The Strain: Night Train

October 5, 2015 9:22 PM - Season 2, Episode 13

Setrakian and Fet battle for possession of the Occido Lumen, and gain a surprising new ally. A massive attack imperils Eph, Nora, and Zack's escape from New York.

T.L. Stanley, LA Times:

"First, we get a glimpse at that 'rendering' plant in Throggs Necks that Thomas Eichhorst has been so diligently building for weeks. There are giant hooks hanging from the ceiling, an incinerator on the way and cages are far as the eye can see. What kind of animals will you be butchering here, the foreman asks Eichhorst.

'Sheep,' he says brightly."

Kyle Fowle discusses the pivotal bid scene and its aftermath:

"The bid, which is eventually won by Setrakian after Palmer pulls Eichorst’s funds, is also responsible for leading to some of the finale’s more thrilling action. When Eichorst and his army of strigoi catch up with Fet and Setrakian on the road, they attack the truck in an attempt to steal the Lumen. The following gun battle is a lot of fun because it shows The Strain shaking things up. There’s Fet and Setrakian escaping through the sewers while Gus, Quinlan, The Silver Angel, and all of their freed prisoners show up and go after the Lumen themselves. This three-way battle for the book is the most interesting material the show has right now, as it tests the loyalty and morality of every character, and leaves a lot of questions on the table as to how the Lumen can be used. Setrakian wants to use it as bait, and that’s something Quinlan can get behind. Whether their tenuous alliance will last is something left for season three."

Nora died so let's talk about that - Jesse Schedeen, IGN:

"One of the first scenes from the Season 2 premiere involved Kelly's transformation from ordinary strigoi to semi-autonomous agent of the Master. So it was only fitting that the season culminated with another showdown between Kelly and her family. It was nice to see Nora, rather than Eph, take point in this showdown. Especially since, as it turned out, this was her last stand. Her death was disappointing in the sense that Nora has a lot to offer the group dynamic and wasn't always used to her fullest this season. However, at least she died bravely, and the the abrupt, near silent shot of her self-inflicted electrocution certainly made its impact. That death will surely be hanging over Eph's head in Season 3."

Also: RIP Coco Marchand.

posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome (9 comments total)

Maybe not the rip-roaring season finale we'd been hoping for, but there was plenty to keep you going: the bid scene and it's aftermath, Eichorst vs. Palmer-Coco [and rare appearance by the master - hate to eat and run...], the obvious Nazi parallels with the processing factory in the opening, and the epic voiceover and night-shots of the city that were sweeping and monumental.

That third rail had to come into it somehow, didn't it?
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 9:24 PM on October 5, 2015

All I know is, I'm ready for the new Scooby 2.0 Gang:

- Angel de la Plata, now with 100% more luchador mask!
- Gus Elizalde, now with 100% fewer Guptas!
- Abraham Setrakian, official Dungeon Master of the Ancients and Occido Lumen whisperer
- Mr. Quinlan, Zompire Warrior
- Vasily Fet, the Ratslayer of Red Hook
- Alonso Creem, the Silver Smirker

OK but seriously, that's a Zompire-hunting sausage party even if you leave out Eph (*involuntary shudder* he's the worst) and vengeance-seeking paramour Palmer (RIP, Palmer's Coco Butter). Pretty sure Dutch is making a comeback sometime in S3.

This show could be better, and the source material could also be better but in different ways.

Fingers crossed the next season isn't literally resolving a single plot point for 13 episodes. Get your shit together, del Toro!
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 10:08 PM on October 5, 2015 [3 favorites]

Just so we all agree that the bit with the train splattily plowing through a placid mob of zompires was glorious and could only have been improved if either the train or the zompires or both had been on fire and the train had somehow derailed into a curtain factory so the hommes frites could run around setting things on fire with their burnening.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 10:41 PM on October 5, 2015 [4 favorites]

I would witness such much worm and strigoi burnening, ROU.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 10:32 AM on October 6, 2015

We've been hate watching this show all season. So bad.
posted by flippant at 12:07 AM on October 7, 2015

Season three starts this weekend. Vampire! Vampire! Vampire!
posted by Room 641-A at 9:19 AM on August 27, 2016

Ok so first of all, I didn't think I could hate a teenage character more than Carl on the Walking Dead. This kid needs to get eaten already. If I was Nora, I would have let Kelly eat him and just told Eph "I tried." Heck I probably would have pushed the kid at he zompires and run. What crap treatment for Nora. Sigh.

Also think Coco got really crap treatment. I thought her response when she got "infected" was a dead giveaway that she really was a plant and her encouragement to Palmer to antagonize the Master into a personal appearance was part of an assassination plant. Apparently I gave her way too much credit.

So the Master's plan is a human processing plant, which is the exact same thing the Master on Buffy the Vampire Slayer set up before being killed (well in this dimension at least). That gave me a little chuckle. But why now? Certainly the potential for a human blood harvesting factory has existed for quite some time. What is it that prompted the Master to finally decide to realize his dream of applying mass production to human blood?

Also I hope the Master has 1 a human breeding program in mind to ensure they don't run out of food 2 he has a way to also immediately kill humans who have been harvested to prevent zompirism from spreading so quickly that, again, the food supply can't sustain the population.

I'm not sure the Master really thought this plan through.
posted by miss-lapin at 2:08 AM on September 2, 2016

On rewatch my two main reactions were:

• noooo not the faithful bread truck
• Zach really is the dumbest shit in shitville

So ... how do the logistic of Fet's sewer escape plan work? it seems to rely on him accurately parking the truck over a suitable manhole, which seems a bit of a big ask, especially as in the end he also had to do this in reverse. Maybe Fet has an encyclopedic memory of manhole covers, IDK.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:06 PM on April 6, 2023

also, this:

Abraham, how ironic that our duel should end not with a fight but with a simple transaction in gold.
I assure you, Eichorst, our duel shall end with a transaction in silver.

posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 12:09 PM on April 6, 2023