In the finale of the second season of The Strain, Setrakian and Fet battle for possession of the Occido Lumen, and gain a surprising new ally.  A massive attack imperils Eph, Nora, and Zack’s escape from New York.

This is it, the end of the second season, and it’s one hell of an ending. This will be a non-spoiler filled review, as I want individuals to go into this expecting as little as possible, so things come off as huge as they are.

Other than the small blurb at the beginning, I had no idea what to expect from the second season finale. I’ve read the comics, but don’t really know the books very well, and the television series has been different enough from the comics to keep me on my toes. This ending though sets up what should be an impressive third season (has that been given the greenlight?).

We know the Occido Lumen will be fought over, and it’s as stressful and exciting as you’d think. The show actually makes an auction exciting. We know Eph along with Zack and Nora are getting the hell out of dodge. That’s the focus of the episode, squarely the focus and it all has the episode and season go out on a high note.

While I’m unsure if a third season is a go, the end of the episode sets up what would be an exciting one as things ramp up even more, it also could act as an ending too, though an open ended one.

There’s been action filled episodes, there have been stress filled episodes, and there’s been some touching episodes, and the second half of the season has been much stronger than the first. This shows all of that off, and really shakes things up in mostly good ways.

A solid season finale full of excitement, it had me wanting a third season, and hopefully we’ll be obliged with one.

Overall rating: 8.5

In the twelfth episode of the second season of The Strain, Eph must choose between Zack’s safety and the safety of the citizens of NYC.  Meanwhile, his relationship with Nora reaches a critical impasse, and Gus and Angel assemble an unlikely gang of Sun-hunters.

When Eph met Nora, that could be the subtitle of this episode which jumps between the present and past exploring the relationship between Eph and Nora. We get to see how they met, and how it evolved, which compared to the present events, it gets interesting.

It’s also interesting to see how that relationship compares to Dutch and Fet, who are dealing with Dutch’s recent kidnapping and her rather tumultuous relationships.

The third interesting relationship is between Justine and the Mayor who play politics over the safety of the city and her plan to tax the rich to pay those fighting the infection. There’s some things that are said by others that makes me think there’s WAY more than we’re seeing as far as what’s going on (and there’s a hell of a twist here that I didn’t see coming). Talk of Homeland/Fatherland, and it leading to murder… it has echoes of statements from Fear the Walking Dead.

The relationships have been an interesting thing throughout the series. When the series focuses on it, it does really well, but it hasn’t always been as upfront as other series. How this episode handles it is quite good, and I hope there’s some more focus on that.

Angel and Gus recruit an interesting bunch, and of course things don’t go well. It’s an interesting recruiting strategy, and it’s one I’d think is a smart one, as the team assembled is pretty hardcore when it comes to fighting at least. Whether they really listen to orders is a whole other thing.

The episode dives more into the politics of it all, especially as the city (and society) crumbles. To me, this is the most interesting aspect of the show. It questions what we’ll do for our safety, how far we’ll go. It doesn’t do it as in your face as other series, but it’s subtlety is a strength. Late into the second season, the series is getting really interesting.

Overall rating: 8.5