S01.E03: She Was Killed by Space Junk

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

FBI agent Laurie Blake heads to Tulsa to take over the recent murder investigation following a late-night visit from the senator who authored Masked Policing Legislation in Oklahoma. Meanwhile, the Lord of the Manor receives a harshly worded letter and responds accordingly.

Airing Sunday, November 3, 2019.

 

[WatchrTina]

Um . . . Did Doctor Manhattan just throw a car at his ex-girlfriend?

[revbfc]

That was quite a dildo.

[AimingforYoko]

2 minutes ago, revbfc said:

That was quite a dildo.

Yeah, I don't remember Doc being that.....endowed.

Jean Smart just coming in and owning every scene like a total boss. Who knew this is where she'd end up at this stage of her career?

You know, I was wondering if Ozy was in prison. Built by Manhattan?

[mac123x]

I'm glad I waited for Jean Smart.  I loved this episode.  The introduction to her character was fantastic.  I really liked how she dropped lower in the frame, revealing her portrait was part of the Andy Worhol-esque painting in her apartment. 

I assume the Senator's reference to getting her "owl" out of his cage refers to Night Owl being in prison.  I also assume that the Senator was actually behind his own kidnapping plot, because "the good politician is actually evil" is a predictable twist.

Loved her subordinate sassing her back, though given current events it's kind of unfortunate she slept with him.

Looks like Veidt is in some sort of prison and is trying to steam-punk tech his way out of it.  

The joke Laurie told Dr. Manhattan's call line included the detail that the murderous giant squid was actually a ploy.  Is this common knowledge?  I'm guessing that it isn't, since they still have miniature squid-falls and they blame them on transdimensional beings. 

Edited November 4, 2019 by mac123x

[rwlevin]

So Lee Tergesen was in the show for all of, what, 30 seconds? Why? Is he just a huge Watchmen fan? I’m surprised he was credited figuring it was pretty much a cameo.

in other news, looks like Angela got her car back. Now where did her granddad go?

[mac123x]

Also wanted to mention, who in their right mind would name a cemetery Tartarus Acres, let alone buy a plot there?  I guess it's in keeping with the theme of the Laurie's joke:  "Tartarus is the place where souls are judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment."  

Edited November 4, 2019 by mac123x

[AimingforYoko]

18 minutes ago, mac123x said:

The joke Laurie told Dr. Manhattan's call line included the detail that the murderous giant squid was actually a ploy.  Is this common knowledge?  I'm guessing that it isn't, since they still have miniature squid-falls and they blame them on transdimensional beings. 

Spoiler

Laurie was at the South Pole when the shit went down.

[Ottis]

Is there a concise summary of this universe without s poilers? I don't know it and while I'm guessing ok it might be fruitful to know more background without spoilers. Thanks for any guidance!

[Chicago Redshirt]

49 minutes ago, Ottis said:

Is there a concise summary of this universe without s poilers? I don't know it and while I'm guessing ok it might be fruitful to know more background without spoilers. Thanks for any guidance!

There is a thread Questions Asked, Answers Given for that. I and others have been giving background about DC's Watchmen there.

[MrWhyt]

so we have in show confirmation that Jeremy Irons is Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias and I'm going to assume that The Game Warden is Dr. Manhattan. Agent Blake was awesome.

[SeanC]

The original Watchmen had a bunch of ersatz Charlton Comics characters, so fittingly this episode includes an obvious parody of the Christian Bale Batman.

[Shorty186]

2 hours ago, rwlevin said:

So Lee Tergesen was in the show for all of, what, 30 seconds? Why? Is he just a huge Watchmen fan? I’m surprised he was credited figuring it was pretty much a cameo.

Well, Cheyenne Jackson was “Hooded Justice” in the previous episode, so maybe the cameos are on ongoing thing.

[scrb]

3 hours ago, revbfc said:

That was quite a dildo.

Yikes.

