S01.E01: It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice

[formerlyfreedom]

Quote

Police conceal their identities behind masks in an alternate America to protect themselves from a terrorist organization, but Detective Angela Abar investigates the attempted murder of a fellow officer under the guidance of her friend an Chief, Judd Crawford. Meanwhile, the Lord of a Country Estate receives an anniversary gift from his loyal servants.

 

Series premiere airing Sunday, October 20, 2019.

[Indigo Luna]

Oh boy I'm all in what an excellent pilot! 

[mac123x]

35 minutes in, I said "holy shit, this is all prologue; they're just setting things up."  50 minutes in, after Don Johnson says the tick-tock quote, I said "That's every Don Johnson scene from the previews, they're gonna kill him off"

I liked the world building, in that they've built the world and had very little exposition to the audience.  Like, we should already know that there is an occasional hailstorm made out of interdimensional squids.

Still leery about the show in general, due to "Written by" and "Created by".  Lindelhof has a track record of creating amazing settings and filling them with nonsensical plots.  I will give him credit with some of the set up / payoffs.  Louis Gossett Jr.'s character saying "do you think I could lift 200 lb?" was nice.  I assume he's either the little boy from the intro, or the baby the little boy found.

[AimingforYoko]

OK, I wasn't expecting that. Interesting how they're reversing the racial politics on policing.

This really isn't Lindelof trying to do Watchmen, this is Lindelof telling his own story in a Watchmen universe. Which is probably better in the long run. 

And how does listening to Future fit in with the whole white supremacist philosophy?

ETA:

Quote

I assume he's either the little boy from the intro, or the baby the little boy found.

He's the little boy. It's 2019, the riots took place in 1921 and he said he's 105. (In the previews)

Edited October 21, 2019 by AimingforYoko

[Amethyst]

Wow, that was really good.  I knew Judd was a goner when he left his house. 

There was a lot to take in here.  The squids falling from the sky, Judd being a cocaine user, all the cops/authority figures wearing masks, Jeremy Irons and his weird servants...it's a lot.  But it was engrossing.

So Louis Gossett Jr. is the boy from the opening scene.  I wonder who the baby is.  I think it was a girl?

Regina King is owning this.  She's excellent. 

[Enigma X]

I liked it and am in but maybe my memory of what I thought Watchmen was is off.

[mjc570]

I thought it was great, I was absolutely mesmerized.  Regina King is amazing, but all the cast is excellent.  I thought it was visually interesting, and I had no problem following the story line except for one thing:  I thought the police chief would have been more security conscious when he left the house, knowing what he did that the Kavalry was back. 

I assume the baby girl will turn up somewhere.  I thought Regina King (Sister Night?) was her, then realized the baby would have been older, a few years younger than Lou Gossett, Jr.  I liked a lot of the little touches, like the police chief using the guy's mask (Looking Glass?) as a mirror when he was getting dressed.

[Maurina]

This is one of those times when I watch a pilot and say to myself "I do not know what the hell is going on here, and I love it".  Usually I watch a pilot like this and the last part is "and this is going to be a disaster" (I'm looking at you, Westworld).  This?  This looks incredibly interesting.

[scrb]

OK, I now understand why Lindelof said it may only be one season and the season is self-contained.

This show could draw a lot of controversy in 2019.

I didn't read the books or watch the movie.

I'm not sure they're building an alternate reality or just bizarro world.  The massacre was an historical event, but the world that came out of it is just incomprehensible.

Panda guy controls all the weapons for the cops and he's named that because he wears a big panda head?  

In any event, there are always weird things going on in Lindelof shows, like the smoke monster, the wild dogs and the out of control buck in The Leftovers and now the squid storm in this show.

Will he bother to explain it at some point or it's just cool to throw in these scenes?

[revbfc]

What I’m digging so far is the showing, and not telling.

- The Seventh Cavalry are definitely going to be a more complicated piece of the puzzle, since we can guess that they read Rorschach’s diary like scripture.

-Veidt is still teleporting squids for some damn reason.

-The show “American Hero Story” is going to be our pirate comic book.  I just wish we had our newsstand duo.

- The world looks like a nightmare, and I love it.

[Machiabelly]

I am all in. I am a huge Oklahoma fan so that was fun, but I recognized the title from Poor Jud is Dead, so I spent the whole episode thinking..."Oh, he is so Ned Stark".

Still loved it.

