After an incredibly muddled first season, The Strain’s second season has largely been about figuring out its identity and it’s done so quite well in the last few weeks. We’ve seen this show manage its characters far better than before, allowing their stories to actually become somewhat fun and playful, which is surprisingly rare. But it’s ironic that, in the episode “Identity,” the show starts to lose its way again, struggling to be enjoyable or important in any way.
“Identity” focuses on the “fascinating” world of bureaucracy, as Eph arrives in D.C. trying to get his pathogen approved for widespread dispersal. This leads to plenty of boring discussions with his old friend Rob and his pharmaceutical liaison Lee Thomas. Even though these discussions are about making this potential vampire-stopper widely available—which should be a big deal—it’s very clear that this likely won’t happen at all. We’re halfway through the second season; of course they’re not going to find a solid way to stop the upcoming apocalypse this early on.
But every step of Eph’s goal seems to present more of the same old problems we saw in the first season. Eph is trying to find a solution, while the bureaucracy gets in the way at every point. It’s also a particularly bad episode in terms of how we see Eph. While he used to just be a moderate drunk, now he’s actually killed a guy, and back at camp, it’s widely considered that Eph might abandon his son and just run away from the virus. Even after Eph cheats on Nora with Lee, he doesn’t have any regrets, besides worrying about losing the rights to his vaccine. Last week’s episode did quite a bit to make Eph an exciting character with a purpose and a new goal to focus on, but “Identity” then feels the need to strip him down into a sort of monster. By the time a Stoneheart group assassin comes in and kills Rob and Lee, you kind of want him to kill Eph as well.
Even worse, the rest of “Identity” seems content to just rehash the same ideas over again, which highlights how little some plots matter and how easily everyone can be replaced. Gus and Angel continue to bicker with each other, with Gus trying to get Angel to admit he’s the Silver Angel, and Angel doesn’t like Gus essentially because he has tattoos. When Gus, Angel and Aanya are attacked by a vampire, Gus shows his worth to Angel, but it’s a completely uneventful moment.
Then we see how Fitzwilliam’s choice to switch to the good guys becomes a huge deal. Even though he seemed like he was completely out of the picture, they brought him back to the show and made him seem like such an important piece to taking down Palmer. But after another vampire attack, Fitzwilliam gets bit, leaving Setrakian to decapitate him. What exactly was the purpose of making Fitzwilliam a large focus of this show in the last few weeks, to only have him die at the first vampire attack? I don’t know, but it doesn’t bode confidence in this show’s foresight.
We also see that the Ancients have brought in a new leader to help take out the “bad” vampires, with the new leader saying that they need a group of humans that can work during the day. I almost expected him to look right in the camera and just wink at us. If there are all these other “good” vampires out there fighting to take out the bad ones, why aren’t they ALL already in New York fighting for the cause? Are they just biding their time until they’re all taken out, one by one? Also in a choice that surprises no one, The Master decides his next host will be Bolivar instead of Eichorst, who is now relegated to being The Master’s lackey for all of eternity.
After all of The Strain’s hard work these last few weeks to repair itself, “Identity” comes along to remind us of how bland and repetitive this show can be at its worst. Even worse, there’s this uncertainty as to what to do next, which almost ruins all the goodwill it has built up this season so far.
Ross Bonaime is a D.C.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.