The Strain Recap With Spoilers: Last Rites

The penultimate episode of season one of The Strain, "Last Rites," begins with Thomas (Richard Sammel) visiting Eldritch (Jonathan Hyde), who looks like he might be on death's door. Eldritch wonders where the Master is, and Thomas mocks him, saying that the Master can be compelled to do nothing. But Eldritch has faith.

Abraham (David Bradley), Ephraim (Corey Stoll), Vasiliy (Kevin Durand), and Nora (Mía Maestro) return to the pawnshop where Zach (Ben Hyland) has been holding down the fort pretty well, considering how difficult Mrs. Martinez (Anne Betancourt) has proved to be. Zach declines to tell Eph about his heroic cigarette adventure. Abe begins to speak with the creature in his basement jar, asking for strength.

When Nora asks Abe about what's in the jar, wondering if it's a vampire hurt, Abe lashes out and tells her to leave him alone. She then joins Eph and Vasiliy in a discussion about their time underground. Eph is concerned about Abe's rash behavior, but the others just chalk it up to years of fixation.

Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) returns to the pawnshop with a plan shortly after. She reveals an emergency alert system that's never been used but could put one of them (likely Eph) on every television and radio set in America for about 30 or 40 seconds. Dutch and Vasiliy continue their flirty rapport, as Dutch explains how the machine will work, identifies her father as her inspiration for hacking, and manages to hint at Vasiliy being the reason she returned.

Abe soon after tells the crew about how he eventually gave up his search as a young man to destroy the Master. When the Master and his minions hid and withdrew, Abe thought he had lost his chance. He apologizes for responding so strongly when they missed the Master in the previous episode.

Using the emergency system, Eph delivers his prepared message. He tells the world that there's a plague spreading throughout New York City and possibly beyond, explaining disappearances. Eph shows images of the autopsy to prove his point and explains the basic anatomy of the vampires, and just almost gets to say that sun kills them before they are cut off.

In a flashback, we meet young Abe (Jim Watson) once again, older than the Abe that escaped the concentration camp. He's searching for Thomas, asking locals if anyone has gone missing. Abe is married now, and his wife (Adina Verson) is worried that his obsession with Thomas might ruin their lives.

Young Abe rides his horse to some sort of ruins where he finds an abandoned well, into which he descends. At the bottom, he finds a cave in the wall and wriggles through. He emerges into an open area, sword in hand. Abe eventually starts to hear a low, growling sound as he explores.

Sure enough, he has found a group of sleeping vampires. One of them says that the sun has set, prompting Abe to run back to the cave and crawl back through. Unfortunately the robe he used to climb with is gone, and Thomas appears at the lip of the well to mock Abe from above.

In the present, the group has little time to celebrate their broadcast victory, as a vampire has broken in and attacked Mrs. Martinez. The group moves to the basement, where all of Abe's vampire-killing gear can be found, but then Thomas appears at the front door. Downstairs, the gang prepares to flee. Nora cuts her grief short, summons her strength, and kills her infected mother before they go.

Back in the flashback, Abe scales the rock walls of the well painstakingly slowly with his hands, making it out sometime after dawn. When he finds his horse dead sliced open with its entrails spilled on the ground, Abe sprints back to his home only to find that his wife and family are missing.

Young Abe wallows around in their home, until his wife and kids eventually return, pursuing the one they love most. Abe was forced to kill them all, just as Nora had to do to her mother. But instead of leaving the body, Abe removed her heart, which is the heart creature he has been speaking to in the jar.

The modern day group makes it out in time just before Thomas and his crew get downstairs. On his way out the door, Abe says goodbye to his wife's heart. When Thomas sees the heart, he exclaims that Abe has truly abandoned everything he loves.

Also in the present, after clearing a convenience store of the undead, Gus (Miguel Gómez) breaks into the car of some sort of illegal arms dealer. Gus demands guns, ammo, etc. and isn't even slightly afraid of the driver's threats; it's essentially the end of the world, after all.

At the driver's home, Gus accumulates the guns he's interested in, when the dealer receives a package – a ton of money. Gus figures that there's got to be something else of high value around that he doesn't know about. The dealer takes Gus to a different location where the object is being kept, but vampires attack them as soon as they unlock a door.

Gus takes a few of them out himself, before one of the super-developed vampires who appeared weeks ago and saved the children of Joan, one of the original infected from the plane. The leader vampire commands the lesser vampires to surround Gus, kidnapping him and driving away.

The episode ends with Eldritch, who finally gets his visit from the Master. Eldritch cries a "thank you," and the scene then cuts to Eldritch standing outside in the rain, very much alive, rejoicing.