The BEST episodes of The Strain
Every episode of The Strain ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of The Strain!
A mysterious viral outbreak with hallmarks of an ancient and evil strain of vampirism ravages the city of New York.
#1 - For Services Rendered
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/24/2014
Setrakian, Eph and Nora formulate a plan to track down the Master using Jim as bait. Eichhorst and Setrakian’s pasts are revealed. At the Luss home, Neeva struggles to protect the children while encountering a mysterious stranger whose help she may not want.
#2 - Night Zero
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/13/2014
When a plane lands in New York City with everyone on board dead, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather, head of the CDC’s Canary Project, and his team are called upon to investigate. Harlem pawnbroker Abraham Setrakian races to the airport, convinced that what looks at first like a mysterious viral outbreak might be the beginning of something infinitely more sinister.
#3 - Do or Die
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 10/23/2016
NYC is falling. Eph and Dutch frantically race to finish their new device to stop the Master before the city is overrun. Justine, Gus, and Angel fight in one last stand to stop the spreading virus. Palmer extracts vengeance for past wrongs but may have crossed the line.
#4 - The Master
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 10/5/2014
Eph and Fet recon for an all-out assault that Setrakian assures them will finally kill the Master. Gus aligns himself with a strange new force, one that may swing the fight in an unforeseen direction.
#5 - Ouroboros
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/27/2017
His health failing, Setrakian ignores Eph’s warnings, pushing himself to the limit in his quest for victory and revenge. Fet and Quinlan race back to Manhattan, while the Master seals off the city and prepares to eliminate them all.
#6 - Creatures of the Night
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/31/2014
After discovering the potency of ultraviolet light against the strigoi, Setrakian gains a new and unlikely disciple. A quick trip to a Brooklyn convenience store turns into a deadly all-night siege.
#7 - Fort Defiance
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/26/2015
Gus and Vaun wage an attack on Palmer as Eph struggles to connect with Zack. Councilwoman Justine Faraldo vows to bring her extermination policies to the other boroughs.
#8 - New Horizons
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 8/6/2017
Dutch is forced to make a deal with Desai while she plots to escape a strigoi breeding facility. Eph and Alex seek to uncover the dark secrets behind the Partnership’s new plan but face the repercussion of their last attack. Gus and Creem face off against a gang encroaching on their turf.
#9 - One Shot
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/30/2017
Quinlan and Fet discover that stealing a nuclear warhead isn’t easy when they encounter an unexpected enemy. Eph and Alex concoct a new weapon to use against the strigoi. Frustrated with his seclusion, Zack discovers a love interest.
#10 - White Light
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/16/2016
The Master’s voice proves to be more powerful and potentially fatal than Eph or Dutch anticipated. Fet and Setrakian track down the cargo from the Egyptian vessel and realize they may be in over their heads. Quinlan strikes a deal with the Ancients, but a last minute betrayal proves deadly.
#11 - Madness
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 9/25/2016
New information from the Lumen forces Setrakian to seek help from his lifelong nemesis, Eldritch Palmer. Eph’s new experiments to understand strigoi communication seemingly take him to the brink of madness while Fet is on a mission to discover strigoi movements across New York City.
#12 - Last Rites
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/28/2014
Dutch returns with a plan to broadcast Eph’s warning about the vampiric plague. However, they face a new threat when Eichhorst launches his own attack against the pawn shop. Palmer receives a special visitor, and Gus gears up for the on-coming fight but discovers there’s another mysterious factor involved.
#13 - Occultation
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 8/17/2014
After warning Kelly to leave the city with Zack ahead of the spreading plague, Eph is arrested by the FBI. Eichhorst has one final job for Gus, while Setrakian realizes that the coming eclipse is the tipping point for virus infection and the beginning of the end.
#14 - The Box
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/20/2014
The four survivors begin manifesting strange symptoms, but Eph and Nora's attempt to quarantine them is thwarted as the disinformation campaign begins. Meanwhile, in jail, Setrakian receives a surprise visit from an old — a very old — acquaintance.
#15 - The Born
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 8/23/2015
Setrakian and Fet use Fitzwilliam’s info to attack the Master, but a mysterious new player arrives. Dutch receives a surprise guest. Eph returns to NYC frustrated but energized to go after the one person responsible for killing his friends.
#16 - By Any Means
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/19/2015
Eph and Nora experiment on their newfound patients. Fet and Dutch grow closer as they clear out the neighborhood buildings, and Kelly begins her hunt for Zack.
#17 - BK, NY
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 7/12/2015
Eph and Nora work on a weapon to kill the strigoi, but Setrakian puts the group at risk by searching for an ancient text, while the Master introduces a new breed of creature and taps Kelly to control it.
#18 - The Disappeared
Season 1 - Episode 9 - Aired 9/7/2014
Eph races to safeguard his family, only to learn that Kelly is missing. Dutch reveals her role in Palmer’s plan, and Gus is forced to make a difficult decision about Felix.
#19 - Runaways
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 8/10/2014
With Nora gone, Eph reluctantly joins Setrakian's quest in hopes of gathering enough evidence to warrant a citywide quarantine. Fet encounters the unexpected inside the subway tunnels, and a medical emergency threatens Palmer's master plan.
#20 - Gone Smooth
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 7/27/2014
Eph and Nora fight to save Captain Redfern's life before coming face-to-face with the horrifying effects of the virus. A spike in rat attacks signals Fet that something inexplicable is happening deep below the city. Released from jail, Setrakian begins his own merciless plan to stop the spread of the disease.
#21 - The Third Rail
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 9/21/2014
Setrakian leads Eph, Fet, and Nora in the hunt for the Master's lair. Left behind at the pawnshop with Mariela, Zack risks his safety for Mariela's sake.
#22 - Extraction
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 9/3/2017
Reeling from loss, our heroes regroup. To defeat the Master, they must locate him first. Our heroes devise a new plan to track him through human collaborators, beginning at the blood farm with someone Dutch knows all too well.
#23 - The Blood Tax
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 7/23/2017
Imprisoned as a subject in a strigoi breeding program, Dutch is desperate to escape and find Setrakian. Gus recruits his cousin for the inside job that will put his gang at the top of the new world’s underground economy, but Creem is suspicious of his business partner’s ambitions.
#24 - Intruders
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 8/30/2015
Eph must protect Zack against a surprise intruder into Red Hook. Gus convinces the Guptas to make a difficult choice. Fet and Setrakian set out to acquire the Lumen but discover they are not the only potential buyer.
#25 - The Fall
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 10/30/2016
Humanity teeters on the edge of destruction. The Master finally reveals himself, initiating the end game of a battle in which there can be only one winner. Eph, Fet, Setrakian, and Dutch must overcome their personal differences in a last-ditch effort to vanquish the strain.