Ruby Wain (Regina King) calls in Dr. Evanston, an urologist to take care of her client, goth celebrity Gabriel Bolivar's (Jack Kesy) medical problems. Gabe, under the control of The Master, attacks the doctor with his stinger and claims her to be “Mine”.
Ruby gets scared and sprains her leg, while fleeing the house. She calls someone and informs about the incident involving Gabe.
Ruby gets scared and sprains her leg, while fleeing the house. She calls someone and informs about the incident involving Gabe.
Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) educates Dr Eph Goodweather (Corey Stoll) about “The Master” and refers to him as Patient Zero/Strigoi (Romanian word for vampire).
Abraham explains about his experience in 1944. A much younger Abraham (Jim Watson), along with his “bubbeh meiseh” grandmother (Kathleen Chalfant) and a friend, are taken to a concentration camp, under the control of Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel). Abraham and his friend are spared, after the camp guards learn that they are skilled carpenters.
Back to the present. Attorney Joan Luss (Leslie Hope) is getting more and more sick. The governess, Neeva (Kim Roberts) notices the subtle change in her employer when Joan stares at her daughter's neck with a strange look.
Dr Nora Martinez (Mia Maestro) is informed about her mother, Mariela Martinez (Anne Betancourt) making yet another escape attempt from her institution. She is suffering from Alzheimer's disease.
Eph and Abraham reach Ansel Barbour's (Nikolai Witschl) house, only to discover that his wife Ann-Marie Barbour (Alex Paxton-Beesley) has committed suicide by hanging from the roof.
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They carefully approach the shed and Eph shoots Ansel with his newly acquired nail gun, loaded with silver ammunition. Before decapitating Ansel, Abraham chants the following words: “Sabia mea fredoneaza de argint”.
Back in the concentration camp, Abraham watches a mysterious stranger feed on a fellow prisoner. He confides the same to his friend, who advises him to stop looking for monsters.
Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde)'s doctor informs him that his body cannot endure any more organ transfers/operations. Eldritch replies that this will be the last operation to be performed on him.
Jack Noon is hired by Ruby to clean up the mess created by Gabe's attack on Dr. Evanston. He becomes Gabe's next victim.
Neeva packs Joan's kids and takes them to her place to keep them safe from their mother.
Nora is forced to take her mother out of the institution after a vampire attack.
Eph goes to the CDC with the video evidence of the infected victims. He tries to convince his boss, Dr. Everett Barnes (Daniel Kash) to declare a quarantine. Jim Kent (Sean Astin) advises Eph to flee and helps him to escape.
David Bradley's Abraham Setrakian is the most fleshed out character in the show. I liked his quote: “Inaction is the greatest evil”. His interactions with Eph are the highlights of the episode.
Couple of scenes reminded me of other Guillermo del Toro efforts. In the concentration camp, young Abraham's friend makes the observation that they are already surrounded by monsters. This was similar to del Toro's Oscar winner Pan's Labyrinth, also set in the aftermath of a Spanish Civil War. The film's protagonist, Ofelia fantasizes about a faun and other mythic creatures while the merciless Captain Vidal inflicts cruelty around her in the real world.
Similarly, Vasiliy's escape from the strigoi through the manhole was reminiscent of a similar scene in Blade II, starring Wesley Snipes as the titular vampire hunter.
The episode felt disjointed and did not have the impact of a vampire show. The teaser for the next episode promises a lot of action. Hopefully, the next episode will be more effective.
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Image Sources: FX Networks, DelToroFilms.com
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