After the first two episodes of season 3 premiere of ‘The Strain,’ I asked myself, “Why do I watch this?” Superficially, there are plenty of reasons: I like Kevin Durand; I like horror; I’ve been watching for two seasons; I’m attached to the characters. But what makes ‘The Strain’ work for me is the mythology. The background mythos has been an integral piece of the story since our first flashback to Abraham during WW2, and it’s continued. I’ve picked three elements of the mythology that are the most interesting and unique pieces of ‘Strain’ lore we’ve seen to date.
Three: Nazi/Vampire collusion was NOT widespread.
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There are countless stories of Nazis involved with supernatural evil. It’s become quite a tired trope, where some mad scientist wishes to create some super weapon using something evil. With The Strain, however, has been successfully subverted. It’s safe to say there was never any institutional connection between Nazis and vampires; it’s implied that The Master sought out Eichorst and not the other way around. The Master wanted to recruit him personally, for who he was. That twist on the trope puts the story on a person-to-person level and make the Vampire-Nazi element more believable.
Two: Vampires as a source of Medicine
Traditionally vampire blood is bad and drinking vampire blood is at times how you turn into one. Penny Dreadful goes so far as making Van Helsing a blood disease specialist. ‘The Strain’ makes worms in the blood the cause of transformation and instead uses processed worm blood (“The White”) as a wonder medicine. Setrakian and Palmer are both being kept alive and functioning by infusions of “The White”. It’s a fitting re-imagining of tradition with symbolic power for both characters. Setrakian lives for revenge and Palmer is living through his pact with The Master.
One: Science Explains Folklore
‘The Strain’ has been aiming for a sci-fi take on vampires since the very first episode when we were introduced to CDC doctors as primary characters. The series has continued with the science of vampires, and the random throwaway lines from Eph on why silver and sunlight are useful weapons against vampires because they work on viruses tie mythology and science up neatly. Setrakian sees everything as mythology and Eph sees everything as science. We will continue to see the tension and agreements between the science and mythology.
