In the opening scene, a flight from Berlin is
about to land at JFK airport, New York. Inside,
a nervous flight attendant calls his colleague
and asks her to come to the cargo hold area
immediately. On her way, she asks a little
French girl, Emma, to turn off the music.
She then proceeds to another passenger; Joan Luss,
and tells her to sit back in an upright position,
as the plane is landing shortly.
In the back, her terrified fellow
attendant informs her that there is something
alive in the cargo hold even though there are
no animals listed on the manifest. Confused, the
female flight attendant opens the hold door but
sees nothing when suddenly, a shrouded creature
breaks through the door, and attacks them.
In the following scene, the plane has landed on
the runway, but the airport officials don’t find
any signs of life in it. The 210 people on board
have gone completely silent, and the plane has
switched off all electronic signals. Seeing this,
the airport in-charge; Bishop immediately calls
several government agencies for reinforcement;
mentioning that the situation is really bad.
Elsewhere, we see an epidemiologist and the head
of the Center for Disease Control named Ephraim,
attending court-mandated custody counseling.
Ephraim and his wife, Kelly are separated
because he prioritizes his work before family.
They share custody of their son Zack. Soon,
Kelly’s boyfriend; Matt, is going to move in with
her and Zack, which Ephraim is not happy about.
During the custody session, Ephraim’s
emergency-only cell phone rings repeatedly,
and as a result, he is forced to
interrupt his counseling session.
As he receives the call, he finds out
about the plane. He then calls his junior,
Nora, and tells her that he wants
full control over the investigation.
Soon, Ephraim arrives at JFK airport and greets
his colleagues, Nora and Jim. Homeland Security
wants to treat the incident as a terrorist
attack but Ephraim explains to them the
possibility of a virus and how contagion works.Â
Eventually, because of his speech, Homeland
security backs down and CDC takes the charge.
Elsewhere in a pawnshop, two thugs try to sell
a watch to the owner, Setrakian, an old man
in his nineties. While Setrkian leans over to
inspect the watch, the thief tries to steal
some money through the plexiglass. However,
Setrakian grabs his wrist and threatens to cut his
vein with a knife he has handy. The second thug
has a gun, but Setrakian forces him to surrender.
Scared of the old man, the thugs run away.
Later, when Setrakian sees the news about the
flight, he goes into his basement and brings
out a sword- cane. He then brings out a deformed
heart, stored in a jar, and starts talking to
it. Setrakian claims that the enemy has returned,
and he is even more dangerous than the last time.
Following this, he makes a small cut on his finger
and drops his blood into the jar. Surprisingly,
Little worm-like tentacles come out of
the heart and start feeding on the blood.
Back at the airport, while Ephraim and Nora
suit up for biohazard and board the plane,
he tells her about his court-ordered custody
session. Nora references her relationship
with Ephraim during the year he and Kelly
separated. Apparently, they had an affair
and Ephraim never told Kelly, because she
filed for divorce before he could tell her.
Afterward, they board the plane and
find everyone dead on their seats,
without any signs of struggle or marking. At first
sight, it seems as if the deaths were painless.
On further investigating, they also find evidence
of abundant ammonia, but it’s not toxic enough to
kill anyone. Meanwhile, Ephraim kneels down next
to the French girl; Emma, who seems to have frozen
dead in her seat. He reports that her tongue is
pale and there’s no frothing or blood. Just then,
Nora turns on the UV lights and with this,
they see strange patches all over the plane.
As they move towards the back of the plane, we
see one of the dead passenger’s hands twitch.
In the next scene, the duo reaches the back
and notices the open door to the cargo hold,
where the ammonia patches are everywhere. While
Ephraim observes it, Nora moves to the cockpit and
discovers that even the pilots are dead. As she
observes one of the pilots, he suddenly wakes up,
startling the life out of her. A few moments
later, three passengers; a punk rock star,
Bolivar, Joan, and a guy named Ansel also
reanimate. Seeing them, Ephraim immediately radios
for help, mentioning that there are survivors.
Elsewhere at the Stoneheart Investment company,
Thomas, a German man with strange eyes, visits
Palmer, the chairman of Stoneheart Group, and one
of the world’s richest men. While Palmer is having
dialysis administered by his head of security,
Eichorst delivers a message that the cargo
has arrived safely and all four survivors
have been found. Here, we get to know that
Palmer and Eichorst know something about
the mysterious deaths of the passengers.
