading.

 

[HumblePie]

I think that the ancients have to be pretty unhappy with the master. I wonder if he can see through their eyes as he can with the strigoi. I'm guessing not. But if not, I wonder how they're going to fill in that part of the story.

The point is that the objective of the ancients must be to roll back what the master has done. They probably want to go back to living in the shadows and want to write the whole NYC incident off as some kind of mass hysteria. In lieu of that, they at least want to give the impression that the outbreak is over. Either way they get back to an existence where no one pays much attention to them.

I have to agree that the warriors sent to Eldritch seemed to go down a little too easily. Definitely some plot holes there. But at least it serves to highlight the power struggle.

The kid is definitely annoying but they're obviously laying the ground work for him to become an important character. I don't really see the show following the path of the books. Not closely anyway.

I sort of answer your questions with my latest spoiler. Read if you want!

 

[Charmonium]

You mean the "I am your friend" scene?

Spoiler

Yes, he said he has to absorb them through the eyes to keep on living, but, that isn't what I meant. I mean, what exactly is going on that he needs to view the 'solution' with the microscope? Is it like a worm count thing, checking if they are dead or almost dead, or what? How did he figure that out, and so on...

I see what you mean. I'm not really expecting them to get into that sort of detail. If I had to guess, I would say that he uses the microscope to make sure that none of the chopped up worm bits are still active. Like many worms, I would expect that they can regenerate if cut. Given that these are "super" worms, they can probably regen from even microscopic bits. That's just a guess though. I don't have anything to base that on.

I sort of answer your questions with my latest spoiler. Read if you want!

Thanks, I appreciate that. It's rare that I ever read a book that something is based on so I like knowing the backstory and how the show diverges from the original.

Spoiler

As I said before, I'm going to be surprised if the show doesn't diverge significantly from the books just because of the time line. I assume that in the books, we have to wait for Zach to grow a bit more. We're probably not going to have the same flexibility with time that they do in the books. Although so far, I have to admit that they seem to be following the original pretty closely.

Spoiler

I wonder if the first divergence will be with the "cure." It seems to be working on the test subject. My only guess is that it ends up failing in terms of the pathogen infecting anyone but the carrier. On the other hand, search for the book seems to be ramping up. Personally I would like to see them stick to one plot device or the other. I generally don't appreciate red herrings.

 

[Childs]

They did explain it in the show.

Spoiler

It's similar to the standard vampire lore about vamp blood being able to cure humans.

They've done this kinda thing better in Dracula 2000, where

Spoiler

Van Hellsing was using Dracula's blood to stay alive so he could live long enough to figure out how to kill him.

I figured they would do something like that this season since the old man was getting sicker and sicker, and without him the show is considerably less interesting. He should be training the rat catcher so he could pass the torch. Eventually they'll probably get there.

And whats dumb about the hit squad is they have outfits to walk around during the day. Even if they didnt have their masks with them, they should have just looked down and went back to the elevator or something. hehe They spent all that time to train the Mexican dude to be calm under pressure, and they couldn't concentrate enough to shoot out those lights. In some ways this show is really dumb, but its just good enough to keep you watching.

 

[John Connor]

Does anyone know why they needed blind children? I have an idea, but not too sure.

 

[Childs]

Does anyone know why they needed blind children? I have an idea, but not too sure.

I think because they were blind their senses were heightened or something, which makes them suited to be bloodhounds.

 

[lupi]

Vamp squad going down so easy was a shocker, was that bulletproof glass on the lights or did they just suck that much in shooting.

Other odd parts of that, how easy the human got out and what happens with the chick now that she is in the bunker when her boss decides to turn on the antivamp system....cause how would he know to have it.


As for some of the other questions mentioned, the master "cured" his human cohort by dripping some non-worm solution in him. The jew looked to be attempting to create the same process through the captured worms. Thought that was rather clear.

Haven't scrolled back yet but I thought I mentioned that it was interesting to have the final enhanced vamp just walk back into the show at the end of last weeks show. The same way he has become important again, assuming the same will occur with the butler that just popped back up going to see his brother.

As far as seeing each other, then now-dead head vamp squad guy mentioned the ancients/master could see through each other but the master had managed to block the others which is why they couldn't find him and tracked down the jew to do so. They mentioned in that sequence that during the fight at the end of season one it cause the master to loss control of that ability so the ancients watched that fight.

