S01.E04: It's Not For Everyone

[Meredith Quill]

Episode Synopsis:

A secret autopsy demonstrates the bizarre progression of the mystery virus, prompting Jim to make a startling confession. Eph and Nora race to find the father of the youngest victim of the plane tragedy, but someone unexpected beats them to it. Ansel, in the grip of disease, takes desperate measures to protect his family.

[bosawks]

I did like Eph's "ewww" face when he uncovered the pilots lack of, errr, "little pilot".

I'm generally very troubled when a pet gets it, however, spending the weekend with my aggressively flatulent dog somewhat diminished the trauma.

Edited August 4, 2014 by bosawks

[SimoneS]

I think that I am done. I was so looking forward tonight. I thought we were going get some vampire killing action now they know the truth. Instead we get an autopsy of a vampire even though the old man told them told them to cut off the head and burn body. Did they even burn the body? They just locked it away where anyone can find it. Then we have the stupid wife who just stands there even as the husband all bloody tells her to run and then takes the time to bury the dog instead of calling the police and getting help. I don't even know what to think of her deliberately shoving the neighbor in the shed. The Latino guy is so hot, but all he is doing so far is running around. The old wealthy guy's drama is beyond boring. Next we have Eph and Nora who were just attacked by the vampire pilot who go search for another one without a weapon to protect themselves. They take time to cry and debate when they needed to quickly get the gasoline to burn the bodies. With the exception of Setrakian, these people are dumbest fucks on the planet.

 

I have no idea what The Strain books are like, but adapting to the tv screen has been an epic fail. I am so disappointed in this show.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

That wig is still trying to escape from Corey's head.

Welcome to the team Walder Frey.

[Primetimer]

Two WTF moments stand out as The Strain hits its stride.

Read the story

[Enero]

Every episode there seems to be a brief focus on the clock the Hispanic’s guy’s brother stole from the Slayer’s pawn shop. I wonder if there is something about it that might be helpful in the fight against those who are ill. I really like the Hispanic guy but I’m trying to understand the point of his story. He unknowingly helped out the vampires early on, but it’s been a few episodes now and he’s not really had anything to do with the rest of the plots on the show.

 

How insane was it for them to do an autopsy on the dead pilot without having anything covering their faces. What idiots! I know it was an unplanned autopsy, but they should’ve made some make shift masks with their clothes, gowns, something.

 

OMG! Ansel’s wife. I know she was in shock at seeing her husband that way, but I was screaming at the TV for her to GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE!!! LOL. Thank goodness she finally did, and thank goodness he at least had the mind to chain himself up so that he wouldn’t hurt anyone.  But then the wife sends the neighbor into the shed to be eaten?? Didn’t see that coming. So is she now going to start feeding her husband any grumpy neighbor that comes by to complain?

 

Marlo Stanfield! It’s been a while.

 

Yay the Slayer! But how the heck did he know to come to that house?  I could understand Dr. Martinez being taken aback by what the Slayer had just done and I understand her commitment to curing rather than killing the sick, but to still be calling them people after seeing what they’d become and then declaring she’d rather die from the virus than to kill them was just baffling. She sounded like an idiot.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Enero

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Jaime Hector been busy, Power last week this show tonight.

What's next, The Walking Dead?

[Valny]

Poor beautiful German Shepherd. I think we all knew she would be vamp food once Ansel told his wife to leave the dog with him.  I flipped over to the Yankee/Red Sox game so I missed most of it, so I'll catch it again later.  But I did think Sean Astin was pretty funny in the scenes I saw prior to and during the autopsy. My father was all, how can you/anyone watch this stuff?(autopsy scene) He was grossed out.   Um, because it's all FAKE!

 

And I agree with you @Enero, I was saying the same thing about how crazy it was for them not wearing something over their faces during the autopsy. This guy has been infected with something awful and unknown and they're that close to the infected persons insides? Breathing in who knows what! Idiots.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Valny

[Jeffurry]

 

Yay the Slayer! But how the heck did he know to come to that house?

If I'm remembering correctly the family in that house had a last name starting with the letter A, so they were first on the list the Slayer acquired last week.

