First and foremost among those new players was the leader of the Special Vampires Unit (he’s named Mr. Quinlan in the book, but I’m still not sure if he has been identified in the show), who introduced Gus to “beings of great honor, dignity, power,” known as the Ancients. Quinlan revealed himself to be a servant of these Ancients, who have been searching for a human who can walk in daylight so as to “massacre the unclean.” Gus fits the bill quite nicely.
Apparently, the Master violated some type of truce by turning humans into vampires via the quick-n-dirty feeding technique, and the Ancients are pretty pissed about it. And though Quinlan says that they’re asleep and have been for some time, the Ancients definitely seem like the first serious threat to the Master that we’ve seen, so it will be great to watch them spring into action next season.
The mythology in this series has really enjoyable so far in that it can blend biological elements like the worms with more outlandish figures like the Ancients, and if it can continue to strike that balance, The Strain will be worth continuing to watch for that alone. Of course, eventually the show may have to pick “science” over “magic” (or vice versa), to group the two in that way, but for now it’s greatly entertaining to watch the series’ universe expand with plenty of both.
With Gus now allied with the Ancients, his character finally has a clear direction forward, and he’s shaping up into an extremely likable hero. Honestly, in my opinion, Gus is a better leading man than Eph at this point. Though he started out set apart from all the other characters, his quick wit and bravado has definitely won me over, and I’d be all for an increased focus on the character. Miguel Gomez’s work in the part has been uniformly excellent these past few weeks, and Gus has the most interesting story of anyone on The Strain right now, so there’s no reason that season two shouldn’t beef up his screen time.
