It is the grand finale, we can tell this because Abraham has
a totally dramatic voice over to prepare this big finale.
Eldritch meets Abraham to announce he’s stolen the Master’s
nuclear bomb and totally filled Eichorst full of silver and isn’t this awesome.
The plan is now to have Palmer return home and wait for the Master to come get
him so he can get his bomb back – because his go-to-man Eichorst is out of the
picture. When he does, Vasiliy, Abraham, Ephraim, Dutch and Quinlan will all
pile on him and drop him in his silver box then drop said silver box in the
ocean (where silver, being a relatively soft metal and trapping a very strong
master, will eventually be worn away and the Master will be freed but that’s
future generations’ problem).
It’s not a bad plan. Unfortunately we also have to deal
with Vasiliy whining at Ephraim and slut shaming Dutch
Unfortunately the Master has a backup plan. Firstly, no
villain is dead until you see the body. This is a rule. Eichorst is healed but
doesn’t really join in the fight he goes off to play happy families with Kelly
and Zack. Yes, alas, Zack is still around, playing with his creepy vampire
bodyguard (as you do). Zack seems to be redefining Stockholm syndrome, is happy
for his little vampire pet to kill people and in complete denial about Kelly.
Alas, nothing killed him
So the Master pre-empts Eldritch’s party by arriving
early (rude!) and when Palmer, back against the wall, points out only he knows
the code to the safe where the nuke is kept, the Master is officially done with
his nonsense and does a body swap: he takes over Palmer, has a whole new body
and can easily claim the Nuke and hand it to Eichorst to play with with Kelly
and Zach
This is not going to plan.
Thankfully he’s still evil so rather than just ignoring
the gang or just filling Palmer’s tower with 8 gajillion vampires, he decides to
take them all on on his own. And not even ambush them because he decides to
taunt Abraham and Ephraim first so they know they face the Master
Ok, he’s the Master and pretty powerful, even managing to
negotiate the fact that he’s planning his ambush in a tall office with big
windows during the day. Or the fact that, because he’s in a brand new host, he’s
not actually at 100%. Actually, this is the most awful ambush ever devised.
Never has he been weaker.
He can still kick Abe, Ephraim and Vasiliy around… but
then Dutch turns on her shiny Master stunning device which weakens him and then
Quinlan arrives. Quinlan doesn’t play, Quinlan is awesome. This entire season
would be eight times as awesome if we had a lot more fight scenes from Quinlan.
Many many more.
The Master goes in the box. Everyone heads to the harbour
to get this box in the water, except Ephraim who is hurt and needs to stitch
himself up. Which means he is there alone when Kelley and Zach arrive to see
why the Master has gone silent.
Family reunion time! Kelley attacks and Ephraim stabs
her. Kelly is dead. Zach is very upset that his dad just killed his
human-eating vampire mother. He responds by nuking the Statue of Liberty
No, really. They left the trigger in Zach’s hand and he
decides to push the button.
See what I mean about how much better this would have been if Zach had been eaten? And why did the Master and Kelley even keep him alive anyway? There was no point to this – there’s no way the Master’s plan involved “at some point I will need a child to use a nuclear bomb on New York City”. No, no way he planned that. So WHYYYYYY? Why is this character here?!
In the explosion, the Master escapes. Of course he does.
It was a dramatic ending to the season which… while it has
had it’s moments, has not been an amazing season. I think my main issue is that
it was scattered. Everyone was doing their own thing. Vasiliy was with Feraldo
and the police fighting for New York. Abraham was… reading? Yeah he was pretty
much reading most of the season. Quinlan just kind of breezed in and out.
Ephraim got drunk. Dutch wandered around a bit before joining Ephraim in
getting drunk. Gus and Angel were both so far removed from the story that they
felt almost not part of it at all
I think having them be more connected, having them work
together or at least liaise and show different sides of this fight would have
worked a lot to make this story more coherent. I would have said Angel and Gus
were completely removed from the show – except they actually ended up with the
main storyline
I feel a storyline focusing on Angel & Gus on one
side and Vasiliy and Ferraldo on the other as different sides of the struggle
was by far and away the most compelling plot there. I think, if anything, they
needed to be more, to make the Battle for New York more compelling and
powerful, to get a true sense of what was at stake and not have so many weird
and unnecessary elements – like Quinlan and Ephraim stealing the Lumen, or any
storyline with Kelly and Zach. The focus is off for me to be as much as a fan
as I could be
I’m glad Gus and Angel were the most compelling storyline
– because they’re two excellent POC, with real histories and characterisations
I really appreciated – and they’re not DEAD, unlike every other POC on this
show (oh, except Desai, trapped in a car during a nuclear bomb after playing
chauffeur to an actual Nazi).
The same
applies to Ferraldo, I liked her excellent storyline though I would have much
rather have had her live and continue – because this show has killed a lot of
women. Kelly dead, vampire slave, dead, Nora dead, Ferraldo dead – and most of
the remaining cast are male. We have Dutch who does invent a nifty device – but
also ends up as a love interest, thrown into a love triangle and with added “bonus”
of that love interest-ness being a wretched depiction of the show’s only LGBT
character
There’s a
lot about Strain to like (Abraham. And Quinlan’s fight scenes) but the pacing,
the focus and the diversity are all deeply flawed.