[MrsRafaelBarba]

Chile, I'd become Walder Frey's prized pupil and planning a Red Wedding for those reptilian looking vampers.

[Milaxx]

I am loving this show! Part of me knows I shouldn't. I mean we have far too many people running around doing stupid things like autopsy vombie bodies that just tried to kill them moments earlier without wearing hazmats suits, and autopsying said dead bodies when they have been instructed to cut the head off and burn the body. When the only person acting with any kind of sense is the vombie guy who chains himself in the shed, you have problems. Nevertheless I am finding this immensely entertaining.

[Iamsweetdee]

This show is just so incredibly stupid.

[lulee]

Ann-Marie's going to have a whole lot of Hail Marys to do after tossing the neighbor in with Ansel.

Edited August 4, 2014 by lulee

[Portia]

So when the super-religious lady found out that the cranky neighbor had hit her dog, naturally she let him be horribly murdered by her husband-monster because...because all of a sudden we're watching a Fargo-like dark comedy? Seriously, I could only assume they intended us to laugh.

The autopsy was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen on TV, and I've been watching a lot of TV for a lot of years. When they extricated the "stinger"...oy...well, let's just say I'll be flashing back to that trauma this Thanksgiving when I have to remove the turkey neck from the bird's cavity before I roast it.

I will say one thing about this show: it gives me at least a couple of good, startled yelps per episode. It's fun-scary.

[AimingforYoko]

I actually kinda liked Nora when she said she'd rather become one of them than kill. It's a stupid choice, but at least it's a choice.

And Abraham is far too old and lost far too much to give any fucks. "So you're going to murder everyone on that list?" "Yes."

[Rhetorica]

Yay the Slayer! But how the heck did he know to come to that house? I could understand Dr. Martinez being taken aback by what the Slayer had just done and I understand her commitment to curing rather than killing the sick, but to still be calling them people after seeing what they’d become and then declaring she’d rather die from the virus than to kill them was just baffling. She sounded like an idiot.

The Slayer had a tech girl hack the list of passengers on the plane in return of her hawked video console.

Crap! Not the dog! At least Edsel warned his wife. And now she's becoming Seymour of " Little Shop of Horrors". Feeeed meeee!

Eff has so much hubris that of course he'll go it alone. 

[Valny]

Yay the Slayer!

 

  Buffy is on the show now?  :)  (I wish)

[beedub]

While things are going full-tilt on the vampire side, with the CDC gang getting an eye (and hand) full, and Mrs. Ansel with her deck of Jesus cards getting her Seymour on (thanks, Rhetorica, I knew her feeding the neighbour to her husband seemed familiar), the other plots seem several episodes behind. With the exception of the brief meeting at Setrakian's pawn shop, Gus's story (I had to look up his character's name) has little or nothing to do with what's going on elsewhere – why do we need to see the slow evolution of a small-time criminal? Though I did think Setrakian could have been a little more grateful for the returned clock, which I don't think can be important as he didn't seem to care about getting it back all that much. The point seemed to be to get these two to meet, which (I hope) should pay off later.

 

The old man bargaining with hacker chick to bring the Internet to its knees (yeah, it's that easy) was a bit baffling. But even his story, which I assume has to do with controlling the stock market/economy, seems less interesting than it started out to be. When you can get major organs delivered to your swanky uptown pad in less than 30 minutes (or they're free?), who needs immortality? Seems he's less interested in getting vamped up than it first appeared.

 

And, no pied piper Fet this week. Rats.

 

But I'll be tuning in next week, if only to see who gets a tongue-lashing next.

Edited August 4, 2014 by beedub

[thuganomics85]

OK, that autopsy scene was probably the first time I started liking the CDC members, mainly because of Ephraim and Jim/Sean Astin's "WTF?!  Ew!!" reactions, to all the craziness.

