Last week’s premiere for The Strain, “Night Zero; worked as simply a proof-of-concept, that “This isn’t your usual vampire story!” even though it basically features all one’s typical traits. While the creatures and mystery surrounding the airplane full of dead passengers were interesting, the lack of great character became a flaw. With the second episode “The Box,” we dig deeper into these characters, making some far more intriguing while others grow more cliché and laughable.
Unfortunately, our main protagonist Ephraim Goodweather suffers the most from added screen time. In “Night Zero,” he was adamant about regaining his family and finding a better balance between his job, his ex-wife and his kid, even threatening his ex-wife’s new love interest. Only a few days later, he seems to have given up on this goal, telling his replacement to just make sure his family is happy and starting something up with Nora.
During his AA meeting, Eph even points out how cliché his balance of family and work is, but both aspects have their own clichés. For one, he has been outranked on the CDC’s involvement in the airplane case and the four survivors have been let go, risking the world’s well-being due to money. Now with Eph off the case, he has to avoid orders and look into the potential biohazard on his own. Back at home, Eph also has to worry about his upcoming custody case, which is son warns him he cannot be late for. It’s weird that Eph’s ex would want sole custody, since she seems to understand how important his job is, even if is does interfere with his family. And I’d bet $100 that Eph is late to that hearing. No doubt in my mind.
We learn more about many of the heroic characters, but nothing that really ties them into the actual story. For example, Gus Elizalde was tasked with transporting the box/coffin/worm-dirt-holder that the episode is named after, and runs away from it once it starts making strange movements. Yet for the rest of the episode, we’re just following him around at his home, worrying about his mom and junkie brother. We also meet Vasiliy Fet, an exterminator, but besides watching him close down a rat-infested New York restaurant, there’s really no link to anything else happening in “The Box.”
Only increasing interest is Abraham Setrakian, who is being set up as The Strain’s savior. He’s seen this strain infect the world before, and now he’s trying to stop it. Turns out that the strange, side-blinking Thomas Eichhorst is a Nazi that once held Setrakian in the death camps. In case you couldn’t tell that Eichhorst is evil, he’s also doing his best Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds impression to really make it known. This battle between Setrakian and Eichhorst is the show’s first truly compelling battle; it’s a shame there’s not more of it besides one great scene.
But in “The Box,” what really stands out are the supposed villains and the beginning of their takeover, with even seemingly evil characters realizing the mistakes they’ve already made. When the sick Eldritch Palmer finally meets “The Master” of this outbreak, he gets on his knees, terrified not only by the beast that looms over him, but by the decisions he’s made.
As far as the actual outbreak goes, it’s not actually being handled all that differently than what you might’ve seen in recent years with vampiric material. The first two humans-turned-vampires we see are a little girl who uses her vulnerability to suck the blood of an adult (Let the Right One In anyone?) and a goth rock star straight out an Anne Rice novel who goes for his first taste of neck during a four-way. For a show that wants to sort of retell how we see the vampire story, it doesn’t seem to have much of a problem recycling old ideas.
“The Box” is the first real example we’ve got of how The Strain will work week-to-week after the two-hour-long methodical premiere. This shorter pace does work far better for this show, especially one without all the kinks worked out. The Strain works best when it abandons the lore that we’ve seen before and suffers greatly when it falls into melodrama. If it can find the right balance, The Strain could be something pretty great. We’re just not at that point yet.
Ross Bonaime is a D.C.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.