Swamp People airs tonight and as we mentioned, some grand themes are subtly woven into the everyday hunting and scouting of the series.

A few weeks back it was the awareness of Daniel Edgar’s mortality, and this week it’s a Cain and Abel deal with Troy Landry, as one son is married and pretty responsible and the other one has been, until now, a wild ass. Troy has pitted the two against each other in an episode filled with bull kills.

Airboat armadas, the horrid odiferous bait called beef melt returns and wasp nests are disturbed, these being some of the highlights of tonight’s sweltering retelling of what all went down.

Day 19 out of 30 days of killing season is highlighted by new and promising areas to hunt. And over in Pierre Part, we see the King of the Swamp Troy Landry calling an armada together to get the tags in. Chase and Jacob are part of the crew. Chase, until now, has been scant this season.

A rested Big buddy Terral Evans is paired with Troy, having last week off as Mr. Sterling took over his spot. As the wildcard deckhand Don is back with Jacob, the two head over to Grand Lake.

And Chase Michael? He and his rifle are all alone in his gator tail boat heading to remote islands.

Before they all toodle off, Troy proposes a competition for the biggest gator catcher who he says will become his favorite son, and the loser is cut out of his will. Jacob seems keen and smiles but Chase… not so much.

The Moby Hole

Bayou Sorrel sees the pere et fils Willie Edwards’ team hunting a promising new spot called the Moby Hole because the gators are as big as whales according to Willie Sr. One on the first hook is a 7-8 footer and not the big gun they were looking for. That don’t stop them from trawling and trying.

Oh god. The beef melt is brought back. That is the nasty innards of a cow left to rot and get all smelly and mushy. It’s worse than smelling death.  As the episode progresses, the wit and wisdom of Willie Senior are on full display. He double hooks a “shiny fish” in the hunt for Moby because this gator is so big that two hooks will be a better guarantee to stick when the massive gator rolls.

Willie and little Willie eventually get their 15-foot behemoth. Y’all, 15 feet! The two hook paid off big time and Willie x2 done good.

The Heart of Darkness

Do you all remember when Chase was read the riot act by Troy for wasting expensive bullets sniping at gators with Holey Boley? Well since then Chase has had issues, not good ones either. He and Jacob have a back and forth with Jacob being the more responsible father and son to Troy, and Chase having some good time Charlie moments that have slightly impeded his adulting skills.

Now Chase is a King of the Swamp approved sniper… and he is hunting alone.

“I wanna catch the biggest alligator out there,” he says. A floton or floating land is what he is up against.

Alligators are the only thing that can cut through it. He spots a monster and snipes. “Smoked him baby!” He gets quite philosophical (for Chase Michael Landry) about his love of what he is doing and where he is right now in his life.

It’s all very Joseph Conrad-y at this point as we venture down the river with this reflective solo hunter who has been upside-down at times during the course of this show.

As Chase progresses in the episode, we hear how he learned who he was by hunting alone. It’s a bit of an Apocalypse Now going up the river moment. He is an ace sniper and bags a Leviathan. He misses the opportunity but the self-described “hard-headed hunter” ain’t giving up y’all. This episode all felt very metaphorical for Troy’s former problem child.

Pop goes the weasel

Trees matter. Jacob and deckhand Don who we come to learn really is a bonafide genius, are sucking wind in Grand Lake. Popped lines galore as the Cypress trees they dropped their lines is the wrong kind of tree, too brittle, y’all. But that’s all they got.

Mind you, cypress trees that are scavenged from the swamp are big money. Frenchy and Gee taught us that.

But all these popped lines are bumming Jacob and Don out. Don, the marshmallow man, has an idea. Jacob braces. “There you go with that bag again,” he says to Don.

And mind you, Don’s bag is like Mary Poppins’ magical bag as he pulls out damned near everything from toothbrushes to bungee cords.

As we revisit them, Don’s bungee cord idea pans out big time.  They get several monsters and one is called a Swamp Donkey by Jacob, all thanks to the bungee cord trick and Don is a certified bayou genius. Never doubt the Don.

Gator Bayou

Over in Violet, we have the dynamic duo of Ashley Dead Eye Jones and Ronnie. They revisit an old pre-Katrina honey hole and its a graveyard of capsized boats. Ronnie swears up and down this elusive spot now barricaded by vegetation is where the big mamous are at. Ashley is dubious at best.

They venture through a slough and hope to find the opening to the bayou, and the brush is thick. Trouble is waiting, y’all.

Ronnie is imagining how big the gators are after 14 years of being hidden from the rest of the open bayou. They’ve had time to get fat and happy.

Somehow a wasp nest is disturbed in this explore and all hell breaks loose. The two are chased back to their boat as Ashley is stung several times.

“You better haul ass outta there Ronnie!” as Ashley is stung. Later she gets the dip right outta Ronnie’s mouth and applies it to her swollen ankle that was savaged by these relentless wasps. Y’all, I am more afraid of wasps than the gators at this point.

Then a tell-tale jug line that a huge gator snatched and got hooked on is the clue, as the two treble hook it and bag a ten-footer.  Ashley will never doubt Ronnie’s gator hyperbole again. She’s a believer.

And in the end, back at Duffy’s…

“We catchin’ a lot of mature alligators and that’s something to be proud of,” says Troy. His competition winner? Chase, but Jacob begs to differ. Troy seems to have both his sons rowing in the same direction now y’all.

See y’all next week!

Swamp People airs Thursdays at 9/8c on History Channel.