 

At least the CDC trio has already figured out how crazy this is.  Although, they're already split up, I see.  Jim tells the truth of his misdeeds, and is booted out of the club.  Meanwhile, after witnessing Abraham's badassery, Ephraim rightfully is "OK, I'm down with Team Badass Walder Frey!", while Nora's all "They's still human beings!  I can't abide by this!", and bails.  Whatever, Nora.  You are boring, anyway.  Team Badass Walder Frey!  Although, I hope the first thing Abraham does next week, is make Ephraim shave his head and set fire to his hair.  That wig must die!

 

Did not miss Ephraim's family drama in the slightest.

 

Not sure what was going on with all of Gus' stuff, but I'm always down for Marlo from The Wire, randomly showing up.  Since Boardwalk Empire is ending, maybe next season, they can get Michael Kenneth Williams to show up, and he can just play Omar, taking out zombie vampires with his trusty shotgun, while whistling.

 

I new that dog was a goner.  At least Ansel had the awareness to chain himself up.  On the other hand, that wife is something. Apparently super religious, but has no problems feeding that neighbor to Ansel.  Not sure if God would agree with you about that, lady.

 

Missed Vasiliy.  I so want him to join Team Badass Walder Frey, and just watch David Bradley and Kevin Durand chew the scenery.

[90PercentGravity]

 

Yay the Slayer! But how the heck did he know to come to that house?  I could understand Dr. Martinez being taken aback by what the Slayer had just done and I understand her commitment to curing rather than killing the sick, but to still be calling them people after seeing what they’d become and then declaring she’d rather die from the virus than to kill them was just baffling. She sounded like an idiot.

The lady doctor gave him a list of all the passengers. The coincidence of him being there when the doctors were was a bit much, though.

 

Overall I love this show, even when it is incredibly dumb. The main things that took me out of it were the stupid wife and the autopsy without any kind of face protection.

 

I wonder what the difference is between the zombie-like people and the guys like stiffed-haired whats-his-face. Time?

[lulee]

I suppose the answer is mainly, "because it's in the book", but I still sigh at it being the lone female character who says, "we don't hunt humans!1!" *after* being nearly killed by three of them and their long, retractable, snakelike suckers. I wish she would have at least said it as, "this is all too overwhelming. I'm out."

[Rhetorica]

I suppose the answer is mainly, "because it's in the book", but I still sigh at it being the lone female character who says, "we don't hunt humans!1!" *after* being nearly killed by three of them and their long, retractable, snakelike suckers. I wish she would have at least said it as, "this is all too overwhelming. I'm out."

That bothered me too. I grew up with Sci-fi where there were no women scientists, only girlfriends of. And they were always overwhelmed, or fainting, or falling down while running. Guess who was the only one to fall down in the "Dawn of the Apes"? The CDC woman, of course...

[Gregg247]

Dumbest scene on TV in the past year: When the lady went into the backyard shed, saw her blood-soaked vampire husband had (smartly) chained himself up and told her to run before he succumbed to the voices in his head urging him to drain her of blood, and she continued to stand literally 2 inches from his face, asking him what she could do to help him.  The corpses of every teenage victim of Freddie Kruger and Jason Voorhees watched this scene and moaned, "And they called US idiotic!".

 

The big question this week, of course, is what's happening with the custody battle between Ef and his ex-wife.  We didn't get to see any scenes in the courthouse or anything.  Come on, producers, you KNOW that's why we're all tuning in each week!

 

I'm glad we finally got some vampire hunting.  I know the rat guy is going to eventually join in the fight, but are they doing this long section of show introducing us to the Nigerian criminal cartel because they're going to eventually become our freedom fighters against the vampires?  I HOPE this story line is going somewhere.

 

I get the point of the hacker screwing up phone and internet connections to isolate Manhattan island, but I'm not sure what was going on with the Secretary of Human Services.  I can't figure out why they're trying to trick her with the "military biological agent" story when the whole vampire apocalypse is about to go full swing.

[shrewd.buddha]

This episode was a better balance of action/gore versus boring family/political drama -- in that there seemed to be less boring parts. 

But the billionaire's health issues and the gangster's family drama seemed to be really drawn out, just like Eph's family drama (from which we were spared this week).

 

Why do they need to re-emphasize everything? We get that Eph thinks that his son is his last chance - that the gangster cares about his mother - that the sick billionaire is sick.. But TPTB seem to think the audience can't remember the most basic elements of their drama. 

