For the second straight week, Watchmen introduces a badass, game-changing woman to the canon of heroes. If last week was about unearthing the past, this week is about sowing the seeds of the future. Acorns, surprise babies, and a catapult filled with dead bodies bear new fruit to the mystery salad that is Watchmen.
Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) takes time very seriously. As a trillionaire, the word “no” must be completely foreign to her. After all, she can drop in on a stranger, and perform a life-changing miracle in under three minutes. A worshiper at the altar of Adrian Veidt (Jeremy Irons), similarities between these heavy-hitting CEOs quickly becomes apparent. Which makes me wonder, could Lady Trieu be the next big bad, or am I simply seeing a red herring?
Chau makes the third leading woman who is forty or older to enter Watchmen, and she’s every bit as wonderful, calculating, and intimidating as Regina King and Jean Smart. She plays Trieu like a fox, luring people in with intelligent questions, giving lots of thought to each word, but always ready to make difficult decisions. Jokes about disposing of babies lead one to believe Trieu possesses the ability to be the big bad. Both Trieu and Veidt have access to cloning technology. We’ve seen the way Adrian callously murders his clone servants in prior episodes, but this week raised the stakes to something unimaginable. Somehow, Veidt grows human babies underwater, pulls them up in crab traps, and fiendishly disposes of any weak specimen. After killing three million people, a few more babies won’t tip the cosmic scales against him.
Trieu walks around as queen of her kingdom—makes sense considering she’s worth the GDP of a first world country. Unlike Veidt, Trieu doesn’t needlessly destroy. She’s got a plan. Step one, The Millennium Clock, stands to be the first wonder of the new world, putting into perspective just how fundamentally the world changed after 11/2. Step two: Lady Trieu’s daughter Bian (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) looks like she will play a central role in Trieu’s plan. We saw Bian in episode two purchasing every available newspaper, and she swore she reads all of them every single day. Not just an avid reader, she appears to be her mother’s right hand in the company. I think she’s a clone of Lady Trieu.
Trieu dresses completely in white. In Buddhism, white clothes typically represent the mourning of a close relative. Trieu briefly mentioned her mother wished that she would never leave Vietnam right before she died. Considering the role that family trauma plays in the series so far, it’s safe to guess that she might still be grieving her mother. However, if we look at the use of non-linear time throughout the franchise, Trieu could also be mourning a death that hasn’t yet occurred. Her connection to Veidt could mean another large terrorist attack looms on the horizon. But Veidt dropped the squid to bring about world peace. Perhaps she doesn’t think Adrian went far enough. Or, the dark and insidious plot Reeves spoke of is known to Trieu, and she aims to course correct.
My other big prediction this week is that the clock could be a time machine of sorts. The fact that only a direct nuclear blast could take it out leads me to believe that Doctor Manhattan may be the one to destroy it, or Trieu aims to do what her predecessor Veidt couldn’t, and will use the clock to kill Manhattan. After all, from Trieu’s perspective, Doctor Manhattan’s the worst terrorist there is. Manhattan singlehandedly ended the war, and many died in the process.
Lady Trieu named her daughter Bian, which means “secretive.” When Bian tells her mother about her bad dream, she seems to be reliving her mother’s death march during the American War, as it would have been known to Lady Trieu in Vietnam. Truth be told, what little I know about that war comes from pop culture references, and is heavily tainted by U.S. revisionism. (I highly recommend this article from The Atlantic if you want to learn more about how Vietnam views the conflict.) I hope that the show will take a moment to acknowledge unknown events as they’ve done for the Black American community. William Reeves (Louis Gossett Jr.) mentions wanting his granddaughter to know him, which is why he left pills in her glove compartment. I guess they’ll inform Sister Night (Regina King) of his past identity? The IV drip must be giving Bian her mother’s memories. But then why does Lady Trieu see a distinction between sharing her past with her daughter and Will sharing his with his granddaughter? Whatever they’ve got cooking feels tenuous. Trieu isn’t sure she can trust Reeves, even though he’s willing to blow up any relationship he might have with his last living blood relative in just 72 hours.
Angela’s last 72 hours have been a whirlwind. A long lost relative returns. Then, as suddenly as he appeared, he’s gone again. She buried her mentor, who may have been a racist, discovered the long lost relative who killed him, covered it up, thwarted a domestic terrorist attack, and now she knows the FBI is on to her misdoings. In the middle of such chaos, she retrieves an acorn that expands not just her family tree, but the knowledge she has of herself. For Black Americans, putting a face, a job title, even a name to our ancestors frequently proves a challenge. Slavers moved our enslaved ancestors around like cattle. In other words, no one recorded their names on official documents. As a Black American who has tracked their genealogy, I can say that getting a picture, not of someone in chains, but someone who made choices with their life that directly led to my existence proved riveting. King performed the family tree scene with devastating subtle emotion. How co-writers David Lindelof and Christal Henry wrote Angela’s send-off speech to Reeves moved me. Squatting before the only known picture of William, as a little boy standing between his parents, she tells the old man to leave her alone. There’s so much being said about the emotional scars abandonment leaves even a generation later. But knowing William’s history also lets the viewer mourn for the man he might have been if he hadn’t witnessed such horrors at a young age. It’s another profoundly moving scene.
Speaking of moving, Laurie’s (Jean Smart) made herself quite at home at the Tulsa Police Department. Usually, a small window of grievance gives officers a chance to adjust to new leadership. But Laurie’s not working on anyone else’s clock. Having slept with Petey (Dustin Ingram) did not change their relationship dynamic. He’s still a lovesick puppy following her around, taking orders, and sitting in the backseat of the car. I wonder if he’ll become what she was for Manhattan, a tool used by the government to keep the almighty in check. One thing Petey did that was helpful this week was put some more context into the American Hero Story television show. The guy with a PhD in history found himself disgusted by the inaccuracies of the show. So far, everything we’ve seen in the series matches up with the history given in the original text. This means there could be some big changes to the canon. Many people have already mentioned the similarities between Hooded Justice’s costume and the costumes Bass Reeves wore in Trust in the Law in episode one. With William taking Reeves’ last name as his own, perhaps the first superhero was a Black man. Imagine.
This world still hasn’t seen a Black man as president, which seems important given the reparations and the racial hostility brewing under the surface. A change in the highest office could mean Black Americans will end up right back where they started. I maintain that Senator Joe Keene smells bad. His overly polite, quick smile, heavy bodyguards, cleft chin, and the too charming accent are all part of an act. I don’t trust him. And was “I’m not supposed to know who you are” a thinly veiled threat against Angela? He better not play with her.
Well, we’ve got three days (episodes?) to see what it is Trieu and Reeves crafted. I wonder if we’ll hate them, as Reeves predicted, or if their actions will bring about a new world perspective. Will that baby come back into play? How will Laurie and Angela handle Angela’s crime and the big secret? I hope we get some more answers next week.
Stray observations
- Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) calmly telling his children God doesn’t exist and then making them waffles is the first Hallmark style scene I’ve seen for atheists. I thought it was rather stunning in its simplicity.
