The Strain: 8 Things to Know About the New Season 

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When The Strain went dark on its sophomore season, hope was pretty dim for the characters. Eph (Corey Stoll) had just lost his son to Kelly (Natalie Brown) as part of The Master’s grand plan. Nora (Mia Maestro) became a casualty of the war when she was infected and preceded to kill herself. Miguel (Gus Elizalde) had just learned that his mother had also been infected, and Dutch (Ruta Gedmintas) had the scare of her life. In fact the only one things were looking up for was Setrakian (David Bradley), who had finally gotten his hands on The Lumen, but not without a huge fight.

When the series returns to FX for Season 3 on Sunday, August 28th, the story only jumps slightly forward in time to a very Strigoi-riddled New York. There the fight is as hardcore as ever, and the protagonists are more worn out from the ongoing battles. Here’s what you need to know.

Zach ("Max Charles") may have been one of the most controversial characters last season, but the broody child is indeed back. It won’t take long for viewers to find out what happened to him, but Eph will still be in the dark. Scratch that – he’ll actually be in a dark, drunken stupor, and his own life will have very little value left.

“He’s as low as you can go. He’s lost his wife, girlfriend, his son... and what he does is he takes what he knows, which is medicine, science, epidemiology, and instead of trying to use it to save people he’s trying to use his talents to fight the disease, the parasite, the strigoi,” co-creator Chuck Hogan tells IGN. “And that too takes him to a dark place. “Corey’s just fantastic. That’s a prime example of somebody you can throw anything at him. He’ll do it and do it a little differently too in a really interesting way.”

Fet (Kevin Durand) may have had his heart broken by Dutch last season, but that hasn’t stopped him for going hardcore after the “Munchers,” as he likes to call them. In fact, he makes an unlikely ally in Season 2, someone who gives him the kind of kick ass authority that made him a fan favorite in the first place.

The Lumen continues to be of utmost importance this season as both Setrakian and Quinlan (Rupert Penry-Jones) use it to try and figure out how to defeat The Master. But when the battle becomes real, they may actually use common sense and photocopy the darned thing. At least that’s what showrunner Carlton Cuse joked recently during the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour.

When Quinlan came onto the scene in the second season, it was one of biggest highlights to date. Hogan promises that the character will have just as many if not more moments of note to come, revealing that there is a specific flashback dedicated to the character.

“He has kick-ass moments; we get a flashback where we get to learn a little bit more about who he was and where he’s coming from. He bounces off our heroes in a really interesting way,” Hogan says. “He’s got this blood feud literally with The Master. It was one of the true pleasures of working on this season, was Quinlan. Writing for him and coming up with things that people … there’s no way you can anticipate things that you’re going to see about him.”

When Justine Feraldo (Samantha Mathis) came onto the scene, there was a collective sigh of relief from those who wondered why absolutely no one in a position of authority was doing something about the Strigoi. The good news is that she’s back in a full-time capacity this season as Mathis is now a series regular. The bad news is that power corrupts, as they like to say.

“She is someone who has sort of risen to prominence in New York, and it’s interesting. It has shades of things that are going on in our world today in the sense that she gets into a position of power and a creeping element of corruption comes into it,” Hogan reveals. “That goes into what she does. She’s had some success fighting the Strigoi, but then when she has a downturn she tries to double down and sometimes a surge is not your best move.”

With so much going on you’d think there wouldn’t be time for the romantic elements to come into play. Not to mention the fact that one of the full-time leading ladies was killed off last season. But romance is still in the diseased air, says Hogan. It’s not a central story this season, but it’s there nonetheless.

“There’s always room for romance or you try to find it. It’s been kind of a tricky thing in our show because there’s so much action and so many things going on. And we pack it into so little time,” he explains. “But absolutely, there’s something coming up that we haven’t seen before. It’s two characters who I don’t think anyone is expecting something to happen to.”

If you were thinking of speeding through the opening, you might want to think again since there’s another new opening featured in this year’s debut. In addition to that little mood setter, Cuse revealed that he, co-creator Guillermo del Toro and the director of photography worked hard to create a very dark, graphic novel-like feel to the season.

If you’re a Cuse fan, you should be excited for The Strain\'s third season finale. That episode marks Cuse’s debut as a director, after producing shows for the past 25 or so years.

“The process for me of what I do is always about learning and trying to get better and improve my craft and learn and know more and that was part of the journey for me, was to actually direct,” Cuse says.

The Strain: Season 3 premieres Sunday, Aug. 28 at 10:00pm ET/PT on FX.

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