Hulu’s Monsterland Episode 6 Palacios, Texas Explained- The Fish Is Hungry

Exploited workers, immigrant fear, environmental disasters, and male toxicity provide the backbone for Monsterland Episode 6 Palacios, Texas.

A depressed community and a bitter former fisherman struggle with the aftermath of a devastating gulf oil spill. The entire town is struggling under the weight of the devastation, and everyone is on edge. A lonely fisher who was injured while attempting to clean up after a terrible oil spill finds a mermaid and finds companionship for a brief time. Monsterland Episode 6 is as much about the collective horrors of an industrial world and marginalized men.

Our fisherman once was a big deal in the fishing community. He had a thriving business and was happy on the sea. After the accident, he changed mentally and physically. His lungs were injured, and he suffers from a long-term ailment that affects his energy levels, walking, and skin. As a result, he has become surly. He longs for his previous life and blames the Stanley Company and Senator Dorcey for what happened to him and his community. Despite blaming the company, he refuses to take money from a settlement. Later in the episode, he admits he wishes he died on the water that day. It is out of some misguided sense of morality that he refuses the money. He lacks the ability to see he is far from moral.

Did the mermaid actually leave the tank?

The short answer is no. Everything we see in the episode with the mermaid in the house was nothing more than a hallucination. She never leaves the tank. It is all one giant mindfuck. He is a sad man, and she offers him exactly what he needed. In the scene where he confronts the trespassers, he carries his oxygen again and is limping. He does not do that in the house because he isn’t really moving. Sharko only imagines everything he wants from the mermaid and his former life. He briefly hallucinates the first time when he dances in front of the mirror.

What happens in the end.

Sharko is, comparatively speaking a decent man. Next to Mr. Stanley, anyway. He genuinely cares about the ocean’s health even as he exploits it for the fish he catches. When the mermaid arrives on his front porch the two share an intimate happy evening. Some locals show up with plans to take his catch but he manages to fend them off with a shotgun. He declares the mermaid his catch.

She should belong to no one, but his refusal to let her go and glory days stories of countless fish pulled out of her home seal his fate. Loneliness and obsession with the “good old days” are not excuses for kidnapping a living creature. He never understands he has taken advantage of her and her fish family as much as the big companies have destroyed them. She uses one final mind trick to lure him into the tank and has herself a sizable meal. He justifies his fishing as putting food on the table. She does the same, only her bag of tricks is much better. It was all a ruse to get Sharko in the tank so he could become an easy meal. Turn about is fair play.

Connections to the Monsterland Universe.

The Stanley company from Episode 4 is polluted the waters in Monsterland Episode 6. Senator Dorcey, whose name is mentioned multiple times in both Episodes 4 and 6, is a corrupt politician. Additionally, the package the Fisherman sends at the beginning we see delivered in Episode 4, New York, New York to Mr. Stanley. Loneliness and the ugly toll it takes on a person continued to be a theme.

Monsterland Episode 6 is a feast for the eyes and a pain in the heart. It’s hard to root against the mermaid knowing how angry Sharko is. He isn’t the most flawed man of the series, but he definitely had some room for personal growth. It was finally just one giant fish tale that the mermaid spun. Those who put others in glass tanks shouldn’t throw stones. Read all of our Monsterland coverage here.