[MrWhyt]

55 minutes ago, scrb said:

I didn't read the books or watch the movie.

I'm not sure they're building an alternate reality or just bizarro world.  The massacre was an historical event, but the world that came out of it is just incomprehensible.

This show is a sorta-sequel to the original comics not the movie. They've been saying you don't have to have read the comic to watch the show but I think it might be best to find one of the "here are the bullet points of the Watchmen universe" articles that are out there.

[LoveLeigh]

Who is the character Jeremy Irons plays? 

Oh and the man in the wheelchair asked if he could lift 200 pounds and that was a foreshadowing? 

[Cardie]

2 hours ago, Amethyst said:

 Judd being a cocaine user

I thought the nosebleed was a hint that he had been around all those cancer-causing lithium batteries the 7K are stockpiling. 
Stunning first episode. 

[mac123x]

25 minutes ago, DakotaLavender said:

Oh and the man in the wheelchair asked if he could lift 200 pounds and that was a foreshadowing? 

"Do I look like I could lift 200 pounds?"  It sounded like a non sequitur, but the next time we see him he's next to a lynched man who probably weighs around 200 lb.  He was basically taunting Regina King's character.

27 minutes ago, Cardie said:

I thought the nosebleed was a hint that he had been around all those cancer-causing lithium batteries the 7K are stockpiling. 
Stunning first episode. 

I didn't think either -- I thought his nosebleed was due to being in an air-vehicle wreck earlier that night.  His wife even teased him about it.

[Shorty186]

I knew I should have reread the graphic novel before watching this. Is the 7K misinterpretting Rorschach's journals? I thought I remembered he was a good guy.

Is Alan Moore not credited at the end because he was vehemently opposed to this or something?

[thuganomics85]

Even if this wasn't connected to the Watchmen Universe, they would have had me with Regina King: Masked Cop Vigilante.

Pretty much what I expected with Damien Lindelof tackling a post-Watchmen story, in that it was pretty trippy, mysterious, and a bit confusing at times, but fascinating and interesting enough that I can't wait to see how it all plays out and hopefully all comes together.  All in all, the production values were great: from Nicole Kassell's directing to the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

I thought the general references to the film/comic was well done and I like seeing things like Dr. Manhattan still on Mars and the aftermath of all of the shit Veidt did.  Of course, Rorschach's presence was the most noticeable thanks to the Seventh Calvary.  Yeah, can't say I'm surprised that a white supremacist group would find his beliefs appealing to them..

I feel kind of dumb, but I actually didn't see Don Johnson's death coming until he said he was going to back to the hospital.  But once he assured his wife he would be fine, I knew something bad was going to go down.

I'm guessing Jeremy Irons scenes will play a bigger role in the story later on.  Not sure what is going on with his servants.  Didn't even realize the butler was Tom Mison until after the credits.  Guess I'm not use to him without the Ichabod Crane scruff and hair!

So, Louis Gossett Jr. is the kid from the opening act?  That whole scene was intense as hell!

Curious to see how this all goes down.  Glad that it is apparently going to be a self-contained season.

[revbfc]

9 hours ago, Shorty186 said:

I knew I should have reread the graphic novel before watching this. Is the 7K misinterpretting Rorschach's journals? I thought I remembered he was a good guy.

Is Alan Moore not credited at the end because he was vehemently opposed to this or something?

Rorschach sent his diary to a far-right, conservative, libertarian, conspiracy rag called THE NEW FRONTIERSMAN prior to traveling to Antarctica with Night Owl to confront Veidt.  To your next point of him being a good guy: no one was a “good guy” in the book.

——

Alan Moore has always had a problem with his work being adapted for the screen, hence him insisting his name not be attached to this.

Edited October 21, 2019 by revbfc

[DearEvette]

It took me a minute (okay more than...)  to really  understand what was going on but as I take it, this is Lindelof's take on how things would have evolved in real time in the aftermath of the original events of The Watchmen from the 80s.  So it actually makes sense for something like the 7th Cavalry (or Kavalry?) to grow out of Rorschach's writings and message.    And Dr. Manhattan did say he'd cause long term damage....

Also the raining squids was a nice touch -- makes you believe that maybe the Giant squid attack at the end of the book wasn't fake after all?

I take it Jeremy Irons is Ozymandias, still trying to manipulate events for the good of the population.  I barely recognized Tom Mison!

I am so super bummed about Don Johnson.  Man, I liked him as a character.  But I knew he was gon' die.  I just knew it.