Back at JFK airport, the director of CDC,
Everett Barnes, shows up and supports Ephraim’s
decision to quarantine the four survivors. Later,
in the Q-ZONE, Nora tries to talk to one of
the survivors; Joan. She is a high-powered
attorney but isn’t cooperative at all.
Following this, Ephraim and Nora talk
to the pilot, Redfern, who doesn’t remember
anything after landing. While another survivor,
Ansel, complains about hearing some
weird noises, the rockstar, Bolivar,
is concerned about scoring drugs.
Meanwhile, Jim calls Ephraim after he
finds a giant, nine-foot-tall, coffin-like
box that is not listed on the manifest.
They lower it to the ground and open it, and
find it full of soil. Confused by the structure,
Ephraim immediately asks the officials
to take samples of the soil for testing.
In the following scene, the airport
incharge; Bishop is on the phone,
yelling at someone in Berlin about the coffin-like
box. Suddenly, he hears a strange noise and begins
following it around the cargo storage aea. There,
he finds blood spilled on the floor and something
pulsing under a cloak. As he goes near it, a
giant creature rises and extends a tentacle
from its mouth into Bishop’s neck, sucking all his
blood and draining him out. Then, it throws him to
the ground and smashes his head before fleeing.
Elsewhere, the German, Eichorst, visits a Latino
gangster, Gus, and assigns him to pick up a
van with a box from the airport and deliver
it to Stoneheart. At first, Gus refuses, claiming
that it is a very dangerous mission. However, when
Eichorst promises to fix his mother’s immigration
status, and clear his brother’s criminal records,
he agrees. After this, Eichhorst gives him three
rules: don’t examine the cargo, don’t make any
stops, and make it back to the rendezvous
spot by daybreak. Additionally, Eichorst
gives Gus a black business card that will grant
him access to the airport, amid strict security.
Meanwhile, the old man, Setrakian, arrives at
the airport, where all the victims’ families
are gathered to protest. Although he is stopped
by the security, he fakes a heart attack and
gets close enough to talk to him about the plane.
Later, Ephraim faces the victims’ families and the
media, briefing that there are only four survivors
among the 210 and that they have no explanation
for it yet. He also mentions that the dead bodies
can’t be handed over to the families due to the
risk of the unknown virus. Hearing this, the
crowd starts protesting, but Ephraim assures
them that he will provide answers within 48 hours.
In the next scene, a medical examiner video calls
Ephraim and Nora, showing that the dead bodies
have non-traumatic incisions on their necks.
In addition, their body chemistry has been
altered, preventing them from decomposing
normally. The bodies are also filled
with a white ooze instead of blood.
After a while, as Ephraim and Nora are
heading to examine the aircraft, Setrakian,
who is also present there, suddenly mentions that
the corpses must be beheaded and burnt, along with
the giant coffin. However, Jim and Ephraim think
that he is crazy. They also notice a sword in the
old man’s cane, and have him arrested.
Later that night, the medical guy
examines a body under UV light and discovers
strange worm-like patterns under the skin.
Elsewhere, Ephraim and Nora examine the plane’s
cargo hold, where they find a tiny worm,
writhing around and trying to make contact
with their skin. They consider it as a
parasite looking for its host and keep it
inside a bottle. Just then, Nora finds a
bunch of other worms in a clump of soil nearby.
Immediately, they go to search for the coffin but
find it missing. They then head to the security
room, but the CCTV cameras show that the coffin
disappeared in thin air. When Ephraim asks
to pause the footage, he notices a strange
entity lift the coffin and disappear into thin
air. Since the footage is only seven minutes old,
Ephraim orders Jim to seal off the airport,
and stop and check all the vehicles that
are likely to carry the coffin.
Later, Gus puts on his fake ID
and gets in the van with the coffin, and
drives off. However, just after a while,
he is stopped by the police, who ask him to
pull over. Just as he is about to get exposed,
Jim arrives there. He then shows Jim the business
card that Eichorst gave him and surprisingly,
Jim lets him go. Here, we get to know that
Jim is also working for Eichorst and Palmer.
