The Strain Review: “For Services Rendered” (Season 1, Episode 7)

It would appear that Eph, Nora, Setrakian and Jim (more on him later) aren’t in their fight against the Master alone. These strigoi seem to be fighting to contain the strain rather than spread it, a fascinating development indeed. Now, we don’t really know yet what their opinion of humans are – the leader certainly seemed to relish looking over the kids – but an encounter between Setrakian and the SVU would make for some very juicy drama.

Leaving that thought behind, let’s get back to talking about “For Services Rendered.” Excitingly, this episode managed to incorporate large amounts of flashbacks to the Treblinka concentration camp while still keeping all its balls in the air as far as the present battle to contain the strain goes.

If there’s a common thread linking characters this time around, it’s imprisonment. A younger Setrakian is incarcerated at a prison camp, under the watch of the sadistic (though human, for now) Eichorst. Due to his skills in carpentry (in a nice touch, discovered after he made a wooden Hand of Miriam, designed to protect him from evil), Setrakian is brought to a private cell and set to work drawing designs on the wooden box that will later be inhabited by the Master. His new accommodations are a different type of prison than the camp barracks, but Setrakian remains hopeless.

Eichorst periodically comes in to check on the status of the box and to mock Setrakian’s situation, going so far as to offer him a choice between continuing to work or attempting to kill his captor. “It’s much easier to do nothing, safer,” Eichorst hisses gloatingly when Setrakian doesn’t move for either. The older Setrakian has voiced his regret at not killing Eichorst “when he had the chance” in past episodes, but I don’t think that this incident is what he’s referring to. Obviously, there’s more to their story. It’s interesting, though, that the captor/captive relationship between the two grows into something more, with Setrakian feeling secure enough in his position as carpenter to call Hitler “a megalomaniac who declared himself dictator.” In that discussion, we see a hint of the fire that burns brightly in the older Setrakian.