Ryan Shoots First: Watchmen (S1 Ep 7) “An Almost Religious Awe”
It’s time to put on your masks and sit down with some squid and saki cause Watchmen is back for an all-new episode. As we run down the final three episodes this week looks to move things in place for the stretch run to the finale and now that Angela is up from her Nostalgia Trip with some big info we will see what Lady Trieu and hopefully Adrian are up to.
This week’s show starts with a documentary reel of Dr. Manhattan and his back story and origin. They go over his humble beginnings and his triumph in Vietnam along with the many inventions he brought to society. We pan out to see this exhibit in a video store where a young girl rents a video called Sister Knight. She leaves the store into what appears to be a celebration for Dr. Manhattan. She walks up to her parents and shows them the movie she picked out. Her parents tell her she is not old enough to watch this film and they inform her people that wear masks are hiding something. She notices people acting strangely as a suicide bomber takes out the festival and her parents. Angela awakes hitting the floor of her hospital room.
Lady Trieu comes in and tells her that her memory is broken and they have had this discussion multiple times. She gives her an injection to clear out the memories that are not hers with some real fancy language describing the process. She tells her she cannot meet her grandfather as since she has spent the last 2 days being him interaction is dangerous. A voice over informs us it is only 12 hours until the millennium clock is activated. Cal attempts to see her but he is not able to as the clock is soon to be activated.
We see Laurie in her car playing back a tape of Angela’s voice recalling events from her trip related to the cyclops and other things she must have been muttering while she was out. While doing this Petey calls from Looking Glass’s place where he has taken out all the Kalvary members who attacked him 2 weeks ago. Laurie is at Judd’s house and informs his wife she knows who killed her husband and lets her know it was Will. She tells her about Angela’s trip and everything about Will being Hooded Justice. She is on the trail that Kalvary is just Cyclops in a new light and Senator Keene is behind it. Judd’s wife admits to it all being true and presses a button causing Laurie’s chair to drop down a secret hatch.
Angela flashes back to her childhood it appears she not only served in Vietnam but grew up there in a US-occupied post-war Vietnam. She’s questioned by police in the aftermath of the bombing and ID’s the guy who was behind it. The cop gives her a badge and tells her to come find her when she grows up. She hears a shot ring out from behind the building.
We transition to the trial of Adrian where the court informs us it is day 365 of the trial. It is closing arguments and Crookshanks is delivering the prosecution and the jury is all other clones. After resting she looks over and gives a wink to Adrian. When the time comes for Adrian’s defense all he does is let out a fart. Yes, a fart. The Game Warden informs the jury they are not his peers and he has assembled a jury more suited for the task and a bunch of pigs come running in. The pig squeals and the game warden says guilty as all the clones scream out guilty.
Back at the clock Angela is up and walking around and has a meal with Lady Trieu. We find out Cal had a car crash and suffered amnesia. We find out Will intended for her to take the pills slowly not all at once. We also find out Lady Trieu’s daughter is actually a clone of her mother and is being fed her mother’s memories slowly. Angela presses her to tell her what the clock does but she says no and it is 4 hours away from starting.
Laurie wakes up in a cyclops facility surrounded by machinery. Senator Keene is there Laurie informs him she doesn’t really care about what their plan is. He tells her she will care once they are done.
Back at the clock Lady Trieu is delivering a speech and Angela uses this opportunity to go try to talk to Will. Angela busts in and finds out she is not hooked up to Will but actually an elephant. Yes, an Elephant. She rips out the tubes running into her arm and falls back into a memory from when she is adopted by her grandma, Wills’s wife. Being a cool grandma she lets her watch the Sister Knight movie but before they can leave Vietnam she collapses dead from what appears to be a heart attack.
Angela awakens and leaves the elephant room to Level 0. She finds a giant blue globe that appears to be linked to all of the blue boxes people have been leaving messages for Dr. Manhattan in. Lady Trieu shows up and reveals that Dr. Manhattan is not on Mars but is in Tulsa and is pretending to be human. Lady Trieu reveals Will came to her asking her to help him stop the Kalvary, they plan to capture and destroy Dr. Manhattan and become him. Angela leaves not believing her. She heads home where her house is being cased by Kalvary members. She confronts Cal and tells him it is time to come out of the tunnel. She pulls out a hammer and informs him there was no accident and that it was a lie so they could be together. She tells him “No John you’re not yourself” revealing Cal is Dr. Manhattan! She knocks him out with a hammer and bashes his head in and pulls out a small ring and as a blue glow reflects on her face she tells him they are in trouble as the credits roll.
Wow, so the episode plotted around for a bit and took a while to get going but the last 10 minutes were loaded with some pretty huge revels and have us set up for the final 2 episodes. So I assume John meant Angela in Vietnam after the war and they fell in love as he often has done. He, knowing he could not live a normal life, creates the Cal body to live in and gave Angela a “In case of emergency break my face” out in case there was trouble.
So next week we get the backstory of their love, the backup plan and the quest to stop the Kalvary. After a crazy roller coaster of plot threads, it seems that everything has streamlined a bit for the final 2 episodes except we still don’t know what the Millennium clock does to stop the Kalvary and of course whatever the heck is going on with Adrian. We will see if Watchmen follows Game of Thrones in that the penultimate episode of the season is usually the biggest.
Observations
- What video store has pornography just mixed in with documentaries and other films?
- Don’t ya hate it when your trap door doesn’t work to take care of your guests?
- Where is Adrian?!?
- Here we go and it’s been a year-long trial?
- You won’t see that defense in Law and Order.
- Weirdest. Trial. Ever.
- Senator Keene ain’t worried about anyone knowing he’s behind all this.
- Laurie gives the best “wake up in bad guys lair and he wants to tell his plan” speech ever.
- I guess cause elephants never forget is why they are used for memory drugs???
- Man kid Angela can’t catch a break.
- You would think security would be a little tighter on this big day.
- Ok, did not see Cal is Dr. Manhattan coming. Man huge curveball.
- I don’t know if they’ve even announced who is playing John?
Predictions
In reality, what is even the point? When the show is gonna throw farts in court and people hooked up to giant elephants at us I’m kinda at a disadvantage. Plus the husband of the main character is secretly the most powerful being in the universe. I’ll give it a shot though…
- Looking Glass took one of the Kalvary masks and is currently infiltrating their organization.
- The Millenium clock involves some sort of mass amnesia making everyone forget stuff, like that Dr. Manhattan even exists.
- Adrian has a plan to escape and will likely enact it at the end of the next episode to set up the finale. So next week we take care of the Kalvary for the finale to be Adrian v. John.
- Also, Lady Trieu is actually three space cats standing on top of each others shoulders in a lab coat… see show, I can throw random stuff out there too. Let’s see you out crazy that!
See ya next week tick…tock…tick…tock.