Afterward, the medical examiner removes a
deformed heart from a corpse. To his surprise,
the heart starts to beat, shredding worms. One
of them gets into the examiner’s hand and he
frantically manages to remove it with a tweezer.
Just then, all the corpses, even the dissected
ones, rise from their bed and attack him.
Elsewhere, Setrakian has been held captive in
jail over the weekend because charges have been
pressed and there’s no judge to hear the case.
Meanwhile, Another inmate notices that Setrakian
has a Holocaust tattoo with the number: A230385.
Back at Stoneheart, Eichorst reports to
the billionaire; Palmer that everything
went well. However, he mentions that ‘the
Jew’ aka Setrakian is still after something.
It appears as if the three have a history, which
dates back to decades. Before leaving, he assures
Palmer that he will take care of everything.
The next morning before dawn, Gus crosses
the bridge in the van, carrying the coffin.
In the following scene, Emma’s father returns home
heartbroken and is in shock to see Emma at the
door. She looks green and infected, saying she’s
cold. The father hugs her tight and is relieved
that she is home, even in the condition she is in.
Later, Gus arrives at an underground parking
garage. When he doesn’t see Eichorst around,
he gets curious and tries to inspect the coffin
inside the van. As he goes near the coffin,
it starts growling and thumping, prompting
Gus to run away from there as fast as he can.
Back at JFK airport, Ephraim, Nora, and Jim find
Bishop’s body with a smashed head. They also
discover the same white discharge and ammonia.
Meanwhile, at the quarantine zone, the four
survivors decide to leave the place and go back to
their family. Although Ephraim mentions that they
are still in danger, the quartet doesn’t comply.
With no options left, Ephraim calls the police,
who take charge. Seeing this, Joan gets mad and
calls the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
In no time, the Secretary calls Ephraim and
declares the quarantine invalid due to lack
of evidence. To add to his problems,
Ephraim is even suspended by his boss.
At the Stoneheart Group, Palmer and Eichorst
talk about how CDC is hindering their plans.
It is revealed that Palmer was the one who
got the survivors out using his influence.
Elsewhere in jail, Eichorst meets Setrakian
and tells him that ‘The Master’ is watching
Setrakian through him. Here, we get to know
that Eichorst was one of the Nazi generals at
the concentration camp where Setrakian, a Jew,
was held. Before leaving, Eichhorst taunts him,
reminding him of his wife’s death.
In the next scene, Nora and Ephraim
meet the pilot, Redfern, in a bar and start
interrogating him. Redfern explains that
the box was loaded onto the plane by government
officials. Hearing this, Ephraim is taken aback,
and he convinces the pilot to be admitted
to the hospital for an in-depth examination.
Next, we see survivors Joan and Bolivar
at dinner, when they start hearing
strange noises in their heads. Joan’s lips start
to bleed into her wine, making her rush outside.
At Stoneheart, Palmer’s assistant informs him
that he has located a suitable donor liver.
Palmer thinks he might not need it anymore,
but agrees to the plan as a backup.
Later that day, Ephraim goes to his wife; Kelly’s
house, where she tells him that she’s glad he’s on
the case. Ephraim finds his son in the back with
Matt, converting his old office into a game room.
Surprisingly, instead of being angry,
he extends a friendly hand to Matt,
and asks him to keep his family safe. He also
encourages Zack to be honest at the custody
hearing, so that he can get joint custody.
In the following scene, Bolivar is in bed
with three women. When one of the girls runs her
hands through his hair, it starts to fall. Soon,
he fixes on one of the girls’ necks and bites
her, drawing blood. When the woman panics,
he kicks everyone out, but he soon starts
licking her trail of blood off the floor.
At the hospital, Ephraim and
Nora look at the pilot under UV
light and find the same incision in his neck,
along with the worms crawling under his skin.
At the same time, Emma’s father calls Ephraim
to thank him for sending Emma home and hangs
up. This stuns the duo, and they wonder how a
dead person is alive. Hence, they immediately
head to the morgue to find the truth.
Elsewhere, Palmer’s assistant drives him
to the parking garage where Gus had delivered
the coffin. Soon, Eichorst also joins Palmer,
just as he is about to open the coffin.