- The Silver Surfer wannabe, who I will refer to as Lube Man until name confirmation, was a wild C plot that I hope we comes back to soon. Were they spying on Angela, or did they just happen to cross paths? Could they be an agent of Trieu, or are they part of a completely different outfit? Either way, Red (Andrew Howard) and Pirate Jenny’s (Jessica Camacho) complete dismissal of this mask could spell trouble.
- The vivarium connects Trieu and Veidt again. Veidt had a vivarium in Antarctica. They’re designed for study. Veidt studied the global trends and used them to build his empire via capitalism. I wonder what Trieu studies.
- Veidt said he was the servants’ master but not their creator. Many have suggested that Manhattan keeps Veidt contained here, able to predict his every move. Makes sense given Manhattan’s warning at the end of the novel, “Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”
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Jeremy Irons fishing out and tossing fetuses back in the pond is probably one of the more disturbing things on TV this year.
Between that scene and the scene in the Boys where Karl Urban murders hitmen with a laser-eyed baby, this has been a fun year for babies on TV.
My wife has been hesitant to start watching the series with me, and happened to walk in right when this scene started. I believe I’ll be watching this one alone for the rest of the season.
To say nothing of Death Stranding
It’s a surprisingly fun game. I’m hooked on it and have been neglecting my other games–Destiny 2 and The Outer Worlds.
The baby-amoral superhero crossover genre is starting to get disturbingly crowded…
I was completely freaked out!
Was I wrong to be laughing?
Not at all.
Between Jim Henson’s Lobster Pot Babies and Lube Man’s disappearing act, I was howling last night!
I don’t get why everybody is freaked out. I mean, that’s just how babies are made, right? We’re all too old to fall for the cabbage patch lie that Big Toy peddles. It’s fetus pond, all the way.
Xavier Roberts was just a Boogeyman created to keep children in line. It’s really the Gorton’s Fisherman who brings us children!
Lindelof: So we’ll Ozy pull live fetuses out of the crab traps by candlelight and throw away the ones he doesn’t want……HBO: Yes, go on….Lindelof: And then he’ll launch the bodies of these babies when they’re all grown up into the sky with a catapult while Beethoven’s 7th is playing in the background.HBO: And this is after he burns one of them alive during a play and after he has dinner naked while one of them gives him a massage?Lindelof: Yep!HBO: And who do you have in mind to cast for Ozy to do these things?Lindelof: Jeremy Irons!HBO: Perfect! Sold! Green light this project at once!
Christopher Lloyd would have also worked as an emergency back-up suggestion. at times Irons sure sounds like Doc Brown to me.
You forgot -HBO: Will there be full frontal nudity?Lindelof: Well, duhHBO: Huzzah!
Both he and Trieu have a relatively cavalier approach to infants, using freely them to get what they want. And yet the two were being contrasted in this episode. It was both ridiculous and intriguing.
That reminded me of Takashi Miike’s Imprint episode for Showtime’s Masters of Horror anthology series back in the 00s. Showtime, a subscription premium cable channel, like HBO, where anything usually goes, would not air it (spoiler alert: abortions were performed *ahem* by hand). But it is included on the DVD/Blu-ray releases of the series.
I loved the clone-apult.
Cheeky episode title, Lindelof. All the haters are properly chastened, I’m sure.So my ongoing theory was that Veidt’s jailer was Manhattan, but now I’m leaning towards Lady Trieu. She has more motivation for wanting Veidt out of the way and she’s a lady who is quite used to getting what she wants.
Ooooo. And we see she’s great at offering folks what they desire most Veidt did say that he thought his castle was a paradise at first. I like this theory a lot.
Yeah. I wonder if Veidt was starting to lose it mentally, and agreed to fake his death and retire to paradise out of a sense of duty or responsibility. He is clearly unhinged in a way that the comic book version wasn’t.
The comic book version felt a bit unhinged to me, but frankly all of the characters did.
I mean, he also said in an interview that Veidt was right to kill 3 million people. Also I don’t think Lindelof has any right to tell other people to “write their own story” when he’d still be the guy wrote Prometheus.
It’s a Trolley Problem. There’s not really a “right” answer.
Why do people still imagine that creators will give straight and honest answers about their works in interviews? Jerking the audience around is half the fun of making stories.
I mean, he absolutely was right to sacrifice 3 million people to save countless others. Everyone but Rorschach seems to see that by the end of the comic. And I get the impression Rorschach was more upset at the cover up than the moral calculus.
So basically you’re not going to write your own story, just continue to bitch about his. Got it. He’s obviously the loser here.
This episode seemed to strongly suggest that.
And that fade from Veidt’s sky to the full moon…maybe he isn’t on Mars after all.
See, I think this solidifies Manhattan as the “Game Warden”. Veidt says that he doesn’t create the servants. The last we saw Dr M, he was speculating about creating human life himself. Also, this episode implied that Veidt’s jail may be on the moon.
Idk, Lady Trieu clearly has cloning technology and was able to make a baby for that couple at the beginning. Also, she conveniently bought up his business after he disappeared. Veigt also mentions that he originally thought his prison was a paradise. Based upon the opening scene where she makes the deal with the couple, it seems like it could be the case that she made him a deal so he could retire in “paradise,” but it was really just a scheme for her to take over his business.
I’m trying to ascertain the meaning of the fact that Angela’s kid Topher seemed to be building a floating model of Veidt’s castle in his bedroom. Does that point to Trieu as captor or Dr. Manhattan? Or someone else?
That’s a good point. And in the Peteypedia stuff I think it says that she bought his company right around the time he first disappeared
Veidt said he was the servants’ master but not their creator. Many have suggested that Manhattan keeps Veidt contained here, able to predict his every move. Makes sense given Manhattan’s warning at the end of the novel, “Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”Nah, he’s far to busy beating up Guy Gardner.This is your weekly reminder that Doomsday Clock still exists and is still not finished.As an aside, can I also mention how weird it is that Lindelof seems to have forgotten that Jon left his universe to make his own and still seems to think he’s on Mars. Like he says it to Veidt on the same page where he tells him “Nothing ever ends.”!
I’m loving Doomsday Clock and HBO’s Watchmen. Although the last issue that came out (#11) was the weakest, which is unsettling, as I’m really hoping Johns nails the ending. Fingers crossed…Also, I’m sure Lindelof knows Manhattan left the universe. Maybe he came back? Maybe Trieu’s machine is being built to bring him back?
Lindelof wants us to know that everyone on Earth thinks Manhattan is on Mars, regardless of whether he is.And I really think he should have just disintegrated Guy. Christ, what an asshole.
Doc Manhattan is not on Mars, and Lindelof knows it. Just like the blue telephone booths, this is a scam that the government keeps going because it comforts people.
Well of we’re being specific, he didn’t say he was leaving the universe, just the galaxy. And the show made a point of bringing up his ability to be in multiple places at once, which seems meaningful. But yeah I’m with Dr. Boots’ List and KangatAOLdotcom, him still being on Mars is likely just a comforting fiction being fed to the masses. (Which makes me sad, I was hoping we’d see Mars! I don’t want *another* show from one of the Lost showrunners to tease going beyond Earth’s orbit but never get there. At least it seems likely that Watchmen will match Colony’s view from the moon.)
