Abby and Alec have a meaningful conversation within a dream and Maria Avery turns the tables on her devious husband.

If last week’s episode missed the input of Virginia Madsen’s Marais matriarch, she’s back firing on all cylinders this week and it would appear that she’s had enough of her scheming husband, which in itself may not be a surprise, but you might be caught off guard by who she employs to do her dirty work. We’ve known right from the get-go that Marais is a town full of secrets, and said skeletons in closets have been carefully revealed to us in the first six weeks, but there’s a very significant piece of news shared by the Sheriff to her son Matt this week.

The episode picks up immediately from the end of the previous hour, with Abby seemingly speaking to a pre-Swamp Thing Alec. It’s soon explained that this happening in her mind, being under the influence of a hallucinogenic spore. Neither knows how long this interlude will last, but it provides ample time for a lot of exposition catch up. This is interrupted by Abby being infected by The Black Rot, and it’s apparent that just because she’s in a dream sequence, the consequences of this attack can still be fatal. Oh, and pantomime evil scientist Kevin Durand gets some credibility this week when we’re reminded that he’s being driven by the desire to find a cure to his wife’s Alzheimer’s. As the disease starts to take her, the more reckless he becomes.

Verdict: There’s no Cassidy or Madame Xanadu this week, allowing the main focus to be Abby/Alec and Averys/Cables. With Will Payton’s bad guy dumped in the swamp we surely must be building up to his transformation to the show’s big monster, and I can’t wait. Diseases and pathogens have never been such fun! 8/10

Nick Joy