FX's The Strain - Episode 1.11 "The Third Rail"
Setrakian leads Eph, Fet and Nora in the hunt for the Master's lair. Left behind at the pawnshop, Zack risks his safety for Mariela's sake.
"The Third Rail" is exciting because Eph, Fet, Nora and Setrakian find The Master's nest and come face-to-face with the leader of evil. Why then was everything leading up to that event, so meticulously plotted but ultimately just very tedious? The concluding sequence was epic but the hour leading up to it was too careful. It voided out a lot of excitement for me. I should be saying an expletive when The Master is holding Eph by the throat and threatening everyone he has ever carried about. Even the light bombs were quite impressive. Instead I was overcome with the thought that something was finally happening. In regards to that, it was basically just a meet and greet too. Sure, one with life and death stakes - but also one that felt truncated because it occurred close to hour's end and the story needed to be wrapping up.It really didn't feel like the gang had a very good plan when they all decided to descend upon the tunnels underneath where the World Trade Center used to stand. Of course, the Master's nest is there because he just loves being around the physical monuments of human pain and suffering. That wasn't especially well handled - but it's really not the point either. Moreover, the gang heads to the tunnels to kill the Master. Just the four of them walking into who knows what. They are lucky for the majority of their journey. They evade new vampires as they sleep and fully transform - the transformations are happening a lot quicker, no? None of them are hit by a train - which pops up solely to remind us that Fet and Eph really don't get along for some reason. All of them are able to crawl threw a claustrophobic tunnel while avoiding the vampires. But then just as they all have learned to stick together as a team, Eph runs off because he hears Kelly's voice crying out to him. It's continuing to make the personal struggles of one character outweigh the needs of the rest of the crew as well as the show. It makes it so he has something to lose. But it also makes it so their plan can't go off like how they planned. And while that's exciting, it doesn't really ever present as such until those final few minutes. The most rewarding part of this episode is Setrakian destroying The Master's coffin. After building it six decades ago, he's also the one to finally tear it apart. But instead of allowing that character a moment of triumph, he then has to go storming off and willing to walk into the massive vampire army because of the delusion of slaying The Master all by himself. That's just such a disservice.
Meanwhile, Zack goes out on his own little mission - to get cigarettes for Mariela (because that's important!) - and Gus returns home to his family who have turned into vampires. It's all so superfluous. And there continues to be no indication of when the stuff with Gus will ever cross into the main narrative of the series. He has a brief bump in with Zack but they both go their separate ways. These plots largely exist so the main action has something to cut away to. It's not that interesting at all. If the show invested the time to be highly claustrophobic while in the tunnels, "The Third Rail" could have been a very effective and scary hour.
Some more thoughts:
- "The Third Rail" was written by Justin Britt-Gibson & Chuck Hogan and directed by Deran Sarafian.
- It may have just been a screener problem, but did anyone else find it a tad difficult to understand everything The Master was saying to Eph?
- A vampire was electrocuted! That was fun!
- The ash tray was given a ton of importance early in the episode. And then, nothing substantial ever came from it. I guess that's just the show's flippant attitude towards dementia.
- The Master looks really cool at least.
