Gurney Nightmare
Spider-Noir Episode 6 begins with Ben getting ready to leave town with Cat, quietly packing his things and trying to step away from his life as The Spider. Ogden’s arrival at his door interrupts his plans. Ogden shows Ben a photograph from the war and confirms that he was one of the young POWs in the war, along with Flint and Addison, revealing a surprising connection to the past. He also tells the truth about his condition: mutation is aging his body fast, so he’s actually old at the age of only 36.
Ben lets Ogden in for a drink but the conversation soon turns tense. Ogden already knows Ben’s secret identity and begs him to prevent Robbie from running the story, saying that it will stop Dr. Faber from saving his life. Ben refuses, steadfast to his decision to leave it all behind, including The Spider. However, before he can leave, Ogden injects him with something that knocks him out.
Ben awakes in a secret lab strapped to a gurney. Faber and Ogden have brought him here to test. The episode then cuts back to France to show the early stages of Ben’s mutation after being bitten. His body starts to react violently to the bite with uncontrollable spasms and web fluid leaking from his wrist. And the time he had already begun to experiment on him with military doctors.
Back in the present, Faber swears she’s not like the scientists who once attempted to weaponize Ben. And she reveals a shocking truth: Ogden is her son and her life’s work has always been about saving him. She also reveals Cat’s treachery, as she was the one who turned Ben in. Faber is drawing his blood and Ben begins to black out.
Faber takes her experiments further later and plans to extract Ben’s genetic material. She gives him some more compounds with Ogden, and takes him to a surgery room. Ben has some disturbing, vivid hallucinations and wakes up to find himself still tied up.
Looking at his liver samples, Faber finds glowing particles that seem to stabilize mutations when mixed with other changed blood samples. That discovery enables her to restore Ogden to his younger self. Mother and son exult momentarily at the breakthrough. But then the mood changes quickly when Faber recommends running away and murdering Ben to avoid a prison sentence. Ogden doesn’t want that to happen, so he takes her gun and insists he’ll handle it himself.
Meanwhile Ben uses his web ability to escape his wrist restraints, and takes the keys to his handcuffs. Ogden tries to run away but he confronts Ogden. Ogden spares his life, because he remembers that Ben did it once for him when he was in the war.
Silvermane and his upgraded enforcers come to find Faber and a list of super-powered individuals to build his own army after reading Robbie’s published article. Now Ben and Ogden are chasing and have to hide on top of an elevator. Ogden helps Ben find an exit before he returns below to deal with what’s below.
Silvermane confronts Faber, demanding to be allowed to see other enhanced subjects. Instead, she brings them to a horrible room full of preserved remains of failed experiments, mutated bodies in glass containers. Flint, Lonnie and Leyden are furious and chaos breaks out as Leyden launches electric attacks. Ogden tries to intervene, but both he and Faber are caught in the blast that ignites a fire, consuming the lab. Silvermane and his men fled. Mother and son died in the end.
Ben gets out of the burning facility with his spider suit and the vial of Faber’s antidote, leaving the destruction behind.
Review episode
Episode 6 is a more deliberate and contained chapter, largely confined to the lab as Ben is held captive and struggles. The episode is tense because of Ben’s physical deterioration, psychological hallucinations and constant attempts to escape, while the outside world seems far away.
The biggest narrative shift is the revelation that Ogden is related to Faber, adding emotional weight to her actions and explaining her obsession with curing his condition. This twist changes the context of her motivations, adding to the moral complexity of the story.
The black and white look works especially well in the lab scenes, adding to the cold, clinical feel and heightening the sense of dread. Ben’s nightmare sequences are a highlight, as they mix confusion and fear to great effect, capturing his unstable condition.
It’s still a strong performance for the centerpiece of the episode, especially in the physical mutation and psychological distress of Ben. Even at a slower pace, the episode retains enough tension to keep things interesting, finishing with a destructive finale that resets the board for what’s next.
The final moments ask an important question: now that Ben has a possible cure in his hands, will he give up his identity as The Spider, or will he embrace what he has become?