Suddenly, The Master swoops in, revealing
his face to Palmer, who looks terrified but happy.
Afterward, Ephraim and Nora arrive at the morgue
and find the front desk chair knocked over and
the phone off the hook. The morgue is ransacked
and deserted. When the lights don’t
work, they look around with flashlights,
finding all body bags empty.
Back at her house, Emma sits
in a cold tub in the dark. Her dad notices
her hair is falling out. When he leans in,
a big tentacle suddenly sprouts out of Emma’s
mouth, and latches onto his neck, killing him.
In the next scene, a horrible creature
without a nose listens to opera
and puts on a rubber nose and neck to cover his
deformities, along with a wig, dentures, and a
thick layer of makeup. Turns out it is Eichorst.
Later, Ephraim’s colleague, Jim wonders to himself
what he did by letting the van with the coffin
through. Hence, he calls someone and argues.
That afternoon, he goes to the Stoneheart group
to meet Palmer, but Eichorst meets him instead.
Jim threatens to call the police because of the
coffin and the chaos related to it. However,
Eichorst offers a limited drug trial for
Jim’s wife, Sylvia, who has a rare kind
of cancer and also gives him an envelope of
money. Because of the offers, Jim backs off.
Meanwhile, another survivor from the plane,
Ansel’s condition deteriorates as his eye becomes
bloodshot, teeth turn into fangs, and he hears a
continuous high-pitched noise. When the feeling
gets too overwhelming, he goes to the fridge
and takes out a box of raw steak with blood. As
he devours it with his new tongue tentacle, his
wife catches him in the act and gets terrified.
In the next scene, Setrakian is finally
released and he finds Nora waiting for him.
He immediately tells her to find the
corpses and burn them, but Nora hesitates.
At the family court, Ephraim and Kelly
attend a custody hearing for Zack.
Upon being asked by the judge, Zack says his dad
should see him one or two weekends a month because
he has a very important job. As a result, Ephraim
doesn’t get joint custody. Later, Ephraim yells
at Kelly for taking his son away from him.
Then, we are introduced to a pest control
specialist named Vasiliy. He goes to an apartment
to get rid of rats and notices a swarm of rats
pouring out of the city’s sewers into the river.
At Setrakian’s pawn shop, a hacker brings him a
list of the plane’s passengers. Beginning with
the first passenger, Emma, Setrakian leaves
on his mission to destroy all the corpses.
Meanwhile, Bolivar is transitioning rapidly,
as his hair falls, his face turns gray
and splotchy, and he loses his genitals.
At the hospital, Jim, Ephraim, and Nora get
word that the pilot has disappeared. Hence,
they split up to search the hospital.
Soon, Jim finds him in the basement,
sucking bags of blood. When the pilot tries to
attack him with his tentacle tongue, Nora appears
so he turns on her. As the pilot is about to
attack, Ephraim arrives in the nick of time
and smashes his head with a fire extinguisher.
Although the pilot’s head is smashed,
tiny worms are oozing out from it.
Nora remembers what Setrakian said
about cutting off the head and burning the
body but first, Ephraim wants to examine it.
Elsewhere, Ansel’s wife, AnnMarie takes their
kids to his sister’s house and leaves him alone
to rest at home with their dog. When she returns
home, she finds her dog dead with its throat
and insides ripped out. Slowly, she goes to the
outhouse, which smells disgusting. She finds Ansel
hiding in the shadow, but he suddenly emerges
and snarls at her. He’s covered in blood and
has chained himself by his neck so that he doesn’t
harm her. Since the voice in his head forces him
to drink her blood, he growls at her to run.
Somewhere else, Palmer and Eichorst meet a
hacker and ask her to crash the internet
in exchange for a good amount of money.
At the hospital, Nora and Ephraim examine the dead
pilot, and Jim films them. As they cut him open,
they find new body systems along with a six feet
tentacle, which they pull out of the corpse.
His genitals are also missing, like Bolivar’s,
and they notice the smell of ammonia,
just like on the plane. Jim feels guilty and
confesses that he let the van with the coffin go
out of the airport, for the sake of his wife’s
treatment. In a fit of rage, Ephraim punches him
and leaves. Soonafter, a disappointed Nora
also leaves the place with the autopsy footage.