Guessing the writers were guffawing at this visual gag they wrote in.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I already loved having Regina King kick ass the first two episodes so it was great to see Jean Smart come in and be awesome too! I really love that our two female characters are (1) over the age of 25 and (2) weigh over 95 pounds. I feel like tv and movies are inundated with waiflike girls with questionable acting skills so it's great to see some amazing women like Regina and Jean in these roles.

[thuganomics85]

Whoa!  I knew Jean Smart was going to show up here, but I wasn't aware she was going to be Laurie, the former Silk Spectre, who isn't just retired from vigilanteism, but actually works for the department of the FBI who take them down.  Crazy!  Smart was fantastic naturally and I can't wait to get more!  There better be more Angela/Laurie scenes, because Regina King and Smart going toe-to-toe was some top-notch acting to say the least!

They also confirm what many had already suspected, in that Jeremy Irons is playing Adrian Veidt a.k.a. Ozymandias, who everyone thinks is in hiding, but he actually seems to be a prisoner?  And he's being watched by someone known as the Game Warden?  Hmm...

Enjoyed Lee Tergesen's cameo as Mister Shadow!

Definitely think something is up with James Wolk's senator.  They are making him way too noble, which is always a bad sign on television.

Great episode.

[Ottis]

9 hours ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

There is a thread Questions Asked, Answers Given for that. I and others have been giving background about DC's Watchmen there.

Thank you, but I was hoping for something a bit more linear. I don't know anything about this world ... why Nixon and Redford apparently were (are?) admired US presidents, why there looked like about 6o stars on the flag, why an anti-police organization gathered enough power to openly attack cops so that cops wear masks to hide their identities (and is this only in Tulsa, or everywhere?), etc.

Also, I'm not sure if this is backstory or this is purely within this TV show's universe, but why don't the FBI agents wear masks? And why is Ozy, the smartest man in the universe, unable to achieve whatever his experiments are designed to achieve (escape from the estate? who is the warden, and why is Ozy there?).  And why is the FBI agent's blue dildo that size - is it shorthand for her being a ballbuster?

I did see the 2009 movies, so I have a little background around the original "heroes." Have we seen them all now (who is the owl character?)? What does the woman hunting them do with them? Is she hunting them because she is mad at Doc for leaving her? Or is this yet another argument (already seen in Avengers: Civil War and Batman Vs. Superman) of whether superheroes (sometimes called vigilantes) should be allowed to exist? 

It's hard to tell what is new in the show and what already existed. I looked at sites about the franchise, but I'm not sure how they relate to the show or if the info is treated consistently. 

Aw, maybe I'll just shut up and puzzle it out. It's intriguing for sure. 

[Mr. Sparkle]

1 hour ago, Ottis said:

Thank you, but I was hoping for something a bit more linear. I don't know anything about this world ... why Nixon and Redford apparently were (are?) admired US presidents, why there looked like about 6o stars on the flag, why an anti-police organization gathered enough power to openly attack cops so that cops wear masks to hide their identities (and is this only in Tulsa, or everywhere?), etc.

Also, I'm not sure if this is backstory or this is purely within this TV show's universe, but why don't the FBI agents wear masks? And why is Ozy, the smartest man in the universe, unable to achieve whatever his experiments are designed to achieve (escape from the estate? who is the warden, and why is Ozy there?).  And why is the FBI agent's blue dildo that size - is it shorthand for her being a ballbuster?

I did see the 2009 movies, so I have a little background around the original "heroes." Have we seen them all now (who is the owl character?)? What does the woman hunting them do with them? Is she hunting them because she is mad at Doc for leaving her? Or is this yet another argument (already seen in Avengers: Civil War and Batman Vs. Superman) of whether superheroes (sometimes called vigilantes) should be allowed to exist? 

It's hard to tell what is new in the show and what already existed. I looked at sites about the franchise, but I'm not sure how they relate to the show or if the info is treated consistently. 

Aw, maybe I'll just shut up and puzzle it out. It's intriguing for sure. 

