While Etrigan attacks the Monkey King, Abby grabs Paul's hand and, at the Swamp Thing's urging, runs for the swamp. Meanwhile, Matt lies delirious and dying in his overturned, wrecked car, speaking as though Abby were there. A fly enters the car and tells him he doesn't have to die, then waits for him to stop screaming.
As Abby apologizes to Paul for losing patience with his compulsive spelling, Etrigan appears and announces his intention to stop the Monkey King by killing Paul, who binds it to the material plane. He knocks Abby aside when she tries to stop him, and prepares to do the deed. Just then, the Swamp Thing shows up and attacks Etrigan. The two of them brawl while Abby, reassuring Paul that "the big green man" is her friend, picks him up and resumes fleeing, only to stop short at the sight of the Monkey King reaching for her.
Meanwhile, Matt, though unsure if he's hallucinating the fly, tells it he wants to live for Abby's sake. The fly says it can arrange that, if Matt will simply open his mouth and let it inside. Matt does so, whereupon the fly says, "Now for my side of the bargain..."
The Monkey King grabs hold of Abby and takes on the distorted form and voice of her greatest fear: Matt. Paul snaps out of his shock and orders the monster to leave her alone, saying he's not afraid of it. The ape, now itself frightened, takes on the form of Paul's mother and pleads tearfully with him, but he won't have it. As it desperately shifts from one monstrous shape to another, Paul tells it that it's a liar just pretending to be things, that tiny animals are scarier than it. At this, the Monkey King shrinks smaller and smaller, until it fits in his palm.
Etrigan takes what's left of the Monkey King from Paul and eats it as Abby and the Swamp Thing look on. Thanking the three of them for their help, he poses a question: When Paul's parents freed the monster with the Ouija board, was there a "further fiend" that caused them to spell out the incantation? Etrigan tells Abby the answer, whatever it may be, is relevant to her specifically, then takes off into the bushes.
Abby asks the Swamp Thing to escort Paul back to Elysium Lawns while she goes after the demon to learn more. As they walk, Paul, now speaking normally, asks the Swamp Thing whether he saw anything scary when the Monkey King accosted him. The creature says he saw fire, which once killed someone he knew, and admits he was a little scared. Paul finds it reassuring that even monsters can be afraid sometimes.
Going through the bushes, Abby finds not Etrigan but the temporarily weakened Jason Blood, and deduces that they're the same person. Blood allows this is true now, but says that their minds, while sharing a body, had always been in conflict, until they struck a bargain to grow more like each other. However, Blood says, the demon cheated him, as demons do: Etrigan has acquired Blood's intelligence and vocabulary, but otherwise remains as demonic as ever, while Blood says ruefully that his own personality has become increasingly demonic. Abby asks him about Etrigan's warning for her, but Blood can't help her, since the demon knows things he doesn't. He warns her for his own part to be careful, because sometimes demons speak wisdom—and even the truth.
The Swamp Thing sees Paul off safely, then returns home. Meanwhile, Matt, driving his car—both of which are now as good as new—stops for Abby, apologizes, and offers her a lift home. After a moment's hesitation, she accepts. However, the closing caption suggests that her husband may no longer be what he seems.
Tropes:
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Blood tells Abby that, despite his bargain with Etrigan, with whom he shares a body, their two personalities are still in conflict. "And I fear that I am losing."
- Blatant Lies: The fly tells one in order to manipulate Matt.Matt: You're not real...You're an hallucination[...]
Fly: But of course I'm an hallucination. So there's nothing to worry about, is there? - Blessed with Suck: Blood's closing words reveal that his immortality, magical skill and precognition talent come with a price: being forever bonded with a demon whom he detests, and who's gradually chipping away at his human personality.
- Blood Knight: Etrigan makes it his mission to destroy the Monkey King, and he's prepared to kill anyone, human or not, who gets in his way, as he cares nothing for them. He's even willing to kill Paul to accomplish his objective. (Contrast with Blood, who still has within him enough humanity to make saving the children his top priority.) The demon savours the Monkey King's taste as he swallows it, indicating that he enjoys killing.
- Deal with the Devil: Blood made one some time ago with Etrigan for his peace of mind, and Matt now makes one with a talking fly who is in fact Arcane for his life.
- Dedication: The issue is dedicated to Jack Kirby, creator of Etrigan, Jason Blood, and The Demon, the title in which they debuted.
- I'm Not Afraid of You: How Paul defeats the Monkey King.
- Leonine Contract: Blood realizes, too late, that Etrigan hasn't kept his end of the bargain. Will this prove to be the case with Matt's bargain?
- Offhand Backhand: Etrigan casually swatting Abby away from Paul.
- Pulling Themselves Together: When Etrigan severs the Swamp Thing's arm, the latter, unfazed, picks it up and reattaches it by causing the shoulder and arm plant fibres to bind with each other. He then demonstrates his arm still works by punching the demon.
- Shape Shifter Guilt Trip: Subverted. The Monkey King attempts this with Paul, taking the (greatly distorted) form of his mother. Paul isn't fooled for a second.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Paul gives a fatal one to the Monkey King: "You're a scummy little monkey and you don't scare me! You're a liar! You just pretend to be things!"
- Throwing Off the Disability: The hospital that treated Paul after his parents' death diagnosed him as autistic. And he does show some common symptoms of autistic spectrum disorders: flatness of affect, compulsive behaviour (spelling out loud to ward off the Monkey King), obsessive thinking, and lack of empathy. (When he first meets Abby, he tells her flatly that he doesn't like her because she's "too witchy.") However, when the Monkey King threatens Abby's life, he abruptly discovers empathy for her and lays into the monster with emotive, fluent speech, spelling out a word only once. After the threat is over, he speaks calmly and normally with the Swamp Thing, and even smiles. This suggests one of two things: either Paul's condition wasn't autism but post-traumatic stress disorder, note or his disorder is of the Hollywood Autism sort, with emphasis on the "miraculous cure" aspect of the trope. It is also possible that it was a supernatural effect resulting from his connection with the Monkey King.
- Would Hurt a Child: Etrigan is prepared, without regret, to kill Paul who, as the Monkey King's "master," binds it to the material realm. Even though he knows Paul neither summoned it nor wants to be its master.
- You Leave Him Alone!: The previously traumatized, helpless Paul becomes a verbal badass when the Monkey King threatens Abby.