Regina King was EVERYTHING.  I mean... her duster alone gave me life.

Honestly, I like all the casting here. 

I need to re-watch this because I know I missed things.

[Enigma X]

After letting it ruminate over night, and realizing as you all are saying this is an evolution of original 80s Watchmen, I feel I am caught up. 

I liked the Johnson character but felt as if he was a goner early on. Part of me wondered if he would turn out to be part of the 7th Kavalry.

[UNOSEZ]

53 minutes ago, Enigma X said:

liked the Johnson character but felt as if he was a goner early on. Part of me wondered if he would turn out to be part of the 7th Kavalry.

That's where my head was and I was dreading it.. Because I was totally in love with the character and his relationship with sister night... So as sad as I am that he got Ned Stark'd I prefer it over him being a closet racist... It took me a second to compute that she and her husband were raising 3 white children.. I do wonder if the racial dynamics are flipped to a degree all over the country or just in Tulsa where I can. Imagine how black wealth and perceived unearned benefits would be the perfect incubator for white resentment 

[DearEvette]

Oh... forgot to mention...  I loved seeing all the owl stuff represented.  I wonder was DJ's character supposed to be yet another iteration of Nite Owl?

And there was a shot of all of them at the dinner table from overhead through a circular light fixture, with the people sitting at a round table that I thought was really cool because it mimic'd a clock and you could hear very subtlety in the background the 'tick tock' sound.

And finally, regarding the racial make up of Angela's family... I swear we got a glimpse of another family that seemed to be blended racially that didn't look like it was a biological blend.  I wonder if that was also some sort of fall out or dynamic from the ending events of the book?

[Deanie87]

12 hours ago, Maurina said:

This is one of those times when I watch a pilot and say to myself "I do not know what the hell is going on here, and I love it".  Usually I watch a pilot like this and the last part is "and this is going to be a disaster" (I'm looking at you, Westworld).  This?  This looks incredibly interesting.

That's where I am too.  I never read the comic, never saw the movie, don't get a lot of the references, but this was the rare show that made me want to pay attention.  Not fold laundry as I watched or scroll through twitter, so that's something.

I kind of saw the end of Don Johnson's character coming, but it made me really sad.  I was looking forward to him getting a later in life renaissance, so hopefully he'll show up some kind of backstory in future episodes.  

[Kip Hackman]

You could enjoy and understand the Watchmen film, without ever reading the graphic novel (which I eventually did). 

But this series is basically a sequel. I can't imagine that it's going to make any sense to anyone who doesn't know the source material.

As for the pilot, I had high hopes, and was not disappointed.

Edited October 21, 2019 by Kip Hackman

[TheGrifter]

13 hours ago, mjc570 said:

I thought it was great, I was absolutely mesmerized.  Regina King is amazing, but all the cast is excellent.  I thought it was visually interesting, and I had no problem following the story line except for one thing:  I thought the police chief would have been more security conscious when he left the house, knowing what he did that the Kavalry was back. 

I assume the baby girl will turn up somewhere.  I thought Regina King (Sister Night?) was her, then realized the baby would have been older, a few years younger than Lou Gossett, Jr.  I liked a lot of the little touches, like the police chief using the guy's mask (Looking Glass?) as a mirror when he was getting dressed.

Unless he really was a member of the leadership of the 7th Kav, and it's revealed by the old man at the beginning of the next episode.

Really no need to worry about security when you're in control of the organization everyone fears.  I also thought it was telling he chose go alone.  Maybe he was headed to the hospital to murder the police officer who survived the surgeries, and he didn't want any witnesses?

It just seems so obvious it was a very stupid and out of character for everything they established about him throughout the episode.  It had to have been intentional.  

[Deanie87]

18 minutes ago, Kip Hackman said:

You could enjoy and understand the Watchmen film, without ever reading the graphic novel (which I eventually did). 

But this series is basically a sequel. I can't imagine that it's going to make any sense to anyone who doesn't know the source material.

As for the pilot, I had high hopes, and was not disappointed.

I don't know any of the source material and while I can't say that it all made sense, it definitely sucked me in and I am looking forward to more.  Being familiar with the novel and and film, etc., would probably increase the depth of my viewing experience, but it also might increase the chances of my disappointment.  That's how I viewed Game of Thrones, invested and entertained, but not overly attached to the source material and that ended up being a good thing in the end.

