The new era of Watchmen is being quietly ushered in with careful clarity concerning characters and a storyline so relevant it is astounding. Yet, the storyline has left me with more questions than answers.
The story picks up where we left off with Angela coming to terms with the sudden death of Judd Crawford. The presence of the boy with the note “Look After This Boy” draws an interesting dynamic between the past and the present.
The story weaves together flashbacks and present from Will’s past and the present in which he is a very old gentleman. Though Angela guesses he’s 90 – he’s really 105. Angela takes Will to her bakery/base where she handcuffs him to a rod until she figures out her next move.
We are shown snippets of Will’s history through his father and his experience being an African-American soldier in World War Two. The real-life experience of defending a country that practices racial segregation is parallelled with Angela’s strife in modern-day America.
We are left astounded by this world of masks and danger that we were introduced to in the first episode. However, more exploration is needed between the elderly, self-declared murderer Will and Angela (Regina King) He mentions how Judd had skeletons in his closet and Angela investigates. In his closet, we find Judd in possession of a Ku-Klux-Klan outfit in mint condition. Furious and confused, Angela confronts Will but he maintains an iron grip on the crucial information that would help Angela.
This episode gave us more backstory into Jeremy Iron’s character and the clones he has that run his household. Adrian Veidt stages a play that re-enacts the reincarnation of Doctor Manhattan as a demigod after the accident that killed him. He shows very little care for his clones as he burns one alive for theatre’s sake and commands another clone to cry real tears for him.
And then, to confuse me even more. A giant magnet steals plot-device-Will right from under us. Is anyone else just a little bit baffled?
