Swamp Thing – He Speaks

By starrymag | October 27, 2020

By: Atiya Irvin-Mitchell

 

 

With the opening of the episode we learn that even swamp creatures can have bad dreams. We see Alec (Andy Bean) and Munson (Micah Fitzgerald) in the woods. At first Alec doesn’t really recognize him, but then Munson accuses him of murdering him. Awkward. Although in his defense, Munson was about to kill a third-grader. Anyway, Munson attacks Alec and tries to strangle him which surges the creature (Derek Mears) awake. Next to him is Munson’s corpse.

 

Elsewhere Abby (Crystal Reed)is  talking to Liz (Maria Sten) on the docks. Liz wonders why Abby seems so down since she saved Susie (Elle Graham). She should be happy, but Abby fills Liz in on everything that happened. She explains that Susie feels drawn to the swamp and that the creature’s name is Alec. Abby doesn’t know if she should tell anyone else about what happened. Before she can decide she gets called into the hospital.

 

The news from Eli (Al Vicente), Abby’s superior, is that the CDC has been monitoring things and has sent in a new team with a new approach since things aren’t improving. There’s more company. Dr. Jason Woodrue (Kevin Durand) was sent there courtesy of Avery (Will Patton) and he’s examining Eddie Coyle’s body.

 

When he and Abby meet in the morgue there’s tension. Dr. Woodrue sees the disease and a case and is fascinated by it. Abby is focused on the people it has killed. Abby points out that the disease he’s so fascinated by left a little girl an orphan. Dr. Woodrue says science leaves little room for feelings and calls her view limited.

 

Liz is desperately seeking answers from a man named Gordon (Matt Burke). He works at the town’s Savings and Loans. He’s been dodging her calls and emails, but it’s a small town. She tells him she knows he’s been making unauthorized loans to Avery, but that she’s willing to leave Gordon’s name out of it if he gives her an interview. He says nothing and heads to work.

 

Matt (Henderson Wade) goes into the police station and gets a dressing down from his mother/the sheriff. Lucilia (Jennfier Beals) is happy that Susie’s okay, but furious that Matt acted so recklessly by roaming through the swamp without back-up. She believes Abby is to blame and is a bad influence. Gentle reminder that her son’s about thirty years old. Matt is also not so convinced that Alec’s death was an accident, but Lucilia insists it was bad luck. But she says she’ll talk to Avery.

 

Abby checks on Susie who is stable. Harlan’s (Leonardo Nam) been looking after her but is nowhere in sight. She seeks him out to vent about the new team, but when she finds Harlan his face is covered in an all too familiar rash. He’s got the virus.

 

Harlan’s state convinces Abby that she needs to get into Alec’s lab with or without Avery’s cooperation. Liz tells her to be careful and loans her a speedboat. She also asks her girlfriend Margaux (Kelly Walker) to keep her eyes peeled on the water for scraps from Alec’s boat.

 

There’s a hunter in the woods who has the misfortune to run into Munson’s walking corpse. Munson opens his mouth and releases hundreds of bugs into the hunters mouth killing him.

 

Both Drs. Woodrue talk about the virus in their kitchen. Apparently it’s mutating at an unprecedented rate. Jason finds it fascinating; however we learn that Caroline (Selena Anduze) isn’t well. After forgetting where she placed her medication she comments that she’s slowly losing her mind. What will happen, she wonders, if she forgets Jason.

 

Avery and Maria (Virginia Madsen) have a tense dinner. Avery tells Maria that he knows Abby’s return has brought up bad memories, but she’ll be gone soon and Maria can return to normal. But Maria says she has been her old self – she’s just been faking it since Shawna (Given Sharpe) died fourteen years ago. They’re interrupted by a visit from Gordon. Avery tells Gordon that he needs to repay the unauthorized loans ASAP. If the bank finds out he’s been giving him money he might go to prison. Avery demands that Gordon take care of it, but Gordon says no. Avery says to pay back the money or the town will find out he’s in debt up to his eyeballs. He also tells Gordon he’s got twenty-four hours and leaves.