You can read the synopsis of the original book on wikipedia, or elsewhere. (Or, better yet, read the graphic novel, which is fantastic.) There is also background material given on HBO's site. It's a lot to slog through, and I'm trying to keep up. 

Beyond that, a lot of it is developing as we go along. The Ozy questions, for example, will hopefully be answered. I'm not sure I want to know why that dildo is so big. 

[mrspidey]

2 hours ago, Ottis said:

I did see the 2009 movies.

That's pretty much the basics covered. The movie didn't deviate all that much from the graphic novel. Biggest change was the ending with framing Dr. Manhattan instead of using the Squid. 

Everything that's happend in this world between the GN and this show is only part of the show's canon. 

[Chicago Redshirt]

2 hours ago, Ottis said:

Thank you, but I was hoping for something a bit more linear. I don't know anything about this world ... why Nixon and Redford apparently were (are?) admired US presidents, why there looked like about 6o stars on the flag, why an anti-police organization gathered enough power to openly attack cops so that cops wear masks to hide their identities (and is this only in Tulsa, or everywhere?), etc.

Also, I'm not sure if this is backstory or this is purely within this TV show's universe, but why don't the FBI agents wear masks? And why is Ozy, the smartest man in the universe, unable to achieve whatever his experiments are designed to achieve (escape from the estate? who is the warden, and why is Ozy there?).  And why is the FBI agent's blue dildo that size - is it shorthand for her being a ballbuster?

I did see the 2009 movies, so I have a little background around the original "heroes." Have we seen them all now (who is the owl character?)? What does the woman hunting them do with them? Is she hunting them because she is mad at Doc for leaving her? Or is this yet another argument (already seen in Avengers: Civil War and Batman Vs. Superman) of whether superheroes (sometimes called vigilantes) should be allowed to exist? 

It's hard to tell what is new in the show and what already existed. I looked at sites about the franchise, but I'm not sure how they relate to the show or if the info is treated consistently. 

Aw, maybe I'll just shut up and puzzle it out. It's intriguing for sure. 

For most of the stuff that has taken place since the 80s, viewers are mostly in the same boat of having to wait and see what the people from HBO Watchmen have up their sleeves. So we don't know anything about who has Ozy locked up, why he has not yet been able to escape, how many states there are, how exactly Laurie came to be an anti-vigilante agent, etc. We can only speculate until the show establishes these things.

This episode seemingly establishes that the show's Sen. Keene unveiled the legislation that allows cops to go masked for Tulsa only in response to the City's White Night attack on police officers. The show has stated that took place 3 years ago. Sen. Keene mentioned in this episode that a number of other cities wanted to copy it, given that it had reduced Tulsa crime by 80 percent.

An educated guess as to Laurie's turning into an agent is that she decided to follow in the footsteps of her dad, the Comedian, who was able to operate after a law was passed shutting almost all costumed heroes down because he worked exclusively for the government. When we last saw Laurie in the world of the graphic novel, she and Nite Owl (who she referred to in her joke as "Owl Guy") were romantically involved and were poised to be fighting crime together under new aliases. It sounds like in this episode, Nite Owl got himself caught and so she might have agreed to help capture other vigilantes in exchange for leniency for either herself or for him. 

I'll take the answers to more generalized backstory outside this episode to the "Questions Asked" thread.

[mac123x]

15 hours ago, revbfc said:

That was quite a dildo.

Honestly, when she first pulled it out I thought it was a bong.  

[scrb]

4 minutes ago, mac123x said:

Honestly, when she first pulled it out I thought it was a bong.  

She wasn't killed by space junk, she was impaled by that dildo!

Unless she has alien anatomy ...

[Charlesman]

If I remember the graphic novel correctly, at some point Veidt does say "I'm not some Republic Serial villain", which is a reference to the twirly-mustache bad guys of old movies. 

In the Watchmen movie, they changed this line: he says "I'm not some comic book villain". That was a nice touch. 

He said it again in his dictated letter to the Game Warden.

