The Master (The Strain)

"Have you come to destroy me? The old professor has a new pupil to fail as he failed. I have taken everything from him, and I will take everything from you. Your wife. Your son. I am a drinker of men."

- Sariel to Eph.

Sariel, also known as The Master, is the main antagonist of the FX's Horror-Thriller The Strain.

He is one of the seven original ancients and the youngest among them. He is also the mastermind behind the strain virus that spread in New York City.

He was voiced by Robin Atkin Dowens. He was also portrayed by Robert Maillet in Season 1 and 2, Doug Jones in Season 2, Jack Kesy in Season 2 and 3, and Jonathan Hyde in Season 4.

Past
In 1873, a man named Jusef Sardu, along with several uncles and cousins, on a hunting expedition to Romania. During the expedition, all of the Sardu men disappeared mysteriously, though sometimes their mutilated bodies were found.

Sardu found and confronted it, Sariel feeding on an unknown hunter. Sariel taunts Sardu before stringing him on the neck and takes his body as his new host.

After Sariel took Sardu body, he came to Sardu's village and presumably turning the childern into strigoi and disappearing, making the villagers abandoned their home.

During in World War II, Eichorst flees into the woods from the Allies and arrives at a secret bunker. There Sariel transfuses a worm into his body, triggering Eichorst's rebirth as a strigoi.

Season 1
Years later, Sariel hid on the plane, he attacked and infected everyone on the plane. An airport official Peter Bishop across upon Sariel and is killed by him. Sariel uses his throat appendage to suck out blood before smashing his head.

After Sariel killed the Bishop, he hid in a cabinet at Gus is delivering across to New York City by Eichorst. After Gus delivers the cabinet to its destination, the cabinet started banging and making noises, making Gus frightened and running off from the arena.

Meanwhile, a fully turned Kelly Goodweather is summoned Sariel, who meets her face-to-face and tells her to "rejoice."

Meanwhile, Eph and the others locate Sariel's lair only to find it littered with resting strigoi. Eph hears Kelly's voice crying out for help, but Setrakian knows it is a trap leading them to Sariel. The voice leads Eph into a large chamber containing Sariel's coffin, only to be surrounded by strigoi.

After arriving and finally meeting Eph face to face, Sariel attempts to kill him, but Fet, Setrakian and Nora arrive and set off a home-made UV light bomb, killing some strigoi and repelling Sariel. Setrakian wants to pursue his old nemesis, but is forced to retreat when the group come upon hundreds of newly turned strigoi inside a cavern.

Later, after his battle and face to face with Eph, Sariel rejuvenates a dying Eldritch Palmer by dripping bodily fluid from his finger down Palmer's throat.

During other battle, the group enter the theater and fight more strigoi, including Bolivar and Eichorst. Upstairs, Setrakian and Eph confront Sariel and drive him into daylight where he is severely burned, but escapes. Setrakian and the others are stunned that sunlight failed to kill the Master.

Season 2
Meanwhile after his battle, Sariel, whose body is dying after exposure to sunlight, orders Eichorst to retrieve blind children who are converted into a new type of strigoi called Feelers, imbued with psychic abilities and used as trackers. By the Master and Eichorst's command, the Feelers are given to Kelly, whose memory has been restored.

Eichorst and Bolivar prepare for the Master's transfer to a new body. However, Eichorst is shocked and dismayed when the Master transfers his essence into Bolivar's body rather than his. The Master then demands that Eichorst swear fealty to him in his new form.

After Sariel transfer into Bolivar's body, Setrakian and Quinlan confront Sariel, who is nesting in the factory, and also Eichorst. When Fet dynamites the building, Sariel escapes in the explosion. Quinlan angrily blames Setrakian and Fet for thwarting his opportunity to destroy Sariel, then warns them to abandon the hunt to him.

After Eichorst loses at auction for Occido Lumen book due to Palmer cutting off the money. In retaliation for Palmer's betrayal, Sariel kills Coco (Palmer's lover), as Palmer helplessly watches.

