The Drowned Giant
The Drowned Giant is a gorgeously rendered and fascinating allegory for the worst traits of humanity, wrapped up in a tale about a giant washing up on shore. There are echoes of Gulliver’s Travels to all this, as a man named Steven arrives to check out the scene. He’s a researcher, and as a crowd gathers, numerous people begin climbing atop this giant like a climbing frame. Time passes and the giant’s allure slowly fades from the public eye. Three days pass and Steven is tasked with looking after and keeping watch of the dead giant. Braving the ascend atop his body brings a fresh perspective for Steven. There, he notices the arm pointing toward the sea has been completely severed. Soon, graffiti appears on the giant as yet more days pass. More severed limbs are cut off – presumably for eating. And as time begins to pass, the body is less human in stature thanks to the head being cut off. Eventually everything fades away with the cruel passing of time. However, numerous bones begin to appear around town, propped up above shops like a relic of a time gone by. A final shot of the giant’s penis occupies a tent of its own at the circus, where humanity has all but forgotten the giant. In fact, they now refer to it as a giant sea beast, stripping it of what little humanity it had left.
The Episode Review
The Drowned Giant is an absolutely fascinating episode, one that serves as an allegory for man and its attitude toward nature. In a way, it’s easy to imagine the giant as a whale or other sea creature washing up on shore. The clever shift by Steven as he climbs atop the giant, seeing the severed arm, perfectly captures that age old adage of seeing things from another perspective. This much is especially true here, with the whittling of time perfectly illustrating the destructive and viral nature of humanity at large. This episode captures the worst of human-kind, using this giant as a climbing frame and an amusing distraction before eventually defacing it with graffiti and severed limbs. To make matters worse, these humans then use the bones as a symbolic trophy; a sick display of their consumption. The episode works so well to show all of this and though the episode feels like it could have easily done with another 5 or 10 minutes, that simply speaks volumes about the quality on display here. The Drowned Giant is a fantastic chapter and a wonderful way to bow out this second volume. Can we get season 3 already?