[Joimiaroxeu]

So who was the low rent Batman? "Rich assholes playing dress-up." Take that, Bruce Wayne.

Eh, don't know about James Wolk trying to do a Southern accent.

Loved that "ooh, I'm so scared" noise Angela made to Laurie.

Literally a (blue) dick in a box. Heh.

[Uncle JUICE]

THat was a confusing dildo. I guess you can't fly commercial with that thing. If a dildo comes with a carrying case like a glok 9, you really have spent some serious money on a dildo. I mean even the detachable balls! High end. 

[scrb]

5 minutes ago, Uncle JUICE said:

THat was a confusing dildo. I guess you can't fly commercial with that thing. If a dildo comes with a carrying case like a glok 9, you really have spent some serious money on a dildo. I mean even the detachable balls! High end. 

Surprised she settled for Petey.  😋

May not be the best reflection on the show that the dildo is being discussed instead of other things in the episode.

[Uncle JUICE]

3 minutes ago, scrb said:

Surprised she settled for Petey.  😋

May not be the best reflection on the show that the dildo is being discussed instead of other things in the episode.

In fairness, it was the most visually striking feature, revealed at a critical moment. 

[BrooklynRat]

Why did the Mr Phillips clone freeze to death and where did he go to that was just a rope’s length away? Is Veidt trapped on Mars on a short leash within a tiny habitable biosphere created for him? 

Edited November 5, 2019 by BrooklynRat
Additional thought

[Chicago Redshirt]

17 hours ago, mac123x said:

I assume the Senator's reference to getting her "owl" out of his cage refers to Night Owl being in prison.  I also assume that the Senator was actually behind his own kidnapping plot, because "the good politician is actually evil" is a predictable twist.

...

The joke Laurie told Dr. Manhattan's call line included the detail that the murderous giant squid was actually a ploy.  Is this common knowledge?  I'm guessing that it isn't, since they still have miniature squid-falls and they blame them on transdimensional beings. 

There would also be a parallel between Senator Keene orchestrating his own kidnapping and Ozy orchestrating his own assassination attempt. 

As far as we know, only 4 living people know about the squid ploy: Ozy, Doctor Manhattan, Laurie and Nite Owl.

17 hours ago, rwlevin said:

So Lee Tergesen was in the show for all of, what, 30 seconds? Why? Is he just a huge Watchmen fan? I’m surprised he was credited figuring it was pretty much a cameo.

in other news, looks like Angela got her car back. Now where did her granddad go?

17 hours ago, mac123x said:

Also wanted to mention, who in their right mind would name a cemetery Tartarus Acres, let alone buy a plot there?  I guess it's in keeping with the theme of the Laurie's joke:  "Tartarus is the place where souls are judged after death and where the wicked received divine punishment."  

Someone with a sick sense of humor might name a cemetery that. I would expect less than 10 percent of people in general would know what Tartarus is, though.

15 hours ago, MrWhyt said:

so we have in show confirmation that Jeremy Irons is Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias and I'm going to assume that The Game Warden is Dr. Manhattan. 

It seems to me that Doctor Manhattan is too aloof to bother with punishing Ozy in general, let alone writing him correspondence such as is described in this episode. 

1 hour ago, Charlesman said:

If I remember the graphic novel correctly, at some point Veidt does say "I'm not some Republic Serial villain", which is a reference to the twirly-mustache bad guys of old movies. 

In the Watchmen movie, they changed this line: he says "I'm not some comic book villain". That was a nice touch. 

He said it again in his dictated letter to the Game Warden.

Yeah, Ozy says this after he's done explaining his plan to Nite Owl and Rorshach, and tells them that he already did it more than a half-hour ago. 

[tennisgurl]

1 hour ago, Charlesman said:

f I remember the graphic novel correctly, at some point Veidt does say "I'm not some Republic Serial villain"

I caught that too, its one of his most famous lines in the comic! Spoilers for what went down in the comics, vaugly. 

