Watchmen
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The shadows look toward each other, craning closer, conjuring a sense of romance and awe.
Its an ingeniously structured penultimate episode, brimming with genuine feeling while also setting up a tense finale.
She rebuffs him, remaining incredulous after he says hes Doctor Manhattan.
He has answers to her every question.
Doesnt Doctor Manhattan glow?
He doesnt want to call attention to himself.
Shouldnt he be on Mars?
Hes actually been on Europa, a moon of Jupiter, creating new life.
Thats just a recording of him on Mars.
As the conversation at the bar continued, I began to notice that were never privy to Jons face.
I think this is a great decision, given the lightning-bright charisma between Abdul-Mateen and Regina King.
If anything, its her internal life around which the episode primarily pivots.
(Just check out how she looks at him when he transforms into Calvin.)
The latter scene in particular demonstrates how frustrating it would be to love Doctor Manhattan.
His perception of time locks your fate into place.
How can you love in the face of fate?
How can you love in the face of certain tragedy?
The flirtatious framing conversation between Jon and Angela runs the gamut, even discussing the nature of life itself.
Manhattan goes, 100 feet tall torches the Vietcong with lasers from his hands.
A little boy watches his village burn.
Boy grows up, becomes a puppeteer because he wants to hold the strings.
He makes a bomb.
That bomb kills my parents 22 years ago tonight.
Kings gaze is steady, unflinching.
Her voice doesnt crack.
Her calm manner contradicts the deep well of sorrow and loneliness her parents death represents for her.
Nestled within their conversation is a consideration of Jons young life.
They stay in the English country manor of a gracious couple who sometimes take people in.
Wandering around the manor one day, Jon spies the couple having sex.
This is the first time I know love, he says to Angela in voiceover.
The manor on Europa is the actual manor whose halls he once walked as a child.
So where does Adrian Veidt come in?
After his fight with Angela, Jon visits a melancholy Veidt, his old colleague, in Antarctica.
Jon is still committed to walking around in the nude.
Hes also looking for an answer.
How can he live as a human?
Its his ability to know what happens next thats causing frisson in his relationship.
If he doesnt know hes Doctor Manhattan, he cant use his abilities unless under duress.
(See: the White Night, when he zapped the second Seventh Kavalry intruder.)
Veidt wants something in exchange.
Will he ever see the utopia he dreamed of?
Now that we have answers, do the Veidt sequences feel worth it?
I honestly find them frustrating and exasperating, with only occasional bits of humor.
Overshadowing most of this episode is what Jon tells Angela when she asks how their relationship ends.
Tragically, he answers.
Angela is still trying to save his life, something Jon sees as futile.
Its Jon who rescues her.
All aglow, he calmly stops the bullets of the Seventh Kavalry and explodes their heads.
But his tragic pronouncement proves true when hes sucked into a teleportation gadget.
Angela screams his name into the calm night, to no avail.
Its important for later.
Ill be honest, I have no idea howWatchmenis going to wrap everything up in a single episode.
I think its clear someone is going to get Jons powers, the only question is who.
Under the Hood:
I love the way Regina King says motherfucker.
