The Strain Review: “The Disappeared” (Season 1, Episode 9)

That’s not the only lazy plotting in this episode. Zach’s reactions to vampiric Matt and his mother’s disappearance are weak at best – the kid barely seems upset throughout the hour, despite all of the crazy and horrifying stuff happening right in front of him. Chalk it up to shock?

The flashbacks are a bit better. The Master is a visually striking creation, both when he has his brown hood up and when he’s finally viewed out of the shadows in the final moments of this episode. It’s not that surprising to see that he’s basically just Nosferatu, but the makeup and effects work done on his features is absolutely spectacular. In particular, his eyes are captivating, blazing red like miniature solar eclipses.

“The Disappeared” also provides us with some more insight into Dutch Velders, the hacker who helped Eldritch Palmer (AWOL this week) and Eichorst to take down the internet. She’s a character created exclusively for the TV series, and perhaps because of that, she doesn’t exactly gel with the other main players. Hopefully future weeks will give her more to do, but I strongly doubt that Dutch is destined to be a fan favorite. In this episode, however, she does come clean about her involvement in aiding the vamps, in the process revealing to Setrakian that Eichorst has been working with the Stoneheart Group to carry out the Master’s plot.

There are some dvelopments for Gus this week as well. His friend Felix, infected by one of the strigoi weeks back, succumbs to his wound and transforms into a hungry vamp while the pair are being transported by prison guards. Felix decides to first sink his stinger into the driver’s neck, which causes their vehicle to crash and gives Gus time to take off into the night. First though, he secures a gun and puts Felix out of his misery. Finally, Gus is getting pulled into the loop. I have no idea how or even if he’ll meet up with Eph, Setrakian and company, but perhaps his storyline can feel less like filler now that he’s out on the streets again.

The Strain had a pretty lackluster episode this week, but with only four hours left in the season, here’s hoping that we won’t get any more outings like “The Disappeared.” Its flashback scenes are exciting, but the lack of real movement for the main characters is problematic.