In this issue, which serves as an epilogue to "American Gothic" and a transition to the next arc, the Swamp Thing says good-bye to the Phantom Stranger and Deadman as he heads back to the material world. Meanwhile, Abby, arrested for her relationship with him, stews in a holding cell. Meeting with the public defender assigned to her, she refuses to state that "Alec" coerced her into being his mate, and asks what exactly they're charging her with. The answer, "crimes against nature," makes her laugh, because she sees their love as the most natural thing in the world.
The judge at her bond hearing disagrees, and sets her bail at fifteen thousand dollars. Back in her cell, Abby wonders how she could possibly pay that, until a guard tells her someone has, and escorts her out to meet that person. To her astonishment, it's her former boss Deanna. Coldly, Deanna tells her that although Abby has kept secrets from her and damaged Elysium Lawns' reputation, she raised bail because Abby was "good with the kids." Now, she says, they've nothing more to say to each other. As Deanna walks away, Abby senses the righteous anger, that has kept her morale up, slipping away; she now feels guilty and alone. Even returning home, pending her next court date, is no comfort, as she finds everyone she knows shunning and judging her, and receives three obscene phone calls in a row.
The Swamp Thing regenerates in the wetlands, where Constantine is waiting for him. John assures him that he just wants to say good-bye and thank him for his help. He admits that he led the Swamp Thing on for a long time, but points out that if he'd told him about the Brujería's plot right away, the creature would neither have believed him nor been prepared to fight it. The Swamp Thing acknowledges this and asks how the battle went on his end. Constantine says it was rough, listing all the friends and allies who died or went mad. He maintains that he did what he had to, but implies that he feels tremendous guilt, before changing the subject. He also sidesteps the Swamp Thing's question as to who he actually is, claiming he's just a normal guy with normal needs.
Meanwhile, deluged with a mixture of hate mail and obscene propositions, Abby decides what she needs is to leave town. After sending Deanna a letter of apology with a cheque and a promise to pay her back further when possible, she packs everything, conceals her hair and eyes and boards a bus for Gotham City. However, shortly after arriving, she asks some streetwalkers if they know of a place to stay...seconds before a police raid brings them all in, Abby included. It isn't long before the Gotham authorities discover that she's the Houma resident reported as having jumped bail, and Detective Harvey Bullock is assigned her case.
Having said his good-byes to Constantine, the Swamp Thing emerges in Abby's apartment and finds it completely deserted. He returns to the swamp, worrying that she came looking for him and died there. Soon, however, he finds a discarded newspaper which tells him all he needs to know, down to her arrest in Gotham for jumping bail. Screaming her name as he flies into a frenzy, the Swamp Thing represses the Parliament of Trees' warning about power and anger, and declares war on Gotham.
This is the first issue which Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala drew together.
Tropes:
- All of the Other Reindeer: Once her relationship with the Swamp Thing becomes public knowledge, Abby becomes an object of derision in her hometown. The guard who escorts her out of prison says that if it were up to her, she'd lock the person who posted her bail up with her. On the streets, nearly everyone stares at her in judgement. In the supermarket, a woman she knows begins to greet her before her husband pulls her away. At home, she's bombarded with hate mail and obscene come-ons. Someone even tosses a brick through her window with a nasty note attached. Worst of all, as far as Abby's concerned, her former boss, Deanna, whom she likes and respects, now resents her.
- Bail Equals Freedom: Subverted. No sooner does Abby return from jail than she finds herself a de facto prisoner in her own home.After [the third obscene phone call] I leave the phone off the hook...and put a chain on my door...and think about how good it is to be out of jail.
- Berserk Button: The news that Abby's in custody sends the Swamp Thing into a rage, which leads him to uproot several trees at once and vow revenge.
- Bestiality Is Depraved: The only Houma residents Abby encounters who aren't disgusted at her relationship are perverts who proposition her by phone or mail. For her own part, she's astonished, and even briefly amused, that anyone could consider her love for "Alec" anything but natural.
- Brick Joke: As Deadman and the Swamp Thing return to the Realm of the Just Dead, they encounter the heart attack victim whom Deadman, in The Summoning, had persuaded with considerable difficulty to return to his body after his resuscitation. Now the guy, bruised, dishevelled and missing teeth, wants to lodge a complaint: once they'd revived him, the paramedics took him to hospital, but the ambulance crashed on the way and he died after all.Man: It's a disgrace! I mean, is this any way to run an afterlife?
