Savoring a good meal.
Warning: full episode spoilers follow.
It’s rare to find a villain in fiction who doesn’t have at least some shred of humanity lurking within. With The Strain, Thomas Eichorst has always been the gleefully diabolical counterpoint to Eldritch Palmer’s more thoughtful, conflicted villain. But “Dead End” served as a reminder that even Eichorst was just an ordinary man with ordinary troubles and aspirations once. This episode maintained a successful balance between fleshing out Eichorst’s past and inner nature and still retaining his inhuman mystique.
“Dead End” picked up more or less right where last week’s episode left off, with Dutch a captive of Herr Eichorst and Eph and the gang desperately trying to track her down. That “ticking clock” element immediately lent this episode a sense of tension and dread. We didn’t know what exactly Eichorst had planned for Dutch, but it was pretty clear it was going to end with her becoming dinner. The dread never let up, either. Eichorst spent the entire episode psychologically torturing Dutch and prolonging the inevitable kill. It seems a combination of terror and pineapple slices makes for the ideal marinade.
The psychological torture grew pretty uncomfortable towards the end, as Eichorst gave into his inner Nazi and tried to humiliate Dutch as well as terrifying her. I’m not entirely sure what he was about to do to her before she sprayed him with a faceful of vampire mace. However, I’m guessing it’s the sort of thing one would normally find in a hentai manga. The episode might have gone a little too far in that instance. A lot of TV shows and movies are too quick to rely on rape/sexual assault as a plot device when it doesn’t really add anything to the bigger picture. In this case, viewers had ample reason to despise Eichorst and fear for Dutch’s life already. But I suppose the point was that Eichorst felt his undead manhood was impugned and wanted to claim his prize in what he felt was the most appropriate way possible. It speaks to Eichorst’s psychology that he felt like he had something to prove despite Dutch ostensibly being nothing more than a walking blood bag to him.
On that note, the recurring flashbacks gave us plenty of insight into Eichorst’s character when he was nothing more than a humble salesman eking out a living in war and Depression-ravaged Germany. Again, this material was great about showing a glimmer of humanity to Eichorst without trying to excuse the decades of horrible crimes he’s committed. While he may have been identifiable in his professional struggles and his innocent attraction to the office secretary, Helga (played by The Last Witch Hunter’s Julie Engelbrecht), the point was made clear that every misfortune and upheaval in his life was of his own doing. His fledgling romance with Helga was ruined because Eichorst revealed himself as a petty, hateful man swept up in Hitler’s rhetoric. When he had the opportunity to atone for his mistake and save Helga, he instead threw her to the wolves. Clearly some part of him regretted the course his life took as he gazed upon Helga’s lifeless body, but there’s also the sense that whatever part of Thomas Eichorst that was still good and honorable died at that moment.
The Strain meets Saw.
The final chase scene in the walled-up hotel was an especially memorable way to wrap up this week’s conflict. There was something surreal about Dutch’s desperate flight through the halls and her encountering one bricked-up exit after another. The camera work really enhanced that effect with its quick cuts and generally manic approach. The scene with Dutch running down the stairwell and her friends running up, only for salvation to be snatched away by another brick wall, was an especially nice touch. By the end, I had serious doubts about the idea Fet and the others arriving in time to save her.
Save her they did, however. The resolution was a it disappointing in that, once again, our heroes engaged in a brief skirmish with Eichorst only for him to, once again, escape to lick his minor wounds. The pattern of stagnancy grows a little more annoying each week it’s repeated. Still, the emotional resolution to the conflict was handled well. Dutch was rescued, but it’s clear she’ll be carrying some emotional scars from her time with Eichorst. And while it was a mostly happy ending for Fet, the same can’t really be said for Eph and Nora. Neither character had many speaking lines this week, nor was Eph’s foolhardy attempt on Palmer’s life addressed. But a lot was conveyed in their silent looks driving home. As Nora stared at Fet cradling the almost catatonic Dutch and then back at Eph, it was clear she found herself questioning whether Eph felt as much devotion and loyalty to her.
This episode offered a little more progress on the Occido Lumen front, with Setrakian seeing the book slip from his fingers mere moments after finally tracking it down. But with the book now passing to Alonso Creem, maybe hope isn’t quite lost. This material didn’t really hold the same appeal as the Eichorst/Dutch storyline. I’m really just waiting for the show to get wherever it’s going as far as the Lumen goes, and that doesn’t seem likely to happen until the finale.
There’s almost always at least one plot thread the show chooses to ignore in any given week, and in this case it was Palmer and Coco. We didn’t even catch a glimpse of the duo in the aftermath of Coco’s brush with death and her encounter with The Master. To be fair, though, very little time has passed since that incident, and this entire episode only played out over the course of a single night. And the good news is that we finally caught up again with Gus and Angel after several weeks of absence. Gus was a suitably tragic figure as he spent one last night with Aanya before sending her away and confronting his destiny, Despite the quick, random nature of this romance, actor Miguel Gomez really sold Gus’ attachment to Aanya and the void she left behind. And with Angel choosing to stand alongside his new friend rather than join the Guptas, I’m really eager to see what role these two brave, probably doomed heroes have to play in the conflict to come.
If not without a few flaws, this episode still proved to be one of the stronger installments of Season 2 so far. It banked heavily on Eichorst’s enthralling screen presence and brand of villainy. It built up a sense of dread that didn’t let up until Eichorst finally made his predictable exit. The renewed focus on Gus and Angel was also appreciated, as the duo prepare to join the fight once more.
