Backing up that explanation scene was the hour’s only time away from our heroes: Eichorst struggling after being shot. It was an important scene, since we last saw him practically cackling before literally grabbing a moving train to escape. Seeing how badly he was hurt he really was drove home Abraham’s point (and the rules of the show for its vampires) about the damage silver on bone can do.
Still, “Creatures of the Night” isn’t a perfect hour of television by a long shot. The focus on one location with our characters made for a well-paced episode, but it isn’t able to maintain any tension. Even accepting the idea that these vamps are waiting for reinforcements and are specifically there for Abraham and company, it strangely didn’t feel like they were in much danger as long as they stayed in the convenience store.
And in a show that already has vampires I won’t spend energy worrying about what an absurd idea it is that Girl Who Might Have a Tattoo waved her magic computer wand and hobbled the Internet and cell service. But the chaos she’s supposedly wrought only gets mentioned in passing, and we have yet to see it on screen. Last week at the train station and tonight before the siege the world seems to be going about its business as usual, just with the occasional credit card hiccup.
It’s understandable that because of the limitations of a television series budget and schedule we can’t see everything, especially something as epic as panic on the streets of New York, but there hasn’t been any urgency among the people we do see. The delivery man, the gas station attendant, Rick Baker, Magical Internet Goth Girl’s friend—they’re shocked when they see the vampires in action, sure, but until then it’s just another day for them. If things are bad enough that everyone knows the police are too busy to answer their call, you’d think there would be more desperation in the air.
But the encounters with the vampires are well-staged, showing how someone could think they might be able to slalom through the gauntlet while staying chaotic enough to know that not everyone would make it. Those scraps lead to an extended farewell to Sean Astin’s Jim, who hopes it’s just a scratch but, of course, nothing’s ever just a scratch on The Strain. As agonizing as it was for the original Canary Team it was good to see that no miracle cure was found. Keeping him around after having the worms get to him would have been too big a cheat, but the idea that Eph would desperately try to deny the inevitable rang true. His death was sudden, horrifying and, by the rules of the show, absolutely necessary (meanwhile Rick Baker ends up the way makeup artists’ cameos usually do: with a gross death). It also seemed to be the final barrier for Eph and Nora to find the inner fortitude to start shooting people in the face with abandon.
As the truck flies off at the end we’re left with a different team than the one we began the hour with—Vasiliy’s an obvious plus but, so far, Magical Internet Goth Girl (which I won’t keep typing, so, checking my notes… looks like her name is Dutch) is not. But on the whole, "Creatures of the Night" is the most satisfying episode of The Strain so far. Following on the heels of gradually improving hours, it's hopefully a sign that the stretch run of this first season could be well worth watching.