I found The Leftovers to be an extremely emotionally moving series, even if I didn't always understand exactly what was going on or why, so I am willing to give Lindelof the benefit of the doubt.  If nothing else, I assume I won't be bored.

[ApathyMonger]

59 minutes ago, Deanie87 said:

I kind of saw the end of Don Johnson's character coming, but it made me really sad.  I was looking forward to him getting a later in life renaissance, so hopefully he'll show up some kind of backstory in future episodes.  

Don Johnson works plenty! He has Knives Out coming up later this year.

[Deanie87]

16 minutes ago, ApathyMonger said:

Don Johnson works plenty! He has Knives Out coming up later this year.

That's good to know! I saw the trailer for that it looks good.

Also, is there some significance to the title of this episode other than the song at the end?  I think that it was also on the wall of the guy who took the poison pill.  I promise I won't be that person who doesn't know the original material and asks a hundred questions every episode 🙂

[BrooklynRat]

Loved the pilot. Have zero knowledge of any of the source material and don’t want to. I know there’s a separate “Book Talk” area for posts and nothing here counts as that but honestly, if there are going to continue to be countless casual references to things learned in the graphic novel or movie, it’s just going to diminish the universe-building us newbies are getting to experience in the series. It already has. From the few comments here I already have insights into the squids, importance of Rorschach tests, some connection to Mars, etc. It would suck to have to skip the forum for the duration of what looks like a show with lots to discuss. 

[AnimeMania]

3 hours ago, BrooklynRat said:

It would suck to have to skip the forum for the duration of what looks like a show with lots to discuss.

Unless you are talking about the forum spoiling your enjoyment of the Graphic Novel or the movie if you think you might want to read/see it one day. The TV show starts 30 years after the Graphic Novel and movie and builds upon what was shown in the Graphic Novel or the movie, so it would be hard to talk about what happens in the TV show without talking about what happened in the Graphic Novel or the movie that brought that about.

[revbfc]

This episode mentioned synthesized lithium giving people cancer.  Who thinks it’s the same synthesized lithium that Dr. Manhattan made so the world could switch to electric cars?

[Charlesman]

5 hours ago, TheGrifter said:

Unless he really was a member of the leadership of the 7th Kav, and it's revealed by the old man at the beginning of the next episode.

Really no need to worry about security when you're in control of the organization everyone fears.  I also thought it was telling he chose go alone.  Maybe he was headed to the hospital to murder the police officer who survived the surgeries, and he didn't want any witnesses?

It just seems so obvious it was a very stupid and out of character for everything they established about him throughout the episode.  It had to have been intentional.  

This is what I'm assuming, Don Johnson was the sheriff who's secret a member of the Bad Guys, because that mirrors the plot of the black & white movie the boy was watching in Tulsa in the first scene. The boy grew up to be the Black Sheriff Who Saves the Day (name escapes me at the moment).

[Cardie]

The black marshal in the film is Bass Reeves, a real historical figure.  He was featured in a Timeless episode. The Lone Ranger was based on him, though turned into a white man. 

[UNOSEZ]

15 minutes ago, Cardie said:

The black marshal in the film is Bass Reeves, a real historical figure.  He was featured in a Timeless episode. The Lone Ranger was based on him, though turned into a white man. 

I think about bass reeves and others every time.. I have to read about " PC SJW Woke culture" race-swapping characters from our country's ever so overtly racist past and how horrible it is etc

[formerlyfreedom]

If you have questions on the moderation of the forum, please PM the forum moderator (that's me, @saoirse!). As with the rest of the site, forum moderation is not up for discussion in topics. Thank you!

[meep.meep]

1 hour ago, Charlesman said:

This is what I'm assuming, Don Johnson was the sheriff who's secret a member of the Bad Guys, because that mirrors the plot of the black & white movie the boy was watching in Tulsa in the first scene. The boy grew up to be the Black Sheriff Who Saves the Day (name escapes me at the moment).

There was also a photo of the white people from the movie in a frame on the sheriff's desk.

Why did the husband and the two servants appear to be so stupid?  Are they androids not people?

At least Jeremy Irons got to ride in this.

[mac123x]

24 minutes ago, meep.meep said:

Why did the husband and the two servants appear to be so stupid?  Are they androids not people?

At least Jeremy Irons got to ride in this.

When I saw Jeremy Irons roll up on a horse at a castle, I wondered if they filmed it at his real life actual castle, but it doesn't look like the pictures here.  Could have saved on production costs.

