This week’s episode of Watchmen, “She Was Killed By Space Junk,” digs deeper into the legacy of the heroes and villains of Watchmen’s timeline. We get a little bit more of Angela Abar’s search for the truth, but we mostly get a whole lot of Laurie Blake (who has complex feelings about superheroes), and some tantalizing set up for the larger conspiracy at work in the show.
Last Week, On Watchmen:
Last week we dealt with the immediate aftermath of Judd’s murder. Angela interrogated Will, and finally attempted to arrest him, only to have a mysterious airship whisk him away. Looking Glass drowned his sorrows in trashy TV and an accompanying trashy TV dinner. Red Scare beat the crap out of a Nixonville. We saw a lot more of the world in the Watchmen timeline, and it’s left us with some questions and a pirate ship full of loose ends.
First off, I’ll admit that it’s not looking great for Chief Judd Crawford. He had a Klan robe (with a sheriff’s star pinned to it, ffs) barely hidden in his closet, Comedian style. But again, isn’t that too easy? We know there were two shooters in Angela’s home on White night—was one of them Judd in disguise? Were he, his wife, and Senator Joe Keene all playing Angela for a chump? Was Cal in on it? He seemed awfully invested in watching the clock as it ticked down to midnight, and he also, somehow, survived that second shooter.
What are Will’s powers? The opening scene of him as a child consciously mirror Superman’s origin story. We watched him drink scalding hot coffee, and reach into boiling water to retrieve eggs, without so much as a wince. He claims that he was able to string Judd up. He was also able to un-handcuff himself and go out to buy aforementioned eggs after Angela locked him in her “bakery.” So what’s his deal? Is he truly Angela’s grandfather? If so, has she inherited any powers? Does she have superstrength, or is she simply a very well-trained martial artist?
Who the heck is Jeremy Irons playing??? Is he Veidt, still obsessed with Doctor Manhattan after all these years? Is he Manhattan himself, hiding as a human just like people keep saying he can’t? Is he some other, unnamed character? I kind of doubt that last one, and I’m still #TeamVeidt I think. I can’t see Jon getting so pissy with all the Mr. Phillipses and Miss Crookshankses. And speaking of that, ugh, poor Mr. Phillips! Given the trailers for this week’s episode, I can’t imagine the rest of the (Clone? Android?? Mutant???) servants will fare too well.
This Week, On Watchmen
Agent Laurie Blake comes to town! This episode focuses largely on Laurie, whom Jean Smart plays as a sort of furious Dana Scully—with just a hint of Mulder. We see her head up a sting operation to capture The Shadow, a Dollar General Batman, and when Senator Joe Keene asks the FBI to send a task force to Tulsa, she volunteers, Because she really deeply enjoys catching masks, and she doesn’t see any difference between civilian vigilantes and a masked police force. Laurie decides to go alone with only one other agent, a young man who is invested in the history of masked heroism. She questions Looking Glass, investigates the scene of Judd’s murder, and attends the funeral. But in possibly the best part of the episode, she tells a long, multi-part joke to Doctor Manhattan about superheroes answering to God that acts as a Greek chorus to the episode’s action, as well as being a critique of Nite Owl, Ozymandias, and Doctor Manhattan himself.
This episode is an incredibly deep and layered exploration of Laurie’s psyche, and all the damage that was done to her by the superheroic men in her life. Which is why it’s extra satisfying to see her face off with Angela, who remains extremely unbothered.
Here Be a Black Freighter Full of Spoilers
All the peeling back of the layers of Laurie’s life, the fact that she took the Comedian’s last name, and readily calls him her dad, the fact that she’s carrying a giant blue dildo around, the way she’s willing to shoot masks without hesitation, it’s such a great way to show how much of a mess she is. Winding that amazing joke around everything, her condemnations of her old friends and lovers, her casting of herself as an unexpected hero, it’s all just perfect. And the final few shots of her breaking down in the Booth, as she deals with Jon’s thirty-year absence, and then turning to the younger agent for an easy lay when the prospect of a night in with her, um, memories of Jon becomes too terrible? It’s such an amazing, human sequence in the midst of all the conspiracy and sci-fi touches.
