Warning: SPOILERS for Swamp Thing, episode 10, "Loose Ends"
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The series' finale of Swamp Thing has aired, resolving most of the show's major subplots while leaving openings for the story to continue someday. While this seems unlikely given the circumstances of the show's untimely end, the possibility is still there.
It is unknown precisely how Swamp Thing might have ended, had it not been for turmoil behind the scenes while the show was still being shot. Production on the series was suddenly halted, as its original order for 13 hour-long episodes was cut to 10. The showrunners promised a satisfying conclusion to season 1 regardless and revealed that they already had plans for developing the story of the show's first 3 seasons. Those plans were seemingly abandoned after the series was unceremoniously cancelled with only a single episode having aired.
Despite this, Swamp Thing's actor Derek Mears praised the reworked finale, marveling that producer James Wan and the show's writers were able to craft a reworked ending with the footage they had completed on a week's notice. Whatever troubles occurred during the final days of Swamp Thing's production, none of them are visible on-screen in the final episode and most of the major subplots are resolved in some form or fashion. Here's a rundown of every major storyline from Swamp Thing season 1 and how it was handled in the finale.
Dan Cassidy Leaves Marais To Find His Destiny
Stuntman Dan Cassidy (Ian Ziering) had dreams of Hollywood stardom and he did find a big break playing the lead role in a blockbuster superhero movie based around a character called the Blue Devil. Unbeknown to Cassidy, his conversation with a mysterious man he thought was a studio executive led to him being cast in a much different part, after he agreed to do the man a favor. The man turned out to be The Phantom Stranger (Macon Blair) and the favor involved staying in the town of Marais, Louisiana while waiting for a special woman who needed to be helped. It was a bargain Cassidy kept for 8 years, because his body would burst into blue flames whenever he tried to pass the town's borders.
Cassidy finally got a chance to repay his debt in Swamp Thing, episode 9, "The Anatomy Lesson." Visited once again by the Phantom Stranger, Cassidy was informed that he was the only one who could stop Dr. Abby Arcane (Crystal Reed) and Liz Tremayne (Maria Sten) from being killed by the soldiers of The Conclave, when the two women made an attempt to save a captive Swamp Thing. The Phantom Stranger also reminded Cassidy of his exact words when they made their bargain - "I'd give anything to have that role." Realizing that he was literally meant to become the superhero he played and the only hope the two women had, Cassidy donned his Blue Devil mask and was transformed into an actual demon wreathed in blue fire.
The series' finale reveals that Liz Tremayne figured out that Cassidy was her and Abby's monstrous savior, and she visits him in the small video store that he runs. She finds Cassidy packing his bags, saying that the voice of the Blue Devil has been in his head since his transformation and that he's begun having visions of bad things about to happen, along with an urge to get out of Marais. After Liz assures him that she doesn't think he's crazy and thanks him for saving her and Abby's lives, Dan gives her the key to his shop and asks her to keep an eye on the store while he's away. Cassidy also asks Liz to look after Abby, as he can sense that there's something important about her, but his destiny lies elsewhere. When we last see Cassidy, he's driving past the sign marking the road out of Marais without incident, apparently on the road to help other people as the Blue Devil.
Caroline Woodrue Is Hospitalized and Jason Woodrue Arrested
Dr. Caroline Woodrue (Selena Anduze) had advanced Alzheimer's and little hope of not eventually losing control of her mind and body. Finding a cure for her condition was the main reason her husband, Dr. Jason Woodrue (Kevin Durand) had agreed to work for Avery Sunderland, hoping he could find a miracle among the secrets of the swamps of Marais. Through his dissection of Swamp Thing, Jason thought that he had found that miracle, collecting several of Swamp Thing's organs and rushing home to tell his wife the good news. Unfortunately, he found her in a catatonic state, having forgotten whether or not she had taken her medication in his absence and accidentally overdosing.
The series' finale sees a crazed Jason cooking up a stir-fry of sorts from Swamp Thing's organs, certain that this strange concoction will halt the cellular degeneration of his wife's brain. He samples the food for himself first and passes out, later waking up and speaking of being able to feel the same connection to the plants around him that Swamp Thing spoke of while Woodrue was cutting him apart. As he is about to spoon-feed the same food to his wife, Jason is interrupted by the arrival of Abby Arcane, who had come to check on Caroline. After a brief struggle with Abby as she tries to call the authorities and Woodrue trying to explain what he is doing to a bound Abby, Woodrue is tasered and arrested by the police after they trace Abby's phone signal and Caroline is rushed to the hospital.
The Conclave Is Sent Packing
Having lost a number of soldiers while trying to capture Swamp Thing alive, and even more personnel after Blue Devil helped Abby and Liz free Swamp Thing from their base, The Conclave is now more interested in revenge than Avery Sunderland's promises of riches and miracle medicines. Conclave leader Nathan Ellery (Michael Beach) elects to lead a raid on Marais' wetlands personally, intent on killing Swamp Thing once and for all. Unfortunately for Ellery and his men, this time Swamp Thing is aware they are coming and spoiling for a fight.
