Recap / The Strain (TV series) S01E01 "Night Zero"

Season 1, Episode 1:

Night Zero

What starts as a plane going dead, will transpire into something worse.

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Written by: Guillermo del Toro & Chuck Hogan

Airdate: July 13th, 2014

"Hunger, the poet once said, is the most important thing we know, the first lesson we learn. But hunger can be easily quieted down, easily satiated. There is another force, a different type of hunger, an unquenchable thirst that cannot be extinguished. Its very existence is what defines us, what makes us human. That force is love."

- Abraham Setrakian

Synopsis

When a commercial airliner lands and stands silent, CDC agent Ephraim Goodweather investigates the plane to find that the passengers are infected by a vile plague.

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Plot

On February 8th, 2014, Regis Air Flight 753 is about to descend to and arrive at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City. The flight goes smoothly at first, until descent. Rose and Peter, two flight attendants, investigate the plane's cargo hold due to the latter believing there is something alive in there. Upon opening the hatch, nothing is there and it is closed. But immediately after, whatever is in there makes its presence known, busts out the door, and attacks the attendants. In the Air Traffic Control tower, the airline's lack of communication riles suspicion, leading to a worker, Robbie, informing his boss Bishop of the development. JFK has a dead airplane, which, unbeknownst to all, will ignite a nightmare of unfathomable proportions.

Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, an employee of the CDC, arrives in a counsellor's office regarding his marital strains with his wife, Kelly. Their relationship is strained because he is so consumed in his work as an epidemiologist that he doesn't spend time with his family. Eph keeps turning off his phone when it vibrates during the session, only to relent after it rings enough times. His coworker, Dr. Nora and Jim arrive on Taxiway Foxtrot and they successfully convince the other governmental parties to let the CDC board the plane to potentially dive into the possibility of a pathogen.

In another part of New York, two men enter a pawn shop where silver is the main subject. But when they distract the owner, Abraham Setrakian, and try to rob him, Setrakian subdues one of them and details what will happen if they don't cease and desist. The bills are returned, but they steal an antique clock on the way out. But when the Regis Air story is brought to his attention, Setrakian heads downstairs and makes a horrifying realization as he talks with a jarred heart infested with worms.

Setrakian: "He's back."

On Taxiway Foxtrot, Eph and Nora suit up and enter the plane. During their investigation, they see all the passengers and crew motionless, but oddly, no bruises or signs of struggle. Ammonia and biological discharge are revealed to be spread everywhere, to everyone's confusion. However, when the Cockpit is revealed to be unlocked, Jim panics and advises them to get out. During her findings, Captain Redfern violently gasps awake, also revealing three other survivors.

In the Stoneheart Headquarters, Heir Thomas Eichorst ascends to the top of the building to meet with the company's founder, Mr. Eldritch Palmer. The two converse regarding the plane's arrival, revealing a grander conspiracy, even detailing the "4 survivors". Dr. Everett arrives and manages a warehouse to be turned into a morgue for all the deceased. Eph and Nora propose a quarantine for the 4 survivors in order to gain an understanding of what's going on. A ginormous coffin is found in a storage unit with unique handcarving. The contents reveal large volumes of soil. When Bishop contacts Berlin regarding its origins, he hears a high-pitched whine and a voice, leading him toward an isolated part of the unit. He discovers a clothed abomination, who drains him of his blood, brutally murders him, and flees.

In an alleyway in Harlem, Eichorst meets with Gus and has made an agreement at one point in the past related to this conspiracy. Despite Gus' protests, Eichorst blackmails him into following along with the plan with the promise of clearing his brother's criminal status and fixing his mother's immigration status. Setrakian arrives at JFK and feigns a cardiac episode to get close to Jim to warn him of something horrible. Dr. Bennett, Eph's mortician friend, talks to Eph regarding certain developments on the victims, revealing that the bodies have undergone unique changes. Setrakian does try to warn about the scourge, but his bringing up the coffin piques Nora's interest as he is escorted off the premises.

