The Strain Recap With Spoilers: The Loved Ones

Episode ten, "The Loved Ones," opens with Zach (Ben Hyland) successfully tracking the cell phone of his mother, Kelly (Natalie Brown), in the hopes that he and Ephraim (Corey Stoll) can find her. He finds the signal moving on a map, and since it's daytime, Eph deduces that she could be alive and uninfected. Abe (David Bradley) encourages Eph to go after her, while Nora (Mía Maestro) awkwardly doesn't have much to say after their rendezvous.

Meanwhile, Vasiliy (Kevin Durand) talks about the patterns of rats, and how he thinks the vampires that he ran into under ground might behave similarly. It'd be easy for them to look into some maps of the tunnel system, if only there was a reasonable Internet connection. It's at this point that Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) admits to the rest of the group that she organized the Internet crash, hired by Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde). She believes she can possibly fix everything if she can get into Palmer's office; luckily, Vasiliy can use his city credentials to do just that.

When Eph starts searching for Kelly, we get a quick view of the looting, violence, etc., that has broken out in the city. He finds Kelly's phone in possession of a homeless woman, who took it long ago. She does lead him to where she found it, however, next to Kelly's car. Eph finds a bloody towel in the passenger seat.

The episode goes into flashback mode, 32 hours earlier. Kelly is shown asleep in bed, while a very sick Matt (Drew Nelson) watches over her hungrily. He doesn't attack though, and instead locks himself in the bathroom and starts puking. Matt definitely hasn't completely turned yet, and an unsuspecting Kelly is able to make it to the school where she works.

She doesn't stay there for long. After talking to another faculty member about how most of the kids aren't showing up as well as the teachers, Kelly tells her about Eph's advice to skip town and then takes the advice herself – heading back home to Matt. He's completely turned she since left, and a battle between the two ensues. Kelly just barely makes it out the door, where Matt cannot go because of the sunlight, but we know it's too late for her: During the battle, one of the worm things crawled right into Kelly's eyeball.

Once she's out of the house, she heads straight to her car, where it seems that she falls asleep. Hours later, she wakes up sensing something very wrong with her throat. We hear reptilian creaks from her mouth as she tries to drink water. She stumbles out of the car, dropping her phone on the curb. Kelly's first order of business is to get Zach home from his school, but the Sun has already gone down. Outside, Kelly emerges to find other vampires, much further along in the turning process. They aren't interested in her, and it's pretty clear at this point that she's been turned.

In the present – Vasiliy and Dutch flirt during the road trip to Palmer's office. He flirts with the receptionist in the fancy, corporate building as well. Unfortunately for him, they are almost immediately intercepted by a group of men who recognize Dutch. The men take away their guns, and then usher Dutch elsewhere to speak with Eldritch. He seems as sick as ever, though it appears that his surgery was successful. Dutch demands to know why he'd want to take out the human race.

Eldritch explains that he's pursuing "the ultimate hack: cheating death." He tells her she's essentially invisible, while he is powerful and influential. He tapped into her vulnerability as someone who wanted to be heard when he hired her. Upon hearing this, Dutch punches the fragile, old man in the face and is immediately escorted away with Vasiliy. It seems as if the guards are going to execute them, when the leader says that he believes in their cause and lets them free.

Eph continues the search for Kelly, tiptoeing through their home, knowing that she's likely been infected. The episode flashes back again, 17 hours earlier to Kelly. After Zach's school, she went to her friend Diane's house, the next person available whom she loved. Kelly makes a victim of both Diane and her son after a brief struggle. Two more hours pass, and Kelly is walking the city streets seemingly aimlessly when she hears the Master say her name.

As people pass, Kelly seems to have X-ray vision, watching their circulating blood and beating hearts. The Master calls to her, thinking, "come to me," and she heads into the sewer system. She meets him one-on-one in the underground, where he thinks to her, "rejoice, embrace your glorious fate."

Now in the present again, Eph is at Diane's house, still searching. He hears rustling in the basement, where he finds Diane and her son, both infected. Eph easily shoots Diane when she braces for attack, but he struggles to put down her son. Ephraim then finds Kelly's necklace in Diane's hand, and he knows that Kelly is either infected or dead. He returns to the pawnshop, where Nora and Abe have been for the entire episode. Vasiliy and Dutch make it back around the same time, though Eph isn't too happy to see Dutch, who leaves angrily.

Zach enters the scene, asking if his mom was found. Eph says he hasn't given up, but he obviously doesn't have any good news to share. He lets Zach play with Kelly's cell phone. The episode ends after Zach watches a particularly cute vide on his mother's cell phone of him getting a bicycle on his birthday.

"The Loved Ones" is a quiet episode of The Strain, focusing more on character and less on vampire fights. Thomas isn't in the episode, and there are no Poland flashbacks at all. But by following Kelly's descent, this episode gives very cool insight into the world of the turned.

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