This is the last episode of the current season, and we don’t know if we’ll have more. There are a lot of threads for future stories, so let’s get down to what ‘Loose Ends’ has to offer for SWAMP THING, shall we?
Last episode, we saw Swamp Thing discover Alec Holland’s body. This episode it is confirmed with finality that Alec is indeed dead, and his memories are kept within the plant-like husk that is Swamp Thing. Unlike Alec, Caroline Woodrue and Matt Cable are very much alive. Caroline is suffering from ‘locked-in’ syndrome which allows her to perceive, but not move. Matt on the other hand survived the car crash and is recovering in the hospital.
Aside from these life and death scenarios, there are a lot of other plot lines progressing in the story. Daniel Cassidy admits to Liz that he is the Blue Devil, and he is now able to leave Marais without getting burned. Ellery cuts off Avery from the Swamp Thing discovery which doesn’t go well with Avery. However, everything goes south for Ellery when he leads a full on assault on the swamp and gets a thorough thrashing from Swamp Thing. Avery kills Lucilia Cable after an offer of reconciliation is denied. Maria Sunderland goes full wacko in the asylum as a way of escaping the dark that is engulfing her courtesy of Madame Xanadu who visits her. Jason tries to cure his wife Caroline with the plant organs he got last episode from Swamp Thing, but is stopped by Abby. Later, Jason gets arrested, but not before he ingests part of the organs he harvested. He feels ‘The Green’ and we’ll talk more about that later. The episode seemingly ends with the romance between Swamp Thing and Abby hitting ‘Beauty and the Beast’ levels with both of them promising to fight back the dark that is infesting the swamps of Marais. Then there’s more…
….Back to Jason Woodrue in a end credit scene. We see the results of his eating the plant organs. He is transformed now in the police station to a figure that is familiar to Swamp Thing comic book fans. As I mentioned way back, Dr. Woodrue’s could herald the appearance of the Floronic Man, a staple of Swamp Thing mythos, some time later. That time has come sooner, and we get a glimpse of the Floronic Man albeit in the darkness of the police station. So now, we have an established supernatural persona to serve as a counter-balance to Swamp Thing. How will this all pan out? We’ll have to see if this ever happens since SWAMP THING is cancelled…for now.
‘Loose Ends’ does what it foreshadows to the SWAMP THING series. There are a lot of plot points that have ended, but others that have branched out. Though SWAMP THING is a show with heavy environmental advocacies, it is also a budding love story, and this comes into full display here. As the series ends its first season, one wonders if any of the continuing plot points will ever see the light of day. The mixture of macabre horror, science fiction and environmental awareness should be enough for SWAMP THING to branch out into something more in the future.
Obskura And Then Some 