Swamp People opened the episode tonight with eerie footage in black and white as Troy Landry and Joey Edgar each give their take on what they need to do.
The episode titled Leviathans is focusing on the big boys — the
Zak Catchem (I swear that is his name) and Joey Edgar were up at the crack of dawn to hunt. Lines were down and the gator on the first one was described as a “giant” and “smart monster” by Joey. He has called this behemoth “Bulldozer.”
So this Bulldozer has bedeviled Joey with his Houdini-like moves.
Fans know Houdini was R.J. Molinere’s nemesis last year and finally he caught him.
Over on the Atchafalaya River, Dusty and Jacob are on the prowl. Dusty wore crocs last week and got bit on the foot inside the boat by a mostly dead gator, which is their sneaky specialty.
Not today! He was sporting custom python Chuck Taylors I kid you not! He had a Russian shoemaker use python skins to create these custom sneakers. They’re badass too!
We learned that Dusty has a boat called the general that can clear the 6 inches of water they need to in order to get to a purported honey hole.
On the hunt, too, are Ronnie and Dead Eye “Che,” as Ronnie was now busting out the “oooh papa” as he described the “anything can happen” vibe as the two walked in the swamp. These two were baiting the
Their beast was called Sasquatch and they wrestled a feisty gator (turned out to not be Sasquatch) until Ashley nailed the smaller beastie between the eyes. That girl is a dead eye dick!
Their further adventure turned up a downed line that was broken off, and the remnant trail revealed this was one ginormous reptile. These guys spent the entire episode hunting gators on land and the last one chased them back in their boat until Che popped him dead.
“It’s not Sasquatch,” said Ronnie. This group failed in their mission to capture their “leviathan.”
Meanwhile, Troy and Terral were on the hunt for a nuisance predator who locals swear was terrorizing their town.
Troy recalled the hunt for “Big Head” and when Clint and he caught this first man-eater alligator that was not scared of attacking people.
This new gator is dubbed “Big Head Junior.” Terral also said that dying by gator is a “brutal death” and we believe him. You may not die right away as the gator rolls you around and then stuffs your carcass in a log somewhere to feast on you intermittently.
Their first gator made Troy shoot about five times. This is not their Big Head Junior. Normally Troy is the one who complains if Chase uses too many bullets.
But aside from that, these guys were AARP-gator killing machines hell bent like impatient teenagers for the “shaker.”
Eventually, these two got a big gator, but their Big Head Junior was still out there somewhere.
As they progressed in the episode and had yet another one on the line, Big Head Junior was confirmed as it nearly yanked Terral in the drink.
“You got to kill him, man,” Terral said to Troy. The two wrassled Big Head Junior up into the boat relieved they got public enemy number one from that area.
Back on the Atchafalaya river, Dusty and Jacob were in his rickety little boat called the General and Jacob was rightfully scared. They clear the neck of the cove and then it was on like Donkey Kong.
Until it’s was not… foiled by the elusive gator, left to wonder where he went.
It took a while, but never-before-used underwater footage gave viewers the gator’s underwater POV and it was wild. Boat almost sank too, but they got their monster.
Joey and Zak checked their knots and Joey thought the gator they were hunting was the largest of any that Edgar may have encountered.
He and Zak rolled up on a monster and Zak’s gun jammed. This was Bulldozer for sure.
Bulldozer broke yet another line. Now “it is personal” according to Joey. Joey said he had a trick up his sleeve, as he recalled a Daniel Edgar anecdote and a helicopter appeared out of nowhere.
His pal Cody was the copter pilot who radioed to Joey he was looking everywhere.
Cody was able to help the two pinpoint Bulldozer’s location and Joey was on it like white on rice.
Zak is an expert angler so his mad fishing skills were put to the test to trawl with hooks. But the wily Bulldozer disappeared again. Cody eventually located the gator for Joey and the hunt resumed.
From the air, the gator looked like a dinosaur! How producers are getting this underwater footage is pretty amazing, so
Zak cast out the treble hooks and Joey cast out another treble line and together they fought like wildebeests to get this Bulldozer in their grasp and up into the boat.
At over 600 pounds, this gator was the big kill of the day — so bravo to Joey and Zak, you won this round of Swamp People.
See y’all next week!
Swamp People airs Thursdays on History