Swamp Thing, Season 1, Episode 2: Worlds Apart; Episode 3: He Speaks
The second episode of Swamp Thing is still pretty slow-paced, but it is certainly a pretty good one. And honestly, it's such a shame that the real-life circumstances behind this show led to its cancellation. I'm not claiming that Swamp Thing is like the best superhero TV show or anything like that, but it's been consistently well-done as a mystery horror show, which is actually what I want more out of Swamp Thing.
The focus is still securely on Abby Arcane and her running around trying to uncover what the fuck's going on with the city, and while we still have a couple of new character introductions (ones that will make DC geeks like me grin a little at the cheeky way they sneak some superhero characters in), the episode is free from what bogged down the first episode, which is a lot of "as you know..." moments. Abby is free to go around pursuing her leads, and while there are definitely lulls in the episode due to the procedural nature of the episode, it's not terrible enough to make be go bored or disinterested. Perhaps my favourite scene is the meeting between Abby and Avery Sunderland. We know there was some bad blood between Abby and the Sunderlands, but Avery Sunderland apparently views Abby as a surrogate daughter... while also being a gigantic slimeball all at once. Some really great scripting and acting on this scene for sure. The rest of Abby's scenes aren't bad as she tries to figure out the mystery behind what Alec Holland was working on, and that romance bit might be a bit too rushed, but Crystal Reed really ends up making the character a fair bit more interesting than she otherwise would be.
I kinda wish the second episode wouldn't give away the hue twist that of course Avery Sunderland is the hue corporate businessman who's totally behind the dumping of toxic waste in the swamps, working with the entertaining Jason Woodrue (!!!) to apparently produce some kind of super growth accelerant... they just didn't expect the accelerant to cause the weird green flu or whatever. Woodrue is entertaining, and his mannerisms honestly is pretty fun -- he straddles the line between "lovable asshole" to just a straight-up dick, particularly to people that aren't Avery. Looking forward to see more of these two, even if I'm not 100% sure how their monetization of the bio-goop works.
Meanwhile, the Swamp Thing (which the show's final scene confirms is Alec Holland to the viewers that are particularly dense) is going through some pretty interesting moments. We don't get to see a lot of him, as he spends most of his time in this episode just wandering the muck in the swamp, but apparently he's psychically connected to the little girl Susie, and I'm a fan of that scene where Swamp Thing rips apart chunks of his plant-moss body in tandem with Susie ripping apart her IV lines and shit. This leads to the convergence of the three plotlines of the episode. Susie wants to return to the swamp and stows away on the boat of one of Avery/Woodrue's smugglers or something, right at the same time that Abby and her police friend goes off to the swamp.
The sense of panic and confusion as the random thug runs and chases after Susie in the swamp, that harpoon-through-the-face scene, and the frantic, claustrophobic scene where Susie tries to hide in some ramshackle hut in the swamp are all pretty well done. The swampy action isn't the best and isn't particularly spectacular, but I really love the genuinely over-the-top gory death of the thug as Swamp Thing summons a bunch of vines to quite literally rip him into many itty-bitty bits.
It culminates with Abby arriving to see Susie next to the Swamp Thing in all his glory, one of the few times in this episode that the Swamp Thing suit (?) isn't shadowed in any way, and it's pretty glorious. The Swamp Thing is clearly a monster, but it's clearly sentient and also a protector of some sorts.
I'm not too enthused with the B-plot of this episode of Maria Sunderland meeting Madame Xanadu. It's obviously meant to be a hint that Swamp Thing isn't just the result of a mutagenic goop turning a corpse into a plant-man, but that there's something mystical happening in the swamp... but I dunno, the scenes are paced way too awkwardly. That random twist that Maria's apparently cuddling with the ghostly corpse of her dead daughter is a pretty creepy shot, for sure.
Overall, there definitely are some mis-shots in this episode. I'm not feeling a lot of the side-characters that Abby works with -- the lovesick cop and the girl best friend feel throwaway to me for now, and I'm not the biggest fan of Maria and Xanadu... but episode two definitely works out pretty well as part of the 'early chapter setup' episodes.
