The Strain Season 2 Episode 5 Recap With Spoilers: Quick and Painless

“Quick and Painless” opens on police officers evacuating an apartment building and searching for the infected, until the Feelers, directed by Kelly, interrupt their siege.

A friend of Dutch helps Ephraim (Corey Stoll) to get his name changed, along with Nora (Mía Maestro) and Zach, so that they can go to Washington, D.C. together with their virus cure. However, Nora insists that Eph goes by himself and changes his appearance, so he is less likely to be recognized. Eph reluctantly agrees, shaving his head and leaving for Washington alone.

Meanwhile, in Queens, Abraham (David Bradley) meets with a high-end dealer to see if he knows anything about the Occido Lumen, in exchange for some seriously high-value artifacts. The dealer doesn’t have the book, but he does know someone who might. Abraham leaves him a generous down payment in return for the service.

Next, Nora and Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) go to the police station in Brooklyn to pick up Fet (Kevin Durand), only to find the station overrun with angry people who have been evacuated from their homes. Any sick citizen found is also being put into a 72-hour quarantine, by order of Councilwoman Feraldo (Samantha Mathis). Nora offers to check on all the potentially-infected, in exchange for Fet’s release.

While Nora is checking on the sick, Fet and Dutch get to talking with a police officer, who doesn’t know much about the vampires. They learn that the police don’t know about the effects of silver, or UVB light. The officer invites the two of them to help clean out the apartment building from the beginning of the episode, and they agree.

The officer, Fet, and Dutch get to the building and exchange tips and tricks. The police are in favor of simply blowing the heads off vampires, but they’ve been struggling with the Feelers. Fet uses his skills to locate a vampire in the walls, stabbing it with a silver sword, and Dutch uses a silver grenade to kill a group of vampires in the elevator shaft.

Nora identifies Feraldo’s nephew as one of the infected, and Feraldo struggles with the decision to put him down. She ultimately asks Nora to do it for her and laments the fact that she is asking her people to accept the death of their turned loved ones, when she can’t kill her own infected kin.

Eph, with his newly shaved head, effectively passes security through a government-only access system, and boards a train to Washington. His old superior, Barnes (Daniel Kash), is on the same train, and Eph tries to avoid him, though the three beers Eph buys and drinks on the train don’t help his evasiveness. He eventually finds himself face-to-face with Barnes, and a fight ensues.

Once Eph believes Barnes has been knocked out, he opens the door to the train to jump out – but finds nothing to land on. Barnes arises and tells Eph that there’s nothing he can do, because there’s no way he can get off the train. They wrestle again, and Eph eventually throws Barnes off the train, to his assumed death. When Eph gets off the train later, people are looking for Barnes, but Eph is able to successfully get through security again.

Later that night, Abraham notices that he is being followed on the street. The man reveals himself to be Fitzwilliam, who is ready to join their side. Meanwhile, Eldritch (Jonathan Hyde) and Coco (Lizzie Brocheré) go out for a very fancy dinner, during which, a cardinal tells Eldritch cryptically that what is “looking for” might be “turning up soon.” Eldritch and Coco share a romantic dance after their dinner, back at the office.

The episode ends at a quarantined airport in New Jersey, where a plane lands despite the rules. The pilot says that “it was an emergency” and that “their client was sick.” Their client – who appears to be one of the intelligent vampires, like Vaun – breaks through the gate of the airport and gets into a car, where the driver was waiting, and escapes.