THE SWARM – Season 1 Episode 8 – SPOILERS ⁓

Whales surround he research vessel Thorvaldson in the Greenland Sea as Japanese billionaire Aito Mifune (Takuya Kimura) arrives there by helicopter. Mifune gets a briefing from Professor Johanson (Alexander Karim), who describes the Yrr as “a single-cell organism that can coalesce into a larger multicellular mass. A single-cell organism that can act on its own, but also [as] a larger multi-cellular collective mass able to shift in shape and density.” Mifune learns that the first message from the Yrr was an image of the ocean floor as it would have looked 250 million years ago. Since no aquatic species can keep written records, that memory must have been recorded in the Yrr’s collective genetic structure, and passed from generation to generation.

Dr. Roche (Cécile de France) accidentally discovers that exposure to ketamine kills the Yrr. When she informs the others of her discovery, a discussion ensues about what should be done with this information. Mifune thinks such a weapon would allow them to negotiate from a position of strength. Sam (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) voices the majority scientific opinion, saying simply: “We have to know.” Charlie (Leonie Benesch) puts forward the notion that the Yrr are not a threat. “I don’t think they were trying to kill Alicia,” she says. “I think they were trying to find out about us”, explaining that the Yrr might not have been aware that humans were capable of talking to them. Professor Johanson argues against weaponizing the chemical.

Despite Jorhanson’s best efforts, and perhaps influenced by news of a tsunami that struck the West African coast, a consensus is reached. They will test ketamine’s efficacy as a weapon against the Yrr. Robotics expert Luther Roscowitz (Klaas Heufer-Umlauf) and Dr. Roche put a few drops of the stuff into the launch bay where the Yrr are known to be.

The Yrr in the pool are killed by the ketamine, but they react to their impending death by rearing up and emitting a banshee-like shriek that shatters many windows and knocks out power on the ship. Roscowitz is killed by the sonic blast, and the ship is quickly surrounded by glowing orgainisms which push the vessel against an iceberg to turn it, and then drag it sideways toward some unknown destination.

Next the ship is ringed by icebergs that bring it to a sudden stop. Riku Sato (Takehiro Hira) and Dr. Roche are evacuated by helicopter, along with the wounded Alicia Delaware (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers) We learn that the nearest ship is at Longyearbyen in Svalbard, and it is 1.7 hours away. (Assuming a speed of 30 knots, that would put it about 90 kilometers to the east.) As Sato heads for the helicopter, Mifune tells him: “The work we’ve started isn’t finished yet.” Aito Mifune remains on the ship, putting himself at risk. One might expect that from a zealot of some sort, but not from a billionaire financier.

AFter the Yrr’s counter-attack, It is decided to try to communicate in a different way. Charlie will deliver Luther’s body into the Yrr cloud after injecting it with a sample of live Yrr taken before the ketamine was released, hoping that the sea-dwelling intelligence will merge with him, giving them a more favourable picture of human psychology. (Luther is a good candidate for this, because when he died he was feeling personally responsible for Alicia’s condition.)

Once in the undersea Yrr cloud, Charlie decides that Roscowitz is too far gone, and the only option is to inject herself with Yrr cells and take his place. When she does, she is encircled by glowing, sometimes helical strands. On the surface, the ice that had surrounded the ship disappears. The implication is that the ship will be all right now.

Charlie is washed ashore on a black beach. (The closest would be on the west coast of Svalbard, but the place looks a lot like Skagsanden Beach in Norway, far to the south.) She seems unaffected by the cold. When she opens her eyes, and their colour has changed to a startlingly bright blue..

Charlie knows instinctively that the Yrr are not hostile. When Leon (Joshua Odjick) asked her how she knew that the Yrr didn’t want to hurt Alicia, she replied: “I didn’t. I just felt it.”

After the sinking of the Juno, Charlie described the process of drowning to Leon. “It doesn’t matter how fast it happens; nobody drowns quickly. Your mind panics first, trying to process what’s happening, your senses in overdrive. And then, fear. You think it can’t be happening and then you realize it is happening. You try to fight it, try to stop it, even though you have no power over it. Seconds slow down to – not minutes – to nothing. Time no longer exists. You pray to something, anything, and maybe, maybe something listens but maybe it doesn’t. No matter what, it’s not fast.”

Charlie talks to Leon frequently, and in Episode Seven, she tells him about losing her parents to the sea. “Everyone thinks I should hate the ocean; be afraid to go anywhere near it,” she says “but it makes me feel closer to them. Makes me feel like they’re there, keeping me safe.” It seems possible that the Yrr absorbed her parents many years ago, but only partially, because their thoughts were clouded by the terror of drowning.

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Miscellaneous Info

According to the blog Savage Planets, Frank Schätzing based several of the characters in his novel on real people as thanks for providing scientific information. They were: biologists Gerhard Bohrmann and Heiko Sahling of the University of Bremem, marine biologist Erwin Suess of the University of Kiel, marine biologist John Ford of the University of British Columbia, and Jill Tarter, the former director of SETI.

The total run time of the eight episodes as listed on the ZDF webiste as 363 minutes. The episodes aired on the CW have a total run time of 341 minutes.

A second season of The Swarm has yet to be confirmed. Julia Staskowiak, writing for Kino.de, said that Barbara Eder, who directed four episodes, confirmed that ideas for a season two exist, but declined to elaborate.

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All 8 episodes of THE SWARM can be streamed on The CW website in the US, on ZDF in Germany, and on Hulu in Japan.

* Last Updated 4 weeks ago ago