[fauntleroy]

Ditto about the idiotest wife ever. I almost wanted to eat her myself to taste the delicious stupidness.

 

Earlier I said I FF through gore, but if you do that with this show there's not much left. It's apparently Del Toro's thing, like Michael Bey and explosions, but I don't get it. Make the point and move on, I don't care about the rubber and paint. Then onto the non-gore--rich old guy is not even boring. Gangster guy selling the car...the point please?

 

The closed captioning can be entertaining at least. While the car trade was underway, the CC said the guys in the background were speaking in "African". One of my favorite languages!

[90PercentGravity]

Earlier I said I FF through gore, but if you do that with this show there's not much left. It's apparently Del Toro's thing, like Michael Bey and explosions, but I don't get it.

Totally OT, but this reminded me of when I lived in Germany and I went to see The Art of War. All of the violence had been edited out, so it was just a movie about a guy running a lot.

[wmdekooning]

On the other hand, that wife is something. Apparently super religious, but has no problems feeding that neighbor to Ansel.

 

I know that a lot of people dislike people who abuse pets, so maybe it was a shoutout to those folks?

The neighbor was a bit of a dick...

[Omar G.]

He won't be/have a dick much longer.

[Constantinople]

The pilot "survivied" the plane, the little kid did not, but they can both "French Kiss".

Is there any difference between the survivors and the "victims" of the plane

Yay the Slayer! But how the heck did he know to come to that house?

 

If I'm remembering correctly the family in that house had a last name starting with the letter A, so they were first on the list the Slayer acquired last week.

Which is methodical in a way, but if time's a wasting, shouldn't Lord Frey first take out the families with the most people on the list, or take out everyone who lives in a particular neighborhood? Taking people out alphabetically could mean a lot of wasted travel time going back and forth.

[ottoDbusdriver]

Who knew that Ansel had a TARDIS in the backyard disguised as a toolshed (I guess the chameleon circuit was working) since it was WAY bigger on the inside.

 

Samwise confesses that he let the box out of quarantine at the airport (Who let the box out ?  Who ? Who ? Who?). And Eph drops him like yesterday's news, as he should.  Nora looked like she had jaundice in that scene.

 

That was the worst parking attendant setup I've ever seen.  All the keys sitting around completely unsecured.

 

The nonsense with the neighbor from hell was beyond stupid -- like she was responsible for the press reporters pissing on his mimosa. And he was all set to whip out his belt and start beating the dog.  Fuck him, he deserved to be served up as dinner for Ansel.  And Ansel's wife goes from deeply religious to human sacrifice provider in record time.

 

And after all she has seen so far, Nora is all concerned about killing people that have already been declared dead -- they were already shipped to the morgue for crying out loud.  Because 6 foot stingers are found in people every day.

 

And the little girl's last name was Arnot, so Abraham was at or near the top of the list.

[Omar G.]

And Ann-Marie and Ansel's last name is Barbour according to IMDB, so they should be getting a visit soon, too.

[LoLo]

I am enjoying the show so far but the female doctor drives me nuts. She was there & saw all the bodies on the plane, she saw that they all had the same incisions. She then saw the worms, crate etc. She was attacked by the pilot & witnessed his tongue as well as his autopsy. She is now claiming they are human?!?! I know for myself I would find it hard to decapitate anyone (dead of alive) but after witnessing what she witnessed & almost was victim to, she is now crying that they are alive & human. I can't stand it.

 

When both doctors were let go off the case because they could not prove or show evidence that it was not from the plane why didn't they whip out the worm & tell them about how the crate was full of them & the incisions on everyone? I don't get it. Things like that drive me nuts because in the real world people would not just walk away they would pull out the proof.

[Latverian Diplomat]

But then the wife sends the neighbor into the shed to be eaten?? Didn’t see that coming. So is she now going to start feeding her husband any grumpy neighbor that comes by to complain?

 

So when the super-religious lady found out that the cranky neighbor had hit her dog, naturally she let him be horribly murdered by her husband-monster because...because all of a sudden we're watching a Fargo-like dark comedy? Seriously, I could only assume they intended us to laugh.

