Warning: Contains SPOILERS For Swamp Thing, "The Anatomy Lesson"
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The penultimate episode of Swamp Thing confirms that a classic twist about Alec Holland's body from the original comics is also true in the reality of the DC Universe series. This is something of a surprise, given the liberties that the show had taken with its source material.
Despite changing the backgrounds of many classic Swamp Thing characters from the comics so as to justify their being connected to the town of Marais, Louisiana, the series has remained remarkably true to the spirit of those characters and the comics' base storyline. While the Abby Arcane of the comics was a Transylvanian noblewoman who ran a medical clinic for the small village her family ruled for generations rather than a doctor employed by the CDC, she is still a compassionate young woman who sees the nobility behind Swamp Thing's monstrous form. Likewise, Avery Sunderland may not be the captain of industry he was in the original comics, but the show's take on the character is still a scoundrel ruled by his greedy impulses, even if he never progressed beyond running one small town as his personal kingdom.
The chief plot of episode 9 of Swamp Thing season 1, "The Anatomy Lesson," sees Swamp Thing being dissected alive by Sunderland's hireling, Dr. Jason Woodrue, who was also responsible for creating the biological accelerator that Dr. Alec Holland discovered in the swamps around Marais. Dr. Abby Arcane had theorized that the accelerator had somehow merged with the wounded Holland's body after one of Sunderland's minions tried to kill him for knowing too much. Woodrue's study of Swamp Thing's organs, however, leads him to conclude that there is no way the plant-man could ever have been human. It is a theory that is proven correct in the final scene of the episode, as Swamp Thing dredges the river bottom of the site where Alec Holland died and emerges from the water with Holland's corpse.
This twist is taken directly from Saga of the Swamp Thing #21, as is the episode's title. Written by Alan Moore with art by Steve Bissette and John Totleben, "The Anatomy Lesson" sees former Atom villain The Floronic Man (a.k.a. Dr. Jason Woodrue) hired by industrialist Avery Sunderland to examine a freeze-dried Swamp Thing in order to figure out just how Alec Holland was transformed into a nigh-invulnerable plant creature by a combination of an explosion and a plant growth formula. The science doesn't make sense and Woodrue tests the increasingly limited patience of Avery Sunderland as he dissects the inert Swamp Thing and finds plant-based parodies of human organs that can't possibly perform the functions they were meant to mimic. This ultimately leads Woodrue to one conclusion - Swamp Thing somehow absorbed Alec Holland's memories from the swamp when he was created and was never truly Alec Holland.
It remains to be seen if Sunderland will receive his comeuppance in the final episode of the DC Universe series. The comic book story, "The Anatomy Lesson," ended with Sunderland's death at the hands of an enraged Swamp Thing, who had been freed from the freezer by Dr. Woodrue after Sunderland fired him and revealed he had no intention on paying Woodrue what he had been promised. The television series can't end exactly the same way, with Swamp Thing having been rescued by Abby and Liz and Dr. Woodrue being the one person Sunderland hasn't betrayed yet. Regardless of what happens, the final episode of Swamp Thing will be one to watch.