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‘The Strain’ recap: Mexican wrestling, vampire killing in ‘The Silver Angel’

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The Master is indisposed, presumably licking his wounds in some dank tunnel below New York City and prepping for a leap into a new body.

So we haven’t seen him, in his crispy-around-the-edges state, for a few episodes of FX’s hit thriller “The Strain.” But he looms large over this hour, not showing himself physically but making his presence felt in a couple of instant-classic scenes.

First, he hijacks Gus Elizade’s vampirized mother and speaks through her, “Exorcist”-style, which caused me to break out in a nasty case of goose bumps in spite of the toasty San Fernando Valley temperatures.

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He taunts Gus (Miguel Gomez) about transporting his unholy coffin into Manhattan and setting off this whole citywide nightmare in the first place. (Never mind that Gus was blackmailed into that chore).

Then he tries to play head games with Gus about strength and resolve in this epic battle of good versus evil. And he has the gall to pull the “I’m so disappointed in you” card in the guise of Momma Elizade.

The Master’s a real jerk.

Gus, whose vampire-killing street cred is impeccable, can’t bring himself to off his undead mom, even to shut down all that smack talk. Poor motherless Gus.

And second, the Master learns through his minions that the “infect the infected” experiment engineered by doctors Ephraim Goodweather and Nora Martinez seems to be working. To stop the anti-plague before it gains a foothold, the Master mind-orders these Brooklyn-dwelling vampires to jump off a tall building.

Splat, goes one. Splat, splat, go more. And it’s not so much the impact of vamp on pavement that’s so chilling. It’s the slow-motion shot of one of the multiple suicides.

Eph (Corey Stoll) thinks it’s hilarious – because he’s probably drunk and definitely sleep deprived – and Nora (Mia Maestro) is fully creeped out. I’m with you, Nora.

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Elsewhere in this episode, titled “The Silver Angel,” the chattering, terrifying undead children called the Feelers inch closer to Zach Goodweather, Vasiliy Fet ventures into Wile E. Coyote territory and Setrakian and Dutch recruit a new ally.

Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde), meantime, orchestrates his highest-profile bloodbath yet, and Gabriel Bolivar (Jack Kesy) is in the thick of it, flexing his lethal muscle and proving his mettle.

This hour gives us our first look at the episode’s namesake Silver Angel, also known as Angel de la Plata, also known as Angel Guzman Hurtado, played by new cast member Joaquin Cosio.

This retired luchador may not look like much initially – he limps, he loafs, he grumbles – but he’s an important character from the source material, the bestselling trilogy on which the show is based. He’s such a favorite of “The Strain” co-creator Guillermo del Toro that he has his own Dark Horse comics.

And his back story gives us a great cold opening for this episode: He starred in some awesome black-and-white Mexican wrestling flicks back in the day, which he watches on VCR. We get a peek at one of those cheesy Saturday afternoon-style movies, complete with special effects borrowed from Ed Wood, and see the knee-crushing moment that ended his show business career.

Poor washed-up Angel. He’s working in obscurity in the kitchen of an Indian restaurant in Harlem, but he’ll become a Scooby gang warrior in the epic humans-versus-vampires battle.

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On to the nitty gritty:

Eph, Nora and Fet release the guinea pig, hoping the former Mr. McGeever will kick start a die-off in the vampire population now that he’s all hopped up on the doctors’ refined potion.

I’m not exactly sure what the classic Creedence Clearwater Revival anti-establishment song, “Fortunate Son,” has to do with this scene, but it’s a great soundtrack for transporting an unruly vampire and tossing him out of a bread truck.

Eph and Nora later find the test subject dying, having spread their concoction to a nest of vamps, but they’ll need plenty more of this stuff if they want to make a dent in Vampocalypse 2015.

Eph says they should go to Washington and share their findings, but Nora is dubious about this plan, which involves some ethically challenged movers and shakers. Will Eph rethink this idea when he sobers up? Will he ever sober up?

Dutch Velders (Ruta Gedmintas) continues to make herself more useful – proactive, even -- whether that’s a conscious decision or not, and tells Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) that she wants to track down Reggie Fitzwilliam. She has a feeling he knows all the dirt on billionaire Palmer and might spill it since he’s no longer on the payroll.

Using her advanced hacker skills to look up an address (!), she finds Fitzwilliam’s brother on Staten Island. Pack a lunch, she says to Setrakian, we’re getting on the ferry. This is at once the strangest pairing yet and a welcome personnel shuffle within the righteous gang.

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And Dutch finally says what no one else has so far on the show when she sees the beheaded vamps strung up at the entrance to the island: “It’s medieval.” Thank you!

In an ambush chat with Fitzwilliam, Palmer’s former bodyguard and a Stoneheart legacy employee, he gives them little encouragement and even less information. But, make no mistake, this is the beginning of a new friendship. Fitzwilliam (Roger R. Cross) will cave, urged on by his firefighter brother, Curtis (Kevin Hanchard from “Orphan Black”). He needs to make amends for his “misguided loyalty,” and help take down the businessman with delusions of grandeur (and immortality).

Speaking of Palmer, we see him speechifying, as he does often these days, to a boardroom full of financial heavyweights. He’s assembled the august group at the Federal Reserve to talk about market trading and such. Without their support, New York’s financial system will collapse, sending the city into a panic.

But chaos is just what Palmer wants most. That’s why he adjourns the “successful” meeting and sends these money men on their way, directly into the clutches of Bolivar and his undead army. The carnage is caught live on local TV, with a shot of Palmer spiriting away in his limo.

Will no one suspect that he was behind this “random” attack on Very Important People in which he’s the only survivor? And does no one take precautions after sunset? Just because you’re rich doesn’t mean you can’t be eaten, fellas.

One more note about Palmer: We see in flashback to 1966 Vienna that he and Setrakian were hot on the trail of the Occido Lumen, the ancient text that purportedly contains all manner of vampire lore. It even details how to kill the strigoi, or so legend has it.

They don’t find the book, even though a young Setrakian (and his awful makeup job) risks life and limb in the catacombs of some Austrian nunnery.

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The sickly Palmer, meanwhile, likely hears what he wants to hear from Thomas Eichhorst (Richard Sammel), namely, that he can have everlasting life if he throws his lot in with the Master. Why would he want to kill the Master when he could be his partner instead? There’s destined to be more on this ominous conversation later.

Fet (Kevin Durand) makes good on his promise to blow up the subway station at Red Hook at about the same time political steamroller Justine Feraldo sets her vamp-clearing sights on his neighborhood.

She’s also set loose her “peacekeepers,” and they surround Fet in the tunnel and don’t so much admire his explosive handiwork. They rough him up and arrest him, proving Nora right when she said it sounds like martial law has come to town. Will he still be a member of Team Feraldo after this ordeal?

Some excruciating father-son bonding time between Eph and Zach at a batting cage serves two purposes: It shows that Eph is still a terrible, hyper-critical parent and it gives Kelly Goodweather (Natalie Brown) and her pack of crawling kids a fresh set of coordinates. The last line of the show is another spine tingler: “Zach is near,” Kelly says, as the Feelers chirp and click and growl.

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