Spoiler

“Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome? I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

Jean Smart is such a commandeering presence, and she is absolutely tearing it up in every scene, even though its still wild to me that Laurie took her bio dads last name. I am sure he would very much approve of shoot first ask questions later policy! Sad that in this universe things went badly for Dan though (the owl guy she was mentioning) who is apparently in jail somewhere or something, he was always one of the most likable characters in Watchmen, in my opinion. The younger agent sassing her was fun, but sleeping with him does not seem very advisable. Jean and Regina are going to be great working with/possibly against each other this season. 

I am still unsure that Jud was really with the Calvary/KKK, I wonder if he was undercover, or if he has family connections in the Klan but was not in it himself, or is being set up. It just seems too obvious, especially being revealed so quickly, and like Angela said last week, it was so easy to find, like they were supposed to. I am really liking the stuff with the Tulsa police, and Laurie's reactions to them are quite interesting. You know she is living for this irony. 

So we get official conformation that the weird old guy is, in fact, Adrian Veidt, and is actually in some kind of luxury prison, which he is using his steampunk equipment and legion of clones to try and escape from. I am guessing that the one keeping him there is Doctor Manhattan, but its hard to be sure. 

The brick joke bit with Laurie talking to Dr. Manhattan throughout the episode, telling a classic "brick joke" works on so many levels. A brick joke is an old joke where, like in the episode, someone starts with a joke involving a brick layer or someone tossing a brick into the air, then segwaying into another joke, only for the brick to show up randomly at the end of the second joke, usually hitting someone or something. Its often now used as a literary device where something happens at the start of a story that pays off later, usually to tie a few different stories or plots together. Her story about a father teaching a daughter to follow in his trade certainly applies to Laurie, as she not only took her father Edward Blake's last name, but like her dad, she is also a former costumed vigilante turned government agent who shoots first and asks questions later (although she is probably not as much of a dick as he was. Hopefully) and has a rather cynical dark sense of humor/world view. The episode also ends with a narrative brick joke, where Angela's car from last week that was taken with a giant flying magnet almost drops on Laurie's head this week, much like the brick dropping on Gods head in her story. 

[Cardie]

Because Veidt is trying to make a space suit, does that indicate that he is imprisoned on a spaceship with a terraformed interior?

[Chicago Redshirt]

22 minutes ago, Cardie said:

Because Veidt is trying to make a space suit, does that indicate that he is imprisoned on a spaceship with a terraformed interior?

Could be that he is on Mars with Doctor Manhattan, for example.

[rmontro]

I've been critical of this show so far, but I have to admit it's getting more interesting now that they are actually bringing in more material from the Watchmen universe.  Not ready to endorse it yet, but it's gotten better every week IMO.

20 hours ago, WatchrTina said:

Um . . . Did Doctor Manhattan just throw a car at his ex-girlfriend?

It appeared that way.  I'm assuming that's the same car that Louis Gossett Jr. escaped in with the electromagnet that came out of the sky?  That would suggest that Louis Gosset Jr.'s character is involved with Dr. Manhatten somehow.  He did say he had friends in high places.  Still, seems kind of odd.

I also thought it was odd that Laura is pining after Dr. Manhatten the way she is.  Right down to the blue dildo.  She had left him because he had grown so detached and inhuman  I would have thought she would be thinking more of Nite Owl, the way things had ended.  

2 hours ago, tennisgurl said:

I caught that too, its one of his most famous lines in the comic!

The way she ended the joke with "Good joke" was also reminiscent of the comics, where Rorschach tells a joke and says "Good joke" at the end.

[scrb]

4 minutes ago, rmontro said:

I also thought it was odd that Laura is pining after Dr. Manhatten the way she is.  Right down to the blue dildo. 

Hmm, Dr. Manhattan is blue and endowed like that?

What kind of comics are these?

[rmontro]

1 minute ago, scrb said:

Hmm, Dr. Manhattan is blue and endowed like that?

What kind of comics are these?