There was a blink-and-you-miss-it newspaper headline saying Veidt Officially Declared Dead (or something similar).  His servants said he was celebrating his anniversary of being wherever he is.  That stuff plus their really weird behavior (making an apparently inedible dessert with honeycomb) made me wonder if he's in suspended animation or something, and either lucid dreaming or in a virtual reality.  Maybe his intellect is being kept occupied while his body is being repaired.

[starri]

20 hours ago, revbfc said:

-The show “American Hero Story” is going to be our pirate comic book.  

All I could think was "Even in an alternate reality, Ryan Murphy shows are everywhere."

TERRIFIC episode.

[MrWhyt]

6 hours ago, BrooklynRat said:

but honestly, if there are going to continue to be countless casual references to things learned in the graphic novel or movie, it’s just going to diminish the universe-building us newbies are getting to experience in the series.

If it was an adaption of an existing (and theoretically ongoing) work like Game of Thrones then I'd be ok with clamping down on book talk, but this is a semi-sequel to a 30 year old work. Personally i'm going to be vague-ish in my talk about comic stuff but I don't think it should be mandatory. i believe that Lindleloff has said that they're not going to spend much time rehashing the events of the original work.

[Popples]

Having never read the comics or watched the film, I watched a YouTube video (I was familiar with the channel because they would recap Game of Thrones) that summarized the backstory so I could get a somewhat understanding of the things being referenced. I was still completely engrossed in the story and am definitely in for the season.

3 hours ago, Cardie said:

The black marshal in the film is Bass Reeves, a real historical figure.  He was featured in a Timeless episode. The Lone Ranger was based on him, though turned into a white man. 

I only knew this because of Drunk History.

[clack]

3 hours ago, Cardie said:

The black marshal in the film is Bass Reeves, a real historical figure.  He was featured in a Timeless episode. The Lone Ranger was based on him, though turned into a white man. 

That's an internet myth, a myth that makes no sense if you give it a minute's thought.

A radio scriptwriter invented in 1933 a fictional Texas Ranger who survives the massacre of his ranger company, dons a mask, and seeks to bring to bring the perpetrators of the massacre to justice without resorting to killing.

Bass Reeves was not a Texas Ranger (who were a pretty racist bunch, btw), did not wear a mask, did not have an Indian sidekick, and killed people.

And there is no evidence that the Lone Ranger's creators had even heard of Bass Reeves.

[scrb]

That was a strange scene, the Irons character typing on an old typewriter while completely naked and the maid kneeling by his lap.

Thought there was something sexual going on there but she was just brushing his upper leg or something?

The servants talked weird with unlikely smiles on their faces.

So what was the deal with the tub of watch batteries?

Is this why they call it The Watchmen?  😋

In this world, they have disposable watch batteries but not mobile devices, which have greater mass of batteries, assuming they are collecting those batteries for a power source.

Edited October 22, 2019 by scrb

[Lantern7]

It's the sequel to Watchmen few people asked for! But not a sequel of the movie version! And it's not related to Doomsday Clock! Maybe!

Yes, I am watching with trepidation, because I never feel that expanding the "Watchmen Universe" is a good idea, and not just because of the thought of Alan Moore sending a serpent god to bite your ass*. It's just that the twelve issues that made up the original story were that fucking good. Who was asking for a follow-up decades later, a la Star Wars or Blade Runner? But this episode does start well, and with a lot of quirky concepts . . . like masked policemen, squid storms, and a bunch of white supremacists taking up Rorschach's name and cause. I think this Watchmen might be to that canon what Joker was made for . . . it wasn't putting Joaquin Phoenix into DC Comics, but rather DC Comics and Joker into the Joaquin universe. The parallel is there.

Masked officers. And, apparently, most of them aren't supposed to know each other's identity. The guy in the panda mask (well, "panda head" is more like it) stretched things, but it's still good. And I'm guessing promotions involve personalized looks, like Sister Night.

Adrian Veldt is still Adrian Veldt, which means he's way above it all, yet still prone to manipulation. The butler and the lady? Yeah, I'm not going to get used to them. Jeremy Irons is a good "get," and I bet he gets to do more here than he did in the DCEU as Alfred.