In a series of action sequences reminiscent of the original Predator movie, an unseen Swamp Thing takes down the Conclave soldiers, one by one, turning the plants of the swamp into weapons and teleporting through the vegetation to reform behind the soldiers to strike them down himself. Swamp Thing saves Ellery for last, leaving the crime lord begging for mercy, speaking of the good his powers could do humanity and promising to use every resource he has to change Alec Holland back into an ordinary human. Swamp Thing coolly responds that Ellery's men showed him that he is not human or Alec Holland and that he now cares nothing for humanity after what humanity has done to him. He then instructs Ellery to leave the swamp and to "tell the others what you saw here today, tell them what I am capable of and tell them... to leave me alone!"
Maria Sunderland Finds Peace... At A Price
Maria Sunderland (Virginia Madsen) was forcibly committed to an insane asylum by her husband, Avery (Will Patton), as revenge for her involvement in a plot that would have seen him shot dead and dumped in the swamp. Unfortunately for Maria, Swamp Thing discovered her husband and healed his wounds, enabling him to come back to Marais. Avery quickly bribed a judge and concocted a story about Maria going crazy spending all their money. This was a plausible enough lie, given Maria had begun liquidating his assets almost immediately after his disappearance.
The series' finale finds a drugged Maria hallucinating sinister voices and demonic hands reaching through the padded walls of her cell in the asylum. Maria is visited by fortune teller Madame Xanadu (Jeryl Prescott), who says that she sensed Maria's pain and that the demons she awoke by trying to talk to her deceased daughter, Shawna, have corrupted her. Maria begs for Xanadu to help her and Xanadu says that she can give Maria the peace she craves, but warns that it is "a peace from which you may never return." When Abby Arcane arrives later, hoping to ask Maria for more information about The Conclave, she finds that Maria is now utterly insane but happy in her own little world, hallucinating that she's finally been reunited with the beloved daughter she lost years earlier.
The Final Fate Of Sheriff Lucilla Cable
With his wife Maria now committed and his hold on their finances secure, Avery Sunderland approaches Sheriff Lucilla Cable (Jennifer Beals) with a bargain, despite knowing that Lucilla had forged an unlikely alliance with Maria to see him murdered. Blackmailed for years over her own crimes while having an affair with Sunderland and, unbeknown to him, giving birth to his son, Lucilla was just as eager to get rid of Avery Sunderland as Maria was. Yet Avery was ready to forgive everything and make good on his past promises to leave his wife and make a life with Lucilla, despite her turning on him. It was an offer she rejected flatly, while warning Avery to stay away from her and her son, Matt (Henderson Wade) in the future.
Avery was swift in seeking revenge, hiding in the back of Lucilla's squad car and waiting for her to finish visiting their son in the hospital. Avery stabbed Lucilla through the seat with a long knife, taking her gun and preventing her from using the car horn to get attention. He left Lucilla in the trunk of her car, slowly bleeding to death as the car sank into the swamp, ironically giving her the same death by drowning and blood loss that she'd originally planned for him.
Avery Sunderland Is Sick
As Avery Sunderland finishes dumping Sheriff Cable's squad car in the swamp, he returns to his own car, which was left parked nearby when he first met with Lucilla several days earlier. As he sits down, Avery begins having a coughing fit, and wretches something into his hand - something green and soaked in blood. What this means is not made clear, but it resembles the symptoms of the "plague" that was making people cough up plant matter in the first episode, which had actually been caused by a biological accelerant that Sunderland had introduced into the swamp water around Marais. Did Sunderland finally fall victim to his own greed? Or did his latest evil act cause The Green to undo the damage it had healed before at Swamp Thing's request?
Abby and Swamp Thing Agree To Face The Darkness Together
Abby meets with Swamp Thing at Alec Holland's lab, after leaving the scene of Jason Woodrue's arrest. When asked why she came back, Abby says that she cares about Swamp Thing as a person even if he isn't really Alec Holland, and that she wanted to make sure he was okay after fighting The Conclave. Swamp Thing, in turn, says the only reason he didn't lose himself in the swamp after driving off The Conclave was the fear of not seeing Abby again and a desire to make sure she was safe. The two then agree to explore the mysteries of The Green within Marais' swamps and fight the rising darkness that has touched them both together.
Jason Woodrue Is Transformed
The final scene of the episode comes after the credits, showing Matt Cable, freshly released from the hospital, arriving at the Sherrif's office looking for his mother. Instead, he finds a scene of utter bedlam, with at least one deputy dead and the station's cell-block overrun with vegetation, which seems to have ripped one jail cell open from the inside. Cable then discovers a strange figure huddled in the corner, who appears to be a man carved out of moss-covered wood. When a horrified Matt asks who he is, the wooden man responds that he was Jason Woodrue before hissing and charging at Matt, whose screams are cut short as we hear Woodrue continue to growl after Matt fires all six shots from his gun.