Hey, sometimes when you ask yourself "What Would Jesus Do?" you get an unexpected answer. Especially if you're having a bad day. :-)

Samwise confesses that he let the box out of quarantine at the airport (Who let the box out ?  Who ? Who ? Who?). And Eph drops him like yesterday's news, as he should.  

Understandable, but dumb. Because part of his motiviation for the confession was, hey I know this guy who seems to be part of an effort to spread this disease, and we shouldn't forget to explore that angle. With his little temper tantrum, Eph just lost his only link to exploring that angle.

 

So is Gus supposed to be a hood with a heart of gold, or a code, or something? Because he's a colossal jerk. "Hey, here's the rent money you didn't get because my brother stole it, and while you may have a legitimate point about the recycling, you said in a mean way to my mommy, so I'll threaten your life and now she can leave trash in the hallway whenever she wants to, understand?" Why don't you take out the trash, Gus, so your mommy doesn't have to half-ass it?

 

Then, he returns the clock his brother stole, but when Slayer Abe doesn't shower him with kisses of gratitude, he thinks Abe's the asshole.

 

Han Solo, he ain't, is what I'm saying.

[RandomX]

They did a decent job of showing that Ann-Marie is co-dependent (at best) with Ansel, so her paralysis while Ansel was begging her to leave made sense. Chuckled at the neighbor asking if she was doing some winter gardening, given her dirt-streaked face.

Who knew that Ansel had a TARDIS in the backyard disguised as a toolshed (I guess the chameleon circuit was working) since it was WAY bigger on the inside.

So much love for the Vombie Tardis shed!

I'm very entertained by The Strain, enough to handwave the autopsy procedure and other bits.

[shockermolar]

Did anyone else catch the other majorly asinine thing said by Nora? When Samwise is explaining why he sold them out - he's broke, his wife has the big C, it's metastasized all over, she's dying, they've tried every possible treatment, Nora busts out with, "You have insurance." I guess in her bizarro world, you know the one where 10 foot stingers shooting out of mouths that suddenly open sideways on people she herself were dead, CDC employees have that awesome insurance that covers 100% of all out of pocket expenses forever and ever, including experimental treatments. Shut it Nora. You moron.

[Jordan27]

Sean Astin was funny during the autopsy scene.

 

Eph: Don't get near the blood.

Samwise: That won't be a problem.   LOL!!

 

And Nora, Nora, Nora.  I was liking her character to start with.  She actually semi-believed the Slayer guy and went to talk with him, but this ep she hit all-time dumb status.

 

They have just finished killing the pilot with multiple shots to the head with a fire extinguisher after he tried killing them and then performed an autopsy.  So, when the Slayer cuts off the little girl and her father's head off, she freaks out like a little girl who has never seen any of this.  "Are you planning on killing of all them?" 

 

Uhhh, yes, they are monsters.   Eph was right.  The biggest plague has hit the city and they need your help and you're going to leave.  Just go away.

[Bruinsfan]

  And Ansel's wife goes from deeply religious to human sacrifice provider in record time.

I think history would show us that most of the people performing human sacrifice were deeply religious.

 

What amazed me was that said woman had the intuition and foresight to get her kids out of Dodge without hubby's prior permission. I mean, given that she seems incapable of dialing 911 on her own initiative.

 

I laughed out loud when Jim asked where the worms went and the others just zoomed right ahead with the extremely un-sterile autopsy. Yeah, you might want to figure that out before cutting open a horribly mutated body that used to be so full of them you could *hear* them squirming around.

[fauntleroy]

Presumably some of the plot inanities (banishing Samwise thus losing the link to the evil guys, saying they have to go it alone because "no one will believe it" thus losing the link to possible help of a scale worthy of the problem) exist because they have to keep the problem "bound" for plot economy, so that it can be dealt with by five or so characters. In the real world (that is, the real world containing an outbreak of vampires and zombies), the real CDC, and Homeland Security, and the National Guard, and the etc would be deployed to manage such a thing. Eff (I know it's Eph but I prefer Eff) should send the video to his CDC boss and to The Globe and Mail.

