DC Recap Summer Session, Week 6

17 Aug

Welcome back! We got another round of recaps of Wonder Woman, Constantine, and Swamp Thing to get to, so how about we do that right now? We good?

“Wonder Woman vs. Gargantua”

Wonder Woman faces a new kind of Nazi threat besides just another round of Nazi spies: a trained giant gorilla named Gargantua! Gargantua is put into play to recover a captured Nazi agent under Army protection, and suffice to say, our heroes are a little surprised to hear a giant ape is responsible for stealing their newest asset. But with that task accomplished, Gargantua’s trainer thinks their trained gorilla would be useful in one more mission the Nazis have failed at: capturing Wonder Woman! Well, she believes it so much that she’s left a clue for Wonder Woman to find them, and she does.

Wonder Woman however is able to capture Gargantua without having to seriously injure him, but not retrieve the kidnapped Nazi agent. But Gargnatua’s evil trainer is still convinced her ape can defeat Wonder Woman, so she steals him back, and tries to get Gargantua back on the “kill Wonder Woman” track. Good thing Wonder Woman is able to convince Gargantua that’s she’s his friend, capture all those Nazis, and return Gargantua to his home in Africa. Well, return him after stealing him from the circus he escaped from, but hey…

Hopefully she’ll get that guy out of that ape suit soon, because he must be sweating pounds off by now.

–In the guest cast this time, we get veteran character actor Robert Loggia as our main Nazi bad guy.

–Not a bad ape costume for this era, but boy, once you get close (or in HD, in my case) that thing looks so much like a guy in an ape suit.

–Did anyone tell that circus about Gargantuan being taken back home? I mean, maybe warn a business before you take away a big part of their income!

–I think Diana suggested apes are on Paradise Island, which…why not at this point?

“Rage of Caliban”

Constantine and Chaz head down to Alabama for Halloween, but not for any trick or treating. A strange murder has occurred where the parents of a little girl are brutally killed, but she is left unscathed. Constantine finds out there’s a link between this and other related murders, now happening at an exponentially faster rate. A meeting with the first kid who had this happen to them (who is now grown up and in a mental asylum) leads John to deduce a demon is possessing these kids, and to seek the newest victim of this demon before another batch of parents dies.

Constantine tries to exorcise the demon from the kid and realizes that the demon is not just some demon from Hell: it’s one connected to the rage of that victim in the mental asylum, and it’s acting out that man’s rage towards his own dead parents! So Constantine corners the possessed kid in a Halloween carnival and expels the demon back to Hades, which means no more parent killing in the future. Oh and if you wondered why I didn’t mention Zed in this, it’s because she’s not in this episode. She’s busy, I guess.

Haunted House Hunters with John Constantine, coming soon to HGTV.

–This episode is directed by Neil Marshall, who has been a genre favorite for directing The Descent, and recently the Hellboy reboot.

–Fun note with that Sword of Truth that Chas holds early on. Chas has some issues to talk about.

–I’ll never not love that image of Constantine grabbing a smoke while lounging on a truck as trick or treaters stroll by.

–“You know, I’ve never punched an angel, but you are begging for it, mate.”

“The Price You Pay”

We have a few things to deal with, and surprisingly the biggest one isn’t those hunters who are trying to capture Swamp Thing, and fail rather badly. One big plot point this episode is we learn more about how Alec ended up being shot and left for dead, and that’s Deputy Matt was actually responsible for the deed! He was doing it to protect his mom, who is under the thumb of Avery, but things get complicated when he realizes Alec is still alive, and still a little vague as to who shot him in the first place. And that’s not even the scariest encounter here.

Daniel Cassidy is still comatose after that crowbar to the skull last episode, but Woodrue decides to test that sample he found as a serum on the unconscious Daniel. Daniel wakes up, more from his curse reacting to that serum, and the reaction is enough to interest Avery in more of Woodrue’s research. Also an odd note, that “phantom stranger” Swampy ran into last time pops up in a flashback with Daniel, and he’s the one who gave him that Blue Devil curse! And Abby somehow gets to see Alec as a human again, which I’m sure will be explained in the remaining episodes this show has…or not…

The Sharknado franchise will mess you up in ways we can’t imagine.

–Matt is probably telling his mom about Alec not being dead at the end of the episode, isn’t he? I wonder how that is going to go as Matt threatened earlier to transfer out of Marais after revealing his involvement in “killing” Alec.

–Is Liz going to stay quiet on that Sunderland story after what happened to Daniel? She seems convinced she might.

–Of course Woodrue suggests to Avery that keeping Abby on a leash might be beneficial.

–Those giant splinters to the face, man. Yikes.

NEXT TIME: Wonder Woman fights a Nazi plot to create earthquakes, Constantine meets a minister with the power to heal, and Swamp Thing takes Abby on an eventful tour of his home!