THE SWARM – Season 1 Episode 6 – SPOILERS

The tsunami at the end of episode 5 killed thousands, including the romantic interests of Professor Johanson (Alexander Karim) and Charlie Wagner (Leonie Benesch). The event was a repeat of the Storegga Slide that happened in the same location 8,000 years ago.

Widely separated coastal areas across the world experienced massive invasions of vent crabs (Bythograeidae), and the crabs carried the same universally fatal pathogen first encountered in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France. Charlie was saved from the wave in the nick of time by Johanson who had traveled by helicopter to the Shetland Islands to consult with her.

In a televised interview, Dr. Roche (Cécile de France) advances the notion that the recent marine and coastal disasters are being directed by an unknown intelligence. Professor Johanson, who shares this view, gathers a group of like-minded scientists to look into the nature of this hypothetical being.

Marine biologists Leon Anawak (Joshua Odjick) and Alicia Delaware (Rosabell Laurenti Sellers) are brought to Germany, as are Dr. Roche and astrophysicist Samantha Crowe (Sharon Duncan-Brewster). Charlie’s co-researcher Rahim Amir (Eidin Jalali) also joins the group, but Professor Lehmann (Barbara Sukowa) is protective of her scientific reputation, and refuses to participate.

Safely back at the Institute for Marine Biology in Kiel, Germany where she is based, Charlie, who has lost two close friends in these attacks decides to relax by having a swim (in a pool, not in the ocean). Once Leon arrives, he also makes use of the pool.

Samantha works with an organization very much like SETI that keeps logs of sounds, both from space and from the Earth. Sam reports that an unusual signal emanating from the Arctic and from the Antarctic has a structure similar to the chittering heard behind the whale song recorded off Vancouver Island. Variations of rhythms, clicks, and scratches, all of the same pitch and frequency, suggests a language, and the group decides that an expedition to the Arctic to attempt communication with what Professor Johanson has dubbed “The Yrr”, is the obvious next step. Billionaire Aito MIfune (Takuya Kimura) offers to finance them.

After determining that The Yrr exist, no attempt is made to infer the nature of the beast from its behaviour, probably because Johanson’s team does not include a psychologist. Asked if he has considered less outré explanations for things, Johanson explains he has considered and ruled out several other options, including decaying nuclear waste containers, a hostile state, or an experiment gone wrong. The method being used for delivering the bacterium to its target is far too complex for any land dweller to choose. There would be easier ways. Though Johanson rejects the idea, a human science experiment run amok still seems possible.

The Yrr clearly have a different ethical sense from humans. The exploitation of dolphins by the American navy was mentioned in an earlier episode, but to genetically modify other species, turning them into weapons and sending them on suicide missions takes animal exploitation to an entirely new level.

The Yrr‘s attacks seem to happen in the places where they will do the most harm, and beings who live under the sea have no obvious way of perceiving land-based activities. Either they have prodigious powers of deductive reasoning, or they have spies. Since The Yrr can manipulate the nervous systems of other creatures (such as whales) perhaps they can extract information from the brains of sailors lost at sea. So far, the show has discussed none of these possibilities.

Rahim decides not to join the voyage to the Arctic,and goes home to his husband. Dr. Roche’s visits her family in central France, and makes her ex-husband Michael (Gerald Kyd) suffer through a detailed explanation of his responsibilities; Alicia travels to Italy to visit her mother Francesca (Valeria Milillo), who tries, without success, to persuade Alicia not to go. Sam visits her wife Sophia (Violetta Calderini-Jackson), who is supportive. “Sam,” she says, “this is something that goes beyond what you or I want. Will you be proven right? Who knows? But you’re doing your part to find an answer. And God knows we need answers right now. And I will be here, waiting for you, when you get back.”

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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.