“The Master” proves to be a great summary for the many problems plaguing The Strain in its first season. While this episode certainly has highlights, it will mostly leave you feeling cold and alone. The premise put forward by the show has hardly been able to sustain, due to a lack of conviction and maintained by idiotic character decisions at every turn.
With 15 minutes to spare, our group of heroes descends on The Master’s lair in what should be an epic showdown. While the scene does have its merits, unconvincing acting and an underlying lack danger mar it. The heroes have seemingly won, and vanquish legions of vampires with relative ease.
So when it comes time for Abraham to face The Master, one would hope that this showdown would address the intense personal history of the characters and deepen the conflict, while pushing everything to a boiling point. Instead we were treated to a haphazard fight that relied heavily on Eph and Zack slowly smashing out windows to hurt the ancient vampire.
While I can only imagine this hulking creature must be a bitch to move, he should have probably posed a little more threat than was evident here. Seriously the Master just continues to recoil until Abraham smashes him through a large paned window, and stands over him like a 50’s action movie villain. He savors the moment for far too long, and guess what? The Master scurries away in a horribly realized CG scene that really shows the limitations of the budget. Seriously, anything would have been better than that horribly sluggish hulk moving into the sewer.
Elsewhere we finally have the Stonehart story going somewhere as Eldritch is healthy and spry enough to throw a woman off of a balcony with relative ease. He’s sinister and he’s now making a play for the entire city, oh wait, we already knew that and he’s doing nothing new. Everything here was relatively inconsequential other than a scene between Eldritch and Eichorst that shows Palmer as a desperate old fool who’s truly being lead by The Master.
Gus’ storyline actually proved the most interesting because it had a wealth of development. He met the ancient ones, and they were beautifully creepy and very well realized. Quinlan assures him that they are the key to defeating The Master and it certainly seems like the case.
Finally the episode ends with an awfully on the nose voiceover that encapsulates almost everything wrong with this first season of The Strain. It’s never quite assured in the intelligence of the audience, and finds itself pandering directly to the viewer instead of to the characters.
The next year must see a serious course correction for the narrative to actually have any weight. Luckily the world building is now out of the way, and with any luck the focus can be on the characters and the world of ruin that is New York City. Although I don’t remain too hopeful as this season was more uneven than any premiere season I’ve ever witnessed. There was a lot of promise in the middle, only to falter completely when it came to the landing.
Hopefully the year break will allow them to find a more convincing hair piece for Corey Stoll.
What did you think of “The Master?”