‘The Strain’ recap: Freebasing vampire goop, splaying the undead in ‘Fort Defiance’

Holocaust survivor and vampire hunter Abraham Setrakian is a terse man — the strong, silent type, you might say. But even for a guy with little use for small talk, he’s been harboring a whopper of a secret.

In the latest episode of “The Strain,” FX’s hit thriller, we find out what that deep, dark piece of intel is after Dr. Nora Martinez resuscitates him from near death, blood streaming down his face.

Ready? Are you sure? OK, here it is: He’s been freebasing vampire goop and shooting it straight into his eyes! And he’s 94 ever-lovin’ years old!

Whaaaaaa? How’s that for a jolt?

So when series co-creator Guillermo del Toro and showrunner Carlton Cuse said not long ago that season 2 of this series would part ways with the source material, the bestselling trilogy on which the drama is based, they absolutely were not kidding.

We’ve gone off book, people. Way. Off. Book.

That may mean little or nothing to the TV-only fans, but, come on, it should be worth some geek points for us devoted readers, right?

Even if viewers have no prior knowledge of this contagion-based story, though, it’s shocking on its own to learn that strigoi-slaying Setrakian (the incomparable David Bradley) is using vampire secretions to sustain himself.

So many capillary worms! Get out of my waking nightmares!

He explains to Nora (Mia Maestro) that he may burn in hell for it, but he needs periodic worm infusions to keep up his strength. He can’t stop now — he’ll never get another chance like this to possibly defeat the Master — and he refuses to “fade away as a weak old man.”

Well, all right then. A shaken Nora agrees to stay mum.

After mainlining all those parasites, Setrakian, our favorite nonagenarian, has a rosy glow and a “second wind.” He also has the strength to kid around with the newly coupled-up Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand) and Dutch Veders (Ruta Gedmintas) and, presumably, kick his vamp stalking into high gear.

But that’ll have to wait for another hour, while this episode, dubbed “Fort Defiance,” deals with Nora and Ephraim Goodweather’s scientific advances, the vigilante vampires’ foiled kidnapping attempt and Zach Goodweather’s latest bratty temper tantrum.

But first, there’s New York politician Justine Feraldo, who called BS on everyone’s lame efforts at public safety and vampire eradication during last week’s hour. She’s rolled up her sleeves, paramilitary style, just as she promised/threatened. The result? A plague-free zone stretching from one end of her borough to the other.

And this character, played by Samantha Mathis, isn’t just content to declare her victory to the press and gathered dignitaries. She has a presentation — a visual aid, if you will — to hammer home the way they roll in Staten Island.

Again, ready? Are you sure? OK, here it is: Five decapitated-and-mounted creatures will serve as a grisly art installation, lest any undead have second thoughts about trying to recolonize the place.

In short, do not mess with this gal.

No one seems to understand that concept better than Mayor George Lyle (Ron Canada). Hizzoner quickly recruits the gutsy councilwoman, whose firefighter husband died on 9/11, for a significantly larger role. Clean up the whole city, he says, and make me look good in the process. She’s down with that, as long as there’s no interference from bureaucrats like him. He’s down with that.

Will everyone follow his lead and agree with her mass-murder approach to Vampocalypse 2015? Doubtful. These scenes serve to set up that future clash, which will likely involve some of the feisty human resistance.

And speaking of butting heads…

The Master’s top henchman, Thomas Eichhorst (the scene-stealing uber-villain Richard Sammel), wants to boss around the billionaire entrepreneur Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde). Setrakian got too close at the Freedom Center, he tells Palmer, so security needs beefing. Here, take goth-shock-rocker-turned-vamp-minion Gabe, he says, lacing the gift/order with his usual heaping dose of condescension.

Palmer, tight smile plastered on his face, makes Bolivar go sit in the corner, far away from his dream girlfriend, Coco Marchand. The lovely new Stoneheart employee, meantime, knows in her gut that Eichhorst and Bolivar are bad men. She was a model in Europe for a time, so, naturally, she can sense these things.

Proving Eichhorst both right and wrong, Gus Elizade (Miguel Gomez) and the vigilante vamps invade Stoneheart on their mission to kidnap Palmer. We aren’t told why this is a good idea anyway, but it does involve five vampires ghostriding an elevator, so that’s a cool visual.

Things go south so quickly, courtesy of the c-suite’s powerful UV lights, that all the would-be good-guy vamps are flash fried. Palmer was obviously prepped for such an invasion.

Gus has to save himself, which, Gus being Gus, he does.

About Gus, who’s always been a badass: He’s training to exterminate the undead, one soulless being at a time, and he engages in some hand-to-stinger combat in this episode.

Within a split second of his encounter with a fast-moving mature vamp, he rips out its anaconda-like sucker with his bare hands. Color me impressed. Also, eeeeeewwwwwww!

On the Fet and Dutch front: The less said the better about their side trip to look for Dutch’s former and now-missing girlfriend. It didn’t end well for Dutch — the girlfriend’s mom rained some damnation down on her and dubbed her a vampire of a different sort — but Fet ended up enjoying it on some level. (Kids, avert your eyes from that sexy-time-in-the-van scene.)

It’s not all play for Fet, though. Between distributing illustrated fliers around the neighborhood — Vamp Killing for Dummies! — Fet’s making plans to set off an explosion to seal the Red Hook subway tunnel. He’s a bit of a pyromaniac, but he’s also trying to protect his turf from further undead incursion. He’s also been mowing down as many “munchers” as possible around his fortified home. Sound familiar? Yes, he’s a Feraldo fan.

Back at the Scooby gang HQ, Eph (Corey Stoll) can’t find his surly young son, whose coat and boots are also MIA. He tracks the kid down on a city bus bound for Queens, with the unrepentant boy saying he wants his mommy.

Eph promises to walk Zach through his and Nora’s experiments in the lab. But when he does, he gets sidetracked with a heart-warming story about his own small-town doctor dad. Effect on Zach: zero.

Zach (Max Charles) starts wrecking the lab, trashing Eph and Nora’s painstaking work until Eph finally grows a spine, stops babying this brat and grabs him by the scruff. He shoves the kid’s face close to the undead test subject and tells him to take a good long look. “This is your mom,” he says, and she’d drain you like a juice box if given the chance.

He later delivers a speech to the Master through the tethered vamp, promising to kill both Zach and himself rather than risk vampirification.

Meantime, he and Nora decide that it’s time to release their guinea pig in hopes that their drugged-up vamp will go infect his fellow undead, thus beginning the kill off. Will it work?