Swamp Thing Review: Drive All Night (Season 1 Episode 5)

Swamp Thing Season 1 Episode 5, “Drive All Night,” catapults a great portion of the story forward by increasing Marais’ supernatural elements. Unfortunately, this makes it even more difficult to overlook the arising staleness of Avery Sunderland’s involvement on Swamp Thing.

There is a silver lining in “Drive All Night” that makes putting up with Avery worth it: Liz Tremayne cements herself as another hopeful hero that Marais desperately needs.

Swamp Thing succeeds in telling an extremely personal and oftentimes traumatizing story by using Shawna’s spirit. Sometimes the heart of something can get lost in the theatrics of the supernatural.

Swamp Thing avoids this pitfall by grounding Maria and Abby’s shared trauma in a physical representation of Shawna’s spirit. In doing so, the show keeps us engaged in what Shawna’s reappearance means for both women.

Her spirit gives Abby the opportunity to learn more about Swamp Thing’s abilities and give herself some clarity about the morning Shawna died. It raises more questions about Abby’s parents, specifically her mother.

It’s more than reasonable that memories from that trauma resurface at the same time as Shawna’s spirit.

It lets us better understand Maria’s insurmountable grief. The attempted murder isn’t okay, and she should totally be held accountable for that. However, knowing the Sunderlands, she won’t.

Shawna’s spirit also serves as a physical manifestation of the darkness in the swamp. Swamp Thing stands in direct opposition to that by saving Maria’s life. Despite being made from Avery’s corruption, Swamp Thing chooses to be better than that.

That’s why it’s disheartening, yet predictable, to know that Avery has his sights set on dissecting Swamp Thing as a way to utilize him in his scheme. It’s Avery’s fault that Alec is physically unrecognizable, but he’s not going to do anything to fix it. Instead, he’s going to make it worse.

It’s almost like that’s all Avery Sunderland knows how to do — make things worse.

His affair with Lucilia is boring and, again, predictable. Avery is a master manipulator who gaslights every woman in his path. Lucilia is yet another pawn in his game. There may have been true love there once, but now Avery is using her as a way to keep the cops on his side.

It’s difficult to believe Lucilia won’t grow suspicious of Avery’s conveniently timed romantic getaways. He only goes to her when he needs information. His attempts to disguise his inquiries with nostalgia and sex are shallow.

I want to believe Lucilia will see right through him soon enough.

If she doesn’t, thankfully Marais has Liz Tremayne. Liz is immune to Avery’s charms, and it gets under his skin.

It’s exhausting to watch Avery do bad things and not be held accountable for them. His charms and money can only get him so far with Liz breathing down his neck.

We can only be asked to watch Avery do one bad thing after another for so long. Just when it becomes monotonous, Liz comes in to remind us why we have to keep tabs on him. Without the truth and proof of it, there’s no way to stop this endless cycle.

It’s only then that we can look forward to his downfall. Liz’s commitment to saving Marais from the darkness is admirable in the faces of Avery and Woodrue. It’ll be unstoppable when it’s paired with the likeness of Abby and Alec.

Stray Observations

• How am I supposed to believe Matt killed a man when he can’t even tell Abby he likes her?
• Elle Graham is so impressive as Susie Coyle. 
• I guess that man in the swamp is a figment of Alec’s memory. 
• Daniel’s purpose should make more sense by now. Right?

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

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Swamp Thing airs Tuesdays at 8/7c on The CW.

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