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The Strain S2 |OT| The Thirst Is Real - Sundays 10/9c

A

Alpende

Member
You know, I liked the finale apart from FUCKING ZACH.

Oh, hey my mom is using a giant ass tentacle to kill Nora, my friend. Might as well go with mommy! That's some lame ass shit right there.

I'll be back for S3. That season better have some more Quinlan / Eichorst shenanigans.

jelly said:
Wouldn't Palmer get worms in him holding that heart?
Click to expand...

He was using gloves.
 
J

jelly

Member
Oh right didn't notice the gloves.

So if it wasn't
Nora
, does
Zack's mum die in the book or was someone else with him in the book
?
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
jelly said:
Oh right didn't notice the gloves.

So if it wasn't
Nora
, does
Zack's mum die in the book or was someone else with him in the book
?
Click to expand...

In the book
Nora escapes and Zack actually runs as she tells him to, except mommy catches up to him and he does the same shit. Without killing Nora. Then Eph saves Nora. Zack still goes voluntarily with mommy and is not turned.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
I kind of think of Zack as an emo teen. From the perspective that he likes people like Bolivar and in the books it's mentioned he's listening to Bullet for my Valentine. I'm not trying to justify his stupidity, but from his perspective his mom just turned to a vampire, which... is kinda cool?


I'M JUST SAYING. Let's pretend we're emo teens for a second - I'd go with the vamp mom too, there's something oddly appealing about it and logic defies the tiny teenage brain, which is controlled by emotions anyway.
 
Pilgrimzero

Pilgrimzero

Member
Assuming Eph ever finds out that Zach caused Nora to get killed.

Nora told him "She took him" implying she simply lost the fight and Vamp Mom stole Zach. As opposed to "Zach went with her, little asshole got me killed."
 
T

The Illiterati

Member
Really glad Nora died, she was terrible. Zach needed to die as well though. He looks like a Dreamworks CGI character, only acts by tilting his head upwards and giving either a smirk or a stinkeye. Most hateable character ever created.
 
R

RatskyWatsky

Hunky Nostradamus
Strain EPs Clear the Air on Nora's Fate, Tease a 'Different, Faster' Season 3

“[Killing Nora] was a very hard decision, because Mia Maestro is one of the most wonderful people you’ll meet and a very fine actress,” Cuse noted, “but on some level, the audience needs to be told narratively that no one is safe.” ABC’s Lost, which Cuse also shepherded, “killed popular characters… and it was extremely painful,” he reminded, “but it was necessary to make sure the show has a sense of danger and stakes.”
Click to expand...

Shit's gotten real you guys! Nora is dead and this show about a vampire apocalypse, now, two seasons in, has a sense of danger! And stakes! I bet from now on whenever one of the main good guys encounters one of the main bad guys, one of them will definitely not always get away at the very last second!

What’s more, Nora’s death was “necessary to move Eph into the place he needs to be for Season 3.”
Click to expand...

“The whole Coco storyline was meant to pivot Eldritch a bit and force him to recognize the consequences of his actions on a very personal level — and that will have consequences in Season 3, for sure,”
Click to expand...

Cool, nice to know their female characters only exist to further the progression of their male characters.

Given Season 3’s shorter-by-design 10-episode run — “I do think the feel of the show is going to be different — not radically different, but we are going to be advancing the story faster,” Hogan shared. As Cuse noted, the abbreviated run “will add a lot of propulsion to the narrative.”
Click to expand...

If there's one good thing to come out of this article, it's that I learned that season 3 will be 3 episodes shorter than the first two seasons.
 
I

IronRinn

Member
RatskyWatsky said:
Strain EPs Clear the Air on Nora's Fate, Tease a 'Different, Faster' Season 3



Oh shit you guys! Nora is dead and this show about a vampire apocalypse, now, two seasons in, has a sense of danger! And stakes! I bet from now on whenever one of the main good guys encounters one of the main bad guys, one of them will definitely not always get away at the very last second!





Cool, nice to know their female characters only exist to further the progression of their male characters.



If there's one good thing to come out of this article, it's that I learned that season 3 will be 3 episodes shorter than the first two seasons.
Click to expand...

Ice cold, but I can't argue with any of this.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
HP_Wuvcraft said:
I really am going to be in hog heaven when GAF reacts to the MacGuffin of season three.

The fucking nukes out of nowhere.
Click to expand...

I actually think they might skip that part. BOOK SPOILERS:
Although the biohazard sign thing is still on the book and all, I can see them getting away without the actual end of the world and Chernobyl all over the place. I think if that was going to happen it should've been the s2 finale.
 
R

raindoc

Member
Koriandrr said:
I actually think they might skip that part. BOOK SPOILERS:
Although the biohazard sign thing is still on the book and all, I can see them getting away without the actual end of the world and Chernobyl all over the place. I think if that was going to happen it should've been the s2 finale.
Click to expand...

