The Strain
Season 2 Episode 13: “Night Train”
Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Written by Carlton Cuse, Chuck Hogan
Created by Chuck Hogan, Guillermo del Toro
Starring Corey Stoll, David Bradley, Mia Maestro, Kevin Durand, Richard Sammel, Jonathan Hyde, Miguel Gomez, Natalie Brown, Ruta Gedmintas, Jack Kesy, Max Charles, Lizzie Brocheré, Joaquín Cosio, Rupert Penry-Jones
FX
Air Date: Sunday October 4th, 2015, 10pm

Last week on The Strain, Eichorst (Richard Sammel) tells Palmer (Jonathan Hyde) that HE will be going to the auction. Oh… and that he and Coco (Lizzie Brocheré) better fall in line, because the worm juice effects are only temporary. The Red Hook posse have their own dilemmas. Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) leaves Fet (Kevin Durand), for her boring girlfriend, and oh! You stupid, stupid girl! Nora and Eph (Mia Maestro and Corey Stoll) get word that Zach’s grandparents are still alive. Now he has some choices for Zach. The episode also had some 2005 flashbacks with Sean Astin, and it showed how the relationship between Eph and Nora started. Gus and Angel (Miguel Gomez and Joaquín Cosio) break some friends out of jail to be some Quinlan (Rupert Penry-Jones) soldiers.

Spoilers ahead for The Strain finale!

The Bastard Executioner
Season 1 Episode 1.4: “A Hunger / Newyn”
Directed by Ciaran Donnelly
Written by Curtis Gwinn
Created by Kurt Sutter
Starring Lee Jones, Stephen Moyer, Katey Sagal, Kurt Sutter, Sam Spruell, Darren Evans, Matthew Rhys, Timothy V. Murphy, Flora Spencer-Longhurst, Elen Rhys, Danny Sapani, Ed Sheeran
FX
Air Date: Tuesday, September 29th, 2015, 10:00pm

Last week on The Bastard Executioner, Wilkin Brattle (Lee Jones) and Miles Corbett (Stephen Moyer) continued their mutual blackmail dance (although I think odds are in Corbett’s favor). “Our buried truths bind us.” Brattle continues to pose as the executioner, in order to bide his time and find all the culprits of his village’s massacre. He is finding it harder and harder to play this role, ending up pulling the fingernails off a young girl for info, then slicing off her nose as punishment. I understand that the snake visions are symbolic of evil or Wilkin’s situation, but I still haven’t connected the sorcery to this setting. And yet. I totally believe the supernatural stuff in Vikings because it belongs to myth. Lady Love Ventriss (Flora Spencer-Longhurst) is a big surprise – calm, just, wise – the antithesis of her now-dead husband and many of the nobles we get to know.

If you haven’t watched the episode yet, spoilers ahead!

The Strain
Season 2 Episode 12: “Fallen Light”
Directed by Vincenzo Natali
Written by Bradley Thompson, David Weddle
Created by Chuck Hogan, Guillermo del Toro
Starring Corey Stoll, David Bradley, Mia Maestro, Kevin Durand, Richard Sammel, Jonathan Hyde, Miguel Gomez, Natalie Brown, Ruta Gedmintas, Jack Kesy, Max Charles, Lizzie Brocheré, Joaquín Cosio, Rupert Penry-Jones
FX
Air Date: Sunday September 27th, 2015, 10pm

Last week on The Strain gave me more gray hair, and I named one strand Eichorst (Richard Sammel). He and Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) shared some of the most intensely fearful scenes of the show to date. As a captor, I felt like he was psychologically torturing me. What was the deal with the pineapple? I thought he was kidding about seasoning, but I guess not. I felt triumphant when Dutch saved herself from rape by stinger, and my heart was racing as she went from brick wall to brick wall, hope dwindling with every step. I thought she was a dead woman, when the camera tricked us into thinking Fet, Eph, and Nora (Kevin Durand, Corey Stoll, and Mia Maestro) were traveling in the same stairwell. And then we knew. But nothing could keep him from getting to Dutch. That leap then despairing cry in Fet’s arms really got me. Other stuff happened too: Eichorst as a human nazi, Gus (Miguel Gomez) and Angel (Joaquín Cosio) see the Gupta family to safety, and Setrakian (David Bradley) tries to convince the guy that knocked him out not to sell the Occido Lumen though.

We are 3 episodes (in 2 weeks) in to The Bastard Executioner, Kurt Sutter‘s highly anticipated next project after his highly acclaimed Sons of Anarchy, and if you’ve been watching… week 1 and week 2 have been worth the wait. This 14th century period piece follows Wilkin Brattle, a former soldier weary of the fight, forced to play an executioner while lying in wait for vengeance. Modern day actors aren’t just born swordfighting, British-accented, horseriding masters, they need serious training to make their work look authentic. How do they do that?

Check out the video below.

Woohoo!!! My favorite has-been, Johnny Rock (creator/writer Denis Leary), his up and coming talented daughter Gigi (Liz Gillies), and the rest of The Heathens turned Assassins, Flash, Rehab, Bam Bam, and Ava (John Corbett, John Ales, Robert Kelly, and Elaine Hendrix), will return for Sex&Drugs& Rock&Roll season 2! Good job FX!

More on this and enjoy the SDRR music videos below.