I take it you haven't read the comics or saw the movie?  The nudity was all presented very matter-of-factly.  Dr. Manhatten is blue, but no, he was not the size of that dildo.

[Chicago Redshirt]

15 minutes ago, scrb said:

Hmm, Dr. Manhattan is blue and endowed like that?

What kind of comics are these?

One of the things that made the Watchmen comics so groundbreaking is that it dealt with mature subjects at a time when mainstream comics rarely did (and typically, when they did, it usually was on the level of an afterschool special). 

Watchmen has explicit sex scenes and deals with topics like rape, politics, and morality in an unflinching way.

In terms of Dr. Manhattan, the OG Watchmen depictions of his nudity (and there were many) generally had him be normally proportioned. But he can change his overall size to be gigantic, and he was shown splitting himself into multiple bodies during one sex scene (several having sex with Laurie while one was continuing to do lab work). So IMO there's no reason he couldn't just make himself bigger down there if he wanted to.

Edited November 5, 2019 by Chicago Redshirt

[DearEvette]

Man, I hope Judd really is a bad guy because the indignity visited upon his dead body ... just...dude.

I liked everything about Jean Smart.  The cynicism just rolls off Laurie in waves.  I dig it.

*In a bored voice* "Sir are your civil rights being violated?... Yeah, I don't really care."  The whole delivery of those lines just encapsulated everything about her.   And then using Looking Glass' mask to pick her teeth.  So irreverent!  LOL.

Also she seemed so well informed about everything.  Either the she is a hell of an analyst or the FBI got some informants.

The one camera shot of her in front of the Warhol painting with her current living self overlaid over her painted square and then sliding away to reveal who she was was great.

That was a major dildo. I mean, if your lover was Dr. Manhattan, I would not be surprised if he could extra freaky in the sack & give you multiple sizes if you want them.  I vaguely remember thinking they had some out there sex. The comic seemed to imply it. 

They've given us Adrien.  Now I am curious about Night Owl.  The show has been peppered with owl easter eggs in just three eps so now I want more.  Who is he?

Not a lot of Angela, but that is ok, her scenes with Laurie were great.  I especially loved her "oooh."  Holy cow, I need to practice such disdain.

[kay1864]

4 hours ago, rmontro said:

I take it you haven't read the comics or saw the movie?  The nudity was all presented very matter-of-factly.  Dr. Manhatten is blue, but no, he was not the size of that dildo.

 He could change his size, and duplicate himself. We never saw them having intercourse. So who’s to say what size it was when he was actually “sending Laurie to Jupiter”. 

Edited November 5, 2019 by kay1864

[Lantern7]

"Jean Smart. For when you have an unbelievably cerebral series based off comic books, and you need an older actress to steal scenes and kick ass."

Welcome back, Laurie! From second-generation superheroine (without a mask, ironically) to a hardcore FBI agent., and she fits in well here. Granted, her arrival is just another match in the powder keg that is Tulsa, but we're not the ones in danger of falling cars or "space junk" (anyone think of Dead Like Me?), so it's entertaining.

Dope that I am, I never thought Veidt could be imprisoned, or that he could be on Mars with Dr. Manhattan as the "Game Warden." That would explain the servants . . . maybe Big Blue creates those from scratch. If they're on Mars, I mean. Either way, Veidt is still Veidt . . .  brilliant and sinister. Age just makes things a little funnier . . . though Jeremy Irons doesn't look ridiculous in the Ozymandias costume.

Yes, my ears perked up at "Republic serial villain." Wasn't that the phrase Veidt used as he lowered the verbal boom on Rorschach and Nite Owl?

"We had an agreement . . . one of use died, the other would speak at the funeral. Also, Judd made it clear that if a terrorist were to invade his funeral and that person would blow up, it would be okay to use his coffin to contain the explosion, even if he was still in there." Great thinking from Angela. I'd still be legging as far away as I could.

On 11/3/2019 at 9:55 PM, revbfc said:

That was quite a dildo.

