Swamp People The Cannibal opens in the home stretch of alligator season. And the entire season has fixated on bulls and now tonight, cannibal gators. Whether protecting their harem or just being plain old ornery, male gators are out of control on the bayou.
We begin with the Landry sons at Duffy’s. They mull fishing in the Big Bull Bayou as Chase gives us some Cajun wisdom about going to the unlikely quieter spots to snare a beast.
Cannibals are in the Bayou
Jacob and Don head out, and immediately a monster is in front of them. Don is knocked out of the boat. Don is now alligator bait. His hat is nearly a casualty but is saved by a soggy marshmallow man.
A hundred miles east outside of Violet, Big Tee and Mr. Daniel are on the case. They are feeling the pressure as they are behind on tag fills. All Tee can do is aim the gun. The old man is wrangling a leviathan, hoping not to get dragged. As they pull the gator in the boat, a gator tooth is extracted out of its head, so now the cannibal gator legend drives their story for the night.
Meanwhile, Joey Edgar is solo, and Zac Catchem had to help his kin with a pending hurricane about to hit Florida.
Joey muses he was a lot thinner, younger, and stronger when he hunted alone. He is pragmatic and acutely aware he can get injured in a second if not vigilant. Joey nearly had him, until he outwitted the eldest Edgar son. “It’s gonna be tough, but I can get it done,” he says.
Chase Landry is a Natural Born Killer
The Atchafalaya River is where sniper boy Chase is on the hunt. He has skills with a rifle and loves to pick them off from a distance. He’s full of big bull stories and advice as Jacob and Don pull their lines, and it’s not good. Another cannibal gator got to their little one trapped on a line.
Its head is MIA. Gators are pretty ruthless. They get up on land and follow the big tracks, and Jacob is worried again. Don doesn’t seem scared, but Jacob knows better. A straightened hook leads Jacob to believe that a monster is hiding nearby. The two eventually get a dinosaur on the line, and Don nearly got a tail whoopin’.
But it was not their cannibal gator. It never is this early in the episode!
Back in Violet, Tee and Mr. Daniel are running to stand still. “Every day when you in the swamp you looking at signs…nature always gives you signals. You just have to know how to read ’em.”
They pull in a ginormous male. All bit up too from their alleged cannibal. Daniel says: “They love to eat each other,” and proceeds to cut out the tongue of the gator they just caught as new bait.
So far, Joey Edgar is sucking wind. He reminisces about his glory solo days and hopes that Zac’s family is okay. A downed line may break his losing spell, as he grabs his rifle and heads on land which is PSA time to tell you that is never a good idea, to get at least one tag filled. He walks up on a huge monster. Bang, bang out go the lights. The nine-footer never has a chance.
And 25 miles away in Big Bull Bayou, Chase is solo too. He is picking off males with his rifle, filling his tags left and right, and still on the hunt for “big daddy.” Chase is unusually full of anecdotes and advice tonight.
Don is the danger seeker of the lot
On the river side of Big Bull Bayou are Jacob and Don, thrilled for a tree shaker. Don has a maniacal laugh as he says: “He huge, he huge!” This gator wants out. Jacob takes the shot, and a ten-footer is loaded onboard, still not their giant.
Don is taking it personally now, and then as if on cue, a carp jumps up out of the water and slaps Don on the head. Free bait!
Later on down the road, the two get their tree shaker and cap off their day with a “big one,” and Don is convinced that is their cannibal culprit. It’s beer thirty!
Now 100 miles outside of Violet, we are getting makeshift tongue bait lessons still from Mr. Daniel, and then discover another one of their lines is down. Their intended tagged victim is mauled to hell and is also chomped on by… the elusive cannibal.
Floating by them is a ripped out gator tenderloin, a by-product of this voracious gator who is hunting exactly where they are.
Later down the road, they revisit their gator bait lines, and a creepy one-eyed gator plays possum and then attacks their boat. They wind up killing a 12.5 foot 500+ pound nightmare and call it good.
Joey is fighting a battle and comes up on a downed line. He pulls a Willie Edwards and wrangles and shoots the ten-footer at the same time.
Back to Chase, who is a Natural Born Killer and shoots a Godzilla from 500 plus feet and nails him, then he can’t find his carcass as he tries to drag the area he shot it.
Dinner time, a Keto friendly meal is served
Finally, it’s dinner time y’all. Back at St. Mary’s Seafood, Big Tee, Joey, and Mr. Daniel are keeping to their Keto diets and eating a bacon-wrapped (ten pounds) Creole butter injected pair of gators grilling with whole chickens roasting inside of their mouths.
Tee says that they cook, that’s their party. “Family is everything,” says Mr. Daniel.
See y’all next week, good lawd willing. Mask up.
Swamp People airs Thursdays at 9/8c on History Channel.