The Swamp Thing joins Constantine, Frank and Judith in the Quincavi forest of Chiloé, for their planned assault on the Brujería Central Committee's caves. John's puzzled at Judith's appearance, as she was to have gotten in touch with Sister Anne-Marie and Benjamin. Judith says that she couldn't locate Sister Anne-Marie (whom the reader already knows is dead) and that Benjamin's mother refused to let him go off with strangers again. Despite these snags, Constantine decides to proceed with the plan: the Swamp Thing is to breach the central chamber directly via the Green and attack, while the others enter the caves by foot to prevent anyone from fleeing.
However, nothing goes as planned. Finding that the cave entrance forks, John sends Frank and Judith one way while he takes the other...and an invunche knocks him out. Meanwhile, the Swamp Thing discovers that the Brujería have set up a magical barrier in the Green, preventing him from entering the plant life around the caves. So he looks for a plant that's within the caves, unprotected by the ward. And in the other fork of the entrance, Judith seduces Frank in the dark.
Constantine regains consciousness, finding himself chained inside a pit within the cave's central chamber. He defiantly answers the head Brujo's taunts, but is unprepared for Judith, entering alone, and revealing that she's betrayed him. Judith says that the cult sent an invunche after her in London, and gave her a choice of joining them, or dying. Although the Brujería is an all-male sect, women may volunteer to be transformed into voladoras, or bird messengers. Judith tells John the truth about Sister Anne-Marie's fate, and adds that she herself killed Benjamin and his mother. Then she dumps Frank's head out of a sack.
Unmoved at any of her former comrades' fates, Judith supplies the last piece of the puzzle that is the Brujería's plot: they intend to summon the Original Darkness, from before creation, to overthrow Heaven. Meanwhile, the pit John is in begins to fill with murky water.
The head Brujo, confident of Constantine's death, guides Judith's transformation into a bird, having her swallow a magical herb that makes her vomit up her intestines and leave her empty body to wither, with only her head remaining. He places a black pearl—the distilled essence of humankind's increased paranormal belief over the past year—in between her teeth and guides her head to become a bird's head, then to grow legs, a tail and wings. Meanwhile, the flower Judith had picked in the forest and put in her hair falls to the ground, finally providing an entry point for the Swamp Thing. Fighting off the invunche, the swamp creature hears the nearly-drowned Constantine shouting at him to stop Judith's transformation. Instead, he saves John. As the head Brujo releases the voladora outside the caves, John inwardly fears all is lost.
Meanwhile, Abby shows up for work and learns that her relationship with the Swamp Thing is front-page news. Before she can react, her boss Deanna, angry and sullen, ushers her into her office, where two police officers are waiting. Although the Courier claims that her lover is a man in a costume, police throughout Louisiana have been reporting sightings of the Swamp Thing over the past year and are aware he isn't human. Therefore, Abby is now under arrest as a sex offender.
Tropes:
- Anti-Magic: The Brujería places a ward on the vegetation surrounding the caves, in order to prevent the Swamp Thing from animating it and thereby gaining entrance. However, they didn't count on Judith unthinkingly bringing a non-warded flower into the cave with her as a hair decoration.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: The exposure of Abby's relationship with the Swamp Thing results in her arrest. Officer Peggy Long considers her worse than "guys who do it with animals and laundry."
- Creepy Crows: The issue begins with a sort of stealth Title Drop that doubles as Foreshadowing. Before Frank, Judith and he descend to the caves, Constantine sees a flock of crows (generally called a "murder of crows," though the title phrase doesn't appear in the story) and notes that they're an omen of bad luck.
- Fade to Black: Used throughout the issue, when: crows blot out the sun; Constantine's matches go out; Constantine blacks out from the invunche's attack; Judith seduces and kills Frank; and finally with an extreme close-up on the headline about Abby and the Swamp Thing.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:Constantine: So it's just you and me and Frank up against a load of sorcerors, and you don't even believe in magic!
Judith: Well, maybe I do believe. I can change my mind, can't I? - Join or Die: The choice the Brujería offered Judith.
- Kill the God: Judith says that the Brujería's goal is to "bring back the Original Darkness and smash the throne of the Divine Pretender."
- Meaningful Name: "Judith" is the feminine form of "Judah," or, in its familiar New Testament form, "Judas."
- Momma's Boy: Discussed when Judith reports that Benjamin's mother refused to let him take part in the Chiloé mission because "she was sick of [him] running off with funny-looking strangers." ("Benjamin's mum won't let him out to play, eh?" John snarks.) Subverted when Judith reveals that she was lying: she herself murdered Benjamin and his mother.
- Must Have Nicotine: When Constantine's flashlight batteries die shortly after he enters the caves, instead of concentrating on where he's going, or on possible dangers waiting in the darkness, he becomes fixated on successfully lighting a cigarette. Of course, even that goes wrong for him, as he burns his fingers on one match, then spills the rest of them.These things'll be the bloody death of me. Still, I suppose at least that means nothing else will be.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Faced with a choice of death or betrayal, Judith chooses betrayal.
- Painful Transformation: The first stage of Judith's transformation into a bird involves puking up her innards. Her frequent groans afterward imply that the subsequent stages are no more pleasant.
- Precursors: The head Brujo claims that his sect predates humankind.
- Primordial Chaos: The Original Darkness, revealed at last as the entity the Brujería wishes to summon.
- Shout-Out: In Chilote mythology, a volodora is a witch who transforms herself into a bird in order to serve as a sorceror's messenger. Like Judith, she does so by vomiting up her intestines into a container. Unlike Judith, she can transform back, as long as she can find her intestines afterward.
- A Simple Plan: Just have the Swamp Thing shoot up into the Brujería's headquarters and take them, while the other team members prevent their escape. Simple, isn't it? Not when one of your teammates has turned traitor. Nor when there's a magical ward on the surrounding vegetation. Nor when an unexpected forking path splits up your party, so that when one of your teammates unexpectedly kills the other, you aren't there to stop her and neither is anyone around to stop an invunche from attacking you.
- Transformation Sequence: Judith, with the assistance of a magical root and the head Brujo's guidance, turns into a bird.
- Unspoken Plan Guarantee: The story reveals Constantine's plan just before it launches, so of course it fails.
- Vomit Discretion Shot: Judith's vomiting of her intestines takes place off panel.