On 11/3/2019 at 10:00 PM, AimingforYoko said:

Yeah, I don't remember Doc being that.....endowed.

My contribution: given the color of the . . . . device, maybe the real Dr. Manhattan was . . . bigger on the inside? Shut up, that was funnier than Laurie's episode-long joke.

[rmontro]

53 minutes ago, kay1864 said:

 He could change his size, and duplicate himself. We never saw them having intercourse. So who’s to say what size it was when he was actually “sending Laurie to Jupiter”. 

You're absolutely right.  Even if he wasn't changing his individual parts, maybe he was 10 feet tall when he was doing the deed.  So maybe that dildo wasn't so out of proportion after all.  I stand corrected.

[kay1864]

9 hours ago, Lantern7 said:

Yes, my ears perked up at "Republic serial villain." Wasn't that the phrase Veidt used as he lowered the verbal boom on Rorschach and Nite Owl?

Yes indeed:  "Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my master-stroke if there remained the slightest chance of you affecting its outcome?

I did it thirty-five minutes ago.”

8 hours ago, rmontro said:

You're absolutely right.  Even if he wasn't changing his individual parts, maybe he was 10 feet tall when he was doing the deed.  So maybe that dildo wasn't so out of proportion after all.  I stand corrected.

Oh heck, didn't mean to correct you.  Mostly I just wanted to make a Sally Jupiter joke 🙂

Of course now I'm imagining a backstory where Laurie suggests experimenting with different sizes.  And the suitcase vibrator* is her #1 choice.

*Confirmed as vibrator, not dildo, by the producer/writer who came up with the concept.  It vibrates when the testicles are magnetically attached.  Science, bitch!

https://slate.com/culture/2019/11/watchmen-vibrator-dildo-dr-manhattan-space-junk-interview.html

Edited November 5, 2019 by kay1864

[Catfi9ht]

Hmm...well, that was alot to unpack this episode, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it. I guess I'll break it down this way...

The Return of Laurie

It appears that when Laurie decided to take her father's name, she also adopted his cynicism, disgust for humanity, lust for meaningless relationships, and pining for someone who can never love you in return, which is god damn depressing. It fits with the universe and what happens when "heroes" age, but it's still really depressing.

I like the fact that her character evolution is a natural progression in keeping with this universe, but personally, when characters engage in meaningless sex (male and female), it makes their overall character less interesting to me. My main interest in shows are characters with complex relationships and morals, but using sex to fill a void is used so frequently in bad drama writing 101 that it's an instant turn-off for me. However, I do hope they continue to add to her character so that one issue only adds to her moral complexity rather than being the sole source of it (à la Fleabag).

Keene Jr. as the Big Bad

I really hope this doesn't happen and the story isn't this simple.

Veidt's Captivity

I hope it's not as simple as he's been jailed by Dr. Manhattan on Mars. My husband, knowing nothing about the comic and having seen the movie maybe twice, hypothesized Veidt is in Purgatory because Lindelof seems obsessed with it, and it seems to creep into every story he writes. I also hope this isn't the case. I do hope it's more along the lines of some suspended animation Veidt intentionally put himself in and is now trying to get out of it. This seems more in keeping with his narcissistic personality. Maybe he modified the instrinsic field to put him in some sort of suspended animation, but it went horribly wrong and he can't get out (like Scotty in The Next Generation episode, "Relics"). He wanted to live forever but is instead trapped in a prison of his own making.

Angela vs. Laurie

I'm looking forward to this match-up throughout the season. Angela's drive and optimism seems a perfect parallel to a younger Laurie. I think there will be chances for interesting character growth from both women.

Overall

The acting on this show is exceptional and the direction Lindelof decided to take this universe is more interesting than I could ever dream of. While this episode was "meh" for me, I think it was because it was almost an introductory episode of sorts. I hope the show continues to surprise me in new and exciting ways.

[tennisgurl]

22 hours ago, Cardie said:

Because Veidt is trying to make a space suit, does that indicate that he is imprisoned on a spaceship with a terraformed interior?

