Swamp Thing episode 8 review: “Long Walk Home” highlights friendships and power struggles

Friendship, power struggles, and a running analogy of life and death are the focal points of the most recent Swamp Thing episode. With only two episodes left, this week sets the tone for a lot of conflicting forces to come together.

The Sunderlands have an established incumbency in Marais. While Avery uses scare tactics to uphold his grasp on the town, his leadership is flimsy at best — especially since he was never really in charge. Even before the Conclave started infiltrating the town, Avery wasn’t the biggest villain of the swamp. The DC Universe Swamp Thing episode eight fleshes out Avery’s villainous character development, Harlan and Abby’s pure friendship, and the cycle of life and death itself.

There is no life without death and vice versa. Even in comic-book media, there’s a balance between their coexistence. This episode expounds on the dynamic between the Green and the Rot. On the surface, they might seem like rivals, but the Rot needs the other to survive — which explains why both ethereal forces need an agent or two to call their own.

Though the relationship between the Rot and the Green is one-sided and very parasitic, the episode uses this to parallel the cycle of life and death in both realms. In Swamp Thing’s monologue to an injured Avery, he notes the environmental purpose of himself and his connection to the Green.

Although alike, the Rot’s incessant thirst for new life to feed on shows why the Green needs Swamp Thing and other Elementals like him. Because, while the Rot doesn’t hate the living out of necessity, it does still need to leech off of the Green and anything that lives in the swamp.

This parallel — through Swampy’s speech and Avery’s venture through the Darkness — provides a reason behind Swamp Thing’s creation and emphasizes the fine balance of life, decay, and death. (Even if the Rot doesn’t have a mutual grudge with the Green itself. On the other hand, the Rot’s beef with Swampy is another story.) Apart from the dichotomy of Marias, the suspenseful overtones bind every element of the episode together.

Using the current agent of Darkness, Avery, this Swamp Thing episode uses his struggle to survive to build enigmatic tension. It optimizes the opening mystery by convincing us Avery’s hallucinations are simply from his injuries before the episode reveals that the Rot has its grip on Avery. The series is clearly building the few similarities the Green and the Rot share. By reminding us how everlasting and persistent the Rot is, we can draw a likeness to the plant lifeforce.

As Avery goes through some changes, thanks to the Rot within him, the episode exaggerates his major flaw: He was never the major villain of this season. Avery’s character development shows his true form as the worst villain of the show. And we don’t mean worst as in he’s a sinister villain. We mean worst as in Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man worst. Sure, he has a longer villainous success rate than AVM Man. However, slugs have sturdier spines than Avery.

He might parade himself as a maniacal villain. But all his scare tactics and flashy intimidation tricks hide the fact that the Conclave has been ordering him around since the first episode. After all, judging by the episode’s double-down approach to the Conclave, we can assume that the magical group sent the hit on Avery, using Avery as a patsy (who just happened to use Matt Cable as a patsy as well).

It’s a chain reaction of villainous acts. Though he might be sleazy, Avery has no genuine authority when it comes to villainy, or anything really. The episode solidifies this by showing how easily Avery can be bullied into orchestrating Swamp Thing’s capture. Sure, Avery, you’re really going to let Woodrue — of all people — coax you into doing something. Illustrating Avery’s flimsy grip on his villainous reigns, the episode uses this opportunity to focus on the real big bad of the season: the Conclave.

Where Avery struggles to maintain his power, the real power in this episode rests in the narrative ability to grip us and keep us whelmed, even when we know what’s about to happen next. Comic accuracy doesn’t leave much of any major comic series unspoiled. But even when the series has foreshadowed that infamous lab scene, somehow we’re still anxious for Swamp Thing’s wellbeing. When you know the fate of the two antagonists in the scenario, that’s a mighty feat to accomplish.

In an episode filled with tension, comic callouts, and villains, “Long Walk Home” still managed to highlight the softer side of the fandom — for example, Abby and Harlan’s pure friendship. They’ve only been away from each other for a few days, and somehow Harlan instantly notices Abby’s emotional cues. Then, he insists that she takes care of herself. Even though Abby doesn’t explain all the swamp-related shenanigans to him until the end of the episode, Harlan just knew that something strenuous happened to Abby. As corny as it is, that’s the power of friendship. We just hope Abby can multitask and save Harlan and Alec.

In an episode that illustrates how decay and life forces coexist, and how the cycle life and death play on the Green and the Rot, Swamp Thing needs Abby to survive. With the impending comic-book scene next episode, we have no doubt that Abby will help Alec escape. Considering that hazy battle at the end of the episode, we’re more than ready to see Abby and Alec in another fight.

What did you think of this week’s episode of Swamp Thing? Let us know in the comments.