The third episode is also relatively neat, although it does end up playing out like more traditional superhero fare. I do like that the dude that the Swamp Thing killed, Munson, ends up being reanimated in a pretty cool way by a swarm of insects and worms -- presumably The Rot itself, if not something connected to it. I do like that Swamp Thing, still unsure what or who he is, ends up hallucinating that Munson is condemning Alec Holland for killing him. Zombie Munson ends up being the 'villain of the week', sort of, for the episode, even as the disease ends up ravaging more people, including some of Abby's fellow doctors. Of course, there's still a lot of mystery going on here -- how much is the disease just part of the swamp's own... defense mechanism or whatever? How much of it is mystical and how much of it can be explained by science? Where does the Rot come into play in all this?
It's just kind of a shame that Zombie Munson sort of disappears after he gets introduced, shows up briefly later only for the third act action scene. The episode does get a lot of mileage from the sheer creepiness of a gaunt zombie man animated by rotting insects, for sure, although after the first couple of creepy bug-man scenes, Swamp Thing just shows up and exorcises the evil influence out of Munson's body without much effort. As the title itself notes, though, "He Speaks", so Swamp Thing, well, speaks in this one. He acknowledges that he is (or was) Alec Holland in a fashion, and ends up giving Abby Arcane a clue to curing the current strain of the disease. The disease is 'not fighting -- fighting back', which means that in order to cure it, Abby ends up administering immuno-suppressants to stabilize the patients. I still think that there's a bit of ridiculous angst stemming from Abby being sad over losing Dr. Holland since Abby and Alec knew each other for like a day or something, which is kind of an unfortunate side-effect of showing their first meeting in the first episode. I wonder if the show wouldn't have been better served introducing them as already being involved.
The rest of the B-plots are still... eh? Again, the only B-plots outside of Abby and Swampy that I seem to be interested in are the Sunderlands and Dr. Woodrue. Woodrue this time around gets to be an absolute asshole who gives a speech about how he doesn't care about life... but then apparently shows up with a noble Mr. Freeze esque motivation to cure his wife's Alzheimer's.
Ghost Shawna seems to be creepy but well-meaning, essentially telling Maria to not completely trust Avery. With Avery seemingly losing part of his business, and thanks to Ghost Shawna's advice, Maria shuts Avery out from asking even more of her money. The fact that we see that Avery apparently seems very willing to flirt with Officer Cable is definitely ringing alarm bells, too. Avery ends up going around and killing the shit out of loan officer Gordon, who was pressured by Liz in her own sub-plot to uncover whatever the Sunderlands are doing, and whatever Avery is doing with "The Conclave". It's pretty brutal, and honestly pretty well done acting from Will Patton. Good stuff all around on his side of the episode.
Liz, as mentioned before, is going around doing her investigation although the screentime devoted to her is honestly pretty lacking, and if not for the connection to the loan officer, I would've forgotten she showed up in this episode at all. Her girlfriend ends up furthering the plot a little by finding part of Alec's boat, riddled with bullets. Matt Cable ends up showing up at a party and working up the courage to ask Abby for a dance as the Swamp Thing watches forlornly from the swamp. Knowing my DC comics lore I know Matt Cable's going to be important in the future, but man, right now he's kind of an accessory.
The other DC not-yet-superhero characters meet each other again, with Madame Xanadu giving Daniel Cassidy a reading in the sole scene that the two of them have in this episode. Apparently there is a tarot reading that Cassidy has constantly been trying to prove... and it's the same reading, but in reverse. Okay? I do like that they're doing a bit more with Cassidy other than making him just sort of like a dudebro actor man, but I felt like they could've integrated this a bit better.
Overall, I kind of feel like episode 3 ended up perhaps trying to do a bit too much. So many of the storylines -- hell, even Swamp Thing's hallucination and his first meeting with Abby -- end up feeling truncated and short, and I honestly wonder if some scenes (like the Xanadu/Cassidy or Liz's bland investigation) could've been better if they transplanted them into episode 2 and explored the storylines in a more concrete way. The episode itself is still pretty solid watch and all, but I really wish it was structured a bit better.
