Book Vs Television: The Strain S1:E10 The Loved Ones

Well for anyone who read the books, Episode 10, “The Loved Ones,” finally delivers a bit of what we had been anxiously expecting. Kelly transforms into a vamp! Just a bit of a heads up, if it’s not obvious – Kelly being a vampire will be a major plot point throughout the series.

However, before we get to see Kelly’s demise, we start off at Kickerbocker’s while Kelly’s super articulate and level headed son decides that instead of crying in the corner he’ll use technology to his benefit like every other millennial in the States. After finding a conveniently working Apple laptop, and super slow internet connection, he finds a signal from his Kelly’s iPhone. It’s a little annoying that the super arrogant and completely uncool hacker “babe” keeps saying she shut down the internet with her “crew” but yet, we still have random connections and phone signals? If she were as good as she thinks she is I’m pretty sure they could’ve really ruined the internet instead of just sending it back to 1998.

Regardless, Eph halfheartly tosses an apology at Nora for screwing her in his wife’s (ex wife/ wife? I cant keep up with what he wants to call her) bedroom and says he just has to go out and find her-for Zach ofcourse. She tells him to go and take his weapons and speaking of knives, Nora’s mother jabs her with a sharp quip, asking if that’s the man she’s in love with. Ofcourse like all women, she ignores her mom’s advice. Eph runs around Brooklyn to just so happen spot Kelly’s phone with a homeless woman who decides if he wraps her burned leg up she’ll tell him where she found the phone. Eph is led to Kelly’s car that is unlocked and got a few bloody tissues in the passenger seat. Which at this point, if someone you were looking for had blood on their belongings, I think it’s pretty safe to assume their not themselves anymore. The ever optimistic Eph ends up at Diane’s creeps into the basement and finds her and her son nesting in the shadows and pops them both in the head. He gets teary eyed, but I think it was more heart wrenching in the flashback to see Kelly creep around Diane’s house and attack Diane’s son and then her since Kelly actually cared about them. Seems like Eph should take a little bit of sick satisfaction that he’ll never have to have Diane bust in the bedroom on him and Nora again.

Meanwhile, Dutch (who I have to interest in or affection towards) and Fet seem to just so happen team up again. Dutch thinks that she’s going to somehow get back into Palmer’s office and fix the internet-because that’ll totally save the world and all. I mean vampires are allergic to the internet, yes? There seems like  the audience is supposed to assume there’s some sort of chemistry between the two of them, but that makes me want to gag almost as much as the flashback of Kelly and Mark fighting and his blood worms spilling all over her face and crawling into her eyes when she stabbed him with the blender blades. Nothing works out at Palmer’s office except that they are ordered to be killed, but Palmer’s lackey is jealous of Palmer’s affection for Eichorst so he just lets them go. Everyone ends back up at Knickerbocker’s and are trying to talk about what to do next, but Eph is too busy letting Zach down again and being a butthole to Dutch and Fet to care what Nora or Abraham have to say.  Dutch decides to bounce (hopefully for good this time) and Zach wanders off with his mom’s phone to watch poorly recorded videos of his birthday with her.

Kelly’s transformation is told through several flashbacks throughout the episode and is probably the only exciting part of this episode. Her transformation is a little skewed since after her eyes are munched on by worms from stabbing her boyfriend in the face, her eyes immediately start looking pretty sketchy but the rest of her takes a while a to follow. She goes out looking for Zach since he’s the one she obviously loves the most and witnesses another fully transformed vamp feeding in a dark alley. I don’t know if this speeds up her throat stinger’s development or what, but when she arrives at Diane’s she’s not even balding or looking too sick before she’s feeding on them both. She also gets a personal invitation to hang out in the sewer clubhouse of the Master which is pretty special, too.

Thanks for all the retweets and conversations. Check in again next week at 10pm on twitter @cc_riots for the live tweeting of Ep 11. Don’t forget to use #thestrain and @bghorror!