‘The Strain’ recap: Hungry wolves and human drama in ‘Fallen Light’

At least a few of the characters on FX’s hit thriller “The Strain” don’t want the vampire apocalypse to end.

Eldritch Palmer, for one, has helped orchestrate the plague from the beginning. And while he talks a good public game about batting back the undead invasion, we’ve known all along that he’s committed to just the opposite in the form of the Master’s grand takeover plan.

And now we learn that Alonso Creem isn’t anxious to see order restored to New York either because, as he points out in this hour, the ensuing chaos has been good to him.

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“I got my own island!” he says from his swag-filled perch on Roosevelt Island.

And so the silver-grilled import-export king, as predicted, intends to auction off the Occido Lumen instead of selling it to Abraham Setrakian, the leader of the Good Fight. Creem is in it for the cash, on the surface, but he not so secretly hopes that Palmer will win the ancient text and keep the evil party going.

How will this auction shake out? Aside from looking nothing like any refined blue-blooded event that’s ever taken place at a Christie’s or a Sotheby’s, it’s yet to be determined. That’ll be coming next week when season two of this book-based series wraps.

Meantime, this episode is basically a setup for Sunday’s season finale. It’s light on action, except for Gus and Angel’s roundup of “20 hungry wolves” from Riker’s Island, and heavy on relationship drama, like Eph and Nora’s heated meet-cute at an infectious diseases conference a decade ago, shown in flashback.

Let’s hop right into “Fallen Light,” which sees gutsy Councilwoman Justine Feraldo land a fat new job, Mayor George Lyle catch a bullet in the brain and Dutch Velders run out on Vasiliy Fet (again).

Is it any wonder that Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) is making bad decisions after spending an episode in Thomas Eichhorst’s White Room of Pain, where she was brutalized and nearly stinger-raped?

About the character’s ordeal, Gedmintas said during a recent conference call with reporters that, “It was torture, but it was really fun,” to shoot those scenes with her co-star, Richard Sammel, even though she spent “16 hours chained to a wall” with the cuts and bruises to prove it.

Sammel, who speculated that Eichhorst would’ve turned and not killed Dutch because she’d have been a valuable warrior for the dark side, said he “needed an hour of a hot shower to bring me back to a human place” after the scripted attacks on his colleague.

So, fellow fans, should we cut Dutch a little slack here? Or should we collectively holler at the TV screen: What are you doing, dummy?

Dutch knows that Fet (Kevin Durand) risked his own life to save hers. And she realizes he’s not just infatuated but in love with her. And yet she chooses Nikki? And she leaves Scooby HQ to chase after her erstwhile lover? Come on, Dutch!

But as it turns out, it doesn’t matter what Dutch wants or thinks she wants because Nikki is getting out of Dodge. And she is not inviting Dutch along for the ride. We’re done here, she tells Dutch.

Tuck tail, Dutch, and go back where you belong.

But will Fet forgive her and welcome her return this time? Does she deserve it, considering the trauma she’s just been through? Discuss.

In another stay-or-go dilemma, Nora (Mia Maestro) has managed to locate Zach’s grandparents in Georgia and now Eph (Corey Stoll) has to decide if he’ll shuttle his son off to his in-laws.

It’s not much of a debate, really, though Eph drastically underestimates the difficulty of this journey. He makes it sound like a walk around the neighborhood. Typical Eph. Prediction: Zach will not make it to Grandma’s house.

During the Zach-centric part of the story, we learn a few significant things. First, Eph hired Nora in 2005 for the CDC’s Canary Project because she’s a brilliant biochemist who’s not afraid to challenge a know-it-all alpha male like himself. And she’s super-smokin’ hot, points out observant co-worker Jim Kent (dearly departed cast member Sean Astin).

The two eventually fall for each other, driving the last nail in the coffin of Eph’s foundering marriage.

Second, Eph is back to being a man of science. He’s resurrecting the bioweapon that he and Nora developed, and he asks for Feraldo’s help in mass-producing it.

Now onto the ridiculous: Eph and Nora think they’re going to drive Zach to Georgia, pop by Washington, D.C., to collect some critical vampire-killing data/drug samples, and make it back to New York unscathed while the contagion runs amok? Sure, take your time.

And Eph is just now telling Justine that this “infect the infected” serum even exists. And it works! And she doesn’t ask him why he’s kept that gem of information to himself all this time while the city’s being overrun by strigoi and hipsters are dying in the streets of Brooklyn?

How you vex me, “The Strain.”

Speaking of Justine … she’s collecting gold, jewels and other “approved commodities” from rich Upper East Side residents to pay for her vampire eradication program. The mayor is so displeased that he threatens to have her indicted for extortion.

Justine (Samantha Mathis) barks at him and throws him out of her makeshift headquarters, a fancy Fifth Avenue store. Insert emoji here of hizzoner shaking his fist in the air. Insert emoji a short time later of hizzoner swimming with the fishes.

A detective thinks Justine had something to do with the mayor’s murder. She denies it, but immediately asks her second-in-command if he or his minions are responsible. He’s kind of noncommittal.

Instead of getting busted, Justine gets promoted. She’s now special director of security with the blessing of (most of) the city council and none other than Stoneheart CEO Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde).

Aside from his political wheeling and dealing, Palmer is readying himself for the Occido Lumen auction, or so he thinks. Eichhorst doesn’t trust Palmer to win the book and extract it safely from Creem’s heavily fortified lair. The formidable vampire says he’s going to the auction, and the two get into their usual verbal sparring match.

Palmer thinks he holds the trump card — his vast reserve of ready cash — but in truth Eichhorst does because that life-saving goop from the Master lasts only temporarily.

“You’ll never get another drop of the white,” says Eichhorst, if you don’t continue bankrolling us. Zing!

Palmer can only bite his tongue and go along.

The lingering question about whether Coco Marchand (Lizzie Brochere) would flee her rotten-to-the-core boyfriend appears to be answered: She’s clutching Palmer’s arm and purring into his ear. Is there no hope for you, Coco?

On the human resistance side, Gus and Angel are now working for Quinlan and they’re going on a field trip. They drive a school bus through the gates of Riker’s Island prison and help themselves to a bunch of gangsters. They need all the (mercenary) muscle they can get for the upcoming battle royale.

Armed with every piece of the jail’s firepower, they fight their way out through a horde of just-awakened walking dead. Gus (Miguel Gomez) almost bites the dust at the hands of a type A thug, but Angel (Joaquin Cosio) puts the guy down in the nick of time.

Is this ragtag band of criminals ready to take a spot at the Occido Lumen auction? Quinlan makes himself clear about Gus’ mission there: Get the book, no matter who has to die.

Could that be lifelong vampire hunter Setrakian (David Bradley) or Palmer or Eichhorst or Creem and his entire underworld crew? It could be a bloodbath, and Gedmintas promised it would be “one of the most ambitious episodes.” No doubt, there will be cliffhangers and plenty of threads to pick up in season 3.