Having survived the skirmish in the swamp, young Ellie is recovering well and Abby gets some unlikely advice on how to tackle this disease.

There’s a strange fantasy/dream sequence that opens this episode, with human Alec in conflict with bad guy Munson, who Swamp Thing has recently dismembered. Whether or not this becomes a regular method of showing what’s going on in our titular plant-based hero’s mind, it’s one of many new ideas that helps press this series forwards.

Any fear that the show would become a disease procedural or ‘monster of the week’ show is soon allayed by the multiple storylines which twist and thread their way through the narrative like the tendrils that uncoil from Swamp Thing. From the affair between Avery Sunderland and Sheriff Lucilia to the visions of dead daughter Shawna that only mother Angela Dan see, to the bug-laden disease The Rot, there’s a lot going on.

CDC scientist Abby Arcane is still our anchor, fighting both the deep resentment that so many townsfolk harbour against her and the multiple pathogens attacking the populace, though her return visit to the swamp… at night… alone… is ill-judged and seems to exist purely so that she can have a one-to-one with Swamp Alec and he can give her the key to crack the problem. Oh, and character Dan Cassidy (Sharknado’s Ian Ziering) is better known to comic book fans as the Blue Devil – this will be no coincidence!

Verdict: Infidelity, murder, body horror, conspiracies, intrigue – Swamp Thing is fully loaded with prime fantasy TV content, dragging you in to its murky swamp of bad deeds in the Deep South. And yes I’m still annoyed it’s been cancelled. 8/10

Nick Joy