 

Lucilia interviews Avery about Alec and he claims he hardly knew him. Avery insists what happened to Alec was an accident and anyway he’s been too worried about Maria to even think about the man. He shares that Maria’s been sleeping in their daughter’s room again. Lucilia says he knew Maria was complicated when he married her. Avery comments that she’s beautiful, but Lucilia isn’t quite so flattered. She says that she’s always beautiful when his wife isn’t available. He says he misses her, but she refuses to fool around with him with Maria right upstairs and makes a show of leaving in case she can hear.

 

Maria is greeted by a ghostly version of Shawna. Shawna asks her mother if she truly believes that Avery’s been faithful to her all these years. Maria doesn’t know why she’d say something like that. Shawna wonders if he can be faithful to any woman and questions if Avery truly loves Maria. Maybe, she suggests, he’s using her.

 

Abby pokes around in Alec’s lab and finds his research notebook and then a lot of large bugs find her. Caught up in her own memories she doesn’t immediately notice them until they’re hard to miss. More concerning than the bugs is Munson who flies in through the window. Munson demands to know where he is, but Abby has no idea what he’s talking about and wards him off with fire. Luckily the creature comes in and orders Munson to leave Abby alone. After an ax has no impact on him, the creature subdues Munson and says aloud, “Release him.” With that all the fight goes out of the corpse.

 

The creature and Abby share a moment. Abby seems to accept that he’s really Alec, but the creature still doesn’t understand what he is. Abby says he was a good man and a scientist. Also, she doesn’t understand why the disease is fighting them. But the creature says it’s not fighting them, it’s just fighting back.

 

Abby makes it to the hospital and finds that Harlan’s condition is worsening. She wants to give him an immunosuppressant and is met with resistance from Eli. His strategy has been antibiotics, but Abby says the disease is mutating at lightning speed and the harder they fight it the harder it fights back. Eli calls for security, but after Abby administered the drugs Harlan started improving. Point to Abby. She recommends the immunosuppressant for all the infected patients. Later she visits Susie who is feeling better. They talk about Alec and Susie says he’s scared and all alone. Susie says she’s alone now too, but Abby promises they’ll figure everything out.

 

Avery approaches Maria and asks her for more of her family’s money to fund his research in the swamp. Seeing Shawna in the mirror Maria turns him down and tells him she’s tired of him funneling all their money into the swamp and walks away. Obviously, Avery doesn’t take this well and screams after her that she won’t cut him off.

 

At the bar Abby and Matt share a drink and a dance. At Matt’s request “Kind and Generous” by Natalie Merchant plays on the jukebox. It played at their prom, but back then Matt didn’t have the courage to ask Abby to dance. He does now and the two dance, but Abby notices the creature sadly watching in the shadows.

 

Later Daniel (Ian Ziering) finds Madame Xanadu (Jeryl Prescott) waiting for him in the dark. We learn that Daniel cannot go home, but he really wants to. He’s been in town for almost a decade and in that time, no matter how many times Madame Xanadu has read his tarot cards, she’s drawn the same cards over and over.  She draws the same cards, but this time they’re reversed. Daniel wonders if that is a good thing.  She says something new is beginning for him. He thinks it might be because of Abby.

 

Margaux finds a bullet hole riddled piece of Alec’s boat and shares the news with Liz. Gordon goes home to find Avery waiting for him. He arms himself with a golf club not realizing it’s him at first. It becomes clear Avery is not just here to talk when Avery punches him. Gordon tells him to leave, but Avery ignores him and keeps ranting him about his show of disrespect until they struggle on the staircase. Some time passes and Gordon wakes up in a bathtub. He doesn’t understand why at first, but Avery says that makes the clean-up easier. Then, Avery bludgeons Gordon to death with his golf club. Minutes later there’s a knock at the door. It’s Liz and she wants to talk with Gordon.