The Strain Season 2 Episode 4 Recap With Spoilers: The Silver Angel

Season two episode four of The Strain, “The Silver Angel,” begins in black and white. We see select moments of an old Spanish-language film, following a wrestler named Angel who fights a vampire and follows it back to its castle once it’s defeated. The VHS tape is being watched by a man with a limp, also named Angel (Joaquín Cosio), who works at a restaurant. Gus (Miguel Gomez) later visits Angel’s restaurant for food, and Angel isn’t too happy to see him – assuming he means trouble.

In Brooklyn, Ephraim (Corey Stoll), Nora (Mía Maestro), and Fet (Kevin Durand) set loose their vampire subject, who heads toward a psychiatric ward to join a group of sleeping vampires, instead of the larger mass of vamps in the subway. Meanwhile, back at headquarters, Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) shares a new theory with Abraham (David Bradley): Reggie Fitzgerald resigned from his position with Eldritch and may be staying with his brother on Staten Island. Abraham likes the idea, and the two head for the ferry.

In a flashback, we follow young Abraham and Eldritch to a nunnery, where they are tracking down the Occido Lumen. They arrive to find the place already taken over by vampires, except for one boy who has managed to hide. He tells them that the “Mother Superior” burned the evil Occido Lumen, but his tale is interrupted by a scream. While Abraham tracks down the noise, Eldritch is visited by Eichorst – who claims to “know everything.” Abraham finds the boy, saving him from a group of vampires, only to return to a disinterested Eldritch, who wants to go home immediately.

Back in the present, Gus returns to his mother’s home to find her turned. He refuses to kill her, evading her vampire advances, until her body is taken over by the Master, who talks to Gus, saying “the Ancients are the past; I am the future.” He taunts Gus, saying that he can still sense his mother’s disappointment in addition to her pathetic love “for her criminal son.” Gus leaves, locking the apartment door behind him. Later, he goes back to Angel’s restaurant and gets in a fight with Angel, after chatting up his daughter who works there. Gus realizes that Angel is actually the actor from the old film, but the old actor denies this and demands that Gus leaves.

Elsewhere, Eph, Nora and Fet return home, with time to kill before its nightfall again. Eph decides to take Zach on a trip to a batting cage for some much-needed bonding time, but Zach (Max Charles) is quickly discouraged when he remembers a time long ago that the two of them where there with his mother, Kelly.

That night, Eldritch (Jonathan Hyde) plans a meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, bringing together the heads of the major financial systems to start the stock market back up. It quickly becomes clear that he’s orchestrated a vampire attack, led by Bolivar, to eliminate all of these financial power players.

On Staten Island, Reggie’s brother leads Abraham and Dutch to Reggie Fitzwilliam (Roger R. Cross), agreeing with their opinion that he should join forces with them. Few know as much about Eldritch’s plans, including his failed attempts to retrieve the Occido Lumen.

When Eph, Nora, and Fet return to the psychiatric ward, the vampires who were sleeping there are gone. Fet gives up on their plan and heads to the subway, where he has plans of his own: to blow up the main entrance, stopping more vampires from entering their town. Eph and Nora find their original test subject, dying slowly, shortly after Fet leaves. They put the vampire out of its misery and then find more dying vampires nearby. To put the cherry on top – it appears that the Master is commanding the infected vampires to kill themselves by jumping off the roof of the building, preferring their suicide to having them infect other vampires with Eph and Nora’s virus.

Towards the episode’s end, Fet successfully blows up the subway entrance, only to be arrested shortly after a rough police beating. Eph is ready to go right to Washington with their virus, but Nora wants him to slow down. And lastly, Kelly and the Feelers go to the batting cage where Zach was earlier, successfully tracking his scent.