The Strain S01E10 Recap: Loved Ones

In Harlem, Zach looks around Abraham's shop. He finds an old computer, but it doesn't do him much good with no wifi. He sneaks into another room of the house, and gets the computer up and running, for only a moment to track his mother's phone. Her phone is moving, and he alerts Eph. The internet is super slow, but he figures if she's moving she has to be okay. Zach calls his mom, but she doesn't answer. He hopes its just on silence, and as he wonders why she hasn't called back, Eph doesn't tell the boy his fear. The internet connection is lost, but Eph is off to retrieve her.

The president declares a bank holiday to try to stabilize the economy, and Eph tells Nora of Zach's findings. She's still giving him a bit of the cold shoulder. Eph admits that he didn't try to hurt her with his words last night, and that he knows that she's only trying to prepare him, but he has to go after Kelly. Abraham agrees that he needs to prepare for the worst. 

Fet has tracked the rat activity in the city. Fet thinks that attacking the thing head on may be a kamikaze move. Planning would be much easier if the internet were up. Dutch apologizes and confesses her hand in the downfall of the internet. She never wanted to hurt people, and wants to fix things, but its tricky, they would need to go into the Heart Group building to do it. Fet is up for the challenge. 

Eph walks the streets towards Kelly's last location. He finds his wife's phone, but no Kelly. A homeless woman has it, and Eph asks her to take him to where she found it. She's hesitant, and slightly hostile, thinking him a cop, but when he tells her that he's a doctor she shows him a bad burn on her leg. Eph tends the wound, and then she takes him to where she foudn the phone. Eph finds Kelly's car, and there's blood inside.

32 hours earlier. In Kelly's home, a Strigoi Matt shuffles in on a sleeping Kelly, but he leaves her be. His closing the door awakens her. Kelly knocks on the bathroom door, but Matt doesn't open it. Kelly tries to open the door, thinking Matt is just being childish, but he won't budge. Kelly heads off to work.

In her classroom, one of the other teachers is surprised to see her. Half of the kids and staff are missing, most didn't even call in. This raises red flags for Kelly, and she tells her that Eph warned her about something in conjunction to the dead plane. She plans to get Zach and leave, and suggests that she does the same.

Kelly returns home, calling for Matt, telling him that everyone is sick and Eph was right. Still no answer. Matt comes in and Kelly sees just how sick he looks. The pair fight, and Kelly gouges him with a blender blade. Matt's milky blood gets on her, but worse one of his parasitic worms lands on her face, and crawls into her eye. Kelly manages to get away into the sunlight, and her car, but its too late, shes infected.

Away from the scene Kelly tries to check the damage. Her eye looks like hell, and she's shaky. She cleans herself up, which is the bloody handkerchief Eph found, and has a little breakdown. Exhausted she falls asleep behind the wheel. As nights falls she awakens feeling sick. She tries to make a call, but the illness overtakes her and she drops her phone as she stumbles out of her car. Kelly heads to Zach's school, no one is there except the principal. Kelly looks like hell, as she asks for Zach. The principal tells her hat they dismissed early, and when they couldn't reach her Diane took Zach. The principal thinks that Kelly has been in a car accident, and possibly has a concussion, she calls for help, but Kelly runs out of the building. On the playground there's strigoi, but they don't attack Kelly. Kelly spots one, and follows it. She sees it take a victim. Is it too much to hope that she turns into one of the other strigoi that is creepy but kinda human that hunts the bad ones?

Dutch and Fet take off in the bread truck. They make small talk getting to know each other a little better. Dutch doesn't want to open up, saying you get what you see,  but Fet doesn't buy it. He wants to know how Dutch plans on making it through the front door, knowing being hot isn't going to be enough. 

Fet uses his badge to get through the receptioist at the StoneHeart Group. He sweet talks her, and makes it into the elevator, but they're stopped by security. Security takes Dutch and Fet into custody. They know exactly who Dutch is, Eldritch's man remembers her and has the pair searched. Fet's gun is taken, and Dutch is taken to see Eldritch alone.

Eph goes back to the house looking for Kelly. 

17 hours earlier. Kelly heads over to Diane's. Kelly looks awful, but Diane lets her friend in. She tells her that Matt did this, and Diane wants to get Kelly to  a hospital. Kelly worries over where Zach is, but he's with Eph. Diane's son comes down to see what all the commotion is about, and Kelly throws her stinger at him. Diane leaps onto her friend's back to save her child, and ends up as Kelly's meal instead.

Dutch is roughly taken to see Eldritch. She's not so cocky now. The man asks why she would ever come back. Dutch isn't one to be taken for a ride, and now knowing that Eldritch is behind all the madness, she's come to stop it. He warns her that if she tries to hurt Eldritch he'll kill  her. Eldritch dines, finding audacity in Dutch's plan to storm his castle. He lied to her, but by omisson only. He congradulates her for her part. He's about to achieve the ultimate hack when he transcends humanity, and takes up his strigoi mantle. He can spills his plans because no one would believe her anyways. Dutch loses it, hits Eldritch and is manhandled out.

15 hours ago. Kelly walks the streets. She can hear the heart beats of passerbys, and see the blood flowing in her veins. Something calls to her below ground, and Kelly heads down into the subway tunnels. It calls her, luring her down, and when she comes upon the master he tells her to rejoice.
Dutch and Fet  walk their green mile. Dutch is a little angry over their failed plan, and tells him that next time it'll be different. Going in guns blazing wasn't a better plan. The assistant stops the pair, he isn't going to kill them, his employer is just misguided. He tells them to go while they have the chance, and run they do.

Eph continues to look for Kelly. He heads over to Diane's house, things look off there. He finds a broken picture frame, the one Kelly dropped. Eph heads down to the basement. No one ever finds anything good down int he basement, but he searches it. An infected Diane is lying down next to her infected little boy. She rises to attack Eph, but he shoots her, and then is forced to do the same to the child when he awakens. In Diane's hand is Kelly's necklace, and Eph breaks down. 

Somber, Eph returns to the shop. Nora was worried. Fet and Dutch return as well, but Eph isn't welcoming her in.. Dutch would rather leave than to stay where she's not welcome. Zach asks about his mother, and Eph takes him back upstairs to deliver the news. He didn't find Kelly, but he found her phone. He tells his son that he's not giving up on her. He doesn't mention his other dire findings. 

Zach relives happier times, watching home videos on his mother's phone. She's gone, and the happy times are too.

