Swamp Thing Episode 8 Recap

Swamp Thing Episode 8 sees Avery attempting to find his way out of the swamp after being left for dead. Blood loss and exhaustion lead to delirium as Avery is shown visions by the brown. The first is of the sheriff returning to finish Avery off. He pleads for his life, but the vision-sheriff fires her gun at him before turning into a vision of the brown reaching for him. Later, Avery sees a vision of the night his father was killed. His father took an ax to a special tree in the swamp and the swamp retaliated by grabbing his father and dragging him into the campfire to burn in front of young Avery. This vision, too, goes away, revealing a reality even more alarming — the Swamp Thing.

Alec takes Avery back to his lab in the swamp and sets the plants to healing Avery’s gunshot wounds and stitching him back together. Alec tells Avery that the swamp doesn’t hate him, it’s fighting back from the years of pollution and abuse that Avery has heaped upon it and into it. The balance is upset, and now the brown is spreading. Alec theorizes that he has been changed by the green into this in order to restore that balance, even though it means having to give up on a normal life and let go of Abby. Avery says that Woodrue is in Marais and if anyone can find a way to transform Alec back, it’d be him.

Atlanta

In Atlanta, Abby returns to the CDC to find a new director in charge, put in place by the Conclave. They seal off the specimen that Abby brought in for analysis. Abby is upset that Harlan doesn’t have her back and storms out.

Harlan goes to Abby’s apartment where she tells him about Alec and what has happened to him. Though hard to understand, Harlan has seen and experienced enough in Marais to believe Abby. Leaving Abby’s apartment, Harlan is jumped by the Conclave’s muscle.

The next morning, Abby finds herself locked out of the CDC. The director brings Abby to Ellery, who knows all about Alec from Harlan. Ellery tells Abby that they are going to Marais to capture Alec. They can’t let an infected man run around the swamp. They are doing this for his own safety and the safety of the townsfolk. Ellery says that it might get violent, so he wants Abby to help convince Alec to turn himself in peacefully. Abby refuses and leaves, heading straight for Marais.

Marais

Avery makes his way to Woodrue’s house, where he tells the scientist about Alec. Woodrue fills Avery in on Maria taking the meeting with Ellery and how he is being set up with a proper lab. Avery seems to truly want to help Alec transform back, but Woodrue explains that if they can harness whatever’s happened to Alec, then they can change the world. With access to this kind of cellular regeneration, they could even cheat death.

Avery and Woodrue call out to Alec, meeting him in the swamp. Alec feels the presence of others in the swamp and walks away from the meeting. Avery distracts Alec while the men he’s hired blast Alec with liquid nitrogen, freezing him. By the time Abby arrives in the swamp, Alec has already been taken.

What did you think of Swamp Thing Episode 8? Share your thoughts in the comments below!