Returning to the cargo hold, it's revealed that the "disease" isn't airborne, but instead a parasitic one. Upon realizing the true danger of this disease, a cordon is established to ensure that no vehicles carry it away from the premises. Gus' truck is stopped, but Jim lets him through, revealed to be involved in the conspiracy. When Dr. Bennett performs the autopsies, he discovers a lot of unique changes in the organs and bodies, only to be swarmed by the reanimated passengers. Setrakian is put in a holding cell, while Eichorst is surprised to learn of Setrakian's presence in the airport. Eichosrt and Palmer savour the streets of New York, awaiting what's to come. Emma, the little girl on the plane, finds her way back home to her father but returns home changed.

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Tropes that are present in this episode:

• Actually Pretty Funny: When Eph leaves the counselling office, he answers the call from Dr. Nora Martinez, his colleague. Before he hangs up, he makes a comment alluding to her "dick-measuring contest" analogy:
  Eph: "Can you keep the measuring contest going that long?"
  Nora: "Don't worry. I'll show them mine."
  Eph: "*chuckles* Might just work."
• Alien Blood: Instead of regular blood, the corpses on the autopsy table reveal a milky white substance exiting the wounds.
• Anger Born of Worry: Emma's father, Gary, is initially horrified during the press conference, but responds angrily to Eph's promise of finding answers by smacking him in the face. And his anger collapses back into worry and despair, wanting to see his daughter again, dead or alive.
• Beyond the Impossible: Dr. Bennett, Eph's forensic pathologist friend, discovers an incision in the neck that's deep enough to puncture a wall of the carotid artery without rupture, "razor-sharp, clean cut", without bruising or trauma. Nora notes that no medical instrument can do that with that amount of precision. And more bodies have shown the very same wound.
• Blackmail: In Gus' first scene, he and Eichorst have agreed to something offscreen, as part of this conspiracy. It turns out that Gus must follow Eichorst's instructions because the latter has control over the former's brother's criminal record and his mother's immigration status. If he succeeds, Eichorst will fix the immigration status of Gus' mother, and Crispin will have his criminal record erased. While the rewards are greatly beneficial and the odds are in Gus' favour regardless due to everything being pre-planned, it still counts as blackmail since Eichorst is using Gus as a means to an end with the coffin.
• Bodily Fluid Blacklight Reveal: When Eph and Nora use UV light technology to find out more about what happened, they find biological patterns scattered around the inside of the plane, potentially tracing the ammonia scent to them.
• Body Horror: When Dr. Bennett scans a victim under UV light, not only do you see the autopsy incisions, but you see a network of fibres growing under the skin.
  • While an autopsied body is part of the job for a forensic pathologist, seeing one animated and alive (with the body cut open and the exposed brain), demonstrates that whatever happened to the passengers and crew, is not of this Earth.
• Brutal Honesty: When Eph talks to the victims' families and friends, he sadly cannot sugarcoat it, and talks in the way he'd like to hear it. That means being blunt with the details.
  Eph: "I think I'm supposed to stand here and somehow reassure you. I can't do that. 206 passengers on Regis Air Flight 753 are dead. And we don't know why. Four passengers survived and we don't know why. What I can tell you, having been the first to board the plane, is that they all appeared to have died peacefully, without distress. That's the only comfort I can give you at this time."
• Cat Scare: The hatch to the cargo hold is opened, and no animal is there despite Peter's claims. Then it makes its presence known when the hatch is closed.
• Cheerful Child: Despite the drama between Eph and Kelly, Zack is presented as a happy kid who's worried for his dad when he has to go to work and cares for him greatly. He even helps his father with his tie with no problem.
  • And he even says this in response to Matt's question as to what happened on Regis Air.
  Zack: "Whatever it is, my dad will handle it."
  • Emma herself is very cheerful in the little bit of screentime she gets before all hell breaks loose on Regis Air.
• Cool Old Guy: Setrakian certainly establishes himself as a man who is no-nonsense and a badass with a dedicated cause.
