Swamp Thing penultimate episode recap: The Blue Devil is finally unveiled

Tonight’s episode of Swamp Thing signals the penultimate episode of the season. Unfortunately, it is a weaker installment than previous episodes.

Only one episode remains now, and it will serve as Swamp Thing’s season, and series, finale. Unless the show gets saved in the final hour, it looks like we’ve seen the last of Alec Holland, for now. I have no doubt DC will attempt to revive the character again down the line in a film or another television show.

It’s somewhat disappointing then that the second to last episode is so anti-climactic. Not much happens this week, and it’s hard to figure out what the finale is going to offer us in terms of a climax.

However, this isn’t entirely unexpected. Swamp Thing had its episode count slashed from 13 to 10 in the middle of production. Odds are they had to scramble to tie up all the loose ends that came with losing three full episodes. It’s unfortunate.

For starters, Alec is on a dissection table. Woodrue, now mad with power and attempting to play God, begins to cut into his body to see what lies beneath. We do get the startling discovery that Alec Holland is truly gone.

Swamp Thing is not a man infected. He is Swamp Thing. There is no possibility for a “cure” any longer.

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Eventually, he and Abby meet up once more. He tells her that there is no longer any hope for him to become the man she once knew. Abby appears devastated by this news, but it’s unclear if that’s going to change things for her. Knowing what we do about her character, I can’t see her deserting him.

He slinks back beneath the swamp waters and leaves her there to think about what he’s said.

Back to Woodrue, his obsession with Alec has made him neglectful towards his sick wife. He finds her at the end of the episode having overdosed on her medications because she didn’t know how many to take. His arrogance might have cost him the person he was fighting for all along.

Other strange scenes this week, Avery has Maria committed as revenge for trying to have him killed. Matt gets into a seemingly deadly car crash, and Blue Devil finally arrives in all his glory. But Blue Devil and Xanadu (who has disappeared?) feel pretty pointless to the show right now.

Perhaps if those extra episodes had been left intact or if we were assured a season two, we could justify their presence, but for now, they feel like phantom limbs. You forget about them completely when they’re not on-screen, which is disappointing considering their importance in the comics.

The season finale of Swamp Thing will premiere on DC Universe next Friday.