Season 3
After Nora's death and Zach's kidnapping, Eph drinks more heavily but continues working on the anti-strigoi bioweapon for Feraldo. She says its fatality rate has dropped from 100% to 75%. Fet assists Navy SEALs in eliminating vampire nests and searching for Sariel; however, Eichorst lures the SEALS into a trap and Sariel kills nearly the entire team.

When Eph arrive at the park, he demands Sariel to exchange Zach for the Lumen. During the exchange, Kelly tries tricking Eph with a "feeler" disguised as Zach. The Lumen's silver cover severely burns Kelly when she attempts to take it. During the fight, Quinlan kills the Navy SEALS that were turned and are aiding Sariel, Quinlan beheads the Master, but a large crimson-colored strigoi worm crawls from the corpse and escapes.

Palmer and Setrakian devise a plan to lure Sariel to Stoneheart headquarters so that Eph, Fet, Dutch, Setrakian, and Quinlan can entrap him in the silver-lined sarcophagus. However, Sariel, who has taken a new body, ambushes Palmer and transfers his essence into him, gaining Palmer's memories. Sariel retrieves the remaining nuclear bomb from Palmer's vault and revives the mortally wounded Eichorst.

Eph and Setrakian meet with Palmer, but quickly realize it is Sariel and battle him. Dutch activates the strigoi disruption device, crippling Sariel; Quinlan, Fet, Eph, and Setrakian seal Sariel into the silver-lined sarcophagus. As Setrakian, Quinlan, Fet and Dutch take the sarcophagus that had Sariel in it to dump it into the Atlantic. Enraged over his mother's death, Zach vengefully detonates the bomb. The explosion's shockwave frees Sariel from the sarcophagus, and the resulting nuclear debris obscures the sun, allowing the strigoi to walk freely in daylight. Eichorst leaves with Zach, while Setrakian’s group is forced underground to avoid nuclear fallout and rampaging strigoi.

Season 4
Nine months have passed since "Illumination Day", the day the bomb was detonated, leading to a nuclear war that created a nuclear winter. The strigoi, now freely roaming the streets in the dim daylight, have enslaved humanity and established a dictatorship called "The Partnership", aided by human collaborators.

Sariel, whose was fully strigoi since he took over Palmer's body, mentoring Zach and telling him has dark potential. Sariel, suspecting Zach's allegiance is faltering, tells him he can either support his cause or leave and live hand-to-mouth like other humans. Zach reaffirms his loyalty to the Master.

When Eph and Alex travels to the countryside to continuing on their investigating about Sariel's New Horizon's "farms", they discover these are concentration camps to using humans as livestocks for the strigoi consumption. When Sariel speaking through a newly-turned strigoi, he taunts Eph, saying Zach is alive and has dark potential.

When Eichorst stings Setrakian, Sariel speaking through Eichorst as he listens to Setrakian warning that Sariel's defeat is inevitable, he behead Eichorst. When Sariel tries to found Quinlan than the others, Desai falsely accuses his wife of betraying Sariel. However, Sariel knows he's lying and kills them both. The team sets off to detonate the nuke at the Empire State Building.

During the final battle, Sariel orders a final purge of Manhattan to flush out the team, When Eph and Fet lure the Master and a strigoi horde to their hideout, Sariel is trapped below ground with the Zach and Quinlan.

Sariel battles and injures Quinlan, he tells Zach kill his father on his order. But when Sariel attempts to transfer his essence into Zach, Eph attacks him and instead possesses Eph. Before that, Eph was able to arm the bomb Sariel assumes control. Sariel believes he won, However Zach triggers the bomb, destroying him along with Sariel. Five years later, the nuclear winter is subsiding, humanity has recovered and destroyed all but a few strigoi that are kept captive.

Trivia

 * The deranged Renfield is known for declaring Dracula as "Master" in Hollywood renditions of the classic story.