Season two of The Strain begins with a flashback of Abraham Setrakian as a child in 1932, listening to his grandmother tell a story. She recalls the tale of Jusef Sardu – a man who had giantism and walked with a silver blade cane. Sardu’s brother put together a hunting party to kill the Great Grey Wolf, whose blood would heal Jusef. However, the hunters soon became the huntees, until Jusef was the last alive. Jusef finds the monster, who seems to be a previous form of the Master. The “ancient, hungry being” takes Jusef’s giant body as his own, creating the modern version of the Master.
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In the present day, Abraham (David Bradley) follows the Master into a basement after their failed attempt to burn him in the sunlight. He’s interrupted by Vaun – one of the Strigoi, who kidnaps him. Next, Vaun takes Abraham to meet “the Ancients,” joined by Gus (Miguel Gomez), who now works for the Strigoi. The Ancients are asleep but can hear and speak through Vaun. All of their brains are connected, but the Master has managed to block the others out – up until he was injured by Abraham. They make a deal with Abraham that they will not kill him, if he promises to alert them next time he finds the Master. They leave the Ancients, and a gruesome feeding of a chained man is shown.
Meanwhile, Eichorst (Richard Sammel) meets with the Master, who has been injured. He tells Eichorst that his body is dying, thanks to “the Jew,” Abraham. The Master says that it’s time for both revenge and succession, demanding that Eichorst “have Bolivar reclaim the loam” and then bring him “the children.”
Elsewhere, we are re-united with Ephraim (Corey Stoll), Nora (Mía Maestro), Fet (Kevin Durand), Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas), and Zack (Max Charles), who are living in a vampire-proofed warehouse. Eph and Nora go to a pathology lab, where they decide to ultimately set up shop for the next phase of their plan – after they excavate the area of vampires, of course. Back home, they reason that they should try to make a vaccine or a cure but aren’t sure how. Abraham returns to the base, but doesn’t tell the crew about the Ancients.
We are later shown Eichorst meeting with an impatient Eldritch (Jonathan Hyde), who wants to meet with the Master. A woman, named Coco Marchand (Lizzie Brocheré), conducts a meeting with Eldritch over a property sale. Eldritch is acquiring an old cleaning factory, with drains that can handle large amounts of liquid waste. Coco and Eldritch get along, even slightly flirting. Later, Eldritch makes a huge public appearance on television, announcing that he will share a credit line with the city to address the emergency at hand. He also offers Coco a job, working with him for thrice her current salary.
Later, Eph and Dutch have a conversation that inspires a new plan: create another virus. Instead of trying to stop the epidemic, create another to crush it. Abraham is on board, and he asks Eph, Nora, and Fet to help him retrieve something from an old storage unit in the morning.In another subplot, we are introduced to a school for blind children. Their teacher tells them that they will be relocating outside of the city to a safer location. However, they ultimately end up in Eichorst’s clutches. He tells them that “their journey is just beginning.”
When they arrive, Abraham is suddenly unsure about which unit is his. They sneak around until they hear a noise inside one of them. Fet breaks into the unit, and they simply find a middle-aged couple in hiding. Eventually, Abraham finds his unit, but soon, more vampires pursue the group. They manage to escape unscathed, except for the couple that was hiding, now infected. Eph decides not to kill them, likely thinking they can use them to experiment with their new epidemic.
The episode ends with Kelly, Ephraim’s wife, who was awoken out of a pile of sleeping vampires by Eichorst. He tells her that the Master has chosen her personally to slowly regain her mind and voice. Eichorst takes her to a large pile of moving dirt – calling its residents “her new family – the feelers, the children of the night.” The blind children from earlier crawl out of the dirt, infected.
