The Strain Season 1 Finale Episode # 13 "The Master" - Recap and Review

This post discusses the episode in detail. Readers yet to watch the episode are recommended to skip it, if they wish to avoid spoilers.

Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde) and Mr Fitzwilliam (Roger R. Cross) visit Abraham Setrakian's pawnshop. Eldrtich wants his right hand man to confiscate all the materials and transfer them to his place. He is specially interested in Miriam's still beating heart.

Thomas Eichorst (Richard Sammel) drops in and expresses his surprise at Eldritch's return to good health. Eldritch enquires as to when he will start turning into a vampire. Thomas replies that The Master has only granted him good health and in due time, he will enjoy immortality as well.

It is flashback time (again). Only this time, it is Zach Goodweather (Ben Hyland) dreaming about his missing mother Kelly (Natalie Brown). Eph Goodweather (Corey Stoll), Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand) and Abraham (David Bradley) discuss their strategy for fighting the Master.

Vasiliy suggests that he and Eph do some reconnaissance. They end up at a theater supposedly bought by the infected goth celebrity, Gabriel Bolivar (Jack Kesy). They discover The Master's coffin and a bunch of vampires.

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Mr Fritzwilliams finally stands up to his employer and quits, citing his discomfort with the latest development.

The current Secretary of Health, Maggie is killed by Eldritch after she refuses to play along. Dr Everett Barnes (Daniel Kash) witnesses this and readily agrees to become Eldritch's pawn as the next Secretary of Health.

Eph, Vasiliy, Abraham, Nora, Dutch and Zach launch their campaign against The Master. It is a free for all brawl as Eichorst, Gabe and Dutch's acquaintance all join in.

Abraham, aided by Eph fights the Master. Just as Abraham is about to kill the strigoi, he escapes in broad daylight. Abraham himself is surprised by this never-before-seen ability of the Master.

Gus meets his captor, Quinlan (Stephen McHattie). Gus tries to overcome Quinlan and finds that he is no match for the strigoi. Gus is introduced to Ancients, strigoi similar to The Master.

Quinlan informs Gus that a pact has been broken and that they need a human warrior to move in the broad daylight. Gus happily grabs this opportunity to get revenge for his infected mother.

In the closing scenes, Eph and Zach encounter Kelly in her changed form as a vampire. Eph shoots at her and she leaves. The grief of seeing his changed wife causes Eph to turn to drinking again. 

There were a couple of humorous moments, thanks to Bradley and Gomez - Abraham teaching the young Zach about effectively killing a strigoi and Gus asking Quinlan if he is eating “Mexican” tonight.

Still, this is one of the most disappointing season finales. Our heroes did not manage to kill even one major strigoi in the climactic encounter. While I didn't expect The Master to be destroyed in the first season itself, I was hoping that at least one major baddie (Thomas Eichorst or at least Gabriel “Gabe” Bolivar) would be killed. But this was not the case to be. On top of this, there was (as usual) the filler scenes with Eph and Vasiliy's reconnaissance and Dutch Velders' drinking habit.

I do give credit to the show for maintaining a consistency in terms of quality - it has been boring for the most part (except for  Episode # 8).

To give an example, this is similar to the underwhelming season finale for the Season 1 of  the CBS show Elementary. Ideally, we would all like to see something like the spectacular finish to the very well made (also from FX Networks) Fargo.

David Bradley, Richard Sammel and Miguel Gomez continue to give the best performances. Kevin Durand is good. The lesser about the rest, the better.

The episode ended with a very brief preview of the next season scheduled for 2015. Unless there are some drastic changes (like better screenplay, tighter plotting and if possible, recasting of a couple of lead characters), it will be a real chore to undergo the same experience again.

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Image Sources: FX Networks, DelToroFilms.com

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Gotham Season 1 Episode 2 “Selina Kyle” - Recap & Review

Patti (Lili Taylor) and Doug (Frank Whaley) are two henchmen of Dollmaker. They approach homeless children, claiming to be members of the Homeless Outreach Program.

After entreating the children with treats, the thugs inject some medicine that makes them unconscious. 

Selina Kyle (“Cat” to her friends) witnesses one such kidnapping incident. The shrewd Selina does not fall prey and flees.

Oswald Cobblepot (Robin Lord Taylor) hitchhikes his way back to Gotham city. As readers might remember, he was supposed to be executed by Detective James Gordon (Ben McKenzie). Jim of course let him go, after warning him never to come back.

The guys who give Oswald his free ride are not so lucky. Oswald kills one of them and kidnaps the other for ransom.

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Jim and Harvey Bullock (Donal Logue) are working on the case of the missing street children. They zero in on one Morry Quillan (Wayne Duvall) based on the substance used by the kidnappers to inject the street children.

Patti and Doug are already in Morry's office, when Jim and Harvey arrive to question him. A shootout ensues and the two kidnappers make their escape. The detectives arrest Morry.

Morry provides the tip that he remembers a depiction of fork on the van used by the kidnappers.

Meanwhile, Mayor Aubrey James (Richard Kind) announces a program that will take all the homeless children off the street and send them to an institution.

Selina finds herself being forcefully packed into a bus that purports to serve the official machinery. Selina is horrified to find Patti to be in charge of the situation.

Patti intends to ship all the children to foreign shores. Jim correctly figures out the name of the company using the trident symbol (mistakenly thought to be a fork by Morry) as “Trident International Shipping”.

He arrives just in time to save Selina just as Patti is about to shoot her. Harvey arrests Doug.

Selina tells Jim that she might have information about the man who murdered Thomas and Martha Wayne.

At the request of Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee), Jim visits Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) at the Wayne Manor. Bruce has been “testing” himself by doing things like burning his hand deliberately.

On learning about the developments about the rescued homeless children, Bruce offers to donate clothes for them.
 

Another subplot involved Don Carmine Falcone (John Doman) checking up with Fish Mooney (Jada Pinkett Smith) about her intentions to replace him as the head of Gotham underworld. Don informs her that he got this information from Oswald. Mooney reassures the Don about her loyalty and seemingly convinces him.

Privately, she regrets the fact that she did not punish Oswald more for his treachery.

For an episode titled “Selina Kyle”, we did not get to see much of the lass destined to be Catwoman. We don't know any more about Selina than what we did from the pilot episode.

We already know that she is a spunky kid with lot of street smarts to boot. This episode did not forward her character development or delved deeply into her background to justify the decision to name it after her.

On the acting front, Robin Lord Taylor continues to the best of the bunch. The reason is simple: he offers a healthy dose of humor in his performance. This factor combined with the villainy of Oswald Cobblepot naturally makes him the standout performer.

Jada Pinkett Smith continues to chew the scenery as gang boss Fish Mooney.

As I mentioned in the review of the pilot episode, Ben McKenzie could inject some humor into his performance. Granted that his character is a straight shooter and an idealist and is very frustrated with the prevalent corruption. Still his character could use some levity.

Same goes for Sean Pertwee - he also leans towards the all-serious school of acting as Alfred Pennyworth.

Casting such talented actors as Lili Taylor and Frank Whaley in what amount to one-off roles clearly shows the dedication of the show makers to deliver a product of the highest possible quality. Hats off to them.

Lili Taylor is a blast as Patti. She mixes black humor effectively and gives one of the best guest appearances in a long time.  

Recommended watch for fans of the Dark Knight/DC Comics.

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Image Sources: Warner Bros. Television, Fox Network

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