The Chief’s funeral is another nuanced scene. On one level, you have Angela singing a Gene Autry classic, “The Last Roundup,” in her old friend’s honor. She tells the assembled crowd that after the White Night the two of them agreed to prepare eulogies for each other, just in case they were attacked again, and this is heartbreaking. But on another level, we all know that Angela knows that Judd might have secretly been Klan or Seventh Kavalry, or something, and it just makes it all so much more awful. The interruption of the Chief’s funeral feels inevitable, but the way she blows the would-be suicide bomber away at first seems almost heroic, until you realize that A) she’s endangered everyone and B) she probably only shot because the guy looked too much like Rorschach. Once again it’s up to Angela to save everyone, but the way that she dumps the bomber’s wired body into the Chief’s grave, and then tips the casket in on top of him, was just, perfect? Exactly how I want my funeral to be?
How incredible was the standoff between Laurie and Angela? We see Laurie being pretty badass throughout the episode, then she does basically the same power move that worked on Wade, and Angela just mocks her. Of course, Angela also has rather complex feelings toward her old boss at the moment, so I’m guessing Laurie’s investigation is way down her list of concerns.
And finally, OK, so Jeremy Irons is actually Veidt! He wore the costume and everything! And I assume he’s trying to transport Mr. Phillips somewhere at light speed or something, which is why the poor guy froze.
Allusions:
- Again, I cannot stress this enough: Giant. Blue. Dildo.
- OK, not to harp on this? But I really admire the show’s commitment to commenting on Jon’s nudity, since people made such a bi deal of it when Snyder’s movie came out.
- And also? And REALLY not to harp on this? But this episode was such a build on the surprise Full Frontal Doctor Manhattan, between the dildo, Laurie mocking the good Doctor for walking around with his dick hanging out, and the moment when she takes Wade’s Pod Clicker away, until he finally, desperately says, “May I have the control back, please?”
- People use blue phone booths to leave messages for Jon on Mars? And naturally they look like a cross between a phone booth and a confessional, and you never know whether or not he got your message. It’s kind of an amazing low-key way to show us that Jon is sort of a Science Hero and sort of a God, and that he’s grown to mythological proportions in people’s minds the longer he’s been away.
- The painting behind Laurie in the hotel room is a Warhol take on her, Jon, Ozymandias, and Nite Owl. In our timeline, Andy Warhol died in 1987, but as that painting would have had to have been done in late 1986 to make sense, maybe he lived longer in the Watchmen timeline?
- Laurie eats sunflower seeds, in what I’m assuming was a nod to Fox Mulder’s snacking habits in the first few season of The X-Files.
- Is it Nite Owl who almost squished Laurie with the car? Is he going to come back too?
I do not know how it Goes in the USA, but here in Brazil they gave away who Will is in the cast information on the Episode….
But I loved how they are portraying Laurie, the most human character in the comics.
Angela’s going to be pissed about her car… Laurie’s brick fell down and maybe Dr M had something to do with it. Maybe God does have a sense of humor. But who built the booths?
From the senator’s comment, it seems Nite Owl is in prison. He offers Laurie a pardon for him if she’ll go to Tulsa.
I love Jean Smart in this role, complex and full of personality. May be unfair to say the film Spectre was somewhat flat, but maybe this version is what 30 years of living brings.
After last night’s episode I have a new theory about Veidt, although there’s very little to support it at this point. It looked to me like the Phillips clone froze to death, thus the idea that the suit was not thick enough to keep him warm. Where could Veidt be sending someone to explore that is that cold? I’m speculating that Vedit is trapped/imprisoned/resting on Mars by Dr. Manhattan. For reasons unknown at this point, Dr. Manhattan would have created the “game preserve” (or whatever) as a prison/resort on Mars for Veidt and Veidt is trying to find a way out. Thus, he created a space suit and sent one of his minions outside the game preserver (and presumably just into normal Mars atmosphere/environment) and the clone froze to death because the suit was not adequate. It will also generally fit with the idea that Veidt just disappeared at some point and has now been declared dead.
To be fair, there are probably lots of other potential explanations and, as I said, there is very little to particularly support this one at this point, but with the very limited clues as to what’s going on, it at least seems like a possibility.
