‘The Strain’ recap: Shades of Japanese tentacle porn in ‘Dead End’

Holy Japanese manga, fans of “The Strain,” we very nearly had us some honest-to-gawd tentacle porn.

Because I’m a geeky superfan and I always watch the shows a few days ahead, I’ve had time to ruminate over this episode of the hit FX thriller, dubbed “Dead End.”

It’s done nothing to calm my nerves. I’m still feverish and shuddering – and, sure, melodramatic -- and it’s safe to say that I’ll continue convulsing every time I think of the scene between the shackled, half-naked Dutch Velders (Ruta Gedmintas) and her tormentor-captor Thomas Eichhorst (the never-more-diabolical Richard Sammel).

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In fact, I don’t know if or when I’ll ever be able to scrub that image from my brain. Here’s the shorthand: Eichhorst is on the verge of raping Dutch with his 6-foot-long strigoi stinger, and he’s positively glowing and gloating about it. He’s shut down only because Dutch has found some Mace and sprays it in his eyes as a hail Mary.

I don’t need to repeat any of this, do I? Please don’t make me.

Trying to take the emotion out for just a second, I have questions. Is this Eichhorst’s revenge for a decades-old snub by the only woman he ever loved? How long has he been planning this? Or is it a spur-of-the-moment thing? Is this his ultimate middle finger, so to speak, to the human resistance? Is it simply his fallback or is it the most degrading act of violence he can purposely conjure?

Then again, why am I surprised that Eichhorst is a sexual sadist? Nazi SS commander, concentration camp overlord, child killer – the dude ticks off a lot of psycho-sociopathic boxes.

I guess I just didn’t anticipate this particular assault, stunningly shot as it was. I don’t know when I’ve seen anything quite as disturbing (not on premium cable).

The scene serves a few purposes, as far as our twisted overarching story goes. It reinforces everything we know about Eichhorst – no one was confused up to this point, right? -- but also adds a new level of depravity to his character.

Unfortunately, it continues to demonize our erstwhile hero, Dr. Ephraim Goodweather (Corey Stoll). He’s gone from healer and scientist to murderer, sniper and all-around terrible friend.

If he hadn’t hatched a half-baked plan to gun down Eldritch Palmer (Jonathan Hyde) and used Dutch as his wingman, she wouldn’t have fallen into Eichhorst’s clutches. (Truth be told, it appears that some corrupt cops handed her over after she was arrested with Eph).

Never mind – it’s his fault that she ends up in the White Room of Pain wearing a metal collar and fighting for her life.

And Nora says as much with one withering stare. Dutch is rescued by the end of the hour – mostly because Fet loves her and never goes anywhere without pockets full of dynamite and silver-filled grenades these days – and Nora (Mia Maestro) shoots a look at Eph that’s meant to cut to the quick.

Oh Eph, you are a lost and misguided soul.

Will this energize the Scoobies or will it splinter them? How can they ever trust Eph again or value his judgment?

Small aside: If you’re not familiar with Japanese tentacle porn, congratulations! It’s a thing, I swear. Anthony Bourdain gives a safe-for-TV description of the graphically violent subgenre on a recent episode of “Parts Unknown” set in Tokyo. Or there’s the source: a comic book creator named Toshio Maeda. Look him up. You’re welcome, pervs.

On to the down-and-dirty details of “Dead End,” during which Setrakian loses the Occido Lumen – for real this time? – and Gus and Angel gird themselves for the good fight.

Professor and vampire hunter Abraham Setrakian (David Bradley) has been searching for the Lumen for most of his adult life. This ancient text is supposed to contain the answers that he desperately needs – i.e., how to rid the world of the strigoi contagion and kill the Master.

Does it? We don’t know, and neither does Setrakian. He had the silver-bound book in his paws, briefly, but Rudyard Fonescu swiped it back. The two are having a bit of a face-off in Fonescu’s dumpy Washington Heights apartment, with Setrakian duct taped to a chair and Fonescu prattling on about funding a trip to Tahiti.

Setrakian, with the Ancients as his financial backers, offers to pay any price for the Lumen. But try as he might, with all his “fate of humankind is in your hands” and “I saved your life” speechifying, he can’t talk Fonescu into a sale.

But there’s someone who manages to do just that. Alonso Creem, the mercenary street thug, says he thinks he “can do business” with the book’s handler.

Fonescu thinks he’s selling to the highest bidder? He’s an idiot who’s lucky someone hasn’t ended him already over that dusty old tome. What are his odds today, now that he’s on Creem’s heavily fortified turf on Roosevelt Island with his hand out? I say don’t count on that tropical getaway.

Creem will re-sell the Lumen, no doubt, but to whom?

Elsewhere in the hour, I’m glad to see Gus (Miguel Gomez) back but I don’t care so much about his girlfriend or her family’s escape from New York. His goodbye shag with Aanya does give us a nice view of his ripped torso and the King of Kings tattoo across his shoulder blades. So, thanks for that.

What we lose in the Guptas (not much), we gain in Angel (Joaquin Cosio). There’s been nothing for his beloved-from-the-books character to do so far except wash dishes and talk smack. Here’s hoping this is the beginning of his action phase. He and Gus are about to join forces with Quinlan to battle the Master. That should be popcorn-worthy.

So back to Dutch. She’s chained up in a stark, padded room with Eichhorst taunting, beating and fetishizing her. The red lipstick? The pineapple slices? It’s all too horrible.

He sucks the life out of a cop to further terrorize her, then snaps the guy’s neck and leaves him dead on the floor of the cell. (That’s where Dutch finds her Mace-like weapon).

Flashbacks tell us that Eichhorst is a lowly door-to-door radio salesman in Germany in 1931, and a poor one at that, until he finds his muse in the budding Nazi party. At his dreary day job, he mistakenly thinks he’s made a love connection with the beautiful young Helga, but his anti-Semitism and her Jewishness don’t meld.

She calls him a loser for spouting Hitlerisms, and he counters the insult by lying about her later during a Nazi interrogation. Of course that doesn’t end well – Helga and her parents are hanged -- but Eichhorst stays silent to protect his political position.

As he’s been from the beginning of the series, Sammel is masterful in this episode, both in the period pieces and the current day. Too bad genre shows rarely if ever get Emmy nominations. He really should be an exception.

Nora, Eph and Vasiliy Fet (Kevin Durand) go frantically hunting for Dutch at the Mayfield Hotel, where they’ve been told she is imprisoned. Fet, a font of information about New York architecture and history, realizes they need to go underground to an old subway tunnel to get to the uber-creepy walled-off section of the hotel.

They’re making progress when they hear Dutch’s screams. She’s managed to maim Eichhorst temporarily, just as he’s unfurled his stinger. She gets out of the cell but finds only bricked-up exits in her attempts to flee captivity.

Eichhorst, stunned but not stopped, catches her and starts dragging her back to the torture chamber by her feet. Enter Fet with his rebar, cracking through bricks and blasting with explosives. He tosses a silver grenade, Eichhorst dodges it, and Dutch breaks free.

A traumatized Dutch leaps into Fet’s arms, and the Scoobies retreat.

Two more episodes, fellow fans. Where will they take us?