It was the last day of gator-hunting season on this week’s season finale of Swamp People, and things weren’t all peachy keen.
The series is one of our favorite spider-infested shows on History Channel, featuring the colorful residents of Louisiana’s Atchafalaya swamp replete with sub-titles during the one-month legal alligator-hunting season.
And it all ended for us this week.
The financial stressors really took a toll on all the Swamp clans during the episode, with Troy Landry beginning the show with a knitted brow, worrying as he was last week, saying: “We up against the wall here.”
All through the episode, he is resolutely beltless and we see his underwear game.
The Landrys are in Pierre Part where Chase and Holden sort their day out with Troy, who grouses there are 30 tags needing to be filled. If the Landry clan doesn’t tag out, they quit. End of story.
Over 35 miles away in Houma, R.J. Molinere has a final challenge for Jay Paul. He gets 12 of the final 17 tags. Tommy rues the day ahead but they have to hustle.
Still nursing his anger over a poacher preying on his traps, Daniel Edgar needs to pull out all the stops.
Each Edgar boat will need to bag 18 gators to finish and tag out. Dwaine shares his love for his dad — and baseball analogies — as they survey a gator that got away.
Joey and Dorien, however, are in the thick of it. “Make him pay, nephew,” says Joey. Bam! They bag a 9-footer. I love how each Swamper has their unique catchphrase before killing a gator.
Now in Pierre Part, Chase is unusually reflective. “Who knows how much longer he’s [Troy’s] gonna do it,” he says. They roll up on a line. Lucky for them that they bag a feisty beast.
Now we see the Edgars, Dwaine and Daniel, roll up on an 8-footer. That fires up Dwaine. They cast a fishing line and hook him! Daniel gives him the Cajun ‘hey now’ and they bag the reptile. Onward, more tags to fill.
Near 84 miles southeast in Houma, mesomorph Jay Paul is on the hunt. A tangled up line is spotted. A gator is presumed dead and limp on the line as Tommy curses their bad luck. Then whammo…the bastard is alive!
A six-footer, they tag and bag it and move along.
Meanwhile, R.J. and Al are sucking wind. But a sighting of a rare American Eagle has restored R.J.’s sagging spirits. It’s quite a beautiful scene, actually.
Now Troy is talking dollars and sense. If he can’t pay his bills, this Swamp People TV show is toast for him. As luck would have it, their next downed line has a 9-footer on it.
Now Chase and Ho are running and gunning and have three gators in the hold. A behemoth is spotted and Ho readies the rifle.
He has to pass on open shooting to pull lines. Then a total tree shaker has a 10-foot gator attached, mad as a hornet!
Blammo, bag and tag, they are pumped and rocking the bayou.
Now Daniel is sounding like Troy, “We’re under the gun,” he tells Dwaine.
Then their downed line is fighting back hard. The gator is rolling the wrong way and Daniel says the beast will be in the boat any second.
Then it leaps up and nearly bites Dwaine! Luckily they give him a “permanent headache” (Chase Landry’s killin’ catchphrase) and move on.
Calamity! Joey and Dorien are a mile away with eight gators on board. A downed line is pulled up. The gator is spotted.
They shoot, bag, tag and…he comes alive in the boat while Dorien is sitting right next to him.
Joey saves the day. But there’s nine tags left, so time to move on down the road.
Jay Paul is Johnny Confidence today. He sees another down line and Tommy goes in the drink to pull up the line.
The gator is as good as dead as they high-five their success. Meanwhile his dad R.J. praises the eagle and the creator and has one tag left.
Al shoots an 11-footer with a pistol. Then…oh no! Al finds a last tag hiding under some stuff in the boat. Doh!
Back in Pierre Part, Chase and Ho have filled 9 of their 15 tags. Chase knows his dad is really sweating it.
They come up on a downed line. Chase gets down to pull in a rope and a huge gator comes up fast. A dead gator.
Ah well, still counts as it is tagged. Now they need five more.
Three miles away, Al and R.J. have one tag left. They roll up on a downed line. Al looks pensive. R.J. wants his pistol.
He walks on reeds and vegetation with 40 feet of water underneath him and a giant gator in front of him! Insanity.
A huge monster is yanked out of his marsh lair and they fulfill the season tag quota.
Now back to Troy, a tag away from finalizing his season. “We saving it for the big one!” he says.
A downed line has Troy and Jacob wrestling a 12½ foot monster and they bag him.
So…did the Edgars improve their luck? Back in Franklin, they tally the day and all have tagged out. Bigguns too.
Daniel’s smiling and all the Edgars are likely to boil up some tasty crustaceans. I love their cookouts.
Sadly, no Bruce Mitchell or Ron Methvin this episode but a really cool article on Ron was published by a local Louisiana newspaper.
Also, we miss Willie Edwards. Hope he was able to salvage his deal this season.
In huge news for Swamp People fans, after the finale an extended preview of a new special was shown — as Troy Landry and his nephew Holden head to Florida to hunt Nile crocodiles. Meet: Swamp People Everglades!
The Swamp People Everglades special starts next Thursday, May 18, at 9/8c on History.