Swamp Thing S01 E03 |Financial ruin & new powers (review)

Every episode of Swamp Thing is an information dump. This has been a good experience so far and I’m enjoying it. However, the conspiracy is proving to be very complex. So every time I think I’ve figured out exactly what is going on, something else weird happens and it throws me off.

As a result, I am bent discovering the major conspiracy before the show reveals it in episode 10. I don’t know if I will be successful, but it will be exciting to try.

Also, Swamp Thing continues to succeed in creeping me out without fail.

In this most recent episode, I have come up with another theory. You may remember in the last entry about Swamp Thing, my theory about Avery Sunderland being the mastermind behind the swamp contamination was proven correct.

Now, in episode three, I have decided that he did not hire anyone to kill Holland as I once suggested. I think committed the murder himself.

Spoilers ahead

We need to remember two things. First, Avery Sunderland took a financial hit when his swamp experiments caused people to get sick. Second, Avery Sunderland fired Holland when he got to close to the truth about what caused the swamp to mutate.

In episode three, Liz, the journalist in Marais confronts Gordon Haas, a bank supervisor, for giving loans to Sunderland off the record. So Sunderland has been funding his research but falling into debt as well.

As a result of Liz bringing this up to him, Haas decides to visit Avery’s home unannounced an threaten to expose him if he does not pay back the money in 24 hours. This causes Avery to visit Haas’ house unannounced later in the episode and try to intimidate him into giving him more money.

The intimidation tactic goes wrong and Avery ends up killing Haas with a golf club. So my theory is Avery Sunderland blew Holland up in the swamp himself. He didn’t need to hire anyone because he’s already a psychopath and is more than willing to get his own hands dirty and then wash them in the sink.

I also think the sheriff, Lucilia Cable, is in on the conspiracy in some way. In this episode, she keeps urging her son, Matt, to stay away from Abby. Remember, Abby and Matt saved Susie Coyle when she ran away to the swamp to save Swamp Thing/Holland.

She keeps saying that Abby is bad news. Sure Matt has a crush on her, but Abby is doing legitimate work in trying to cure the infected patients in Marais. So why would the sheriff have an issue with her?

It’s because she had a fling with Avery in the past (or present, I can’t tell yet) and she doesn’t want Abby to get to close to the ultimate truth to cover for Avery. She even tells Matt that they will close the cases as accidents if 24 hours pass and there is no further evidence.

There is a moment in the episode where Sheriff Lucilia is interviewing Avery for the investigation into Hollands death. They almost get intimate, but Maria makes a bump sound and that sends Lucilia running out of the door.

Abby and the Swamp Thing

Meanwhile, Swamp Thing is having flashbacks and hallucinations about one of the men he tore apart in the last episode. As a result, the swamp bugs bring him back to life and he goes on a vendetta to find Swamp Thing and avenge his death.

He crosses paths with Abby, who in the middle of searching through Hollands research for a path to a cure for the infected patients. She’s being undermined by the CDC who sent in another doctor, Eli Troost, and she wants to find a breakthrough.

Not to mention, Avery has his biologist, Jason Woodrue, at the hospital as well doing autopsies and researching the plants on Eddie Coyle’s body.

During this time, the bug swamp zombie attacks her and asks her where Swamp Thing is. Swamp Thing appears to be tracking Abby somehow because he appears out of nowhere and uses his powers to release the man’s soul from the swamp bondage and makes him rest in peace.

We find out that Swamp Thing doesn’t remember who he is or anything that happened before the explosion. He does manage to give Abby some useful information.

The swamp is not attacking, it’s fighting back. Which makes sense because Avery is the one who put a foreign body in the swamp in the first place.

This prompts Abby to change the treatment course for infected patients. They stabilize and she earns the trust of Dr. Troost in the process.

She also inadvertently gains the affections of Swamp Thing who is clearly stalking her as of the end of the episode. Abby goes to the town bar to decompress and meets Matt Cable there. They end up dancing and of course, Swamp Thing sees this. So Matt is probably going to end up dead or injured at some point due to this love triangle.

But the true story in this episode is Avery. He is out of money. He’s killed his bank connection. His wife has financially cut him off, and he’s tied up in his swamp adventures.

What does a man on this type of edge do next? And what is the Conclave? Haas mentioned telling the Conclave what Avery was doing before his skull was bashed in.

Might the Conclave have something to do with Daniel? He’s a new character that we were introduced to by the voodoo witch doctor. His tarot card reading hasn’t changed in 8 years.

Fool, hanged man, wheel of fortune.

But recently he met Abby and thinks she may be the key to change his destiny.

I guess we’ll see how they are all connected in episode four.

Episode 2: Review: Swamp Thing S01 E02 | My theory confirmed