After slowing things down for a little three-act play in a gas station last week, The Strain is back to its normal tricks in “The Disappeared” as the vampire virus continues to spread through New York, pushing characters back to their homes for one last visit (presumably) before the war for humanity truly begins. Full of the typical regressive gender politics The Strain has become known for, “The Disappeared” is very much a return to mediocre form for the show – and in many moments, even a bit worse than that, thanks to the series of inauthentic moments and interactions that occur in nearly every scene.
It’s hard to address “realism” in a show about vampire worms, but there are constant reminders in The Strain that well, strain the suspension of disbelief, simply for how stupidly characters are allowed to behave. And it’s not contained to small, forgettable moments: the emotional core of “The Disappeared” revolves around Eph’s missing wife, even though the big emotional moment (save for Eichorst and The Master, but we’ll get to that) occurs between Nora and Eph having sex in his wife’s (and formerly his) bedroom, a weird coupling that seemingly only happens because Nora can’t deal with the death of Jim the Traitor, a man who would do anything for anyone (even if that meant betraying his supposed “best friends” numerous times). One minute, she’s distraught over his death, the next minute their having sex – and minutes after that, Eph is declaring his love for his missing wife, while the girl he just slept with is getting dressed not ten feet away from him. Talk about insensitive, amirite?
It’s a moment that feels very forced on the characters and audiences, attempting to play in the chaos of the situation (though at this point, New York is literally empty, save for the occasional single vampire lurking around here and there… apparently, they’ve stopped moving in packs this week) and make it sexy, without any kind of realistic reason to do so. It feeds right into the sterilized, unnatural two-dimensional world The Strain has built for New York and the characters inside it: right down to Dutch, who can’t even admit that she is a lesbian and had a girlfriend (“we were… closer than friends” she tells Fet), but needs to bond with Fet so she can be dependent on save her (while he spins pistols like a wild west shooter, a common skill exterminators have), and the show can tease another romantic pairing (though Fet also gets some staring time in with Nora, who is now feeling spurned after Eph’s post-coital insult).
These interactions just feel false: the only times it doesn’t feel like The Strain is reaching to make connections is when Setrakian takes Eph’s son under his wing, and Eichorst enters the next stage of his life as World War II ends (with the help of The Master). But even in these rare moments where The Strain‘s attempts to be theatrical and dramatic reveal lack credibility, thanks to the complete disregard for logical human behavior in these scenes. These inauthentic moments are short, but so frequent they feel silly and staged: one great example is when Setrakian puts down a book on vampires (I’m guessing) and gives it to Zach, who then proceeds to flip through the pages like a picture book. Another is when Setrakian’s fingers are broken: why has The Master been running around killing concentration camp inmates, only to leave this one alive? And why was he killing them in the first place: was the Nazi’s plan really to take over the world with an army of Jewish/Polish/other-persecuted-European-country zombies?
These laughably bad moments pile up from scene to scene (Dutch’s tantrum/awkward phrasing of feelings for her girlfriend, Gus threatening a guy who just helped him carry his dying friend with a beating mere minutes later, Eph’s messy post-sex wig), and at some point, collapses “The Disappeared” into something unbelievable, a series of scenes detailing faux humans and their faux behaviors, ending with a effectively melodramatic scene completely undermined by the reveal of The Master’s face, which looks like the cross between a Gremlin and the cover for a really racist turn-of-the-century play about the dangers of free black men in society (seriously: is that supposed to be a scary face????). Any momentum The Strain garnished last week is effectively stomped out by the final scenes of “The Disappeared”, a reminder of just how passionate and mindless The Strain manages to be on a weekly basis.
[Photo via FX]
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