• Creative Closing Credits: The closing credits for this episode depict an extended version of the opening, with scenes of a pathogen multiplying and attacking nearby cells, killing them. After a while, the scene fades to a red-toned sky view of New York City. It noticeably gets darker as time progresses, but if you look closer at the top right of the sky, you'll see an eclipse casting a shadow over the city.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Bishop. When he investigates the source of whispering intermixed with tinnitus, he discovers a figure draped in brown cloth. The figure suddenly jumps at him, uses a proboscis tendril to drain him of his blood, then violently snaps his neck. And violently smashes his hand with his hands, reducing it to mush.
  • Dr. Bennett suffers one too. While performing autopsies on the Regis Air victims, he gets distracted by a worm trying to burrow under his skin. While he gets it out, he gets swarmed and consumed by the reanimated passengers and crew.
• Dangerously Loaded Cargo: That coffin, which wasn't on the manifest, turns out to be associated with the thing behind the Regis Air tragedy. When it's opened, it contains soil, but then we discover that the virus carriers prefer living in soil when it's not provided with a human host.
• Death of a Child: The little girl on the plane, Emma, is sadly not exempt from the thing that plagued Regis Air. She initially dies, but it's revealed that she was in a comatose and inactive state. She's alive and well again at the episode's end, but she's certainly not human anymore.
• Disappeared Dad: Due to the strictness of his job, Ephraim doesn't spend a lot of time with his family. This is the driving force behind his struggling relationship with his wife, Kelly.
• Downer Beginning: What was supposed to be a safe flight from Berlin to New York turns into a 180 when a mysterious creature attacks the passengers and crew of the plane, sparking the beginning of a nightmare.
• Downer Ending: Despite Eph and the Canary Team's best efforts, the coffin crosses the bridge and into the heart of the city. This very action kickstarts the overall plot.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: This is the only episode of the series to feature a live clock when introducing the numerous locations series-wide.
• Eldritch Abomination: Whatever this, thing, is. It's certainly not human, possessing superhuman strength, and incredible speeds, and has a proboscis-like tendril that emerges from the mouth.
• Empty Promise: Despite Everett saying that there will be no press when Eph talks to the families, what's the first thing the latter sees when he enters the airport? The press. Nora's jab at him implies that his promises are usually empty.
  Nora: "When you said no press, I almost believed you."
• Establishing Character Moment: Thomas Eichorst is introduced ascending to the top floor of the Stoneheart Headquarters, and blinks with his nictitating membrane. This establishes that he looks human but isn't and has ties to the company's founder, Eldritch Palmer. They both mention the cargo arriving and the four survivors being found, revealing that they are key components of this conspiracy.
  • Eph detailing the Disaster Dominoes of potential diseases spreading through mundane means, with small actions allowing it to turn into an epidemic. It demonstrates his seriousness in keeping the public safe in the face of potential diseases becoming outbreaks.
  • See Retired Badass below for Setrakian's opening.
• Evil Old Folks: Eldritch Palmer. Being the leader of the Stoneheart Company and a component in the Regis Air conspiracy alongside Eichorst.
• Flipping the Bird: When Gus "recounts" the three rules Eichorst.
  Eichorst: "In English then. The three rules."
  Gus: (*three fingers up, ring, middle, index*) "Screw you. (*ring finger goes down*) Suck my dick. (*index finger goes down, leaving the middle*) I'll get it done."
• Forbidden Fruit: While Gus' rules are easy to follow, Eichorst puts particular emphasis on "don't examine the cargo", since it's the first rule. He'd try to examine the cargo in the next episode, but gets scared away when the Master makes his presence known. This breaking of that rule would cost him greatly in the future.
• Hates Being Nicknamed: Jim doesn't like to be referred to as "Jimbo".
• Hell Is That Noise: The thing, while attacking Rose and Peter, and killing Bishop, makes pig-like screeches while attacking.
• Hope Spot: The barricade around JFK is implemented quickly, allowing the coffin to be contained within the zone. But due to Jim's insistence on letting Gus go through the barricade, the coffin crosses into the city, fulfilling Eichorst's request.
