“Last Rites” isn’t quite the course correction I was hoping for, but does prove to be a stronger hour, as the team recovers from last week we make some strides toward the endgame.

Of course some of the episode felt like it was stalling, but at first I was chalking it up to Abraham’s flashback scenes. I was worried they’d detract from the week, but they actually gave some incredible insight into the man’s past, and added one of the most horrific sequences the show has churned out thus far. That whole cave sequence was possibly my favorite ten minutes of the show.

I’m still not convinced Dutch adds anything to the show. I found her return with a huge win, to be nothing if not distracting. She and Fet’s budding relationship is a great diversion from the main pull of the episode but feels forced due to a lack of chemistry between the actors. Even still her idea to broadcast a message doesn’t make much sense in a world gone to shit. Especially a world where technological access has been dead for a little while now, but this is The Strain and it seems plot holes come with the territory.

Gus’ plot felt a little haphazard. We know very clearly that he’s a punk with nothing to prove to anyone, and he’s only out for himself. He’s not interested in saving people, and with the world gone to shit, he fits in now more than ever. But he’s always shown potential to be a force for good and this week we’re reminded of it with the gun toss.

Yet the main pull of this episode was making Nora into a more desicive character. She finally committed to this world and understood what needed to be done when someone is lost. It was a smart and interesting parallel to Abraham’s past, but didn’t serve up the same impact. Plus it was nice to see our Goth rocker from week’s past return from whatever hell he was in if only to off Nora’s mother.

The end of the episode did an impeccable job building excitement for next week’s finale. I’m not entirely sure of where things will go from here, but with Quinlan taking Gus, and the Stonehart story finally becoming more interesting things are at an appropriate boiling point for each story to explode it its own way next week.

I want to take a moment and talk about The Master. As a daunting creature who commands legions of vampires his appearance should define terror. He moves with speed and darts around the room like a horrible apparition. He’s depicted as fluid and moves like water, but when he get close he looks like a retarded puppet. Seriously. Not only that but he moves with a certain stiffness that comes to undermine his appearance in every other scene before it. I just can’t get over how terrible his depiction is, and how goofy the face looks.

Exciting things lie ahead in the final week of The Strain. This has been a rather problematic first season that has really shown promise in it’s stronger weeks. This wasn’t really one of them, but it wasn’t a problem week either. Hopefully next week will end things on a marvelous note before the wait for season 2. We can only hope.

Stray Thoughts:

–       Zack was finally reduced to only a reaction shot this week, let’s all take a breath of relief.

–       Eph was really undercut this week, but I didn’t really miss him.

–       I need more Quinlan in the finale, let’s hope we get a dose of his squad with Gus next week.

What did you think of “Last Rites?”