As you might remember from last week – SH*T HIT THE FAN.

Most notably, Eph, Jim, and Nora had just beat one of the vampires to death with a fire hydrant. They are freaking out, but they are also still under the impression that they might get in legal trouble for beating a monster to death. They decide that an autopsy is in order, and I’m pretty sure it’s the smartest thing they’ve done.

Flash to one of the survivors, Ansel. He seems self-aware, and he’s the one that drank the steak blood. He’s even smart enough to encourage his family to leave him in the house alone. He does, however, want to keep the dog around. I suspect the dog will become dinner. His wife, on the other hand, comes home the next day anyway and I don’t think it’ll go well. The wife is weird, and religious, which I feel is only important so we can establish that crosses do diddly squat to these vampires.

Oh, we get to see our ‘loveable gangster’ friend again too. If I’m not mistaken, he’s going to attempt to return the stolen clock, and then maybe interact with Abraham, who might get to do something useful instead of being old and unreasonable when people try and help him (called it). Production wise, we get to hear sirens in the background a lot. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but it’s subtle and wonderful, since we know that there are vampires running around and killing their families. In direct contrast, Stoneheart Group has brought in a consultant of sorts to start a confusing smear campaign with the internet so that the first wave can really do their work.

The autopsy, in the meantime, is going well. By which I mean that it’s giving some answers, and revealing just how thorough the creature design really is. Important to note, once again, that this is a parasitic creature that invades the body and causes it to undergo rapid change. The autopsy is suitably disgusting, but the prop work is amazing. Jim (Sean Astin) begins to panic. Eph gets excited. Nora remains the logically skeptical participant. Eph posits that the parasite is designed to reproduce and “…consume it’s host.” Buh buh bummmmmm.

At some point, Jim spills the beans on the bribery he was a part of, and Eph and Nora are not quite convinced (Eph demonstrates this by punching Jim in the face). The reactions on everyone’s parts are silly and not very believable. It’s on par for the series, where they’re not handling the human interaction parts very well.

The internet scheme seems to be going off without a hitch, because someone pointedly says that the internet and phones are down. Everyone is super calm about this.

So on the plus side, Abraham turns up super mysteriously and ends up kicking some butt. Maybe…maybe next episode it’ll pick up.

What do you all think? Is The Strain becoming better or what?