The following contains spoilers for Season 1 of Swarm, now streaming on Prime Video.
Prime Video has a diverse array of content, ranging from the sci-fi time trip of The Peripheral to the early Middle-earth adventures of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. Now, the streamer also has its own vigilante series in the form of Swarm.
On the show, Donald Glover works with Janine Nabers to chart a much darker tale of social justice as Dominique Fishback (soon to be seen in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts) portrays Dre, a young woman who goes over the edge after the overdose of her best friend, Marissa. As Dre spends the next couple of years on a killing spree, Swarm unravels a few eclectic celebrity cameos, and while they may be controversial, they do fit the narrative on the show in a very meta way.
Who Do Billie Eilish & Paris Jackson Play on Swarm?
On Swarm, Billie Eilish plays a cult leader named Eva in Episode 4, "Running Scared," who Dre encounters when she tries to get to a Ni'Jah concert. Dre's hellbent on seeing the show because Ni'Jah's the person Dre and Chloe Bailey's Marissa longed to see live. Eva takes Dre into her commune, offering her a safe space, not realizing she's on the lam. Shockingly, Eva's leading a female cult, going so far as to hypnotize Dre and uncover her secrets. Dre, however, loses control, maims some cultists, and runs Eva over, escaping in a rage as she missed the concert.
Another big cameo appears earlier in the season in Episode 2's "Honey." There, Paris Jackson (Michael Jackson's daughter) appears as an exotic dancer named Hailey. She works with Dre, but Dre ends up killing her abusive boyfriend. Sadly, when they bury him, Dre shoots and kills Hailey as she doesn't want any loose ends. It's cruel but fits Dre's violent tendencies and rash behavior. What makes this death bittersweet is Hailey genuinely seemed to want to be Dre's sister, defending her from haters at their nightclub.
Does Swarm Suffer With Its Controversies?
Swarm prides itself on hot takes, given Ni'Jah's a pastiche of Beyoncé, and the obsessive Dre is a satirical take on her Bee Hive. In Eva's case, the cult nods a lot to groups like NXIVM, and even the circle Jeffrey Epstein ran with. Eva, after all, charms a bicurious Dre, wanting her to evolve into womanhood with them, and offering resources and money as a means to do so.
Some may think this is too real and harsh, scrubbing the show of escapism, but given the slew of crime docuseries out there -- which Swarm dedicates an episode to with a detective chasing Dre -- it's clear the series doesn't mind digging into fresh wounds. It's provocative, but something Glover (per his Childish Gambino hit, "This is America") and Nabers (who worked on Watchmen, as well as Atlanta with Glover) have never had an issue doing with their art. Admittedly, many of Eilish's fans didn't react well to the cameo online, disparaging the show, while proving its point about music fans taking things too literally.
As for Jackson's Hailey, before she was killed, she said she was doing music underground as a singer named Halsey. Her hook is that she identifies as Black, even though she's white. She claims it's not a gimmick, as she has relatives who are Black, which angered fans of real-world singer, Halsey. They felt Halsey caught flak for no reason, especially as she's biracial. However, Halsey never used her ethnicity to promote her art or brand the way Hailey does, leaving her followers bashing Swarm.
But again, they're just proving Swarm's point about internet hate, bullies, toxic threats and people blowing stuff out of proportion, all while inadvertently building buzz and helping market the series. Ultimately, it's holding up a mirror, predicting how various audiences and sub-cultures will react, reminding folks not to lose control over works of fiction the way Dre does as she becomes a slasher like Ghostface. Even though it's a coping mechanism, Swarm wants viewers to understand art can influence people's thoughts and emotions.
Swarm is now streaming on Prime Video.