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The Strain Review: “It’s Not For Everyone” (Season 1, Episode 4)

Alliances are made and destroyed in "It's Not For Everyone," this week's rather gross but enjoyable installment of The Strain. As Eichorst, Palmer and the Master's vampire virus continues to fester inside the plane passengers, Eph works alongisde Nora and Jim to uncover the specifics of the strain and figure out how to stem its spread. Unfortunately for them, Jim's blunder in slipping the Master's box out of the airport has already knee-capped their attempts.

the strain it's not for everyone

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Regardless, Eph, Nora and Jim are the lucky ones to uncover those biological oddities, but like the scientists they are, they attempt to draw logical conclusions instead of just backing away. Eph on the proboscis, which they call a “stinger” and proceed to pull out across the room: “It’s a parasitic mechanism. This is rewriting human biology… So it can reproduce, and consume its host.” Nice. The trio still fight the idea that they’re fighting evil, per se, but by this point all of them understand that this strain is something far more devastating and out of control than they could have imagined, even in their worst nightmares.

It’s at this point that Jim finally decides to fess up, and we see one of the first instances of characters diverging in this episode. Though both Eph and Nora understand why Jim did what he did (the Stoneheart Group has offered to admit his cancer-ridden wife to an experimental program), they can’t condone his actions, and they’re deeply horrified that he’s screwed over the CDC’s efforts so totally. “You’re dead to me,” Eph says to his longtime friend, almost choking on his fury. Nora follows him outside, where he tells her, “I don’t know that guy back there.” Eph has had to put up with a few betrayals over the weeks, from his boss at the CDC scuttling efforts to find the truth to his son sidelining him at the custody hearing – but Jim’s back-stabbing comes out of nowhere for Eph, and stings all the worse for that. Though this could change in the future, Jim is out of the Canary Team for now.

The Redfern autopsy sequence is the main gross-out part of this episode, up until its blood-soaked finale. In the final moments of “It’s Not For Everyone,” Eph and Nora find little Emma Arnot and her now-transformed father – just as Setrakian does. Before Emma can sink her stinger into Eph, Setrakian pulls out his swordcane (hooray!) and slices her head clean off. Then, when the older Arnot presents himself, the pawnshop owner/eternal badass severs his proboscis and finishes the job with another beheading. Now that’s why we watch The Strain. Setrakian is definitely the character with the most insight into this epidemic, and it’s exciting that this episode finally finds him teaming up with Eph. Together, I’m sure they’ll accomplish some beautifully gory things.

Though, as their bond is strengthened, another member of the Canary team drops – Nora says she’d rather succumb to the virus than kill its carriers, then proceeds to walk away. “We don’t exterminate our patients,” she tells Eph. He compares it to killing birds to stem the flow of the avian flu, but it’s a truly dumb comparison, seeing as Nora likely has different stances on killing humans versus pigeons. I’m guessing her departure won’t stick, seeing as Nora’s love for Eph has been pushing her past her limits for most of the season so far, and she’s not about to let him take on such a formidable threat alone. Besides, her character development has been so minimal that, away from Eph, Nora feels just as expendable as that loud-mouthed neighbor (more on him in just a minute).