And the show made a point of bringing up his ability to be in multiple places at once, which seems meaningful. I think he shows up on Mars every now and then so the government thinks he’s on Mars. I don’t know where he is the rest of the time (Moon looking over Veidt? Scheming on Earth? Gallivanting around the Universe or even the Multiverse?)
I mean he could always be on Mars while being a bunch of other places too.
As an aside, can I also mention how weird it is that Lindelof seems to have forgotten that Jon left his universe to make his own and still seems to think he’s on Mars. Mars is as good a place as any for creating life. He was just going to pop off to a different galaxy, but he might pick anywhere for his end destination.
I don’t know that we can say that Lindeloff forgot about the final scene with Manhattan. For one thing, while it’s strongly implied that Manhattan is the Game Warden, it’s not proven. But it’s also been 30 years since the comic. Manhattan might have changed his mind.
“how weird it is that Lindelof seems to have forgotten that Jon left his universe to make his own and still seems to think he’s on Mars”It’s been 30 years. Plenty of time for Manhattan to go strolling around the universes and then come back to Mars.
The fleshing out of Veidt’s world has to be the most compelling and disturbing fun I have had in some time with any series. My mind scans the props full of turn of the century antiques and cobbled together steampunk apparatus. Harvesting fetuses (notice none were blue….) out of lobster traps and putting them in a spinning incubator while listening to records on a victrola only to reveal a ghastly slaughter at the dinner table moments later (“I had a bad night) finishing with catapulting bodies through what a appears a finite atmosphere that hints he is practicing for an escape as he is monitoring the distance…….. well it’s all just too much fun. And I got my answer from last week, 4 years.
The record itself was fun, too: not some Beethoven as is the usual for these kinds of characters, but reggae.
* dub, which is Veidt’s favourite genre.
I didn’t catch which song was used in the last episode. But for the most part it has been Reggae. Dub is an electronic genre based around remixing reggae instrumentals. It doesn’t quite sound like the sort of early reggae Veidt’s been playing on the show. But if I recall the interview in the graphics novel correctly. Veidt doesn’t mention Dub as a favorite, but as something he’s recently discovered. Which would probably mean he had a pre-existing interest in Reggae and Ska, since the three genres are pretty intimately connected and sort of lead into each other. So it’s fairly clever on the shows part.
Looking Glass! ‘looks like we got a reckoning’ easily my favorite line of the episode, also the ‘30 seconds alive and they spend the whole time dying’ line about the squids, really loving what tim blake nelson is doing with that character
Well the next one seems very Looking Glass heavy, so you should enjoy it.
He has a thing for squid and toads. Just a guy who likes squishy slimy animals, I guess.
“Do you have anything to eat?” was he most jarringly out-of-place line in the whole series for me so far. It could have been a nothing/throwaway line but the delivery was just so out there.
Not sure why, but I loved the scene in the car a couple eps back talking to angela where he’s eating nuts or whatever. For some reason he’s got a voice that is so entertaining when he’s eating something, or muffled by a full face mask.
I just started the series last week….at this point in the show, I find he’s been giving off a lot of Rust Cole energy.
Great review, Joelle!I thought this episode fucking ruled. Though I thought they were good TV, I did not particularly ENJOY the first two episodes. The first one was hard for me to get through. But last week was better, and this week’s was fun as hell. Secret pills, Lube Man, Lady Trieu, lake fetuses…man, this was excellent TV.
You had me at “lake fetuses”!
This is as far as I’ve gotten but this for me was by far the most enjoyable of the four episodes so far. Not that many callbacks, mostly some fascinating further building of the new world and the new characters. Every subplot was fascinating and weird
I really really enjoy this show. But it does feel like very little actually happens each episode. Each one is just more set-up. It worries me because of the talk that this was written as a one season show. If that’s all I’m curious if it can be satisfying enough.
The tick-tock at the end of the episode makes me think that the millennium clock may be a device to undo what Veidt did. To prove the truth of Rorschach’s tale. Maybe.
I think we got confirmation that the cakes did actually represent years. That we’ve seen a compressed time frame for Veidt. Each episode is a year.
It takes him a year to eat one of those cakes? Because didn’t we see two in this episode, a slice of one while he waited for incubator and then an undamaged one among the bloodbath in the dining room?
it does feel like very little actually happens each episode. Each one is just more set-upyes yes yesthis is *Damon Lindelof*bullshit setups with no payoff are his (and JJ Abrams) specialtyi really hope I’m wrong but I’m fully expecting the same with this show until proven otherwise
I thought what he did with “The Leftovers” was brilliant actually. I do agree that all the setups are very frustrating and it seems like he gets a kick out of messing with his audiences! But yes this is exactly what I expected from him and although I am frustrated as hell right now, I am super excited to see where this series goes. There is no way in Hell this show doesn’t get renewed so sit back and enjoy the ride!
So I really think Adrian’s in a bubble on Mars. Unfortunately, since he’s been missing for 7 years, I suspect we have at least a couple more annual flashbacks before he makes good his escape. I don’t know how he’ll manage that with only a catapult and a home made space suit, but I am dying to find out.Anyway, another great episode. Lots of ways the show could go. I’m not making any guesses as to how it will, apart from the above paragraph. The reviewer keeps guessing who the big villain will be, but I’m not even sure that’s the right question to ask.
What questions most intrigue you?
I don’t even know if there will be a big villain. I have no idea where any of this is going. In a way this has been very frustrating viewing, because so little actual plot has happened over 4 episodes. Fortunately it is really good, as well as really frustrating.
It’s very interesting that they’re spending all this time world building and prepping for more seasons when the show hasn’t been renewed for a second season yet.
They’re not though. Lindelof has claimed that if HBO wants to renew it for a second season and bring in a new writer then they have his blessing, but he plans to wrap up his story in one season.
Do you have a source for this? Because articles written say the opposite. That he did this season as a one off and he and no one is not really sure yet what’s gonna happen:https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/live-feed/watchmen-may-end-one-season-damon-lindelof-1245569https://amp.businessinsider.com/hbos-watchmen-director-on-the-possibility-of-a-season-2-2019-10
I’m not sure it’s that; I think it’s more Lindelof luxuriating in the world. And hell, I can’t blame him.
Lindelof has said that’s the series is written so it’s s complete story and could exist as a one and done series, so there should be quite a bit of payoff by the end, although if he reverts back to his lost days who knows?
Lindelof already said he has no intention of doing another season. This is a nine episode story and the creators are walking away.