 

There can't be any such thing as social media in these shows. No twitter for Eff "@ephgood: hey check out giant worm zombies CDC now will u believe lolz".  

 

In this case the CDC was taken off the case once by means of that baloney blaming of the airline, so it never needs to be brought up ever again apparently, leaving the problem to be managed by four or five cast members and one wig. The fate of humanity rests on a guy with a wig, a guy with a sword, a guy who catches rats, a guy who steals cars and lurves his mum, and...Nora bailed so, is that it? No ladies? A sausage-fest to fight the sausage-free?

Edited August 4, 2014 by fauntleroy

[lulee]

And Ann-Marie and Ansel's last name is Barbour according to IMDB, so they should be getting a visit soon, too.

After what happened with the pilot and Emma, the other "surviving" passengers ought to b prioritized. So Ansel, TeriBauerlawyerlady and poormansIanAstbury should be next for Eph & Abe

[scarynikki12]

said woman had the intuition and foresight to get her kids out of Dodge without hubby's prior

 

 

Ansel told her to take the kids to her sister's so she was still unable to act without him first telling her. 

[Constantinople]

If I recall, there were 210 people on the plane, not including the vampire cargo.

 

Eph & Setrakian need to step up their game and start offing more than 1 passenger or crew member per episode.

 

Otherwise, it will be a very long series.

[bluebonnet]

Ok, despite the warts, I'm definitely loving this show.  Truly monstrous vamps are a great thing.

 

So, if the vamps return to their loved ones, does this mean that Ep's custody battle will take on a whole new level of cray-cray as the virus spreads?  There had to have been a point to all that custody battle bullshit and a point to the bad wig.  

 

Assuming some of the vampire lore remains in tact and vamps need blood to survive, there must be a point at which the vamps stop spreading the virus.  Unless they are just enacting some long drawn out "if we go down, you all go down" suicide, they are going to need humans to stick around for a while.  This seems to be where the billionaire is coming in.  All that influence of his has so far been used to wiggle his way into the top tiers of government to prevent a true quarantine and investigation.  I guess this also ensures that certain infrastructure remains operable so that it's a much easier move from human rulers to vampire rulers.  I'm guessing the fact that he's getting a new liver rather than a new worm parasite indicates that he's just being used.  

 

It's still unclear why there were four survivors.  Are there different levels of vampires?  If the vampires are hearing voices, is this from the big coffin vamp?  Did he just allow the initial four 'survivors' to wake up so as to fit with the cover stories and eliminate the quarantine and investigation?  

 

Gods, Nora and Ansel's wife.  Is this what we can expect from the women in the series going forward?  Not making me excited for that.  

[thuganomics85]

 

Gods, Nora and Ansel's wife.  Is this what we can expect from the women in the series going forward?  Not making me excited for that.

Well, there is this new hacker lady they introduced.... who seems to be pretty much like every "rebel" female hacker in TV ever.  Hot (I think that was Ruta Gedmintas, who I remember from that hilariously bad Do No Harm), wears leather, has piercings (I will double down and say she'll probably end up having tattoos too), has a snarky "I don't give a shit!" attitude, etc.  Yeah, not exactly breaking new ground there, Del Toro.  Then again, I guess all these characters are cliches, but that's not a good excuse at all.

[paramitch]

I was really furious and disappointed in the show for Nora's actions and reactions in this episode.  Most of her scenes before now have emphasized her toughness, intelligence and professionalism.

 

Then in this episode she dissolves into a weepy, weepy cliched "weak female" mess who further is shocked (shocked!) that they have to kill these monsters to survive. And who then spouts a lot of nonsense about how they are trying to save all these people. I could have understood this a bit if it had been a muted reaction after the pilot's death (he was after all a sweet guy who was quietly heroic in his own way in facing his condition). But by the time they kill the little girl and her father, they have already autopsied what these things have become and know firsthand that there is no humanity left.

 

So Nora's tears over the Wormtongue vampires who have just tried to eat her just came off as bizarre (and probably as something that worked better, if at all, on the page. Onscreen it made no sense. At that point, it is absolutely apparent that these are not human beings anymore.