I'd be surprised as fucking fuck's fuck.
It is key to the ancients'/the master's/the story's endgame and the show already introduced a facility catering to that very endgame in the season finale (processing plant). the story can continue without nora, but it cannot without "eternal" night due to nuclear winter
. it is going to happen - when it happens in the books, at the end of #2. I agree in that it should've been "one book, one season", but that ship has sailed and
the world will end in S3, or between S3 and S4.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
raindoc said:
I'd be surprised as fucking fuck's fuck.
It is key to the ancients'/the master's/the story's endgame and the show already introduced a facility catering to that very endgame in the season finale (processing plant). the story can continue without nora, but it cannot without "eternal" night due to nuclear winter
. it is going to happen - when it happens in the books, at the end of #2. I agree in that it should've been "one book, one season", but that ship has sailed and
the world will end in S3, or between S3 and S4.
Click to expand...

*sigh*

It's going to be a long one...
but hey, at least we'll get more actual post-apocalyptic feel. I personally love the mood after the Night Eternal and think that'll be the best part. Also curious to see how it'll change Eph, as obviously that was a defining moment for him in the books, but things are.. slightly different now. And Palmer is alive and possibly about to become the hero no one ever asked for.
 
R

raindoc

Member
Koriandrr said:
*sigh*

It's going to be a long one...
but hey, at least we'll get more actual post-apocalyptic feel. I personally love the mood after the Night Eternal and think that'll be the best part. Also curious to see how it'll change Eph, as obviously that was a defining moment for him in the books, but things are.. slightly different now. And Palmer is alive and possibly about to become the hero no one ever asked for.
Click to expand...

IMO book one and two = TV series season 1 & 2 and book three (+ stuff from the time between book 2 & 3) = two seasons on TV would've been perfect.
The apocalypse happened too fast in the books and it was over almost as fast (at least it felt like that to me)
. The series could've explored (well, could still, but I'm sceptical of that) things that were only a side note in the books (
like the fucking nuclear apocalypse and he camps
)... but the way they stretched book 2 into 2 seasons leaves me doubting it. If they depict the aftermath as well as they did the city's initial struggle... well... fuck.
I'm also afraid that we have an unbearable amount of Zack to look forward to, now that he's with the Master.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
raindoc said:
IMO book one and two = TV series season 1 & 2 and book three (+ stuff from the time between book 2 & 3) = two seasons on TV would've been perfect.
The apocalypse happened too fast in the books and it was over almost as fast (at least it felt like that to me)
. The series could've explored (well, could still, but I'm sceptical of that) things that were only a side note in the books (
like the fucking nuclear apocalypse and he camps
)... but the way they stretched book 2 into 2 seasons leaves me doubting it. If they depict the aftermath as well as they did the city's initial struggle... well... fuck.
I'm also afraid that we have an unbearable amount of Zack to look forward to, now that he's with the Master.
Click to expand...

I actually liked that part.
It felt like humanity never stood a chance. The lack of that chick and the police force fighting it really showed us the Master's actual superiority as a species. The whole nuclear thing made me realise that and go like 'fuck, humanity doesn't stand a chance against this thing', which I believe is the whole point. You don't wanna go down the Vampire Diaries road and made vampires too relatable or with actual human flaws. They're like 2k+ years old. It must feel like it.

Zach with the Master really made me angry in the books. I can't wait to shout at the tv instead of a book. Fucking kid.

I am also looking forward to Satrakian not dying as soon as he did in the books. I'm like 98% certain they'll keep him alive much longer in the show. Maybe TV Quinlan will kill Eichurst seeing as they've got a thing going and TV Quinlan is very different than the book one who's like.. 'I don't give a shit about your problems and I take no part in them' lol
 
F

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
All caught up.

Zack is the fucking devil.

Kill that tiny bastard already. I cannot believe that little cumstain costed us Nora, a much better character and actor.

Good fucking lord.

And his mom is still fucking shit up around because why not.

This show has some serious problems when it comes to write good female characters, I swear. Between Zack's mom, Nora's unwarranted demise, fucking Coco and Dutch's near-rape I'm this close to turn into a walking triggered.gif whenever I turn on the TV.

Also, I CANNOT BELIEVE that Eichhorst managed to sneak away just like that. I used to love the character (and the actor is certainly doing an amazing job hamming it up), but they have turned him into a joke. Jesus fucking Christ.

S3 better deliver the goods.
 
L

Lorcain

Member
This is such a dumb show, but I like watching it.

The finale did some things that I was hoping would happen this season (Zach gets taken away by his vamp mom, Palmer gets put in his place by the Master, and Setrakian gets the book), and it also did some things I was not down with like killing off a good female lead character.