That’s not true:https://amp.businessinsider.com/hbos-watchmen-director-on-the-possibility-of-a-season-2-2019-10
He also confirms that, should HBO decide to renew Watchmen for a second season, he probably won’t be heading it up. “[It’s] not my story, right? I appropriated it,” he says. “And so the idea that someone else could come along and do another season of Watchmen, that’s really exciting to me, too. I would watch the fuck out of that. These nine episodes are sort of everything that I have to say at this point about Watchmen, and then we’ll kind of go from there.”The possibilities of who could take the reins is endless, but Lindelof knows what he’d like to see: “Ryan Coogler’s Watchmen.”
https://news.avclub.com/ryan-murphy-almost-had-a-watchmen-cameo-as-ryan-murphy-1839234510
Did you actually read the part of the link that said:That doesn’t mean season two is out of the question. It will depend on how audiences respond to season one, according to Lindelof.“If the conversation out there seems to suggest you’re hungry for more, then we’ll certainly take that into consideration,” he said. “Or the keyword in yours that said: probably
Either way, the season isn’t setting up anything for a second season (the original point you made about world-building). This is designed as a one-off which will be self-contained. If it’s enough of a success that there’s a demand for more then it looks like that’ll be “considered” (probably without Lindelof – the “we’ll” in your interview seems to be the whole creative team, his “I’ve said all of have to say but would live to see another’s take on it” stance in the other poster’s interview seems pretty definitive – but things change of course). Whether he or they or anyone comes back for a second season, the fact this one will be (for better or worse) its own, complete thing is a rarity in TV and one I’m excited about.
Is there a reason why you’re following me around the AV Club, repeating replying to insist on being such a more correct pedant?
Being as I had to look up who you are and what other thread I’d replied to you in – no. But what a weird little thing for you to get paranoid about. In all three(?) replies across two threads it’s true I’ve questioned your points (to no reply on the other thread, even though I was genuinely curious to your point) but in polite fashion with no ulterior motive other than furthering the discussion. Sorry it’s riled you up. Don’t take it personally.
Mind you, looking at how you’ve replies to others, looks like I got off lightly just being called a pedant. You come across as a person who doesn’t like to feel they’re being corrected (even when that’s not the case).
So I have another creepy, stalker, weirdo stranger on the internet so obsessed over me for some really strange reason that I have to auto dismiss, block, and ignore going forward. Got it. Bye bye troll/weirdo. Get your last words in before I dismiss ya.
Yeah I’m still trying to figure out if they’re going to tell a story or just make puzzleboxes.
Not that you use the exact term here, but I’m generally annoyed by the overuse of the term “mystery box” when it comes to Lindelof. Not every story needs to be a conventional hero’s journey with three acts and big conclusive payoff at the end. I’m having fun just riding along with this show so far, and even if the conclusion doesn’t turn out to be some big satisfying answer to whatever question (what really is the main question thus far?) I still think I’ll walk away from this show feeling entertained and generally satisfied. But I’m also someone who often finds unsolvable mysteries more compelling than wrapped up in a shiny package with a bow on top mysteries.
I totally agree that a TV story doesn’t need to be a conventional arc–The Sopranos, the model for almost all of the prestige TV that follows, certainly doesn’t. And generally I think the dichotomy you suggest–a show either ties everything up in a bow or leaves ambiguities–is unfair (again, Sopranos). But when the attraction of a show seems to lie primarily in reveals or in figuring out a show’s secrets–especially with an eye towards spurring online discussion–that’s a problem. I don’t know enough about Lindelhof’s work to comment on him specifically–I never watched Lost and bailed early on Leftovers–but I have in mind something like Sharp Objects, which confused ‘ambiguity’ with ‘deliberately withholding plot elements and essential backstory to try to create some mystery’ at every turn.
And so often the “puzzle box” discussion turns into a tediously bottomless rabbit-hole of “why is the sky blue, Daddy?” questions. Open a science book, kid.
That was exactly the point I was going to bring up, the comic didn’t really have a Big Bad, just a bunch of conflicted and traumatized people trying to do some good in a messed up world and the results being a mixed bag. If they want to stick with the tone of the graphic novel, it’d make sense to have a similar sort of situation here.
I haven’t been frustrated at all. I don’t know if it needs to go anywhere at this point. Admittedly for the first couple episodes I was trying to grasp on to some kind trajectory for the season, but at this point I think I’m pretty entertained and satisfied just riding along in this wacky world. No need for a big bad or a conventional story arc. I’m having fun without them.
I thought (and hoped) it was Mars, but this episode kinda hit us over the head with it actually being the Moon—and although still very difficult to get back to Earth from is many orders of magnitude easier.
I know the image you’re thinking of, seen both from Veidt’s vantage point and from the Earth. But since dimensional travel has been mentioned (and the two Phillips simply disappeared from view), what Veidt saw through the telescope might just be an interdimensional portal.
So I really think Adrian’s in a bubble on Mars.With the mention of “dimensions” in the previews, I think you might be onto something: pocket/bubble universes. Fringe only touched on the subject in its later seasons, but with what’s going in Veidt’s story things might get even weirder than Dr. Bishop’s experiments.For instance, I’m not even sure a bubble universe requires a planetary body to support life. Veidt might not be on Mars, he could just be “elsewhere”.
Afterthought to what I previously wrote: not every image in this series should be taken too literally. In the last season of Leftovers this same production company used a flock of birds to signal a flash forward.
I think he’s more likely on the moon the way they did the transition shot.
I think Adrian’s on the moon. The shot where his view through his telescope turns into the moon seemed to confirm that. I also think that was him returning to earth in the beginning of the episode. We know his story is on a completely different timeline than the show so I suspect his is going to culminate in returning to earth at that moment.
I think he’s on the dark side of the moon. When Veidt looks into the sky with his telescope we immediately transition to a close up of the moon in Earth’s night sky.
Here’s a theory: Veidt WAS on Mars. Veidt’s timeline is taking place way before the others. Veidt returned to Earth near Tulsa – Trieu, a fan, tracked his course and bought his landing site just in time. Whether this was because she wants to co-operate with him in secret, or because she’s keeping him prisoner, is unclear. The statue of Ozymandias is old because it’s based on his appearance now, which she knows, because one way or another she has him (or he her). In turn, the castle we see Manhattan tearing down IS Veidt’s castle, AFTER Veidt has left it and it’s no longer needed…
Doc Manhattan is still long gone per the end of the comics, and it’s Trieu pulling a Veidt, probably broadcasting some fake Doc Manhattan mars CGI for the populace while she moves her plot along.
Also was definitely Trieu keeping Veidt prisoner.. supplied him with the clones, and Veidt quickly getting buyer’s remorse from whatever deal he struck with her to leave the scene.
Also I think that statue will turn out to be the actual Veidt after he makes it back to confront her and uh, loses?
Also yea, time travel in the works, or at least precognition something something tachyons something something Veidt tech from the og comics.
We need to be talking more about The Lube Man.THE F%$&?!
I think Petey is Lube Man, they look like they have similar frames. His slide into the sewer was cool!
What, are we to assume that Petey spends his spare time memorizing the sewer layout of every major American city in preparation for these missions?Okay, yeah, I guess it could be Petey.
It totally was Petey.
I agree. The whole costume reminded me of Ultraman.
I thought he looked more like Slyde from Marvel. Similar look and the exact same powers. I know Watchmen is DC but since Marvel ripped off Doom Patrol from DC I guess this is tag I suppose
wow YES I love this theory
OH! A PREDICTION!! I wouldn’t be surprised if Laurie ordered him to follow her…
That makes sense since he would have been a witness to her dismantling of that wheelchair, whose tire tracks Laurie had noticed …
YES MAN. He’s also the main 7k guy from the first episode, the one who speaks in the center.
Yeah, we go from Lube Man, to the police station and Petey entering the Chief’s office, his frame is striking.That’s either a tip off or a masterful red herring
Petey is maybe the more likely, but I think it’s possibly Tom Mison. I am assuming Veidt’s parts are in the past, and that he escapes with the ability to make more clones.
