Farewell, Mitchell

Our next stop down the timey wimey wormhole (gator hole?) is “Man Down.” Now, there are a few possible explanations of this episode’s title: 1.) Tommy’s reclining at “Fat Cat’s” resort, 2.) a misdirected foreshadowing of RJ’s dwindling endurance as he races to become king, 3.) Troy’s continued quest to outshine RJ in every realm by filling tags for the deceased Mr. Julius so his family won’t starve, or 4.) the last episode for the since-dearly-departed Mitchell Guist. I’m going to go with the last one, even though no mention is made of his passing in the episode itself.

Rather than hunt for alligators like the rest of the cast, the Brothers Guist are on their usual mission to procure their next meal—smoked alligator gar. First they pull up a “stinger ray” and then a plastic-looking shark. But the third time proves to be the charm and they get on a gar roll. Once Glenn and Mitchell get home, they entice their sister Tonya with the promise of smoked gar fish in exchange for her turtle sauce piquant. I’m not sure what she was expecting when they dropped the turtles on her porch, but apparently she was surprised that they snapping. And she refused to kill them. But even though she didn’t have turtle sauce piquant to offer her brothers, she did have her kind words, “We don’t have a pot to piss in. We was raised with nothing but love—we have our home, but we mostly have each other, that’s all that matters.” Which makes the fact that she has one less brother now all the more heartbreaking.

That warm, familial love is the last we see of the Guists, but it’s not the last of Swamp People Season 3, so stick around.