Swamp People recap tonight is all about the unforgiving heat and humidity of Louisiana, while the underlying theme is really all about the importance of family.
Family saves your bacon in the Bayou, having them nearby and ready to help at a moment’s notice.
For Ronnie, it’s having a concerned mother who makes him electrolyte juice to keep from cramping. For Troy, it’s about coming home after a brutal day of fishing to unwind with his family.
Mr. Daniel Edgar has a backup system in place with eldest son Joey who looks out for his old man. For Willie Edwards, it’s an acidic cure-all and all about sharing the knowledge acquired in a lifetime to kin to keep them alive and prospering.
Where do we begin?
Swamp on Fire is the episode title, and we open in the final week of gator season. And y’all, it’s hot, hotter than you can stand.
Mother nature has struck with a vengeance, with temperatures over 100 in the swamp, which is akin to hell with steam. The engines hate on the heat too, and this episode demonstrates the misery one experiences when you run a car or boat in this hotcha swelter.
And at 7 AM, it is 90 degrees with 90% humidity. That ain’t right.
Ahead of the brutal midday, Terral and Troy are already out and working. Troy says: “It was humid it was muggy it was unbearable.”
So hot, in fact, the stink is baked out of the rotten chicken. Beef melt is now what’s for gator bait dindin as Terral keeps the beef melt (rotted beef spleen) moist…and how does he not barf up all over their boat is a feat of superhuman strength y’all.
Meanwhile, Big Tee and Mr. Daniel head to the marsh to hunt, open sun and blazing hot. Big Tee makes “magic juice,” and you really don’t want to know.
Okay, I’ll tell you.
Take rotten chicken juice and let it sit in the sun for days to get extra ripe, and you have your bayou perfume. Dead alligators and direct sun are not a good mix either, and Tee looks like he’s about to stroke out.
The Willies
Willie Edwards and Little Willie are next at bat and today’s lesson? Excessive heat needs a strategy. We learn Willie had an actual stroke a few years back. Pickle juice, light clothing, and a lot of economy of movement is his plan.
They head to deeper, cooler waters and plan to treble hook an 11-foot beast. As the episode progresses, the two goof around. Willie don’t play. He pushes little Willie, who gets waterlogged in the boots. They get a feisty one on the line in Bayou Sorrel, and Willie pops him with a handheld pistol, saying: “We gotta brute son!” Hilarity ensues.
They investigate the shoreline and then disaster: Little Willie gets a charlie horse cramp. Willie says when they get up in your stomach, it’s bad. Pickle juice to the rescue as Willie drinks it because he says he is a “full-blooded man.” I have no idea what that means. But if it works, bravo Mr. Man.
Che Che and Ronnie
About 125 miles east in Biloxi marsh, Dead Eye Che Che and Ronnie are two Caucasians melting in the sun. “It’s just starting baby, the oven is on warm,” says Ronnie, adding: “It’s just disgustin’!”
Last year Ronnie went to the emergency room from heatstroke. This year, Ronnie’s mom sent him a homemade electrolyte drink.
There is no relief, and the two are soggy and hating life. Despite all this misery, they bag the biggest gator of the season it looks like, and then Ronnie barfs his brains out.
The heat goes on…
Now with 96% humidity and Troy and Terral are in Grand Bayou looking for the shady side of the swamp sucking on citrus. Their rebaiting with beef melt continues. The two get a beastie on the line and rue the fact they didn’t listen to their mamas and stayed in school.
Over to Mr. Daniel and Big Tee, their airboat is not starting up. The heat is 103 degrees, and they are out in the open water, and the gators are cooking in the boat. It ain’t good.
Tee’s a big man, and the heat is especially dangerous for him. But in an hour, there’s a light at the end of their dark tunnel. Like a marshy miracle, Zac Catchem and son Joey Edgar arrive on the scene and rescue the two and save the day.
The end is near
Ending out the episode, Ronnie and Ashley are tented up and trying to stay cool. Ronnie’s remarks as Ashley reels in a gator border on an x-rated chat. He’s expressive, and let’s just leave it at that. The roll in a 10-footer and the two are knackered and head back to the docks.
Willie and Little Willie wrap it up and have one more goliath to bag. “That’s a big ol’ alligator,” says Willie, and if I had a nickel for every time that line was uttered, I would not be writing up these recaps. Little Willie pops “the big ole gator,” and it is, at 11 feet and over 500 pounds.
“Let’s get up on outta here,” says Big Willie.
Good advice. Pierre Part sees the sundown as Troy hangs with his grandsons, and they get ice cream as PawPaw reminisces about when his sons were little too. His kin have been there since the 1700s, and he knows where home is at. Life is so much simpler when y’all know that fact.
See y’all next week!
Swamp People airs Thursdays at 9/8c on History Channel.