The Strain Advance Preview: “The Blood Tax” [Photos + Video + SDCC Press Room Photos]

|Jul 21, 2017 - Comments Off - Advance Preview, Angel Parker, Corey Stoll, David Bradley, FX Networks, Jonathan Hyde, K.C. Collins, Kevin Durand, Mary Powers, Max Charles, Miguel Gomez, Rhona Mitra, Richard Sammel, Rupert Penry-Jones, Ruta Gedmintas, Season 4, The Blood Tax, The Strain, TV Geek Talk

THE STRAIN — Season Four – Pictured: Ruta Gedmintas as Dutch Velders. CR: Russ Martin/FX

Warning: General spoilers ahead

In last week’s season 4 premiere, the spotlight was on Eph going solo in Philadelphia while Fet, Quinlan, and Vasily’s new lady, Charlotte, go in search of a nuke to take out the Master once and for all. Even though Team Fet may have hit a few speed bumps along the way, by the end of the episode and perhaps by sheer luck, they are on their way to the missile silo they had been searching the plains of North Dakota for. In Sunday’s episode, we check in with Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas), Setrakian (David Bradley), and Gus (Miguel Gomez), and unfortunately, things aren’t going as well for this group of characters.

First, if you had attended The Strain panel at San Diego Comic-Con yesterday like me, you know that they treated fans to a special preview of the opening scenes of the episode. The episode begins with that freaky-deaky sequence from one of the earlier promos, depicting Dutch at some type of clinic and undergoing in vitro fertilization. Yikes. As it turns out, the “clinic” is actually one of the Partnership centers, and they have enlisted women to specifically breed babies with B+ blood (I suppose B+ is extra yummy for the strigoi). Most of the women are there voluntarily, as the Partnership does take very good care of them, and I suppose they think it’s better than living in constant fear on the streets. However, as you probably can guess, that’s not the case with Dutch.

In a flashback, we learn that the apartment building she and Setrakian had been hiding out in was raided by sentient strigoi, and both of them had been captured. Dutch lucked out (relatively speaking, of course) and was taken to the fertility clinic, but Setrakian wasn’t as fortunate. He is gravely injured by some of the strigoi guards, and then, presumably taken to a medical facility (we see Setrakian in what appears to be a hospital in the trailer released by FX, and we assume that is where he’s taken). This all occurred months ago, and it’s the last time Dutch has seen Setrakian.

In the meantime, Gus has fallen back to his old ways, and to be honest, he’s annoying as hell in this episode. He’s back to working with Alonso Creem (Jamie Hector), and while I’m thrilled to have the character back, he’s leading Gus on a very bad path. What’s more Gus convinces his cousin to help him and Creem raid one of the Partnership warehouses, and of course, the plan goes completely sideways. Nice job, Gus.

THE STRAIN — Season Four – Pictured: Cas Anvar as Sanjay Desai. CR: Russ Martin/FX

Lastly, care to guess who’s in charge of the fertility clinic Dutch is currently at? Yeah, Alonso Creem isn’t the only character that reappears in Sunday’s episode — that creeper Sanjay Desai (Cas Anvar) is back, and he has a new job cranking out B+ babies. The irony is Dutch has no clue who he is and certainly doesn’t know he’s the one who orchestrated the purchase of the nukes for the Master. Of course, the truth will eventually come out, and when it does, you can bet Dutch will leave him in far worse shape than Eichhorst did in that car crash from last season.

Episode 4.02 of The Strain is titled “The Blood Tax” and airs Sunday at 10/9c on FOX.

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Promo Photos:

THE STRAIN — Season Four – Pictured: Ruta Gedmintas as Dutch Velders. CR: Russ Martin/FX