Ryan Shoots First: Watchmen (S1 Ep2) “Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship”
It’s week 2 of the new Watchmen series and fresh off the hanging of police chief Judd (Don Johnson) we begin this week with a flashback to Germany in what appears to be WW1 as a German higher up drops leaflets on American Soldiers trying to convince them to leave and abandon the American army. It turns out the old man in the wheelchair inherited this leaflet from his late father, the note from the first episode is written on the back of this leaflet. We transition to the preset where Angela discovers the man in the chair and Judd’s body hanging in a tree. She takes him to her Bakery Cave for questioning. He reveals to Sister Knight that he can manipulate minds but Angela isn’t buying it. He admits to stringing him up and tells her he is aware of a conspiracy that will change everything. He tells her his name is simply Will before Angela receives a phone call after police discover the body of the chief. Looking Glass, the masked detective who wears a reflective silver mask informs Angela the chief suffered during his death and questions her about the previous evening as he knows Angela was with him.
While bringing his body down Angela has a flashback to a Christmas with her husband when members of the Kalvary interrupt on White Night and shoot her, this is the accident she tells all the kids about in the first episode. She awakens to Judd in the hospital telling her about the larger impact of the night. The police force resigns in droves as they are not safe which leads to the need for police to wear disguises. Again the show gives exposition in a satisfying seamless way.
Back in the present, the Police roll into Nixonville to round up the Kalvary members hiding there along with anyone who doesn’t comply. After beating a man near death she decides to get down to work finding out Will’s identity. She finds out more details about the Tulsa Massacre we saw briefly in the first episode and we learn survivors of the massacre are eligible for reparations and Angela uses this info to find if Will is a survivor of the massacre. After an uplifting talk with her adopted son Topher (who is the child of her partner who died in the White Night), Topher destroys the sculpture he was building which I think shows he has powers? The sculpture was floating and I don’t think it was because of the table he was working on but there is a weird mix of high tech but retro era tech in this world so it could just be part of that toy.
We finally see some footage from the TV show “American Hero Story” which is a very controversial show about Golden Age heroes we saw ads for in last week’s episode. Everyone from Angela’s family to the Kalvary at work on their next mission is tuning in. Angela goes to Judd’s house to help Judds widow and meets Joe Keen who is running for president against current president Robert Redford (yea not sure why that’s a thing yet). Angela passes out so she can get access to Judd’s bedroom, pretty sneaky sis. She discovers a hidden closet where Judd kept his old KKK robes and hood.
I may have neglected to mention there are random times across the globe when squids rain from the sky and scientists can’t figure out why. It has something to do with work Ozmandias is doing as we cut to him at his estate tasting tomatoes and acting weird. He gets cake again the same as last week as they prepare to act out the play he wrote “The Watchmakers Son”. After watching the play its clear this play is the origin story of Dr. Manhattan. Adrian actually burns his android servant and demands real tears from Jane as the act out the accident that gave John his abilities. The Dr. Manhattan character reveals his mask to be the same android model we have seen before, as all the men and women models seem to be the same design. These scenes are weird and so separate from the other story but I assume its slowly stringing together.
Angela returns to find out Will has escaped and gone to the grocery store and came back with eggs. He is toying with her. Angela finds out Will is eligible for the program but more than that Angela learns that Will is her grandfather. She places him under arrest but before she can take him in her car is grabbed by a giant magnet and taken away but not before the infamous note is dropped into her hands as she watches her car sail away.
And that is all for episode 2, I thought maybe we would see the greater mystery for the show expand and take off a little more but we still got some slow big reveals and some more exposition and world-building. I enjoy the show’s use of flashback to help give exposition but I wonder if this will be a staple of the show or if there will be a point where all has been revealed and we can move forward exclusively or at least not so heavily in the past. In the scenes for next week’s clip we do seem to leave Tulsa for the first time and now that the FBI is in town things do look to pick up. I look forward to the point when Angela’s mystery and whatever the heck Adrian is doing in his mansion cross paths as clearly it’s all linked but we just can’t see how yet. All in all this week’s episode felt very similar to last weeks but it does look like next week things may be picking up steam. We shall all find out together and until then…tick tock….tick tock.