I wonder if he is stuck on another planet or dimension? Like wherever the squids are coming from? Thats why no one on Earth knows where he is, and he is building some kind of space suit? His rather bitter play about Dr. Manhattans birth does sure seem like he is his jailer, but maybe thats just how Ozzy roles in his retirement. 

[Dev F]

28 minutes ago, tennisgurl said:

I wonder if he is stuck on another planet or dimension? Like wherever the squids are coming from? Thats why no one on Earth knows where he is, and he is building some kind of space suit? His rather bitter play about Dr. Manhattans birth does sure seem like he is his jailer, but maybe thats just how Ozzy roles in his retirement. 

Someone on Reddit theorized that Adrian is stuck in some sort of quantum netherworld generated by his own mind after disassembling himself in his intrinsic field device in the hopes of becoming another Dr. Manhattan. If that's the case, you could interpret his play as a manifestation of his attempts to will himself into godhood. Or perhaps Dr. Manhattan detected Veidt's attempts to become a god and is working to suppress them, in which case he is Adrian's jailer, just not in any physical sense, and the play is a manifestation of the wannabe god's struggle against the actual god.

Barring some extravagant explanation like this, I can't think of a plausible reason why Manhattan would care enough to keep Adrian prisoner, or why Adrian would feel motivated to make a deal with him instead of just daring him to do his worst. If this story is taking place in the physical realm, I think it makes more sense that Lady Trieu is Adrian's jailer. As the new owner of Veidt's company, it makes sense that she would want him to keep applying his massive intellect to their product line (perhaps why the gameskeeper thanks him for the tomatoes). And if Trieu somehow found out that Adrian fabricated the squid attack and confronted him with it, I could see him agreeing to an oppressive "arrangement" to keep it under her hat. (Whereas Manhattan has already killed a man to keep Veidt's secret, so I can't imagine he'd now try to leverage that secret against him.)

[mac123x]

On 11/4/2019 at 2:44 PM, Chicago Redshirt said:

It seems to me that Doctor Manhattan is too aloof to bother with punishing Ozy in general, let alone writing him correspondence such as is described in this episode.

I agree that it's probably not Dr. M.  The letter exchanged reminded me of a scripted response to a computer game, but that might be because I'm still hoping he's stuck in a simulation rather than an actual physical prison.  The steam-punk tech escape plans are a metaphor for his consciousness escaping the Matrix or whatever.

If I'm right about this, I will quote this post incessantly.  If not, I'll completely pretend I never said it.

[ottoDbusdriver]

There was that one question at Keene's press Q&A after the funeral about the Russians building an intrinsic field generator. 

Maybe the Russians are trying to make their own version of Dr. Manhattan.

[Pacrags]

On 11/4/2019 at 1:52 PM, scrb said:

She wasn't killed by space junk, she was impaled by that dildo!

Unless she has alien anatomy ...

With Dr m on Mars wouldn't the dildo be representing his space junk

[AnimeMania]

8 hours ago, Pacrags said:

On 11/4/2019 at 1:52 PM, scrb said:

She wasn't killed by space junk, she was impaled by that dildo!

Unless she has alien anatomy ...

With Dr m on Mars wouldn't the dildo be representing his space junk

And another name for an orgasm is the "Little Death".

[Lemons]

On 11/3/2019 at 10:13 PM, rwlevin said:

So Lee Tergesen was in the show for all of, what, 30 seconds? Why? Is he just a huge Watchmen fan? I’m surprised he was credited figuring it was pretty much a cameo.

in other news, looks like Angela got her car back. Now where did her granddad go?

Who is Lee Tergesen?   Do some people watching already understand dr Manhattan?  I don’t. 

[AnimeMania]

8 hours ago, Lemons said:

Who is Lee Tergesen?

He is an actor that played Mr. Shadow, the superhero that tried to stop the bank robbery and was shot. If you want to see something he did recently without the costume, watch the first season of The Purge TV Show.