Weird comment about the Warhol painting, which is a 1960s style work, which is exactly when the four were active (coming together in Captain Metropolis’s failed 1960s meeting and then ultimately disbanding with the 1977 Keene act). The painting reflects their 60s careers, not the 1980s. It doesn’t make sense for it to be an 80s work because the four of them weren’t active in the 80s (except briefly during the events of the comic).
As an addendum, the Marilyn print was 1967, so I assume this print is meant to be about then, or perhaps early 70s, roughly when Silk Spectre was in her late teens or early 20s. But certainly before the 1977 Act.
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/61239
Tate’s timeline is very useful too – https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/warhol/warhol-timeline
@msr: was thinking along the same lines. Veidt is on Mars. Maybe Dr M became aware of another plot by Ozy and yanked him.
Veidt seems more comic relief than anything at this point though. He’s limited to low tech options, but surely, if he’s the world’s smartest man, he’d know a suit of armor isn’t going to protect against Martian atmosphere. He seems more doddering old man with reduced faculties at this point.
@Sunspear: I had the same initial thoughts about Veidt’s failed ploy with the low-tech “space suit”. But he seemed supremely confident afterwards, dictating his reply. Now, perhaps he is impotent and overconfident. Or, if he’s still the Veidt of Watchmen, that itself is a ploy and everything we’ve seen has been maneuvering pieces into position.
I feel like Angela just isn’t playing the same game as the prior generation. She isn’t some nihilist interested in these larger than life characters, she’s grounded in the here and now and her sights are set lower
I think Night Owl is in prison. That’s how the Senator gets Laurie to agree to go Laurie makes a crack at him wanting to be president and he says “A president can pardon anyone … even an owl.”
Veidt being kept prisoner by Dr Manhattan is a fairly strong possibility.
The only point against it is that it would mean that Dr M still cares about human affairs enough to interfere by imprisoning Veidt, which is against character at this point.
On the other hand, Veidt did manage to outwit Dr M, and block his FuturoVision long enough to pull off the giant squid plot. Maybe Dr M hasn’t trancended human nature so much that he can’t have a bruised ego and hold a grudge.
So… Veidt, Nite Owl and Dr Manhattan are all up on Mars, right?
Laurie’s joke/story about the three heroes being judged by god and sent to hell was also a retelling of a secret government hearing after Rorschach’s book was published. Dan was to be locked away for not doing anything to stop Adrian’s plan, Adrian was to be locked away for killing all those people (and being the kind of person to do it again), and Jon showed up because that was what he did and the tribunal was exasperated but happy enough to let him take the other two to Mars and stay there himself.
Dan and Adrian are both living in a giant version of Laurie’s snow globe, which we saw Dr Manhattan creating in TV footage earlier. Adrian is still okay with getting blood on his hands in service of a plan, and Dan is the game warden trying to stop him but also enjoying the tomatoes.
Would be interesting if Nite Owl was the warden, but it doesn’t line up with Sen. Keene’s enticement to Laurie for going to Tulsa, suggesting he could get Dan released. He’s probably in federal custody.
@12: It also fits with what we’ve learned from Peteypedia (scroll down to “Memo: Rorschach’s Journal”) – that he and Laurie were arrested in 1995 for violating the Keene act.
and when Senator Joe Keene asks the FBI to send a task force to Tulsa, she volunteers
No, Keene chose her. She agrees to go, because Keene wants to president, and dangles a potential pardon for Dan Dreiberg, AKA Nite Owl II.
I can not recommend the Peteypedia enough for folks.
In there you will see that Dan designed the giant blue dildo as a break up present, before he was arrested. In 1995 she and Dan worked together(while broken up according to Laurie’s interrogation) and stopped the McVeigh bombing, but were caught, in violation of the Keene act. Dan refuses to talk, and is sent to prison, but Laurie cuts a deal to work with the FBI taking down other masks, and stays out of prison.
So it makes sense why she’d start going by Blake, in many ways she sees her current path as very like his own, traitor and government stooge.
You’ve also got the timeline messed up. She went to the booth to tell Jon the joke AFTER she slept with Agent Petey.