The Strain‘s seventh episode starts off with a solid scare as the vampire plague continues to spread, but what’s going on, and the extent of the issue is still not quite apparent to folks, especially due to cell towers being down.

From there the episode switches to Eph and Abraham discussing what is happening and how to stop it. Eph still isn’t quite sure how Abraham knows everything he does. What’s solid is that among all of the modern craziness we get flashbacks to just that, how Abraham has learned what he has. The scenes in the concentration camp is an interesting comparison to the craziness that’s occurring in modern times.

Not knowing where to go, Eph and his team seek out Jim to get a lead as to where they might find the Master, and through discussion Eph finally figures out Abraham has history with their adversaries.

What’s fascinating about this episode is that history. We get a pretty blatant comparison to Hitler’s Germany, and what the Master is doing as well. Reading the comics, the Nazi connection was present, but never so in my face. With the accents, and the flashbacks, the imagery use is much clearer. Often times we see vampire tales as a parable about disease, but here it’s clearly more than that.

Out of all of the episodes so far, this one is the strongest. It started off with scares, but by the end we’re shown something that’s so much more.

Overall Score: 8.5