Came here to say this. Between him having the eye mask and the way he wandered into the room while Laurie and Angela were talking it just seems like this is the case.
I’m wondering if Lady Trieu might have something to do with the Comedian. We see him kill one pregnant lover in Vietnam during the war. Might be a long shot, but given that the graphic novel implies that the Comedian killed Hooded Justice, and the other theory going around is that Will is Hooded Justice, it seems like that might be something that ties them together. Veidt finding out that Blake had a child would also not be surprisingly out of character.
I had that thought as well, but I kind of hope she’s not.There’s any so many minor characters you can draw out of the comic before it feels a bit forced. And that woman pretty clearly died in the comic.
It wouldn’t necessarily have to have been that particular woman’s baby. The Comedian was fucking girls from Hanoi to the Mekong Delta—I’m sure he must have knocked up more than one.
And that’s fair. I do think it will likely have more to do with something or someone that we know from the original comic, but it may not be that exact connection.
Yes, it does seem likely. As other people have pointed out, she could easily be the Comedian’s daughter by some other random Vietnamese woman.I think I’m wary from all the other superhero stories I’ve seen where every important character in the future is a descendant of one of the original characters (I’m looking at you, last season of Arrow!), so I’m hoping this show will do something clever to surprise us.
I agree. I am generally on the Will is Hooded Justice train for the time being. She might just turn out to be totally random, but Blake telling Dr. Manhattan that he could have stopped him and didn’t being such a pivotal moment feels like something that would come back.
Oh my god, y’all are so wise.
I hadn’t made the connection with Blake killing the Vietnamese woman. If so Trieu would probably be a child of that woman, though likely not the one she’s pregnant with. OTOH, Trieu seems a little young to have been that woman’s daughter.
Hong Chau, the actress playing Trieu, is 40 years old and was actually born in a refugee camp after her family fled Vietnam so I think it’s possible to make the timeline work with a little tweaking (and with the fact that she can clearly do some pretty science-y things as well that could make her look mildly younger). There’s also the question of who knew how to make artificial babies and when…I do think it will be a more direct connection to the Watchmen sequence in Vietnam even if it isn’t exactly that.
You think Blake was faithful to the woman he cared so little about he was going to leave the country without saying a word, let alone murdering her?
I was thinking this exact thing!
I had that thought and honestly, it’s such an obvious reveal that I expect them to do it because it’s so obvious that they won’t.
Tic Tock Tick TockPresumably the show is coming full circle and is warning us about what happens when everyone follows the lead of the Minutemen – i.e. takes power into their own (clock) hands and are part of a civilian-based paramilitary force at war with each other. So who watches all of them?
Petey.
There are a deluge of posts predicting that Ozymandias is being held prisoner by Dr. Manhattan off-word (presumably Mars.) I don’t feel that this “twist,” if true, would align with what we know from the original text of the comic. During the their final conversation at Karnak Dr. Manhattan explains to Veidt that he plans to “leave this GALAXY for one less complicated.” Furthermore, Dr. Manhattan indicates that he understands Veidt’s motives, without condoning or condemning them. It seems strange then that Dr. Manhattan would 1) return to our solar system (after a several decade hiatus no less ) and 2) seek to punish Veidt for his actions. After all, before teleporting away, Dr. Manhattan remarks that “human affairs can’t be my concern any longer.”If Dr. Manhattan did decide to return to the Milky Way (unlikely), and if he did seek to enforce some form of retribution against Veidt, why would he do so 27 years after Veidt enacted his plan to stave off nuclear annihilation? (Veidt was declared missing 7 years ago according to Peteypedia and he has been in captivity for three years as of “She was Killed by Space Junk,” assuming that the cake he receives each episode represents an anniversary in confinement.)If Dr. Manhattan felt the need to contain Veidt (especially as some sort of punitive measure in response to him murdering three million people) why not just kill him? Obviously he had no qualms about doing the same to Rorschach.I agree that Veidt is most likely being held off-word but I do not believe that Dr. Manhattan is his jailer. To have Dr. Manhattan show up at all would contradict his words and actions at the end of the graphic novel. It seems more likely that somebody is manipulating the world at large into believing that Dr. Manhattan is still within arms reach and capable of protecting / punishing his allies / adversaries. (Such a “vast and insidious conspiracy” would potentially serve as a metaphor for faith. The devout believe that God exists and is interested in our affairs and the agnostic feel otherwise.)Jeremy Irons, in a recent interview, made mention of the fact that the tomatoes Veidt finds growing on trees across “his estate” were most likely the result of somebody (perhaps a child) having seen a picture of an apple tree and mistaking the apples for tomatoes. I’m assuming that Dr. Manhattan knows the difference between the two. (Perhaps that same “somebody” also believes that you can eat cake with a horseshoe.) Irons comments appear to confirm that the manor where Ozymandias is confined is indeed a manufactured reality. But they also seem to exonerate Dr. Manhattan as the creator of that reality. (For my money, there is something off about Angela’s son, Topher.)
-Agree Bian must be a clone.-Agree Veidt is being held prisoner by Manhattan in a prison he created probably on the moon, although who is the warden?
-Lady Trieu is probably trying to free Veidt so she can take her revenge on Manhattan since he single handedly won the Vietnam war. Or maybe she’s trying to create a reality where Manhattan doesn’t win the war.
I think Trieu is the one hwo imprisoned Veidt. She wanted his cloning tech, bought him out, much like how she did the couple in the beginning, in exchange for his own personal paradise. Just so she can get him out of way and get that much closer to Manhattan.
Is it objectivly confirmed she bought him out?
Just my theory. I figured that’s how she operates considering the opening of that episode and the fact that the public think Veidt just “disappeared”. I assume Trieu made him an offer, he took it, and she imprisoned him.
I kind of think Triue is the one keeping him prisoner. That’s why his statue looks so old. It IS Veidt. Sort of that Han Solo bronzing? I think he’s a prisoner in his own mind….
Now this is an interesting theory
Except Bian is pretty clearly biracial, while Lady Trieu is not. So if she is a genetic creation, there’s got to be other stuff in the mix.
I would not be surprised if Lady Trieu is passing along her memories as nightmare fuel though that IV, though.
If she really can grow babies from genetic material, per the intro, is Bian the daughter of Veidt biologically speaking?We haven’t seen much of Lady Trieu yet, but she’s intelligent and knows it. She also seems to respect Veidt’s intelligence, and Lady Trieu seems to be into some weird science and experimenting. Did she cross the two smartest genes on Earth to see what she’d get?
Maybe the baby of Veidt and Trieu – created like she created the baby for the couple at the beginning of the episode?
Laurie and Sister Night in the Millennium Clock, did I hear the first notes of the Doors’ The End? Or Reznor imitating it. Would be apt.Have all the episode titles been allusions, like the chapter titles in the graphic novel? If so, did tonight’s come from Things Fall Apart (never read it)?
Oooo. I’m gonna go back and listen.
yes its a quote from Chinua Achebe
Another musical note in this episode was “You’re My Thrill” by Billie Holliday was playing in the car ride. This is a throwback to the graphic novel where I believe the original night owl played that song in the background of one of the scenes.
