The Coming War
Following last week’s surprise reveal at the end of the episode, Swamp Thing picks up right where it left off from before, as Abby struggles to adjust to Alec’s newfound appearance. They discuss the green and his abilities, which leads Alec to explain that the plants are responsible for the illusion she’s seeing of him turning back into a human. Determined to try and find a cure, Abby heads off to find the rotted plants, despite Alec’s pleas not to. Meanwhile, Avery and Maria appear to be getting along better now until Lucilia shows up and asks to speak to him alone. She grabs Avery and shoves him against a bookshelf out of Maria’s sight, cursing him for going after Matt. She tells him Alec is still alive and they reluctantly team up, heading out to the swamp to stop Holland from returning to shore and talking. Abby and Alec walk through the swamp together, flowers blooming and an explosion of colour surrounding them. Here, he explains more to her about the mysterious swamp before showing her the rot and how the town’s pollutants and toxins have killed large parts of the plant-life. Determined to grab a sample despite Alec’s warnings, Abby heads deep into the rotted part of the swamp and begins taking samples. Unfortunately she’s grabbed by a rooted tendril, which cuts her deep across the wrist. They hurry through the swamp, heading back to Alec’s lab where he summons the green to appear, producing a flower that’ll help cure Abby of the tendrils growing from her cut. It appears the darkness is determined to spread and as her veins turn black and begin pulsating, Alec turns back into Swampy to heal her as a last ditch effort. Meanwhile, Avery is double-crossed out in the swamp, as Matt appears and smacks him in the head with the butt of his gun. As they drive a boat out in the swamp, Avery wakes back up and tells Matt that he’s his Father. Rattled, Matt turns and confronts his Mum, enough time for Avery to grab a hidden knife and plunge it into Matt’s shoulder. Lucilia shoots him in the back and leg, causing him to tumble overboard. Grabbing Matt, she heads back Avery’s where Maria finishes off a meeting with the Conclave Group and successfully secures funding. Matt and Lucilia show up soon after and Maria helps patch up the police officer. As it happens, it turns out they were both working together to get rid of Avery. As the last stitch is put in place, Maria demands they leave as we cut back to Swampy who tells Abby to leave after healing her; here’s a fight coming and the darkness is gearing up for war. Reluctantly, Abby leaves and decides to head back to Atlanta with the serum to investigate further. As the episode ends, it turns out Avery is still alive as he crawls to shore. With the promise of a final fight looming on the horizon, Swamp Thing delivers another really good episode, one that continues to expand our characters whilst delivering a solid narrative in the process. Seeing Swampy turn back into Alec, with all the confliction that comes with that, is a nice touch and the romantic angle that was so prevalent in the comics is every bit as strained here too. It’s a nice touch and seeing Avery crawl back to shore at the end is almost certainly going to prove to be a big catalyst for the war to come. While the series itself isn’t necessarily scary, there are enough elements of horror and dark imagery here to keep things suitably moody and tense throughout. Swamp Thing looks set for an explosive, climactic fight to come and with Avery still alive, this can only be bad news for our characters.
