It’s Not For Everyone Episode Summary
As his friends conduct an autopsy on Redfern’s transformed body, Jim makes a startling confession. Meanwhile, Gus gets a new job and Ansel takes desperate measures to protect his family. [x]
Vampire Physiology 101
It’s Not for Everyone starts right where Gone Smooth left off. Eph, Nora and Jim are standing over the bashed in corpse of Captain Redfern, wondering what just happened and what they should do next. Our heroes let their medical backgrounds take over and decide to perform and autopsy.
Our heroes are disturbed at what they find. The majority of the Captain’s organs are shrivelled and useless, while others are fusing together into something completely new. The best part of the sequence is when Eph gets the brilliant idea to grab hold of Redfern’s stinger and pull it out of him completely. It’s a good reveal at how long the thing is and just how much distance it could hypothetically get.
In many horror stories the reveal of the monster kills the sense of horror dead. What you can’t see is much more effective in creating a sense of dread. What your own mind comes up with tends to be more horrific than what anyone else can show you. Not here though.
The clinical approach to body horror here works perfectly. The Strain shows you exactly what’s happening to the infected in a way that promotes realism. The care and detail put into the practical effects in this scene really shines.
BETRAYED
In a shocking turn of events Jim admits to Eph and Nora that he was the one who let the box clear customs and leave the airport.
Jim tries to justify his actions to his two friends. His wife is sick and the only reason he was accepting the bribes was to help pay for her treatments. He appeals to Eph and how Eph would do anything for his family. Eph loses his mind and slaps Jim across the face. Eph tells Jim that he would never let a biohazard like that through security for anything. Even his family.
I have a hard time believing this. From what we’ve seen of Eph, he would do anything for his son. If that meant burning the world down, he’d do it without blinking an eye. Eph sends Jim away telling him he never wants to see his face again.
The Shed
With the blood lust taking over Ansel begs his wife to take their children to her sister. He then proceeds to chain himself up in their shed. Lisa Marie returns home to find their dog dead and her vampire husband in the shed. Ansel begs her to leave and never return because the voice in his head is telling him to kill her.
Lisa Marie flees from the shed only to encounter her neighbour, who complains about the noise coming from the shed. The neighbour tells Lisa Marie that she needs to be more strict with her dog and it is implied that he’s hurt her pet before. Lisa Marie plays weak and tells him that she can’t bring herself to disipline the dog and has locked it in the shed. The neighbour falls for it.
Their is a sexual overtone to the entirety of their interaction. The neighbour is predatory, and clearly enjoys the power he has over her. This of course is his undoing, since it’s what leads him to falling into her trap. She locks him into the shed and runs.
It’s Not For Everyone
Eph and Nora decide to return to the Arnot house yet again to investigate the return of Emma. After wandering through the house they come across this:
I don’t know about you guys, but if I ever find myself faced with a creepy kid who’s standing alone in a dark room and covered in blood I’d high tail it out there. I’ve seen horror movies. I know what’s going to happen next.
“Hey Honey… Are you scared?”
They’re proceeded to be attacked by a fully transformed Emma. The only reason they manage to make it out alive is because of Setrakian and his silver cane.
Setrakian tries to recruit Eph and Nora to his cause. Eph (to everyone’s shock) is all for the alliance. Surprisingly, it’s Nora who has a hard time accepting. She reminds Eph that they’re Doctors and that they have a moral code. The two of them can’t go executing the infected, they have a duty to try and cure them.
Morally horrified, Nora refuses to accept the reality of their situation and leaves Eph alone with Setrakian. You get the feeling that this kind of interaction has happened to Setrakian a lot and he is unfazed by Nora’s exit. Setrakian calmly tells Eph that the whole vampire thing is “not for everyone”.
Eph: The Man of Many Personalities
I’ve noticed that Eph doesn’t have a set personality or character and instead, he’s exactly what the story needs him to be at that time. The Strain needs to create tension? Eph refuses to believe that vampires are a thing. The Strain needs to create conflict between it’s characters? Eph denounces the importance of family and comes off as hypocritical. The Strain needs to bring Setrakian into our main vampire hunting squad? Eph decides that maybe the old man he denounced earlier isn’t crazy and now Nora is the one who is over reacting.
I’m not saying that Eph can’t be hypocritical. Change of opinions is one of the major side effects of character growth and a character arc. Yet, Eph’s opinions change from scene to scene with no rhyme or reason to it. Eph is supposed to be the Everyman. We’re supposed to all relate to him in someway. Even his name: Goodweather mirrors those connotations. Yet instead of a character who fuses a wide range of characteristics, Eph comes off as having multiple personalities who appear when the plot needs them.
Look at me now! I’m being a brave hero!
This becomes more noticeable when Eph is compared to a character like Setrakian. Setrakian has decades of experience when it comes to hunting and fighting Strigoi. Every aspect of his character is grounded in his previous experience and he reacts according to it. As the series progresses we will probably see a change in his character. He might open up and accept the help of the other characters in the fight. He could serve as a mentor to Eph (every Everyman needs their Gandalf). Yet, Setrakian feels like a real character and next to him Eph is disjointed. Hopefully as the series goes on, Eph will become more fully realized and be allowed to have his own personality.
To Conclude…
It’s Not For Everyone gave me exactly what I wanted: a better look at vampire physiology. It also finally brought the two sides of combating the vampire plague: the scientific and the traditional. I’m glad that Eph and Setrakian are going to be working together. Setrakian’s old world vampire hunter mentality will blend nicely with Eph’s epidemiologist background.
Vampire hunting is clearly not for everyone and I hope that the show goes into that more.
We’re going to be going on a brief hiatus for a bit, then we’ll catch up on the episodes that we missed. We’ll either post one long video to cover them or we’ll post a video an episode. We’ll see how we feel!
Till next time!