Actually Night Owl 2 plays it in the owl ship when they save the people from the fire.
I heard it too. Plus rotor sounds from the construction Drones.
You should read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. It’s a good post-colonial novel.
Big excited for next week. Looking glass seems to be at the center of something big, and I’ve found him to be a pretty tantalizing character.
Also, Tim Blake Nelson’s delivery of “He was a white man in Oklahoma” killed me.
Thoughts on who his ex might be???
What ever became of the baby Superman that fell on the Clark’s farm after Lady Trieu bought it? And how does someone who made that much money in biomedical industries let her kid wear such thick glasses?
Great review! Yours and Sepinwall’s are my must-reads after watching each episode. The official podcast is great, too (they’re only doing one every three episodes.)
Thanks so much for reading.
“Still too cute by half.” Way to sum up this show.
No, I don’t think Trieu worships at the altar of Veidt, at all. I think she’s the one who sent him away in 2012. And they don’t both have clones. They aren’t two separate but equal clonemasters. She has all of Adrian’s stuff. She bought Veidt Enterprises. She has all his dimensional and cloning tech and everything else he invented.I think it’s possible that the point of trapping Veidt in the snow globe was to make him get out of it. Maybe Trieu needed one last piece of the dimensional mechanics puzzle to be solved before she could start her plan, which almost certainly involves unmaking Dr. Manhattan with a time machine and saving Vietnam from being destroyed by a big blue god. Also, you know she’s going to be related to that pregnant woman the Comedian killed after she slashed his face, back in Vietnam.Keene is clearly Seventh Kavalry. That thing at the funeral was such an obvious set up. He even goes out of his way to make sure Laurie will be there to shoot the guy. Remember when Veidt took out a hit on himself, knowing he could defeat the assassin and survive, and then be above suspicion? The funeral bomber was a riff on that.Someone on twitter just suggested to me that Petey is the slippery nipple, and now I’m wondering if that could be right. I’m pretty sure slippery guy is related to (missing, imprisoned) Dan Dreiberg somehow, and Petey would fit with that, too, since he’s no doubt spent a lot of time visiting Dan in prison.
Came here to say the same. She offered Adrian paradise, in exchange for all he has, when in reality she just wanted him out of the way. I assume so she can reach or kill Manhattan.
I think that statue might actually be Veidt.
I fully expect Veidt to return to Earth and end up being the “hero” to stop Trieu’s plan while also on-the-side committing some hideous villainy. Night will then roll up and play something like the Rorschach role, but this time put him in cuffs. In doing so, she will be repudiating vigilantism (the path chosen by her grandfather and Trieu) and giving her answer to the central conflict at the heart of this season, The Law vs. Vigilantism.I don’t think Dr. Manhattan is showing up this season, and that’s fine with me.
Keene is clearly Seventh Kavalry.Not so sure about that.I really have to rewatch an earlier episode (2?) where I recall Keene’s widow (Frances Fisher) being implicated as a villain. My theory is that she planted the robe and hood to smear her husband.
Keene’s the guy running for president, not the dead police chief.
Keene is the senator. Crawford is the dead Chief.
Oh, you’re thinking of Crawford, the sheriff Don Johnson plays.Keene is the senator who is apparently the son of the senator who passed the anti-mask law (The Keene Act) back in the original comic book.
Thanks for the correction.
I kinda thought it was a given that Petey was the slippery dude. I really thought that when they were in the car they were going to the dump to find the wheel chair angela disposed of.
I’m leaning towards Trieu, not Manhattan, being Veidt’s jailer. Whether that makes her a villain or not is still up in the air depending on what else is going on this season. While my first instinct was that Bian was a Trieu clone I now wonder if she might be a clone of Trieu’s mother. Fits with the parents and children and trauma themes and, if she brought Vietnam with her, bringing her ‘mother’ back too seems quite plausible.
Keeping Veidt prisoner automatically makes you a better person than he. He’s mad.
Yeah, I assumed Bian was the clone of Lady Trieu’s mother as well. Time-line wise it makes more sense if she was a child during the war than Trieu (who would need to be plus 50-60).
Veidt doesn’t “needlessly destroy” everything he does is calculated and with purpose. He’s the smartest person alive.
Boring AF
Lady Trieu is Laurie’s half sister. And that thing Trieu is building will be used to retrieve Veidt.
If you haven’t looked at this week’s Peteypedia entry yet, you should do it now. Make sure you have your ID handy as it’s members only.
Mr Lube? Come on, Jiffy Lube is staring you right in the face. Either that or the knock off Super Lube.
His name will probably end up being something Mercury related. However he will always be lube man to me.
DisastroGlide?
One of the things I’ve liked about the series is the world building. I don’t know the comics. I saw the movie ages ago and I didn’t really pay attention. I’m having no problem piecing things together. It’s a lot of fun.
As someone who’s read the comics and seen the movie I think the best parts of the tv series are those that have the least to do with the original graphic novel. It’s been great seeing the world building and new characters like Lady Trieu
I think Will’s pills ARE his memories. He said as much in Angela’s bakery. And that would line up with Bian’s IV giving Trieu’s memories to her. I can see Angela or Looking Glass taking one at some point fueling a big reveal.And could Veidt be on the moon, given the camera fade in this week’s episode?
> Veidt grows human babies underwater, pulls them up in crab
> traps, and fiendishly disposes of any weak specimen.I don’t think he was disposing of them. The babies grow underwater and Veidt just threw the ones he didn’t want back in the water. My take was that he was playing catch and release with the specimens that weren’t ready yet.
Agreed. Can they even be said to be alive, with no free will and pre-programmed personalities. They’re some odd state of biotech life mannequins.
Do we really think that Veidt was killing those babies he three back? I was horrified when he threw them back, but my husband non-chalantly commented that the water was likely acting as incubation for them, so he thought Veidt was just throwing them back in to “cook” a little longer.Definietly agree that Trieu’s daughter is a clone.
“Veidt grows human babies underwater.”Yeah he categorically refutes this, says he’s not their maker because that would be cruel. Pretty much a giant flashing neon sign pointing at the one character who said they might create human life in the book.
So it was definitely Veidt crash landing on that farm right?
Ha. I’d guessed it was Manhattan, but,yeah, likely Veidt.
I agree with you on the Senator. I don’t trust his swarmy attitude.3 Days could be 72 Episodes (See ‘24′) or 10 minutes. I expeced that day three would fall on the second to last episode of this season. Although, I wouldn’t be shocked to see day 3 start next season.
I’m enjoying these reviews but I’m wondering what happened to the one for last week’s episode? I can’t find it anywhere on the site.
https://www.hbo.com/peteypediaLol, hilarious this week.
Heh, Excalibur. Of course.
