There’s a moment in “The Born” that perfectly encapsulates so many of the problems on The Strain. As Setrakian and Fet come within the vicinity of The Master, all Fet can do is talk about Dutch’s ex-girlfriend Nikki coming back into the picture. Setrakian smartly points out that all of Fet’s worrying and complaining is utterly useless to the situation at hand. Similarly, these minor quibbles and little unnecessary diatribes are in no way going to end what is likely the forthcoming extinction of mankind, but The Strain just can’t help itself by focusing on things that don’t really matter.
“The Born” shows that both sides are pretty equally distracted and that, besides four characters in this show, the vampire infestation that has taken over New York isn’t exactly the most prominent thing on their minds. If anything, having people other than these four characters involved is actually making things worse.
Near the end of the episode, good vs. evil finally come face-to-face, with The Master, in his new body and Eichorst heading off against Setrakian and new strigoi hunter Quinlan. At this point, the only people who give a crap about this battle are these four. Fet—who seems to care and sets dynamite in the building they’re all in to take down The Master at any cost—is distracted, blows up the building and allows The Master to get away. If that’s the type of help the side of good is getting, maybe it’s better if Setrakian and Quinlan go at it alone.
Like I said, literally everyone else in “The Born” is focused on other things. After taking an entire episode to get to D.C., Eph is miraculously back in New York, even after being shot, without any problems whatsoever. On returning, he realizes he needs to kill Eldritch Palmer. Killing Palmer is all well and good, as it will possibly make it easier for him to spread the cure he’s created for the disease, but with a billionaire like him, it’s incredibly unlikely that Palmer would be the only person in his way.
Palmer doesn’t even seem all that worried about anything this episode, as he unwittingly hits on his assistant Coco by showing her the burning New York City by helicopter, then getting drunk with her. When Coco finally makes the move that Palmer doesn’t dare make, it’s mostly just cringe-inducing.
Meanwhile the budding relationship with Fet and Dutch falls apart almost immediately when Dutch’s ex-roommate and ex-girlfriend Nikki reappears. By the way, Nikki’s mother has been looking for her for days now, even putting up flyers in a city that definitely has more things to worry about than one probably dead girl, and yet Nikki’s mother never even thought to look at her ex-girlfriend’s place? With our cast growing increasingly morose, the last thing we need is another character—especially Fet—also becoming depressed.
However “The Born” does give us one bright spot with Quinlan, known as The Barbarian Gladiator, who has been hunting The Master his entire life. After weeks of the regular group trying to find The Master, Quinlan basically just drives into New York and immediately finds him, only to be thwarted by Fet’s idiotic dynamite plan. Quinlan asked The Ancients to give him someone who could help him fight the strigoi in the day, but with friends like this, who needs enemies.
There are a few other things about Quinlan that just doesn’t make sense to me, even though he is the most interesting character on The Strain in awhile and immediately the most badass. First off, how is he just now arriving in New York if he’s been trailing The Master for centuries? After the first sign of infestation, shouldn’t he have booked it immediately? Also, why exactly does Quinlan need people to fight for him in the daytime? We see him walking around with no problem and even fighting in the day back when he was the Night Demon of Sicily. At this point and given what we see in “The Born,” he seriously needs to consider taking this fight alone, rather than bringing along people who are can take slightly more daylight than he can.
Instead of worrying about minor relationship issues, maybe everyone on The Strain should put those on the back burner. If they worked together and fought against The Master with everything they have, this whole deal could be over with by now. But instead they are unfocused and acting like morons, while only the duo of Quinlan and Setrakian seems to know what the hell needs to be done. Like almost everyone on the show, The Strain needs to get its priorities in check, rather than just creating new problems to waste time.
Ross Bonaime is a D.C.-based freelance writer and regular contributor to Paste. You can follow him on Twitter.