 

I would have liked the show so much more if Eph had wept (due to his neverending kid issues) and Nora was the one who was stoic and strong. Gah. (Shame on you, "Strain.")

 

I do like Frey, and loved the casual way he decapitated both monsters, as well as his basic shrug response to Nora's hysterics. I'm most invested in his character at this point, and was glad to see him team up with Eph so he isn't alone in this anymore. I'm always relieved when people finally believe the Cassandra figures in these scenarios.

 

I also found the scenes with Ansel to be unexpectedly interesting and powerful. He was able to get his family away from himself and I liked him for his attempt to actually cage himself away from people. I did think Ann-Marie was almost too stupid to live when he was raging bloodily at her inches from her face, but her odd religiosity was kind of mesmerizing, and she immediately became a thousand times more interesting to me when she sacrificed the neighbor to 'feed' her husband.

 

This episode actually did reel me in officially though -- it's gross, the villains are dangerously close to boring, and I loathe Nora, but it's schlocky fun and I want to know what happens.

[bluebonnet]

I am actually wondering if there was a cut scene somewhere that would have made Nora's behavior more understandable and less whiplash-y.  They took that iphone video but nothing was discussed about it.  There might have been a scene where they were talking about going to the CDC with it, or going public via the press or something and Eph was opposed to that.  In that case, I could understand why Nora went weepy and insisted on saving lives because it would be her expressing frustration for Eph wanting to go all lone ranger instead of taking the step to adequately inform the correct channels and see what, if anything, could be done to stop this thing and save other people from being infected.  

[lulee]

I am actually wondering if there was a cut scene somewhere that would have made Nora's behavior more understandable and less whiplash-y.  They took that iphone video but nothing was discussed about it.  There might have been a scene where they were talking about going to the CDC with it, or going public via the press or something and Eph was opposed to that.  In that case, I could understand why Nora went weepy and insisted on saving lives because it would be her expressing frustration for Eph wanting to go all lone ranger instead of taking the step to adequately inform the correct channels and see what, if anything, could be done to stop this thing and save other people from being infected.  

That reminds me: Eph referred to Arnot killing innocent people. Did they find evidence of that? Maybe I missed something when I was texting my sister back, but I didn't see them discovering any bodies or any other evidence. Did I miss something or might something else have been cut?

Edited August 5, 2014 by lulee

[Tippi Blevins]

Was Ann-Marie infected, too? She seemed pale and sweaty, like maybe she got a case of the worms from her husband. Maybe that's why she was acting weird. Or maybe they're just not bothering to write characters acting in remotely logical ways.

 

Nora seemed pretty no-nonsense at the pilot's autopsy, then turns into a weeping willow at the Arnot house. The things that Abe and Eph want to hunt down already died once. They are full of giant guano worms and they kill people. She knows this! She's seen it with her own eyes! But no, she cries about how they shouldn't be hunting people.

 

I am somewhat amused by the idea that the pilot lost his genitals sometime between his hospital room and getting caught. Like there's going to be some poor custodian who finds this disembodied junk on the floor somewhere, possibly dancing around like that heart in the morgue.

[lulee]

I don't recall them showing Ann-Marie get infected, but maybe she's turning into Ansel's Renfield.

[Bruinsfan]

It does seem odd that the worms aren't spreading vampirism apart from direct feeding attacks by the changed hosts. I mean, I had assumed that NYC's rats were doing the big migration because hordes of the things had made it into the sewers. Of course, that would make the infection truly unstoppable rather than just a big challenge.

[Davey]

As clunky and absurd as it was, I think they had Nora freak out and break off from the group because while the guys are out slaughtering vamps she will be the one that finds a cure. It kind of got lost in her insane speech about these things being human but she did say that "we should be trying to find a cure". The writers could have easily found a better way of getting to that point like "we can't possibly kill them all fast enough so we need a cure" but then we wouldn't get the drama. 

 

The fat Hobbit has important info dipshit so you might want to keep him around and just give a punch to the face every now and then.