The big thing I noticed out of Laurie, Angela, and Lady Trieu’s conversation was all of the times Laurie dropped “thermodynamic miracles.” That phrase was also peppered throughout the very important comic book conversation in which Laurie argues on behalf of humanity against Jon’s disinterest. Jon comes to the conclusion that life is given value because the mere existence of any individual life requires such a highly improbable chain of events to occur.The series has been quietly debating Jon’s conclusion by presenting us with two cases. On the one hand, we’re shown all of the near misses allowing Angela’s continued existence. On the other, we’re shown Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks, two beings who appear completely identical to the deceased iterations littering Veidt’s manor. And, possibly, somewhere in between are Bian and the genetically designed baby whose lives likely began in a controlled and replicable setting, but were then allowed to be shaped by probability.I’m not sure if there will be a single big bad this season, but this episode used language from the original comic to hammer home one of the major themes.
Perhaps besotted Pete is our mysterious silver lube man? His background would give him the know-how to put a suit together. Mr. Novel and I had a WTF moment when he showed up and threw the theory out after the show. Plausible?
Veidt’s being kept on Mars – he’s flinging his clones into space to figure out how high the bubble is that keeps him there.Lady Trieu is obviously in cahoots with him and trying to break him out. She’s working on some sort of time machine, as shown by her daughter’s nightmare.How this relates to the other plotlines I have yet to figure out.
* the Moon
Why the moon? The moon doesn’t have an atmosphere.
Neither does Mars in any way that makes sense to humans? He’s living in an atmospheric bubble similar to what Manhattan created for Silk Spectre after he brought her to Mars.
“Neither does Mars in any way that makes sense to humans?”That’s not really true. Mars has an atmosphere, although not one that could support human life. Mars, could, however, support an artificially created“atmospheric bubble.”An “atmospheric bubble” wouldn’t work at all on the Moon; it’s too small to have sufficient gravitational pull to keep it from dissipating. Mars has less surface gravity than the Earth, but the moon has none.
Near the end of the episode, the 7K start chanting, and I swear I could hear Looking Glass’ voice in the mix. That coupled with his comment that of course Judd was a racist, he’s a white man in Oklahoma, seems to foreshadow that LG is also in the 7K. It could be that after the White Night, when they lost most of the police force, members of the 7K surreptitiously joined the police. Is it possible that the white cops are all 7K?
That would certainly be much closer to what law enforcement is like in our reality: i.e. white supremacist organizations having thoroughly infiltrated police departments
Why is no one talking about the thing that fell out of the sky on the farm that Lady Trieu “bought” any speculation on what that might be and why she went to such lengths to own it? And how she knew so far in advance about when and where it would fall that she had time to scheme the whole growing a baby plot?
My take on that is that the signing of the agreement triggered the fall of whatever it was, via some kind of “thermodynamic miracle.”
Hmm, if only we knew someone from the Watchmen Universe who does look at “time” from the outside and thus could predict such things..
Cal won the episode. Hallmark scene for atheists indeed. I’d love to see more warm and fuzzy moments like this on television.
it can’t be easy to shill for this awful, stupid, embarrassing show. kudos
This isn’t important but being told a story when you are an adult about finding out you are the result of a rape not childhood trauma.
This show is profoundly stupid.Sorry, but Lindelof is not much more than a hack who writes stuff that dumb people who like to think they are smart will fawn over.
For other newbies (like me), I have a tip—I watched the Watchmen movie (director’s cut) over the weekend and it was a tremendous help in figuring out what’s going on in this series. I enjoyed this episode so much more by knowing the background history that the movie provided.I think the show is really sort of shooting itself in the foot by not sharing some of that history with the audience. I’m sure there are many struggling viewers who wind up walking away just from sheer frustration of not knowing what the hell is going on or why. For diehards, I’m sure it is very smugly satisfying to know the background going in and understand all of the references, but I would think it important to not alienate potential new devotees as well.
Was Lady Trieu’s hurry to buy the land because she knew whatever fell from the sky was going to fall on that piece of land (it’s 60 acres) at that exact time, and when she said “That is mine”, she meant that she owned it now because it fell on her land?
Seems more and more likely that there’s at least some amount of time travel going on.Also, given that it’s a pod crashing-landing on the farm of an old, kindly childless couple in a plains state, the Superman parallels feel very purposeful.
and their last name is Clarke!
Nice, I missed that! At least there were enough other clues that I still got the message.
Nice catch.
Dr. Manhattan’s line about “thermodynamic miracles” always stuck out to me from the book because it exhibits a really poor understanding of statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, and quantum mechanics. A get the point Moore is trying to make but the science behind what he’s saying is just… bad. It doesn’t feel especially Dr. Manhattan-like.So it was nice to hear Laurie talk about it derisively.
Viedt “fixed” the world’s political problems. As we see social problems persist. I think Trieu with Reeve’s help is out to “fix” those as well. Trieu has the cloning tech and Veidt’s company. She is keeping Veidt prisoner, not on Earth. Veidt used the glass of a vivarium to make the 1st space suit. Doctor Manhattan is the red herring. Trieu owns the phone booths so knows all things people say to Manhattan. Reeves was a cop in NYC in the 40s and 50s. As was the original Nite Owl. Cops put on masks and beat up criminals- the origin of masked vigilantes and thus the Minutemen. Seems likely Reeves is Hooded Justice. Mason only theorized he was a circus strongman in Under the Hood. It would be keeping with the show’s theme if Mason assumed he was a white man and not Reeves. The noose motif is also a clue perhaps.
I feel like you are missing the most simple motive a Vietnamese trillionaire could have for wanting to take out Dr. Manhattan.
Buuut what bothers me about this theory is that surely a trillionaire would be happy that free-market forces won out in Vietnam? Politically, wouldn’t she be against the North Vietnamese communists? Her class interests are not with them. I feel like she’d appreciate that things have worked out in her favor in this timeline.
I hope the show is better than a simple revenge story.
Everybody have fun tonight!Everybody Hong Chau tonight!
The season seems to be following the same basic plot skeleton as the original book:- Sister Night, in the Rorschach role, investigates the inciting murder of her captain- The Captain has an unsavory past, complete with costume, hidden in his closet (which Jean Smart lampshades)- A powerful figure survives an assassination attempt that he almost certainly orchestratedIf they keep following this trajectory, then there are some broad predictions we can make, with more to come as future episodes color in the remaining pieces:- At some point, Sister Night will be betrayed/set up, either for her captain’s murder or an ancillary crime- Looking Glass will aid and abet her trying to clear her name- Sister Night’s adopted son will demonstrate some worrisome psychological affinities with Rorschach, based on the trauma he’s experienced and his reaction to/propensity for violence (speaks dispassionately about a man getting shot in the head, attacks a boy in class.0- The underwater clones will be the humans that Manhattan suggested he would try making at the end of the original book- Senator Keene will be outed as the bad guy we all suspect- Nite Owl will be murdered, and Jean Smart will be unable to save him- Lady Trieu will play the Dr. Manhattan role- The answer to the “mystery” will ultimately be irrelevant when the real plot is revealedUnanswered questions:- Who saved Sister Night from the second Rorschach that had a gun to her head on White Night? – Why does Manhattan keep Veidt in his own lunar terrarium? – Why would a biomedical pioneer like Lady Trieu allow her daughter to have uncorrected vision?
