Season 1, Episode 5:
Runaways
When you're with thing that goes 'bump' in the night, best hope you're not the one he picks.
- Directed by: Peter WellerWritten by: Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan & Gennifer Hutchison"Sabia mea fredoneaza de argint!" Translation- Abraham Setrakian
With Nora gone, Eph reluctantly joins Setrakian's quest in hopes of gathering enough evidence to warrant a citywide quarantine. Fet encounters the unexpected inside the subway tunnels, and a medical emergency threatens Palmer's master plan.
Tropes that are present in this episode:
- The Alleged Car: The truck Eph got when he traded the Rolex? He got that truck during a CDC mission against African trypanosomiasis. It would hardly run, but Eph loved it so much to the point that he shipped it back to America and restored it.
- Alone with the Psycho: Trip is revealed to be alive, and Setrakian mercy kills him since he's been used as a source of food for Ansel.
- Cassandra Truth: Abraham tries telling his friend about the thing that killed Zajak, but his friend dismisses it as a nightmare.
- The Chessmaster: The Master planned this plague from the very beginning. Not just what happens on Regis Air, but also the fallout afterwards.
- Driven to Suicide: As a result of crossing the Despair Event Horizon, Ann Marie hangs herself in despair.
- Foreshadowing: The eclipse was briefly mentioned in the previous episodes, but with a TV announcer mentioning the direct effects of unprotective eye-wear when looking at the eclipse, the eclipse is about to happen soon.
- Fugitive Arc: The episode ends with Eph on the run from police as he now has a target on his back thanks to Everett.
- Genre Savvy: Setrakian is aware that when the word "vampire" is used, people think of the common stereotypes: the cape, the fangs, and the accent. It's because of this that he uses the term "strigoi" for this particular scrouge.
- Head-in-the-Sand Management. Head in the sand? More like "Head in the Earth's crust". Despite the ironclad evidence of the strigoi outbreak posing a great threat to the public, not only does Everett not budge with a quarantine, but he rats out Eph to the FBI!
- High Heel Hurt: While running away from a fully turned yet sentient Gabriel, Ruby breaks her leg while descending the stairs.
- I Lied: Everett tells Eph he's cancelling his meeting when in actuality, he's ratting out Eph to the FBI.
- It Can Think: Unlike Redfern and Ansel, Gabriel, while fully turned, still has his sentience and isn't mindless like the other strigoi.
- Jump Scare: When Fet and his assistant discuss the rat problems around New York, Fet muses that a bigger predator is driving the rats away from their nests. After a little bit, he jokingly scares his assistant with a shout and barred teeth.
- Manipulative Bastard: Setrakian doesn't mince words when he tells Eph that the Master is very skilled in manipulation and disinformation.
- The Mirror Shows Your True Self: When a strigoi is in the reflection of a silver mirror, the mirror itself vibrates.
- Mood Whiplash: Nora and Mariela's heartwarming scene in the senior care shifts into horror when a strigoi finds its way into the premises.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: While "The Master" is a threatening name as is, the one behind the strigoi, "Patient Zero" is a good contender as well.
- Only Sane Man: With Joan still oblivious to the whole infection thing, Neeva knows something is totally wrong when Joan blinks her nictating membrane. Neeva then takes the kids out of the household and out of Joan's reach.
- Origins Episode: This episode delves more into the history of Abraham.
- Pet the Dog: Despite being an asshole in general, Joan loves her kids, although when she gets close to her daughter's artery, that's a fore-coming sign that her infection is near complete.
- POW Camp: Abraham and his grandmother were shipped to a concentration camp in Nazi Germany-occupied Poland in 1944.
- The Reveal: We finally learn why the four Regis Air survivors were spared. The media would rather prefer to focus on the survivors of a tragedy while ignoring the dead, even if the variables outweigh each other. The Master knew about this, and played the New York press like a fiddle, allowing the "dead" to spread the disease while the media focused on the "survivors".
- We also learn that Abraham was shipped to a concentration camp in World War II Poland, and Eichorst was the commander of that very concentration camp.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: In the bunkhouse, the Master has been eating prisoners every night, keeping Abraham up at night.
- Too Dumb to Live: Jack Noon should have bolted or kept his distance when he saw the white blood from Gabriel's bullet wounds. But he gets too close to his body and doesn't react in time when Gabriel stings him.
- Tunnel Network: While investigating the rat situation in New York, Fet traverses a tunnel system to find the issue. There he notices the strigoi markings on the wall and the ammonia smell. Then he sees a group of them, and they give chase. Fet escapes unscathed.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Dr. Evanston, the urologist. Despite having not much character beyond being a urologist, being within Gabriel's clutches indicate that his infection is complete.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Nora's mother, who suffers from dementia, exited the senior care center, went into a coffee shop, and ordered a martini. Her ID was with her, which allowed the staff to bring her back to the senior care center safely.
- Sound-Only Death: While we don't see what happens to Dr. Evanston, we hear her scream one last time as Ruby exits the townhouse.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Despite killing the rat and giving helpful advice to the couple, the husband lodges a complaint against the extermination company Fet works at, calling him "rude".
- Weakened by the Light: Just like vampires, the strigoi are weakened by sunlight and intense UV radiation. Fet learns this when he escapes the tunnels.
- We Need to Get Proof: While with Setrakian, Eph tells him that he needs video evidence of a strigoi alive, then he can use this evidence to convince Everett that the strigoi are a dangerous threat to the public.
- Wham Shot: Seeing Eichosrt in the flesh in 1944 as a commander for a concentration camp in Poland, where Abraham is under his thumb.
- In the first night we see, a familiar fast-moving cloaked figure entering the sleeping quarters and killing a prisoner at random.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Eph is baffled when the thing behind the conspiracy is known as, "The Master". While to him, it doesn't sound threatening, but to us, it is.Eph (confused): "'The Master', is that a proper name?"Setrakian: "I suppose you might call him 'patient zero'."
