Season 1 episode 6 “Increasingly alienated from humanity after being hunted by sheriff’s deputies and animal trackers, Swamp Thing struggles to understand his strange condition; Matt learns the truth about Alec Holland; Avery pressures Woodrue to deliver results.”
What Was Good?
1. Swamp Thing just never fails to impress, and this weeks episode begins no different. We see a squad of two sent by Avery to take down Alec and bring him in alive. The pair fire a tranquilizer dart each into him after luring him into a trap. It’s Swamp Thing, it’s obvious it was never going to work. We see just how brutal he really is. The pair flee, and head back to the boat with Swamp Thing right on their tail. He punches trees to fire out shards of the tree into them, hitting both of them. Just an incredible start, it’s always amazing to see Swamp Thing truly set in the action.
2. After Daniel was hit in the head, he’s lying in a coma with very low brain activity, as mentioned by Abby. While he’s in the hospital, his backstory begins to commence, showing him on set as a stunt man. It turns out, while he was on set he made the deal then and never even realized. On the set of the Blue Devil movie, the main actor turns out to be an annoyance and is fired. Daniel is given the shot to step in. As he takes the role, he wakes up in hospital slowly turning into the Blue Devil.
3. Jason is an awfully curious character. He was the one that made Daniel wake up, at least he thinks he was. He injected some liquid he created into his IV which caused him to wake up, considering the injury he sustained was so brutal there was virtually no chance of him ever waking up.
4. The end of the episode brings so much emotion. Alec is understandably struggling with the effects of his turn. He goes back to his lab where Abby turns up. Towards the end he opens his with a flower that spurts out something in the air. He then turns back to his human self. What an ending, what an episode. Read on to read the Holy Shit Moment.
What Was Bad?
Well, looks like it was Matt that shot and killed Alec on the boat, by the instructions of, you guessed it, Avery. Matt and his mother discuss the loose ends, and the inconclusive evidence, showing an extreme amount of tension between them. It was a decent reveal, but nothing outstanding. I liked the mystery surrounding the death, and who shot him. It just didn’t feel explosive enough, as something with this kind of caliber would have.
Matt goes to bring Swamp Thing in, alone, with a shotgun. Straight up you’re just laughing inside like “yeah, okay Matt”. He finds Alec who then throws Matt up against the tree. Abby intervenes, Alec lays off and she explains to Matt he’s Alec. At this moment, you just hope and pray he remembers. It would have been the explosive reveal needed, it was a small chance of it happening but it just didn’t.
Holy Shit Moment
Ian Ziering just nails the role of Daniel Cassidy, and soon to be Blue Devil. His change is such a tease, and I am so eager to finally see the Blue Devil is full effect. After he goes for help from Jason, he’s rightly so, panicking, and frightened as he has no answers of what is happening to him. Seeing it so close makes me so mad the series is ending soon.
The Verdict
The series just brings more, and more every episode. Ian Ziering and Derek Mears steal the show with their respective characters. The episode just brought so much, from action, emotion, and intensity all while ending on a massive cliffhanger. I truly, truly hope the series gets announced for a season two at SDCC.
Rating: 9.6/10