 

[HumblePie]

Thanks, I appreciate that. It's rare that I ever read a book that something is based on so I like knowing the backstory and how the show diverges from the original.

Spoiler

As I said before, I'm going to be surprised if the show doesn't diverge significantly from the books just because of the time line. I assume that in the books, we have to wait for Zach to grow a bit more. We're probably not going to have the same flexibility with time that they do in the books. Although so far, I have to admit that they seem to be following the original pretty closely.

Spoiler

I wonder if the first divergence will be with the "cure." It seems to be working on the test subject. My only guess is that it ends up failing in terms of the pathogen infecting anyone but the carrier. On the other hand, search for the book seems to be ramping up. Personally I would like to see them stick to one plot device or the other. I generally don't appreciate red herrings.

They are adding more detail to the show's version of the story and changed a few characters, I think to make it more interesting, but the main story remains the same so far from what I can see. I don't think they are going to diverge from the main story though at all in the end.

Spoiler

Which means just like in the book there is no cure. That is what they discover. They do a few things to find a possible cure in the book, but never get close enough before the Master detonates nukes all over the planet which destabilizes everything and he takes over. Eph in the future still sort of looks for a cure, but it is hard enough remaining away from the Master's clutches where vamps and human sympathizers are everywhere. So there never is a cure in the main story. It's not a red herring, but just part of the story. Eph is trying to solve things scientifically and he can't so he has to embrace the occult/religousness of the scenario to resolve the issue of the vampires. Which is why I have a bit of a problem with the story in the later two books.

 

[Childs]

As for some of the other questions mentioned, the master "cured" his human cohort by dripping some non-worm solution in him. The jew looked to be attempting to create the same process through the captured worms. Thought that was rather clear.

I dont remember the master curing anyone. I thought he simply turned Palmer, although that would explain when he has all those UV lights in his office. It would be funny if he ended up being a good guy in the end. He puts the city through all this so he can live longer.

 

[destrekor]

I dont remember the master curing anyone. I thought he simply turned Palmer, although that would explain when he has all those UV lights in his office. It would be funny if he ended up being a good guy in the end. He puts the city through all this so he can live longer.

No, Parker is not turned. He is human. The Master used what I assume was his blood, sans worms, and that brought Parker back into good health.

The same thing Setrakian did. He basically took the worms, used a chemical soup to disintegrate and neutralize them, with the end result being the basic components of the vamp blood without the active infectious worms.

 

[smackababy]

What I don't get is, how is the infected vamp going to do shit. If the master knows what it knows, won't he just command it to jump off a building or some shit and NOT infect anything...

I swear, this fucking show.

Also, isn't Setrakian Jewish? Wouldn't that mean he DOESN'T believe in the concept of Hell?

 

[lupi]

Assumes no arrogance on the part of the master. Judging from the flashback clip, he has a decent amount.

 

[HumblePie]

No, Parker is not turned. He is human. The Master used what I assume was his blood, sans worms, and that brought Parker back into good health.

The same thing Setrakian did. He basically took the worms, used a chemical soup to disintegrate and neutralize them, with the end result being the basic components of the vamp blood without the active infectious worms.

Correct. Only in the book Setrakian doesn't do anything like that. The Master DOES use his blood to prolong the lives of a few humans though at various points in the story.

Spoiler

The blood is technically the blood of an angel and can grant immortality while being taken. The worms are the infection of the blood of the angel Azreal. The Master uses his blood to keep Zach alive and the healthiest human on the planet post the final take over he does. The blood even without the worms isn't pure though and contains a small amount of taint. Which is part of what really turns Zach into a major asshole later. More so than now.

But basically taking a small amount of the blood will grant a bit of health and added vigor to your life for a short period of time as well as force your body to heal rapidly.

 

[Childs]

No, Parker is not turned. He is human. The Master used what I assume was his blood, sans worms, and that brought Parker back into good health.

The same thing Setrakian did. He basically took the worms, used a chemical soup to disintegrate and neutralize them, with the end result being the basic components of the vamp blood without the active infectious worms.

He should use leeches on a live vampire.