  • Dr. Bennett removing the worm prevents him from being infected, but he notices the reanimated passengers and crew too late, causing him to be consumed by them.
• Jerkass: Gabriel Bolivar and Joan Luss are certainly this given their behaviour, the former on the plane, and the latter while in quarantine.
• Jump Scare: When Nora searches the cockpit, she gets one hell of a nasty surprise when the captain, Doyle Redfern, loudly gasps when he awakens.
• Love Makes You Evil: The survivors return home to their loved ones. Despite some side effects, they can live their lives again, but leaving them alive only serves a grander purpose in this conspiracy. As it turns out, the only thing the infected remember is their love for their friends, family, and acquaintances, and target them specifically first.
  Eichorst: "Everything went as planned. Love is going to guide them all back, to their homes, to their loved ones."
• Married to the Job: Due to the strictness of being an epidemiologist due to people's lives being on the line, Eph takes his work very seriously, at the cost of not being present for a majority of the time with his family.
  Kelly: "You're not horrible. You're just barely present."
• Meaningful Background Event: The advertisements for the eclipse. The eclipses are pretty important in the long run.
• The Mole: When Jim lets Gus' truck through the security zone, it's believed that he's following protocol since it's one of theirs, but his Wham Line would reveal that he's associated with Eichorst and Stoneheart.
• Not Quite Dead: The Regis passengers were in actuality in a comatose state. Gabriel, Joan, Ansel, and Captain Redfern reawaken as "survivors" while the rest of the passengers remain in their comatose states until they become something else.
  Eph: "No Jim, send paramedics. We got survivors!"
• Nothing Is Scarier: Aside from the thing bursting out of the cargo and attacking Rose and Peter, we do not see what happens to the Regis Air passengers and crew when it does. We're only shown how they were before, and how they are in the aftermath.
• Opening Narration: See the quote above.
• Parasites Are Evil: It's later revealed that the carrier of the virus is parasitic worms.
• Pilot Movie: The first episode of the show, one that is movie-length, and one hell of an introduction.
• Plane Awful Flight: While the flight up until its arrival at JFK has been smooth sailing, it's when the thing breaks out of the cargo hold and kills the passengers that it's a complete 180.
• Playing Sick: Setrakian pretends to suffer a cardiac episode while bypassing security to get close to Jim to inform him of the pathogen.
• Recovered Addict: Eph quit drinking as a way to convince Kelly that their relationship can be salvaged, but due to the fact they still wind up at the counselling center, it hasn't worked.
• The Rival: Eph really isn't fond of Matt. This is made evident during the counselling session.
  Eph: "I wouldn't be quitting for you. I'd be quitting because of you, for Zack, so he isn't driving around Queens in a green goddamn Prius."
  • And when he meets the man in person after leaving the counsellor's office?
  Eph: "But I'm sure I'll see you again at my house."
• Retired Badass: Setrakian is an elderly man running a pawn shop. But when two thieves (one is later revealed to be Gus' brother Crispin) try to rob him of his money by distracting the man with false silver, Setrakian pins the robber against the glass and points a knife at a crucial artery. He even details the forthcoming events of what would happen if the robber or his friend don't cease and desist. This moment sends the thieves fleeing (aside from stealing a clock out of spite and giving him the middle finger) and shows the audience who Setrakian is, a man who hasn't passed his prime in terms of fighting.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Joan Luss embodies this trope, as she wants things to go her way when she and the others are quarantined, wanting to use her connections at a law firm to make it happen.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: Seeing a man being swarmed and eaten by violent passengers and crew? Certainly not the most appropriate use of the upbeat "Sweet Caroline".
• Soul Jar: The heart variety. In Setrakian's basement, he has a jar with a malformed heart inside. He even feeds it with his own blood, and you get to see that the heart is still beating, and has worms emerge from the tubules and feasting on the blood hungrily. His referring to the heart as "dear" gives the implication that this may have been the heart of someone he knew very closely.
• Spanner in the Works: While a perimeter is established to stop the coffin from leaving the zone, Gus' truck is able to bypass security with Jim's insistence.
