Swamp Thing (Volume 2) Issue 63

## "Loose Ends (Reprise)"

"*Chester, lately I've been working with* old *people, whose kids have stuck them in a home with a lot of people they don't* know *and I just think "*Christ*", you know? No... No, I don't want to be alone.*"
―Abby Cable
## Synopsis

### "Loose Ends (Reprise)"

Somewhere in Louisiana, a great beam of light appears, and crashes to the ground. Swamp Thing has returned to Earth, finally. Meanwhile, Abby Cable visits her comatose husband Matt at the Terrebonne Parish General Hospital.

Back at Abby's house, Liz Tremayne wakes to the sound of the doorbell, and finds Chester Williams waiting outside. He asks if Abby is around, and she explains where Abby is, inviting Chester in anyway. Liz is embarrassed of how she relies on Abby so much, but Chester reassures her that she isn't responsible for the damage that her "husband" Dennis Barclay did to her, adding that he thinks she's beautiful. As he heads for the hospital, Liz's confidence is bolstered by his words, and she decides to take a bath.

Somewhere, Gus Foley brings a bouquet of roses to a woman he met recently. His arm is still sore from the recoil of the rocket launcher he used to help destroy the Swamp Thing in Gotham City. As he attempts to hand her the bouquet, the number of flowers within it grows higher and higher until they spill out of the paper wrapping, engulfing him. He realizes too late that this is the Swamp Thing's revenge. The roses wrap around his body tightly, and crush him to death.

Chester arrives at the hospital, looking for Abby, but he happens to overhear a nurse talking about a Mrs. Monroe. He realizes that this is the wife of his acquaintance Wallace Monroe whom he met in Gotham. He finds Wallace outside of his wife's room. Wallace admits that he gave his piece of the Swamp Thing's tuber to his wife, and the hospital had called to tell him later that she had lost consciousness, but seemed ecstatic. Even so, he still feels that he can never make up for what he did to her. Chester leaves him to his grief, and Wallace discovers that his wife has already died. An orderly passes on a final message of love and thanks from her to him.

Somewhere in Connecticut, Paul Skinner visits his mother. She tucks him in, and as he falls asleep, blossoms from the peach tree outside slowly float in through the window. He dreams of being embraced by his mother as the room fills with more and more blossoms. Mrs. Skinner brings her son some cocoa, and when she opens the bedroom door, she discovers that the room has been filled with blossoms, and her son has suffocated.

Sadly, Abby realizes that there is nothing between Matthew and herself, nor was there anything for a long time before he went into the coma. As she leaves, she finds Chester waiting outside for her. Rather than work on their eco-group, Abby suggests that they go for a walk in the swamps together.

At a retreat owned by the D.D.I., Mr. Cutley refuses to answer the phone. He takes a walk in the garden, reassuring himself that despite recent break-ins at the D.D.I. offices, he is safe from the Swamp Thing. Suddenly, the grass around him grows higher and higher. He finds himself trapped in a maze of thorny bushes, learning that he will be trapped in that maze for at least a week.

In the swamps, Chester admits that he had found and given up the Swamp Thing's tuber. Abby admires his selflessness, noting that while he had given up the tuber, she had wanted Swamp Thing all to herself. She is angry that despite the fact that he was killed, nobody was brought to justice.

At the D.D.I. offices, Mr. Wicker has been sleeping there under the watch of two security people. They bring him a sandwich, and try to convince him to leave the office. Mr. Wicker has rightly grown paranoid that the Swamp Thing is still at large. He killed all of the foliage and grass outside the building, just in case. When the security men have their back turned, Wicker eats his sandwich, only to discover that the lettuce on the sandwich is coming alive, and growing out of every orifice. The agents stare in horror as Mr. Wicker takes on the shape of a small tree.

Back in the swamps, Chester discovers some tubers, and shows them to Abby, noting that if they had been old, they would have rotted already. Suddenly, the ground begins shaking beneath them, and Abby is swept up in the arms of the Swamp Thing, joyfully reunited.

## Appearances

### "Loose Ends (Reprise)"

#### Individuals

* Swamp Thing
* Abby Cable
* Chester Williams
* Liz Tremayne
* Defense Department Intelligence
	+ Dwight Wicker ***(Dies)***
	+ Mr. Cutley ***(Dies)***
	+ Paulie Skinner ***(Dies)***
	+ Gus Foley ***(Dies)***
	+ Ron
	+ Don
* Matt Cable
* Wallace Monroe
* Treasure Monroe ***(Dies)***
* Ken
* Annette
* Angel
* Skinner's Mother

#### Locations

* Louisiana
	+ Terrebonne Parish
		- Houma
* Connecticut

## External links

* *Swamp Thing (Volume 2)* Issue 63 on DC Wiki
* *Swamp Thing (Volume 2)* Issue 63 on Comic Vine