Is there a thread for Easter Eggs and/or shoutouts? I'm wondering if Robert Redford is aware that he's been inserted as President going on three decades in this series. Short story: Nixon wound up being President past 1974, and I think Alan Moore subbed one famous actor "RR" for another (Ronald Regan). Nixon on Mount Rushmore? All sorts of Not Right. Nowhere near as bad as the attack on "Black Wall Street" in Tulsa actually happening. Attacks on people from planes? Shit, man. Shit . . .

*ETA: I think Moore is way the fuck past the point of caring at this point.

Edited October 22, 2019 by Lantern7

[AnimeMania]

1 hour ago, scrb said:

Thought there was something sexual going on there but she was just brushing his upper leg or something?

The servants talked weird with unlikely smiles on their faces.

So what was the deal with the tub of watch batteries?

Is this why they call it The Watchmen?  😋

In this world, they have disposable watch batteries but not mobile devices, which have greater mass of batteries, assuming they are collecting those batteries for a power source.

I don't think the servants were human, but are clockwork automatons. The lady was massaging his thighs because he had been out horseback riding.

The old style batteries contain a cancerous substance that the newer versions don't have, so they were dismantling older devices and watches.

[MrWhyt]

41 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

*ETA: I think Moore is way the fuck past the point of caring at this point.

I think Moore's position on adaptations of his works has been "i cashed the cheque it's their thing now" for a long time.

[tennisgurl]

I've been super excited to see what this is like, as a fan of Watchmen and of Damon Lindelhof (despite both having flaws) and I thought this was great. Its very much an expansion of the Watchmen universe, with all of its weird alternate universe-ness, with a very 2019 sensibility, and I am really fascinated to see where it goes from here. I can see this being the future of the Watchmen verse, and while this is clearly a different story with different characters, you can see the imprints of the original comic all over the place.

Regina King is always awesome to see, and she is already very engaging here, both in her warm domestic scenes and in the action scene. I was glad to see Don Johnson as well, and I liked his character a lot and his relationship with Angela, so it sucks that he is already dead. I hope he wasnt secretly working with the Seventh Calvary. But as soon as they said his name was Judd and he was introduced watching Oklahoma, I knew he was doomed. 

The old guy from the beginning asking Angela how much he could lift, and then later standing next to the body of Judd, having apparently hung him from a tree, was a great bit of foreshadowing. He was holding the "Please look after this child" sign the baby from the 1920s had, so I am guessing that was him. Also, the beginning was based on the real life Black Wall street Massacre that really did happen in Tulsa in the 1920s, and it really was that horrible and bloody. That was one hell of an opening.

The squid rain was a nice call back to the giant squid attack of New York. Liked seeing Doctor Manhattan still messing around on the moon, and an older Adrian Veidt, having faked his own death, probably hatching more plans while being as stylish and extra as ever. 

There will always be a Ryan Murphy anthology show, no matter the universe!

Yeah of course Alan Moore will hate this because...of course he will.

[Cardie]

Clack, here is where the theory about Reeves as Lone Ranger comes from:

As deputy marshal, Bass is said to have arrested more than 3,000 people and killed 14 outlaws, all without sustaining a single gun wound, writes biographer Art T. Burton, who first asserted the theory that Bass had inspired the Lone Ranger in his 2006 book, Black Gun, Silver Star: The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves.

At the heart of Burton’s argument is that fact that over 32 years as a deputy marshal, Bass found himself in numerous stranger-than-fiction encounters. Also, many of the fugitives Bass arrested were sent to the Detroit House of Corrections, in the same city where the Lone Ranger would be introduced to the world on the radio station WXYZ on January 30, 1933. Am

[Hiyo]

Quote

Like, we should already know that there is an occasional hailstorm made out of interdimensional squids.

Quote

Veidt is still teleporting squids for some damn reason.

Unless it's a one time Easter egg, maybe Veidt is still trying to keep the charade going to keep the world united and at peace? Granted, one ending you could take from the comic book was that Rorschach's journal would eventually lead to the truth being exposed...

Quote

and I think Alan Moore subbed one famous actor "RR" for another (Ronald Regan)

I always though it was a reference to Ronald Regan in the comic book...

[Mr. Sparkle]

I need to go back and watch this episode again, and re-read the graphic novel. 

[mac123x]

Counterpoint to the theory that Bass Reeves inspired the Lone Ranger:

Burton's exact quote is  "Bass Reeves is the closest real person to resemble the Lone Ranger."  That's an analogy.  Burton has since claimed that he was only theorizing and not stating a fact.