We’ve seen the stories before, of people doing whatever it takes to get high. They lie, cheat, and steal, and even offer to perform odd jobs in order to fly. We’ve also seen the stories of drug addicts resisting arrest, refusing to come clean, because being sober is not only painful, but boring. Swarm, a psychological horror thriller, bordering on a black comedy, takes the whole drug addict theme to a whole other level. Swarm does this by creating a compelling character named Andrea Greene. She is a Stan who slowly devolves into a serial killer. It’s clear from episode one, that Andrea, also known as Dre, has serious issues. She is an addict, who is addicted to an illusion. She thinks that the superstar Ni Jah, is larger than life, a goddess who can ease her pain, and make her feel whole. The irony of all of this is, the closer that Dre tries to get to Ni Jah, the more unhinged she becomes. Dre allows fantasies and illusions to destroy her from the inside out, clouding her judgement and keeping her from finding true love. I’ll explain how and why in this video, so please stay tuned.
Music is more than just music. In ancient times, it was used as a healing modality. The African drums were used to sync the heart with the rhythm of nature. Yodeling was used to calm nerves and ward off evil spirits. Dancing was a way of ridding the body of disease and excess toxins. And the lyrics from songs and stories transported us to a different time, dimension, or plane. How many of us have listened to a song or an artist and burst into tears. How many of us have gone from sadness to tremendous joy, just by listening to our favorite song? How many of us have listened to songs and thought about loved ones who have passed on? Yes, there are some artists out there who are incredibly talented. Their music isn’t just music. Their music is about art and transcendence. It fills us with ecstasy and joy, and we slowly begin to fall in love with the artist, simply because of the way they make us feel. We love Prince. We love the Beatles. We love Michael Jackson, and we love Beyonce. Now, most of us are grounded. We can separate fact from fiction and art from the artist. Sadly, some people like Dre, cannot.
Music that was once used as a healing modality, is now used to make money. Artists all over the world are selling out massive stadiums, with sky high ticket prices. Worse, they are getting people addicted to a certain experience. These concerts are live and exciting. The performances are action packed with an exhilarating energy that makes you feel good. These concerts are designed to stimulate virtually all of our senses and make you feel like you’re on cloud nine. As a result of this, you put artisans on pedestals. You view them as larger than life, simply because of how they make you feel. Now, you might be thinking that there is nothing wrong with enjoying a concert here and there. Yes, that’ statement is true, for normal people. Yet, for stans like Dre, the sensory overload from a sold-out concert can have debilitating side effects. Let me explain?
Well, Dre is broken. We learned that from the very first episode. She has a co-dependency relationship with her sister Marissa. Furthermore, she acts like an addict. She spends almost four thousand dollars on a Ni Jah’s concert instead of paying her own bills. Sadly, this first episode sets the tone by establishing what Dre’s priorities are. Nijah first, Marissa second, and killing people becomes third. Once Marissa passes, killing people moves up to the first place. And Dre devolves from a relatively harmless stan to a full fledge psychopath. Now, it may seem a little farfetched for someone to kill people, simply because they don’t like a certain artist. But Dre is a soldier. In her broken mind, she has to protect the illusion and her fantasy world at all costs. And let’s keep in mind, that this fantasy world is supplying her with an infinite amount of joy, love, and even pleasure. This is something that Dre is not getting in the plain old boring world of reality. The mind is incredibly sophisticated. Yet, it can’t tell the difference between an experience that is real from one that is imagined. It reacts all the same. So, if Dre feels like she’s totally in love with Nijah, the body starts to emit dopamine, oxytocin, and serotine. These hormonal cocktails, coupled with the adrenaline that Dre feels when she kills, puts her over the moon. To put it another way, loving Nijah might be her upper, and killing random folks, might just be her downer.
There are certain moments in the series where Dre comes in touch with reality. The first is when she meets a recovering food junkie, who confesses that he used to be three hundred and eighty pounds. As a result, he takes extreme measures to fight his addiction. There is absolutely no junk food in the house. Halfway through this episode, Dre gets him to binge eat, and then locks him up in a refrigerator with a giant cake. Towards the end of this episode, Dre attacks Nijah during her husbands after party, and starts to bite her face, much like a food addict going on a massive binge. Later, she comes across a commune in the deep south. They stage an intervention, taking Dre’s phone, while they convince her that the swarm, Nijah’s massive fan base, are not her friends. For the first time since Marissa’s passing, Dre lets her hair down, using her real name, and confesses that she has hurt people. A Nijah song plays off in the distance triggers her, and Dre runs off to see her favorite artist at the festival. Only, she is stopped by the cult sisters, and has to run them over to get to Nijah. Only to arrive at the festival towards the very end.
Desperate, Dre goes back to her hometown of Houston TX. Without Marissa, Nijah, or the swarm, she feels totally alone. Looking for a connection, she demands that her adopted parents reconnect Marissa’s phone. But a disgruntled Harris chases her off, shot gun in hand as he curses and demeans a young girl who stole his daughter away and turned his life into a complete hell. This episode was supposed to reflect the harm that Dre has done not only to herself, but to her victim’s families. Yet, she doesn’t feel any remorse. The honeymoon phase of her illusion addiction is over. Now, she is no longer working to get the high. She is working not to feel low. Killing is now about surviving. And having a phone and being connected to the swarm would only be a distraction. However, there is one more person who tries to pull Dre back into reality, Rashida. She blatantly admits that she hates Nijah, a confession that would have had her killed, if Dre wasn’t in survival mode. Yet, I think the one thing that saved her was that Rashida offered to love Dre, as she is. She even introduces Dre to her parents. And it seems that that they are willing to give Dre, the parental love that she never had. This story could have ended differently. But Dre couldn’t let go of the illusion. She had to pull out the Nijah tickets, thus choosing fantasy over real love.
