Well…I don’t know what to say. Let’s just dig in.
This episode’s title comes from the fourth issue of “Watchmen,” in which Dr. Manhattan is talking about the Viet Cong (right next to a panel that is, more or less, lifted directly for the documentary on Dr. Manhattan we see in the episode’s opening minutes): “Often, they ask to surrender to me personally, their terror of me balanced by an almost religious awe.”
1. The tragedy of Young Angela
Until now, we’ve been given precious little information about Angela before her move to Tulsa. This episode fills in those blanks, and does so in an incredibly tragic way. There’s so much in this episode that just breaks your heart, whether it is her having to watch her parents killed, or having her grandmother killed at the exact moment where she was, perhaps, able to escape from her orphanage life. It seems like the kind of bad luck that can’t really be overstated, or seems like someone plotting against you from above.
The show has presented Angela as a hardened person, but we presumed that the steeliness stemmed, perhaps, from the White Night, or from being a cop. But now we see that her life has hardened her into a diamond from a very, very young age. It will be very interesting to, one day, go back and watch the series knowing what I do now about Angela.
2. The plan
So, this episode, in a somewhat clunky way, lays out exactly what the overarching plot of the show is, seven episodes in: the 7th Kavalry, which is an evolved version of Cyclops, wants to capture Doctor Manhattan and, either through killing him or just trapping him, lay the groundwork for Senator Keane to become a ‘new’ Doctor Manhattan. This is way more of a supervillain’s plan that I expected to see on this show. The first episode was so grounded in Tulsa, and everything even remotely comic-y was pushed to the side. At episode 7, people want to become the new Doctor Manhattan. C’est la vie.
At first, I didn’t love this reveal, as it felt sort of Republic Serial in its execution, but the more I thought about it, coupled with last week’s Cyclops stuff, it feels right on target. There is an internal logic to this plan, and it also is something that, if Doctor Manhattan existed in our world, a number of shitty politicians would’ve tried a hundred times over by now.
3. Daughter, mother, tomato to-mah-to
This episode also introduces the first non-Crookshanks/Phillips clones we’ve seen on the series in the form of Bian, Lady Trieu’s daughter clone of her mother. It is unclear if Bian knows this or not, and it seems like Trieu maybe didn’t time this all that well, as she wants her mother there to witness her saving the world, but it does not seem like Bian is ‘all the way’ her mom just yet.
Trieu has been a character that has seemed relatively inscrutable until this episode, when she suddenly becomes a much more understandable character, if not an eccentric and weird one. There are a ton of questions I still have about her, but overall, it is clear that she is on the ‘right’ side (because, a) she’s not a white supremacist, and b) you don’t need more than that to be on the right side of this conflict).
4. Checking in at the Castle, Part 7: The trial
This is the Veidt section that my co-host Zach perfectly described as ‘not giving us anything new.’ It’s a fine sequence, replete with an impressively long fart, but it suffers from the same sin as the Laurie/Mrs. Campbell scene, where the plot is simply recapped and restated for simplicity’s sake. I do have a lot of questions about this, which we’ll get to in the section below, but mostly, I found this the first Veidt sequence that was really lacking.
5. OK, what now?
So, I’m only writing this out because it helps to organize my thoughts a little bit: Cal is Dr. Manhattan? Or, maybe, Dr. Manhattan lives inside Cal? Regardless of the semantics, we see Angela brain Cal with a hammer and pull something that looks like a nuclear IUD out of his forehead, and then we see a blue glow, and Angela is talking with ‘Jon.’
Continued belowThis is the first reveal that seems like a bridge too far for the show, though I’m not necessarily saying it’s not going to work out in the ‘long run’ of the show. It just seems…I don’t know, like it fundamentally changes Angela in a way that I don’t really like or recognize. Part of what made this show so enjoyable is seeing everything through Angela’s eyes, and that she’s, essentially, just like one of us. The revelation of her grandfather being Hooded Justice would’ve floored anyone; it would floor them considerably less if they were banging Dr. Manhattan. The idea that an old man might’ve strung up Judd seems impossible; it is less impossible when Dr. Manhattan is balling you. The White Night was a traumatic event that would scar you and make you feel unsafe at every turn; that is, unless your partner could atomize your enemies in the blink of an eye.
Again, there may be some really good writing in episodes 8 and 9 to get us there, but this feels like a stretch for me, and…I’m sort of bummed. I’ll follow this show wherever it wants, but I wish it didn’t do this.
Prove me wrong, Damon.
For this week, I needed more questions.
1. Who is Lady Trieu’s father?
So, Lady Trieu wants her parents there when she changes the world. We know Bian is her mom, but when asked about her father, it is said that he will be here soon? On the podcast later today, I suggest three potential fathers for Trieu, but the more I think about it, the more I think the Comedian is her father, making her a sister to Agent Blake. How will the Comedian come back? Probably clones or some shit.
2. So…was Cal always Dr. Manhattan?
How does one become Dr. Manhattan? It seemed like he, for sure, wasn’t aware of the situation, so how long was this a reality? We know about Cal’s ‘accident’ that Angela now says never happened, but is that the moment of ‘change’ between Cal and Jon?
3. How does Trieu know when everything will happen? And how does Keane know that Doctor Manhattan is on Earth?
Trieu seems pretty fucking sure of the timing of this whole plan…how? If Dr. Manhattan is Cal, has Cal been communicating with Trieu subconsciously? Did he leave her detailed instructions? Did Veidt know all of this, and that is how Trieu now knows?
And, come to think of it, how does Keane know that Doctor Manhattan is in Tulsa? Again, I’m giving the show the benefit of the doubt on all of this, but it is just a lot to process.
4. Where is Looking Glass
We know that Wade laid waste to a bunch of 7Kers in his house, but he’s disappeared. Is he in 7K custody? Is he on the lam? Did he change his mind about adopting that slightly imperfect dog?
5. Couldn’t Veidt stop the trial?
So, Veidt has had to sit through a full year of this trial bullshit. Couldn’t he, you know, just stop it? He’s incredibly smart, and these clones seem, well, less than that. He also knows how to fight; why isn’t he just overthrowing this sham? Does he feel like this has to happen? Is he bored? Is he doing this to have some challenge in his life? What’s going on?