Seeing Eichorst have his funding pulled right out from under him at the deal was hilarious. The actor who plays Eichorst did a good job during that scene. He just strings together one failure after another for the master. Just in this episode alone he failed at the deal and failed at the truck capture.
 
B

big ander

Member
Horror fiction has a long long line of stupid people, and especially stupid children, but Zack managed to catapult himself from "pretty high up" to near the top of the goddamn list in the finale. What a brainless fucking idiot. With his character being as boringly ineffectual and lead-munchingly dumb as he's been, he should have at least been age like, five. I'd buy a five year old would go along with the emaciated bald haggard version of their mother and let their functional stepmother fucking die, but not a kid Zack's age. Dude's supposed to be at least ten, right? Any ten year old who pants-shittingly does what Zack did kinda deserves to be strung up in a blood-harvesting plant, hopefully season 3 has us regularly checking in on him locked in a cage and realizing how much of a shithead he is.

Nora's death was heartfelt and sorta surprising (once Eph said bye to her on the train it was obvious, but not beforehand). One thing I've liked about this show is that it isn't ruthless in taking out characters—that Dutch escaped the hotel and nobody died is fucking ridiculous, but that can make for good drama. By not setting up a TWD-esque "anybody can die!" expectation, Nora's death became actually affecting.
Touching the third rail was also visually expressive in its art-gothic silliness. This episode was stacked with great lurid shots. Palmer and Coco inner framed in that diamond, Kelly in pure blue with a neon green background, Eichorst entering the processing plant. Doesn't completely compensate for Coco leading basically nowhere (I think her arc did something for Palmer—I'm expecting him to actively defy the master within a season and probably die for it) or the lack of Dutch, but I like the grouping of Gus, Angel, Quinlan, Setrakian and Fet (despite the corny voiceover ending). This was a super fun season of TV and I'm looking forward to it coming back next summer.

p.s. can people more clearly mark book spoilers? I don't care a ton, and something like GoT's split threads would be overkill, but maybe just put "(book spoilers)" before spoiler tags rather than playing fast and loose with it, or relying on context? Thaaaaanks
 
G

GorillaWithDandruff

Member
Lmaoooooo holy shit. This. Fucking. SHOW. Genuinely can't decide if I even wanna keep watching once it starts back up with S3.

For book readers, is there much else left in book 2 that would warrant watching another entire season that I can't just read a synopsis of? Cuz I'm honestly thinking abut just skipping the next season or two and jumping back in once shit really hits the fan.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
I got this little guy in the post today! Still don't understand why they'd make a figure of a character they killed, but... it kind of gives me hope :D

LRpfwoH.jpg
Click to expand...
 
N

Nokagi

Unconfirmed Member
Koriandrr said:
I got this little guy in the post today! Still don't understand why they'd make a figure of a character they killed, but... it kind of gives me hope :D
Click to expand...

Yeah it's kinda funny all those Strain Pops were outdated on release except for Abraham. The Master has his giant body, Eph has hair and Vaun is (assumed) dead.
 
K

Koriandrr

Member
Nokagi said:
Yeah it's kinda funny all those Strain Pops were outdated on release except for Abraham. The Master has his giant body, Eph has hair and Vaun is (assumed) dead.
Click to expand...

And still no Quinlan.


It kind of contributes to my uber conspiracy (brace yourselves).
I think the actor who played Vaun decided to quit/was fired last minute. He was meant to be the Quinlan from the books, but it didn't work out for whatever reasons we'll never find out, so they had to stop everything about him, kill him suddenly without any logical explanation and fill that gap with the new Quinlan who was a last minute cast decision, because... younger and buffer? Also a lot of changes to the costumes as well. If you look at the first makeup of Vaun, which was changed 3 times and then Quinlan's makeup was changed twice as well, you can notice it most around the mouth.


mind = blown
 
U

Ushay

Member
I'm on episode 10 so far .. My lord is Eph the shittiest, most untalented sniper in existence? Yup. He's a medical doctor and didn't think to practise before going on the rooftop for the assassination.

I just laughed so hard when we saw who he ended up hitting.
 
W

Wray

Member
Just finished season 2. Can somebody confirm something for me. The giant dude from the prologue was the current body for the master right? I mean up to the point until he worm barfs Bollivar.

There wasn't a body in between there?
 
Dsyndrome

Dsyndrome

Member
Wray said:
Just finished season 2. Can somebody confirm something for me. The giant dude from the prologue was the current body for the master right? I mean up to the point until he worm barfs Bollivar.

There wasn't a body in between there?
Click to expand...

Correct. He was Sardu up to the point that he took over Bolivar's husk.
 
I

IvanJ

Banned
I am glad I watched Season 2 as it was much better than the first one.
So, I am eagerly awaiting Season 3, especially since the character that annoyed me the most bit the third rail.
 
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