Jason Blood invites the reluctant Abby for tea, revealing that he knows she's an Arcane and that she'll be starting work at Elysium Lawns the next day. Although she initially mistakes his mention of Paul and the children there as a threat, he manages to warn her they're in danger and that she must try saving as many of them as possible.
The next day, Abby shows up at work, whereupon a naked boy chanting "Animal" attacks her. Her new coworker Tim pulls him off and helps restrain him, mentioning that all the children are acting unusually wild today. Sure enough, Abby spends much of the day helping the staff restrain other kids. Her boss Deanna shows her that not just Paul but all of their charges are now drawing pictures of the Monkey King. Abby speaks with Paul, who tells her that the monster will soon kill her by taking on the form of her greatest fear. He says no one believes him about the Monkey King. But Abby does.
That evening, back at their hotel, Abby and Matt fight over her resolve to go back to the Center and protect the kids because "they need somebody tonight." "And what if I need somebody tonight?" says Matt. "Or is Florence Nightingale above that kind of stuff?"
Realizing he's gone too far, Matt, by way of apology, suggests Abby take the car but she's too angry to accept the keys from him, and heads off on foot for the swamp. She struggles to tell the Swamp Thing what's going on at Elysium Lawns, but he's already sensed something evil is coming and, taking her hand, runs there with her, though she fears they're already too late.
Inside the Center, the Monkey King, still treating Paul as his master and friend, pulls him from his bed and leads him one by one to the other children's rooms to feed on their terror by morphing into their greatest fears. Abby and the Swamp Thing sneak in through the back entrance, just in time to see the monster assume the shape of the greatest fear out of all the children: Jessica's molester father. As Abby and her friend attempt to calm and protect the children, the demon Etrigan bursts in through the roof and attacks the Monkey King.
Meanwhile, Matt, still drinking, feels remorse for his treatment of Abby and his failure to offer help. He goes after her in his car, but crashes into a tree.
Tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Implied with Jessica's father. Since Saga of the Swamp Thing was still subject to The Comics Code, the issue doesn't mention Jessica's abuse flat out, but suggests it with the Monkey King taking the distorted form of a man who tells her that her mother needn't know.
- Badass Boast: Etrigan:I am the one who comes to cage the ape.
I pay no heed to youth or purity.
I'll roast each fool that aids the beast's escape,
And drink their health tonight in Purgat'ry!
[...]
Feast, Jack-an-Ape! Eat hearty while you can...
Upon your neck's the breath of ETRIGAN! - Book Ends: Abby's thought, "It began with death...It began with blood...I guess it'll probably end the same way," appears shortly after the issue's beginning and shortly before the end.
- Drunk Driver: Matt, with predictable results.
- Every Car Is a Pinto: Matt's car seemingly explodes in a fireball and yellow halo. Subverted, as the next issue shows that the car and its driver are still there, albeit totalled and near-dead, respectively.
- Foreshadowing:
- As Matt resolves to go find Abby, "Our Insect Allies", a Wild Kingdom episode, accompanied by a picture of a fly, airs on TV. This foreshadows Arcane, in the body of a fly, possessing Matt.
- Etrigan ponders how unlikely it was that Paul's parents just happened to spell out the word that summoned the Monkey King and wonders if some other force arranged it. Later stories suggest this was Arcane, presumably via influencing Matt's power.
- Gratuitous Iambic Pentameter: Although Len Wein had Etrigan speaking in rhyme as early as DC Comics Presents #66, Moore is the writer who, with this and subsequent Swamp Thing issues, firmly established the demon as one who not only speaks entirely in verse but does so specifically in heroic quatrains (four-line iambic pentameter stanzas with an ABAB rhyme scheme) or, at the end of a speech, heroic couplets (rhyming pairs of lines in iambic pentameter). Not that all subsequent writers have held the character to either particular verse form.
- Hope Spot: Towards the end of the issue, it seems that Matt, feeling remorse over his treatment of Abby and resolving to go help her with the kids, is embarking on a Redemption Quest. Then, en route, he crashes his car into a tree.
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Matt accuses Abby of being "above" having sex.
- Madness Mantra: Vince, the boy who attacks Abby, chants the word "animal" over and over as he does so.
- Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: On the eve of the Monkey King's return, not only Paul but all the children draw pictures of it. These drawings reappear in the margins of the following issue's splash page.
- Quit Your Whining: Jason Blood cuts off Abby, who's mistaken him for a threat to Elysium Lawns and is angsting about the non-stop craziness in her life, by telling her he's uninterested in her self-pity and that she must focus on saving the children.
- Shout-Out:
- The issue begins with a quote from the 1955 thriller, The Night of the Hunter which, like this arc, concerns innocent yet resilient children in danger: "God save the little children! They abide and they endure."
- The issue ends with the narrative caption, "The night can make a man more brave...but not more sober." The panel, in which Matt crashes his car, also prominently features a Burma-Shave billboard, thus suggesting the following parody jingle:note
The night can make
A man more brave
But not more sober
Burma Shave - Surprise Car Crash: A drunken Matt crashes his car while going to look for Abby.
- Weirdness Magnet: Abby complains about being one: "Isn't there even a corner of my life that's safe from all this weirdness?"
