Watchmen
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There are moments that split our lives in two.
Cleaving life into a unique before and after.
Leaving us irrevocably changed in ways were still cataloguing years later.
Wade is undeniably in over his head entering this world so far from the order he knew in Tulsa.
A group of goth punks tease his earnest bravado, flinging his pamphlets in the air.
She slowly starts to undress him despite his feeble protestations.
You dont want to get nuked before you get fucked, she says matter-of-factly.
Wade looks at himself in the mirror.
Wade wakes to utter devastation.
The fair is now nearly silent.
Bodies are strewn everywhere.
Roxys dead body wears a face of absolute horror as blood pools around her head like a halo.
Something the public will never know.
Theres a prickly scene early in the episode with Wade at work.
Laurie calls him into her office.
She needles him, referring to him as Mirror Guy instead of Looking Glass to get under his skin.
Just before Wade leaves her office she strikes the final blow.
At some point, that loneliness even becomes a tool to be used against him.
At home, Wade goes from merely wearing the cap with Reflectatine lining it to his entire mask.
An old picture of his ex-wife Cynthia (Eileen Grubba) still hangs on the wall.
But given the efforts to radicalize Wade later in the episode, such moments are given added weight.
Wades relationship to his mask holds fascinating thematic weight.
It protects not just his identity but his mind from psychic blasts.
It reflects others but always hides himself.
Lets talk about loneliness for a moment.
What does it feel like to be lonely?
It feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone else around is readying for a feast.
Laing is correct to call loneliness a form of hunger, bone deep and yearning.
Loneliness changes you, making you softer to the harshness of the world.
Every touch can draw blood when youre lonely.
So even though he was never there, he still holds remnants of what his mother experienced.
Trauma, in effect, ripples outward.
I was where you are.
That through trauma we overcame our differences and worked to make the world a bit better.
It ends with light, Wade says solemnly.
But is Wade a man who lives such a narrow existence really out of this tunnel?
She beguiles him immediately.
His sad green eyes, to quote Laurie, continue to rove over to Renee throughout the meeting.
They trade stories over drinks.
She tests his truth-discerning abilities lying about what she does.
They trade squid stories but hers isnt a direct experience.
Their flirtation even leads to a kiss.
The same truck driven by the Seventh Kavalry member that shot the police officer in the first episode.
Another kick in the balls coming up, Wade says to himself.
Wade takes a gun from the truck they were in and creeps into the department store.
Renee admits this has all been a ruse to get him here.
Are you even trying to disguise your voice, senator?
Of course someone high in the government is involved in Seventh Kalvary and controlling their movements.
In exchange, Senator Keene will free Wade with the truth.
The only way to stave off mankinds extinction is with a weapon more powerful than any atomic equipment.
That weapon is fear.
I, Mr. President, am its architect, Veidt says.
Whats most important is how this video affects Wade.
Like allWatchmenepisodes were left witha lot of questions.
Will Wade survive the onslaught of Seventh Kavalry members darkening his door in the closing moments of the episode?
Will Angela survive the experience and possible psychosis of ingesting Wills memories?
But most importantly, who will Wade become in the face of this devastating truth he learned?
Will it rework his loneliness, or will he embrace it more fully?
Under the Hood
For much of the series, the Adrian Veidt sections have left me lost.
But with this episode I finally have some ideas about to whats going on.
At the end of theWatchmencomic, Doctor Manhattan mentioned he would take a stab at create life on Mars.
I think Mr. Philips and Ms. Crookshanks are the life that Doctor Manhattan created.