In the following scene, AnnMarie buries her dog
and pushes her arrogant neighbor into the shed,
feeding him to Ansel.
Elsewhere, Gus and his friend, Felix,
steal a Mercedes and go to Alonso, an illegal car
seller. Felix had heard that Alonso pays $1000 for
the cars, but they end up with only $800.
At Stoneheart, Palmer passes out and when
he wakes up, the doctor tells him that
they have a new liver for his transplant.
Next, Nora and Ephraim go to Emma’s house and find
her in the basement. She immediately lashes her
tentacle tongue at them to attack. As they try to
get rid of Emma, Setrakian emerges from the shadow
and beheads her with his silver sword. Meanwhile,
Emma’s father arrives behind Ephraim and Nora,
fully turned. Seeing this, Setrakian lops
his head too. He then warns Ephraim and Nora
to stay away from the worms. Witnessing
the carnage around them, Ephraim finally
agrees with Setrakian’s decision to kill the
infected. However, Nora is hesitant and leaves,
saying there has to be another way.
The following morning at Emma’s house,
Setrakian reveals that someone named the Master
is an ancient creature who feeds on the blood
of his victims and turns them. The Master
is a strigoi, a Romanian term for a vampire
and he is the one responsible for everything.
He let four passengers live so the media would
focus on them and not the dead, giving them
time to go home and infect their families.
In a flashback to Poland in 1944, Setrakian rides
on a train with his grandmother and brother,
being taken to a Nazi concentration camp. Before
reaching the camp, Setrakian’s grandmother reminds
him of the evils she told stories about
and thinks they are going to meet one soon.
Later, the train stops at a camp led by
Eichorst. Soon, Setrakian and his brother
start to work as carpenters in the camp.
In the present, Joan wakes up in her bed
very sick. When her kids bring her breakfast
and hug her, she stares at her daughter’s
neck for a long time. The caretaker finds it
weird and takes the kids away from her room.
Meanwhile, Setrkian explains to Ephraim that
he’s going to take down every passenger from
the plane, as all of them have turned.
Next, they decide to go to Ansel’s house.
Setrakian gives Ephraim a nail gun with silver
nails, explaining that nails will weaken the
creatures enough for him to get close and
kill them. Furthermore, he discloses that
people who have turned into vampires come back
home for their loved ones and destroy them.
In another flashback, The Master swoops in at
night in the bunkers of the concentration camp,
feeding on the sleeping prisoners.
When Setrakian witnesses this,
he gets terrified and tells his brother
it’s the same vampire from his grandmother’s
stories and he needs silver to kill it.
In the present, Nora gets a call about
her delusional mother, who wandered away from
her nursing home but they find her. The manager
warns Nora that they will not keep her mother
at the nursing home if she wanders off again.
Meanwhile, Ephraim and Setrakian reach Ansel’s
house and find that AnnMarie has committed the
unthinkable. Setrakian holds a silver mirror
up to her, explaining that if she’s infected,
it’ll vibrate. Fortunately, it
doesn’t. AnnMarie has left a note,
saying where she has left the kids and that
she can’t face the world without Ansel.
After this, the duo walks into the shed
and Ephraim shoots Ansel with the nail gun
before Setrakian beheads him. He also destroys
the attacked neighbor who’s about to turn inside
the shed. The two then burn the shed and depart
for their next mission. Meanwhile, Ephraim leaves
Nora a message, saying that he wants to get
a quarantine declared because of what he saw.
At the Stoneheart Group, Palmer wakes up after
his liver transplant and feels energetic.
However, the doctor warns him that he won’t
survive another major surgery since he has
been through many surgeries in the past.
Back at Joan’s house, the caretaker suggests
Joan see a doctor, but she refuses. When the
caretaker notices Joan growing eyelids, she
packs her things and takes the kids to her home.
Elsewhere, the pest control specialist; Vasiliy
is wondering the reason behind so many rats being
let into the river. He opens underground access
and goes into the tunnels. As he walks into the
tunnel, he finds patches of ammonia everywhere
and hears something big swoop past him. Suddenly,
a horde of vampires creeps out of the darkness
and approaches him. Scared and unarmed,
Vasiliy runs and escapes out of the tunnel,
leaving its lid open. Surprisingly,
the vampires are burnt by the sunlight.