I have a theory that Judd isn’t dead. Instead, they used the Veidt centrifuge to age up a clone, and hung it. It seems like it wouldn’t have the brain function, but you won’t see that in an autopsy. You might see an issue (maybe? I’m spitballing here) in a tox screen, which we know wasn’t done. It also makes me wonder if the plan was for 7K to blow up his body to destroy the evidence, and Regina inadvertently played into that. But a clone would be alive, and while dumb would fight back, so it’s perfectly staged.
FYI Jolie’s name is spelled Jolie Hoang-Rappaport please change this in your review.
On second viewing, I notice the “Watch Over This Child” note written on the back of the Nazi flier left on the floor – or the what remained after it caught on fire. Angela/Night walked out of the bakery without cleaning it up – after previously scrubbing it for all traces of Will’s visit. I suspect this will pop up again.
I thought it was the leaflet the Germans dropped over the black soldiers.
Note: it wasn’t a Nazi flyer. It was German propaganda from WWI, when the German government was a good old-fashioned constitutional(-ish) monarchy.
I just want to say how happy I am to see Louis Gossett, Jr. still kickin’. What a great role for him at this stage of his long and distinguished career.
I’m calling it now: that’s not a statue of Adrian Veidt, it IS Adrian Veidt. He’s in a MIND-PRISON.
I thought that too. The pained look of the statue is not something you would just have around.
I was surprised she trusted Looking Glass with the pills tbh, if the chief of police was that close a friend to me and turned out to have a KKK costume in his closet I’d probably be paranoid about all my other police friends too… I’m kind of just a paranoid person though and he seemed trustworthy when she talked to him. Also I’m so glad we got to see Angela and Laurie together a bit more in this episode, even if they clearly can’t stand each other xD
You’re reading too much into Lady Trieu’s wardrobe. First, you say she dresses entirely in white, while the lead photo clearly shows her not wearing white. Second, white áo dài is everyday attire for Vietnamese women. It’s what girls wear to school. When they ride their bikes to school in groups they look like a flock of doves.
Vietnamese is a tonal language — six tones! — full of diacritics, so Bian is probably a transliteration of bí ẩn, which means mystic or perhaps seer. (Trieu is probably triệu, “omen”. Another meaning is “million”, so perhaps the name is meant to refer to her wealth.) In Vietnam, as y0u note, the war is called the American War, and all you really need to know about how they think about it is that they won. (Funny, I don’t remember learning this when I went to school in MURCA.) I think the main takeaway from Lady Trieu is that in this alternate reality it seems Vietnam is a superpower. Vietnam is one of the five remaining one-party Communist countries, and yet the people there are the most ruthless capitalists I’ve ever met. I mean that as a sincere compliment! Also, Buddhists have strictly prescribed periods of mourning. It’s unlikely she would be in mourning for a death which occurred a half-century ago.
I can’t accept a reality where clone babies grow at the bottom of a lake and are harvested in lobster traps. Even on the weirdest alien planet that can’t be how anything works. Veidt must be trapped in some kind of virtual reality construct with video game aspects.
So Veidt is on the moon, not Mars.
I really loved the opening as a kind of revisionist Superman origin. Ma & Pa Kent are at their farm, and instead of finding little Kal-El, a Lex Luther type shows up at the door and offers them a substitute baby in order to buy out the plummeting super baby about to land. It feels like the kind of thing Alan Moore would have written, and that’s the biggest praise I can give.
Here’s my latest wild predictions:That meteor falling was the escaping Adrian Veidt, meaning Trieu has him locked up somewhere in the tower.Bian is definitely Trieu’s clone, and appears to be being seeded with Trieu’s memories to hopefully carry on her mom’s legacy, or at least the formative trauma that justifies whatever Trieu’s plan ends up being.I do think Trieu’s ultimate goal is to lure in Manhattan and kill him, likely as revenge for the subjugation of her country & possibly the direct death of her mother. Part of retrieving the escaped Veidt was to learn where he went wrong trying to kill Manhattan so as not to fail a second time. I also think she might be using Veidt as bait to lure Manhattan back to Earth.The pills William was taking might have something to do with his unnaturally long life, the cost of which might have been his immobility. Now that he’s off the pills, he can stand again, but this might signal he has reached what he feels is the end of his long journey and longer wants to live forever.I still think Veidt’s prison is some kind of zoo or preserve, and that he was invited there by Manhattan with the promise of sanctuary, only to realize he had become a specimen in Manhattan’s own Fortress of Solitude, no different from the buffalo he’s not allowed to shoot.
So Will Reeves is definitely Hooded Justice, right? The pills are what gives him his super powers. I’m guessing Lube Man is Petey. He’s obsessed with heroes and constantly getting treated like garbage.
I read the opening scene as a hint that Lady Trieu is Veidt’s jailer, confirmed by the fact she has a statue of him as he is now. She acquires the property by making the family an offer they couldn’t refuse. She presumably acquired Veidt’s company by making him an offer he couldn’t refuse, for him to disappear to what he believed was paradise. Veidt is somewhere in the Vivarium.
I really dug the idea of getting an acorn and “planting” it to see your family tree. I’d go to museums if something like that was actually there.
I’ve seen Hong Chau in many thing since, but to me she’ll still always be Cook Pu.
I think she’s a clone of Lady Trieu.[snark] Why? I mean, does it necessarily follow that because she’s a trillionaire with the means to genetically engineer a baby for that infertile couple whose house she took that she couldn’t possibly have natural maternal instincts of her own? [/snark]
Anyone notice the stuffed animal Topher gave to Angela was Bubastis?Also interesting, the stuffed animal was purple, which matches the color of Bubastis from the movie. In the comic, she was orange.
Any chance Lube Man is Petey? I’m going on slender man body type. Seems likely he would have some alter-ego.
The most important take away from this episode is that, after four years, the anniversary cake is now apparently edible.
Thinkin’ Keene is in on the Kavalry. His lack of hesitance in going with the Kavalry guy a the memberfuneral made him look brave, but…
I still don’t fully buy that Dr. Manhattan has imprisoned Veidt. if he is, then it for sure isn’t for the psychic squid. Manhattan neither condoned nor condemned Veidt’s actions, and imprisonment is condemnation.
test
On IMDB, the actress playing Ms Crookshanks is listed as appearing in only 5 episodes, while the actor playing Mr Phillips is listed as appearing in all 9 episodes of season 1. My prediction: If Mr Phillips is being used as a test pilot for The Great Escape, there will be a Phillips waiting on The Other Side when Veidt escapes (in episode 5) who will act in some sort of Jarvis capacity for the remaining 4 episodes.
It dawned on me after watching Veidt abuse his clones over and over again, that may not have been Judd hanging in that tree. Lady Trieu has access to all of Veidt’s cloning tech, and that easily could have been a clone that they hanged. It doesn’t help that Trieu always seems like she’s fucking with people when speaks to them, so I could be wrong. But Judd could be alive and well, and either being held captive, or working with Lady Trieu and Will Reeves behind the scenes. (I haven’t been reading a lot about the show, so I may not be the first to think of this.)
Opening scene was for sure an Elseworld where the Kents (Clarks) are cruelly given a baby just before they would have found the most special baby in the world. “That is mine” shivers…
Great fucking show man
Loved the surreal cloning fun – between the babies and the catapult (clone-apult?). Got some good laughs out of this episode!