Ryan Shoots First: Watchmen (S1 Ep3) “She Was Killed by Space Junk”
This week’s episode begins with the FBI agent we’ve been seeing in previews walking into a big blue phone booth type thing. It turns out this booth connects to Mars and allows people to leave messages to Dr. Manhattan. I don’t know how many of these things exist or how much it costs but that’s what it does. She begins by telling a joke about a bricklayer and his daughter before forgetting the punch line and going on to a second joke. We cut to this lady holding up a bank that draws out a Vigilante hero but it turns out its FBI even though we knew this woman was FBI. She was setting up a hero before shooting him while fleeing.
Again the show shows a great mix of modern tech with old a voice-activated Alexa like system to run CDs back at this woman’s apartment where she opens a briefcase glowing blue must be linked to Dr. Manhattan. Shes sent to Tulsa to investigate Chief Judd’s hanging after the Kalvary did not claim the killing leading the FBI to believe a vigilante may be to blame.
Brilliant shot with Laurie’s head filling in the square of the other Watchmen in the painting exposing her as the Silk Specter from the original comic. She’s gone from being a hero to hunting them down. It also explains her connection to Dr. Manhattan and her obsession with jokes linking her to the Comedian.
In this week’s episode of clever exposition, the FBI briefing is used to help explain the timeline of racial tensions in Tulsa and the enactment of the DOPA (Defense of Police Act). We see our first look at the Millennium clock and we find out Adrian Veidt has been presumed dead in this world and his company bought. We, of course, know he is still out there being all kinds of weird.
We cut back throughout the episode to Laurie in the Dr. Manhattan booth as her jokes to Manhattan explain the backstory of the decisions made by her past hero partners. She describes Adrian’s plan to save humanity involving dropping the giant squid on cities and the Owls plan which is to save people the old fashioned way but both end up being sent to hell. She then describes the “Blue God” who is of course Manhattan. This is clever and frames the entire episode but also helps us understand her connection to Dr. Manhattan and where he is.
Laurie comes up on cops interrogating people they rounded up from Nixonville and they lead her to Looking Glass who is using his pod we saw in the first episode. We find out how the pod works. It flashes images to try and snap reactions bent towards racist motivations, Laurie affectionately calls it a Racism Detector. She knows Sister Knights’s identity as well as Looking Glass’s.
Laurie shows up at Chief Judd’s funeral and introduces herself to Angela. Angela tries to tell her she retired but Laurie clearly isn’t buying it and asks her a question that is a key driver for the series so far. “How you can tell the difference between a masked cop and a vigilante?” Angela responds “I don’t know” and Laurie says “Me neither” implying there is no difference and framing her somewhat cold attitude towards the police of Tulsa. While Angela is delivering her eulogy at the funeral, we see shots of the Kalvary crawling through tunnels while a clock ticks in the background. The ticking is a nice touch to add suspense to an incoming attack as they have established the tick-tock to the terrorist organization. A member of the Kalvary comes out with a bomb vest and holds up the funeral. He threatens the senator and demands him to come with them. Laurie shoots him in the head and everyone runs while Angela pushes his body into the open grave before it blows. She later tells Angela she thought he was bluffing “They always say they have the bomb rigged to their heart but usually their too lazy or stupid to actually do it”.
We move to Adrian’s mansion where he is working on a suit for Mr. Phillips that seems to be for some sort of test and we cut to a shot of him dead and his suit frozen. I guess the experiment didn’t work. While hunting buffalo to I assume blow off so steam? Adrian is stopped by a man on a horse in a mask. This upsets Adrian as he storms off. He later receives a letter from the Game Warden who seems to be his adversary. He is revealed to be someone in charge of keeping Adrian in check in his exile. He signs his letter “Your servant” so this all seems to be part of Adrian’s games.
Back in the aftermath of the event at the funeral, Laurie uses this to get a one on one with Angela as she guesses she will be investigating the plan the Kalvary used. She tells her about the secret compartment Angela has found previously in Judd’s room. Laurie knows Angela had found it and something is up and reveals she knows she is Sister Knight. Angela isn’t sweating Laurie’s threats.
Back at her hotel room we find out what was in the briefcase and let’s just say it is something that will remind her of Dr. Manhattan. She finishes telling her joke to the transmitter and it is clear she has some real issues with heroes she should probably talk to a professional about. While leaving the transmitter Angela’s car minus Will that was claw machined away last week drops in front of her causing her to burst into laughter.
And that is it for another week. The addition of Laurie into the show this week really gave it a shot in the arm and propelled things forward. We got more exposition with very little flashbacks and the greater picture of heroes we know from the Graphic Novel and what Adrian’s story is are starting to come together. What Adrian is up to is still a trip but the idea that he is on this exile and the rest of the world thinks he is dead is something. Angela didn’t have much to do as this was a Laurie centric episode but her reaction to Laurie once everything is out in the open is a nice touch as she no longer needs to pretend to be naive. Next week we visit the Millennium Clock which should give us even more backstory and world building to try and piece these mysteries together. Until then tick tock…tick tock.