Deadman: (looking sheepish) Listen, I'm only a voluntary worker. I don't make policy. You oughta take this up with the guys in the Fate and Destiny Department. - Broken-Window Warning: Abby receives a brick through her window, with a note attached: "Get out and go to Russia. You are sick!"
- Contrived Coincidence: Abby happens to stop and ask streetwalkers for advice just before vice cops sweep the area.
- The Dead Have Names: Constantine, in conversation with the Swamp Thing, lists all those who've died or otherwise come to harm as a result of his war against the Brujería and the Darkness:Zatara dead, Sargon dead, Mento deranged...Add on Frank, Judith, Emma, Sister Anne-Marie, Ben Cox and his mother, and this has turned out to be an expensive old do. A very expensive old do.
- Dirty Business: John Constantine does have a conscience and sense of remorse after all, loath as he is to admit it:Swamp Thing: You knew...the dangers...that many of your comrades...would not survive...
Constantine: I did what I had to.
Swamp Thing: Perhaps...How...do you feel...about that...?
Constantine: How do you think? - Fat Slob: As he meets with Abby, the unshaven, heavy-set Harvey Bullock tucks into a giant sub sandwich, dripping its contents on his shirt and the police bulletin about her.
- Harassing Phone Call: Abby receives three consecutive and increasingly obscene calls from the same guy before taking the phone off the hook and putting a chain lock on her door.
- Ignored Epiphany: The Swamp Thing, in his rage over Abby's arrest, casts aside the Parliament of Trees' warning—repeated in the same scene, as well as referenced earlier by Constantine—to avoid power and anger.
- Ironic Episode Title: "Home Free" is an ironic title for both of this issue's plots. Abby, after Deanna pays her bail, feels anything but free back home, and when she flees to Gotham, she immediately ends up in jail again. The Swamp Thing, after the horrors and dangers of the previous arc, expects once he's home to be free from quests, wars, or anything else that might trouble him. Then he finds that Abby's in Gotham police custody.
- Media Scrum: As Abby leaves the courthouse following her preliminary hearing, newspaper and TV reporters bombard her with questions.
- Mistaken for Prostitute: This happens to Abby twice, first in Houma when her cellmate assumes she's in for "hooking" because of her unusual hair, and then in Gotham when the police scoop her up with other women in a streetwalker raid.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Overwhelmed by the legal and social consequences of her relationship going public, and with her lover nowhere in sight, Abby decides to skip town and hide out in a bigger city where she can be anonymous. It doesn't work.
- Shout-Out: The boat Constantine uses to row across the swamp bears the name, "The Honorable(?) Gordon Sumner." That's the birth name of the musician Sting, who served as the original inspiration and visual model for Constantine.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: As they go their separate ways, Constantine can't resist playing one last trick on the Swamp Thing. "How do you baffle a vegetable?" he asks. The Swamp Thing, assuming John is simply telling a joke, humours him by playing the Straight Man and repeating the riddle back to him. But Constantine has already disappeared.
- Strawman News Media: Reporters converging on Abby outside the courthouse pose questions ranging from badgering and moralistic ("Is it true that your husband's on life support? [...] And would he approve of your new relationship?") to lurid ("Is the swamp monster, uh, anatomically complete?" "Is it true you're pregnant?") to vapid and irrelevant ("Is your hair natural?").
- Think Nothing of It: The Swamp Thing, for the first time, is about to praise Constantine, but he won't have it: "Don't say anything nice to me. I'd have to say something nice back and ruin my image."
- Trickster Mentor: Justified. Constantine acknowledges having been this to the Swamp Thing, but points out that if he'd simply told him the whole truth straight off, the creature would neither have believed him nor been prepared for his task.
- What Are You in For?: Abby's cellmate, after learning she's not a "hooker", asks her what she is in for. Abby, in no mood to chat, says, "Hugging vegetables." The cellmate quickly moves to the other end of the bench.
- Wretched Hive: Gotham. No sooner does Abby arrive than she regrets her choice of escape venue. The people around her all appear creepy, mentally disturbed, or both, and prostitutes crowd the sidewalks. She also recalls the city's reputation for mentally and physically deformed criminals. Even the buildings disturb her, seeming to loom over her as "huge blocks of light" and "faceless steel and glass."