The third episode is also relatively neat, although it does end up playing out like more traditional superhero fare. I do like that the dude that the Swamp Thing killed, Munson, ends up being reanimated in a pretty cool way by a swarm of insects and worms -- presumably The Rot itself, if not something connected to it. I do like that Swamp Thing, still unsure what or who he is, ends up hallucinating that Munson is condemning Alec Holland for killing him. Zombie Munson ends up being the 'villain of the week', sort of, for the episode, even as the disease ends up ravaging more people, including some of Abby's fellow doctors. Of course, there's still a lot of mystery going on here -- how much is the disease just part of the swamp's own... defense mechanism or whatever? How much of it is mystical and how much of it can be explained by science? Where does the Rot come into play in all this?It's just kind of a shame that Zombie Munson sort of disappears after he gets introduced, shows up briefly later only for the third act action scene. The episode does get a lot of mileage from the sheer creepiness of a gaunt zombie man animated by rotting insects, for sure, although after the first couple of creepy bug-man scenes, Swamp Thing just shows up and exorcises the evil influence out of Munson's body without much effort. As the title itself notes, though, "He Speaks", so Swamp Thing, well, speaks in this one. He acknowledges that he is (or was) Alec Holland in a fashion, and ends up giving Abby Arcane a clue to curing the current strain of the disease. The disease is 'not fighting -- fighting back', which means that in order to cure it, Abby ends up administering immuno-suppressants to stabilize the patients. I still think that there's a bit of ridiculous angst stemming from Abby being sad over losing Dr. Holland since Abby and Alec knew each other for like a day or something, which is kind of an unfortunate side-effect of showing their first meeting in the first episode. I wonder if the show wouldn't have been better served introducing them as already being involved.
The rest of the B-plots are still... eh? Again, the only B-plots outside of Abby and Swampy that I seem to be interested in are the Sunderlands and Dr. Woodrue. Woodrue this time around gets to be an absolute asshole who gives a speech about how he doesn't care about life... but then apparently shows up with a noble Mr. Freeze esque motivation to cure his wife's Alzheimer's.
Ghost Shawna seems to be creepy but well-meaning, essentially telling Maria to not completely trust Avery. With Avery seemingly losing part of his business, and thanks to Ghost Shawna's advice, Maria shuts Avery out from asking even more of her money. The fact that we see that Avery apparently seems very willing to flirt with Officer Cable is definitely ringing alarm bells, too. Avery ends up going around and killing the shit out of loan officer Gordon, who was pressured by Liz in her own sub-plot to uncover whatever the Sunderlands are doing, and whatever Avery is doing with "The Conclave". It's pretty brutal, and honestly pretty well done acting from Will Patton. Good stuff all around on his side of the episode.
Liz, as mentioned before, is going around doing her investigation although the screentime devoted to her is honestly pretty lacking, and if not for the connection to the loan officer, I would've forgotten she showed up in this episode at all. Her girlfriend ends up furthering the plot a little by finding part of Alec's boat, riddled with bullets. Matt Cable ends up showing up at a party and working up the courage to ask Abby for a dance as the Swamp Thing watches forlornly from the swamp. Knowing my DC comics lore I know Matt Cable's going to be important in the future, but man, right now he's kind of an accessory.
The other DC not-yet-superhero characters meet each other again, with Madame Xanadu giving Daniel Cassidy a reading in the sole scene that the two of them have in this episode. Apparently there is a tarot reading that Cassidy has constantly been trying to prove... and it's the same reading, but in reverse. Okay? I do like that they're doing a bit more with Cassidy other than making him just sort of like a dudebro actor man, but I felt like they could've integrated this a bit better.
Overall, I kind of feel like episode 3 ended up perhaps trying to do a bit too much. So many of the storylines -- hell, even Swamp Thing's hallucination and his first meeting with Abby -- end up feeling truncated and short, and I honestly wonder if some scenes (like the Xanadu/Cassidy or Liz's bland investigation) could've been better if they transplanted them into episode 2 and explored the storylines in a more concrete way. The episode itself is still pretty solid watch and all, but I really wish it was structured a bit better.
DC Easter Eggs Corner:
- Daniel Cassidy is the alter-ego of the DC superhero Blue Devil. Clearly, his origin story hasn't happened yet, and he's still an actor playing a character called Blue Devil (he gets merged with the suit he's acting in as part of his origin story) -- we get to see the posters and the name of his in-universe Blue Devil character on both the walls and the wallpaper of his laptop.
- Dr. Jason Woodrue in the comics is the alter ego of the plant-mutant monster Floronic Man (who also goes by many different alter-egos over the years like the Seeder, the Plant Master and Floro. Originally an enemy of the Atom, he would be most well-known as one of the Justice League's enemy as a member of various incarnations of the Injustice Gang. Most of you would remember him as the evil scientist that was responsible for Poison Ivy's creation in the live-action Batman & Robin movie.
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