Watchmen. A lot is going on. I’m really enjoying this. I hope you all are as well.
While this is not a review, it is a combination of thoughts that are going on in my head as the episode progresses with some analysis. There will be spoilers as well.
If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own
Mmm… eggs… yum. This opening sequence makes me think of those commercials about farmland eggs or a 90s family night sitcom. Quite the way to introduce Lady Trieu (who was referenced in the previous episode). A trillionaire building the Millennium Clock as well, eh? Note: in our timeline, there are no trillionaires (the Forbes list of richest people has Jeff Bezos at the top with $131 Billion. No one needs that kind of money). “Legacy isn’t in land. It’s in blood, passed to us from our ancestors and by us to our children.” I somewhat agree - immortality is in what you do and how you’re remembered. Places may have historic significance, but that’s only because of the people who are there to be significant. Hell, if I were in charge, I’d move our heavy industry into space and turn more land into wilderness preserves. But that’s just me.
Woah, pulling the pregnancy card, too? That is FUCKING COLD. Oh, and she already made the baby? I mean, they have cloning technology (as determined with all of the Mr. Philips and Ms. Crookshanks in episode two).
At the door, was that the kid in the beret from episode 2? The one who they focused on at the newsstand and didn’t say anything about?
And then threatening to destroy the baby? Damn, trillionaires are evil. Granted, just being a billionaire is evil. Oh, adoption, good - that’s still an evil joke.
For real, though, I would have asked how much she was willing to pay for the land and house before I even knew about the baby, to be honest - granted, I’ve grown up under completely different circumstances. There is a very different reality between white landowners and black urbanites.
Did a meteor just crash? What was that?
Oh, Sister Night, destroying the wheelchair. No, that’s important evidence. And that letter is important history! Keep it! Though the pun on the answering machine was nice. I loved it.
Acorn? Greenhouse? What biotech do you have there? Oh, that is a sweet-ass hologram. Wait, are those hardlight projections? Honestly, I want that tech - the ability to see family trees as actual projections and show how we are connected.
Hey, Agent Blake. Now we’re lined up with the previous episode and are moving forward in time again. And the pills are still in the glove compartment - is that a clue?
Oh, Topher… So much trauma in you, kid. Makes me tear up.
“Topher said that Uncle Judd didn’t go to heaven when he blowed up!” Well, first, considering that he was dead already, why would he go to heaven then? Would he go to double-heaven because he blew up postmortem? And second, well… what Cal said. Though there was probably a more diplomatic way of explaining that… Fortunately, waffles.
A bunker, eh? This has to be Looking Glass’s place.
CALLED IT.
Oh, ew - pictures. But he’s got a point - the squid are probably just as confused as we are. And Sister Night is being a hypocrite.
“You know he was a racist?” “He was a white man in Oklahoma.” True. But now both think that Judd is 7K, and Looking Glass confirmed what I said in Episode 2 - that badge is old school.
...the fuck? Who is that insect? Tall, skinny, and into the sewers… must be someone who is somehow working with Pops.
Is there precedent for an FBI agent to take over as Chief of Police?
William Reeves (Pops). Cop in NYC during the 40s & 50s. Clues. Let’s hold onto that info.
Sister Night is an orphan. Masks hide the pain. Sounds like Batman. So, why the Nun motif? I’ve been wondering that, myself. Why Pirate Jenny? Why Looking Glass? Why Pirate Jenny?
And of course the Minutemen TV show is garbage - it’s historical drama. We’re not really good at that in this timeline, either.
A sure sign that you’re in a parallel timeline is the presence of airships.
The kid’s name is Bian. And her mom has a vivarium (to exploit a loophole - well played, Lady Trieu). Fancy. I have a feeling that Bian is going to be very important later in the series.
Oh, wow - Pops is in league with Lady Trieu. What a tangled web we weave!
Adrian Veidt statue. We could learn something about revering our elders instead of glorifying youth. Anyway, great transition.
Veidt, what are you doing with those drowned babies? And throwing them back? You cruel fuck - is that part of the cloning process? They do not look healthy, especially the way you throw them around. Though that spinning machine reminds me of the robot cloning device from the Star Trek episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” (TOS S1E09).
You are not their maker? Than who made them, Veidt? WHO MADE THEM?
Oh, god - why did you kill all of them? And were you dressed as Ozymandias when you did? And what’s with that fucking horseshoe - is that the one from Episode 1?
“Sent here”, he says. And the way that the corpses are vanishing in the clouds, which transition into the moon… he’s definitely not on Earth. But where could he be? Let’s take a moment to suss what we have out.
Heaven and hell are pretend. And Doctor Manhattan has said (at least in the movie - I don’t remember the comic as well) that he isn’t a god and that he doesn’t believe in one.
Luna is too obvious a location. No mystery there. Plus one of the space-faring organizations (NASA, JAXA, ESA, and so forth) would have noticed a bubble of air on the moon after 4 years.
Venus is out. Mr. Philips would have been crushed and melted instead of frozen.
Mercury is out. Yes, the night side is -180C (-290F), but day/night on Mercury is probably too much to work out on a TV show.
The belt is out. Sure, we know that Ceres and other planetoids are there, but that is for hard sci-fi shows.
I believe that he’s either on Mars in one of the structures Doctor Manhattan keeps making, on a moon of Jupiter, or in a pocket dimension.
Things Fall Apart is a real book.
What accident did Cal have? Curious. But you should listen to Cal, Sister Night.
Bian, what’s in that IV? Also, no one wakes up from nightmares like that. That’s not how human bodies work.
Oh, Bian… did you dream of Vietnam? America? The US Army has a history of burning villages down and forcing people to walk. And Lady Trieu, walk her to bed! That was cold.
Of course Pops can stand and walk. And then something big happens in 3 days. Probably has to do with that Millennium Clock. Tick-tock.
It’s NaNoWriMo time again, all! That means that I’ll either be posting a lot more than usual, or a lot less than usual. It really depends on where my fancy takes me as I alternate between working on stories and working on blog posts. But I will be writing at least a little bit every day, which is the whole point of this. Get the creative juices flowing and having fun! Feel free to follow along with me here: https://www.nanowrimo.org/participants/justin-grays
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