• Sword Cane: Setrakian has a cane with a silver snake attached at the top. It looks like a cane, but that snake is actually the handle of a silver-lined sword.
• The Trouble with Tickets: When Eph can't ignore Nora's calls any longer for CDC work, he tries to get in his car, only for his truck to have a parking ticket. Even more ridiculous? The guy that Eph promise to make sure he doesn't get a ticket? That was Matt, Kelly's new love interest.
  Matt: "Sorry, I guess the meter-reader didn't see it as much of an emergency."
• Title Drop: February 8th: Night Zero
• Title-Only Opening: Aside from a clip of infectious agents destroying a cell and "FX Presents", you only see some tendrils forming "THE STRAIN" in blood, while Ramin Djawadi's score ominously plays.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Despite Eph doing everything to fix his relationship with Kelly, including sobering up, and moving out to give her some space, she believes that the time apart between her and him clarifies her longing to spend more time with Matt.
  • While Ansel informs of the tinnitus early, Redfern isn't much help due to him forgetting the events between landing the plane and waking up, Gabriel being flat our weird in quarantine, but Joan is the most bitchy, using her connections as a lawyer for things to go her way, even complaining against the CDC quarantining her.
• Unnaturally Blue Lighting: Outside Regis Air 753, all the windows are closed except for one, one that has an unnatural blue light illuminating the inside of the plane. It's an indicator that something is greatly amiss.
• Wham Line: Jim is first presented as Eph's friend with the CDC, but this line reveals who he really is.
  Jim (to Gus): "You tell those sons of bitches I'm done. I came through for them, but now I am done. You got it?"
  • Then Eichorst drops a big one when Palmer reveals to him about Setrakian's arrest at the airport.
  Eichorst: "The Jew. He's still at it. After all these years."
• Wham Shot: Seeing a passenger's hand twitch to life, revealing that there are survivors.
  • The "horsehair worm" found in the manifest, with a clump of soil found nearby with other worms inside. The worm is trying to look for a host, and this confirms that the disease is based on a parasitic vector.
  • The coffin is there before disappearing in a blip. Frame-by-frame techniques reveal the "distortion" to be a figure wearing a brown cloak, the same creature that killed Bishop.
  • Emma blinks with a nictitating membrane and has red rings around her irises. She's home, but she's no longer human.
• Workaholic: Eph's job as an epidemiologist is certainly demanding and is a factor in his strained relationship with his family.
• You Will Be Spared: Seemingly all passengers and crew perish in the tragedy, but only four of them are revealed to be alive: Joan Luss (a lawyer), Gabriel Bolivar (a rockstar), Ansel Barbour (a husband), and Captain Doyle Redfern. They're the lucky survivors, but if the ending is any indication, they're alive for a reason, and it's not a good one. Subsequent episodes would reveal that they did get infected, but their transformation is slow and being with family and friends allows the opportunity for the pathogen to spread, and the media would prefer on focus the "miraculous" survivors while paying no attention to the dead.
• You Wouldn't Believe Me If I Told You: Defied to some extent. While Setrakian does try to warn Eph, Nora, and Jim about the outbreak he dealt with in the past, he can't reveal everything, since it would make him sound crazy. But before security escorts him off the premises, he mentions the coffin and warns them not to let it across the river. Thankfully, his efforts aren't in vain as Nora has her interests peaked to the point where action is taken.
  Setrakian (with Eph): "It is too much to say all at once here without... sounding crazy."
  Setrakian (final warning): "Doctor, did you find the coffin? If you have the coffin, then you still have him. It is not too late! Destroy the coffin! Do not allow it across the river!"

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"Love, you see, is the one force that cannot be explained, cannot be broken down into a chemical process. It is the beacon that guides us back home when no one is there, and the light that illuminates our loss. Its absence robs us of all pleasure of our capacity for joy. It makes our nights darker, and our days gloomier. But when we find love, no matter how long, how sad or how terrible, we cling to it. It gives us our strength. It holds us upright. It feeds on us, and we feed on it. [...] Love is our grace. Love is our downfall."