In the fourth episode of the second season of The Strain, Eph and Nora finally see their lethal virus in action. Fet takes the security of Red Hook into his own hands while Dutch and Setrakian set off for Staten Island to question Fitzwilliam, Palmer’s former bodyguard.

The issues as far as make-up that were prevelant in the last episode are gone in the fourth episode which has various characters go off in their own paths while also showing off more of the history especially about Setrakian and Palmer.

The episode is interesting in that it gives much more hope than I remember in the comic, mostly focused on the “cure” being worked on by Eph and Nora. That aspect is great and one of the best parts of the episode and even the season.

There’s absolutely some troubles in this episode, especially the flashbacks focused on a young Palmer and Setrakian. The make-up is horrendous, and the acting laughable. It’s really low budget, and just really bad. Like almost derails the episode bad. It’s focused on too much, and it just looks so bad.

Part of the reason it looks bad is that the rest of the episode is so good. The acting is better. The tasks everyone goes and does makes sense. Separated, everyone seems to be much stronger, especially as the episode focuses on fewer individuals in shorter segments. It’s a more focused episode in many ways limiting what it covers.

There’s a bit about a bad B-movie in the beginning which might not make sense, but for some reason I really enjoyed it, especially because what it involves shows off the characters’ humanity.

Much improvement over last week, and there’s some really solid stuff in the episode.

Overall rating: 7.5