At the nursing home, Nora visits her
mother. While walking her to her room,
they hear people screaming. Suddenly, Nora
sees a vampire attacking one of the residents,
and quickly hustles her mother out of there.
In the next scene, Ephraim shows the video
of Ansel to Everett Barnes, asking to impose
a quarantine on all the passengers and their
families. However, Barnes refuses. Meanwhile,
Jim realizes that the infection is spreading and
warns Ephraim that Barnes has footage of Ephraim
dragging the pilot’s body through the halls. As
Jim wants to correct his mistake, he helps
Ephraim get out of the building. Soon after,
Ephraim takes out his SIM card from the phone
so that he can’t be tracked. Before he escapes,
he asks Jim to get the quarantine declared.
The next day, we see Eichorst in his vampire
form stepping into his white padded room
with a man chained up. He reels the chain
and drags the man towards his feeding
altar, lunging his tentacle to feed on him.
Meanwhile, two FBI agents arrive at Kelly’s
house, looking for Ephraim, who sees the agents
from across the street and stays hidden. Zack
watches the news about his dad being wanted for
questioning. Just then, Ephraim runs in through
the back door and hugs his son. He tells Kelly
that something awful is happening and asks her
to leave the city with Zack immediately. However,
Matt calls the FBI, who soon arrives and handcuffs
Ephraim. Later, Kelly is mad at Matt and yells at
him for interfering in her family matters.
Elsewhere, Setrakian is on his mission to
destroy the vampires. In one of the passenger’s
basement, he encounters several vampires who
attack him. However, he manages to climb up the
basement into the sunlight before they grab him.
Then, he burns the house and escapes.
In the next scene, Nora gets a call from Jim,
informing her about Ephraim’s arrest. Just
then, the FBI agents knock at her door.
Realizing that she is in danger, Nora packs
her bags and leaves through the back door.
Elsewhere, Gus meets Eichorst in the tunnel,
where the latter assigns him to retrieve the
remains of the pilot’s body from the basement
of the hospital and dispose of them. Gus refuses
and strikes at Eichorst, but he is easily
overpowered and forcefully made to do as told.
Later, Jim picks up Gus and his friend, Felix,
and takes them to the hospital. Soon, they unload
the body bag from the hospital and dump it in the
river. Before dumping the body, Felix gets curious
and unzips the bag to see the pilot’s tentacle.
Meanwhile, Vasiliy arrives at his work to find
that his office is deserted and his
colleagues have turned into vampires.
He fights them by opening the shades
and letting them burn in the sunlight.
Back at the FBI headquarters, Ephraim tells
his colleague about the contagious outbreak
throughout New York City. As expected, the FBI
agents don’t believe him, so Ephraim volunteers to
take them to the bodies and show them the proof.
Elsewhere, at Kelly’s house, she drinks with her
close friend, Diane, and tells her about the
fight with Matt after Ephraim’s arrest. Diane
encourages Kelly to leave the city if she wants.
Since it’s an eclipse day, people stroll along
the streets, staring at the sun with special
glasses on. The FBI agents with Ephraim are stuck
in traffic. From the car, Ephraim notices that
the medical examiner has turned into a vampire
and is attacking people. Seeing
this, both the agents are stunned,
and they immediately get out of the car to
subdue the vampire. Sadly, they are of no match,
and the vampire easily kills them. With this,
Ephraim is left alone in the car, so he escapes.
Elsewhere, on the streets, Gus and Felix walk
along the chaos, trying to save themselves from
being attacked. Suddenly, a vampire appears and
tries to attack Felix. Gus smashes the vampire’s
head and worms slither around, getting into
Felix’s hand. They struggle to get rid of the worm
when the police arrive and arrest them for killing
the vampire, who they think is a normal human.
In the last scene, Ephraim goes to Setrakian’s
pawn store and says that he is ready to join
him in his mission. Hearing this, Setrakian
takes Ephraim downstairs to his basement room,
where Ephraim is surprised to see Nora and
her mother. The episode ends as the old
man mentions that he has a new plan, since both
Nora and Ephraim are ready now.
