Watchmen
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There are those of us who cant make peace with our pasts.
Instead, old ghosts linger in the corridors of our homes and hearts.
But just under the surface is white-hot vulnerability begging to be witnessed.
And these stories about absence can define us as fully as our present realities.
This holds especially true for Agent Laurie Blake (formerly Laurie Juspeczyk and Laurie Jupiter).
Laurie is a haunted woman, even if you cant quite see it on the surface.
But this is understandable when you understand the phantoms that trail her.
The thrust of episode three is heavily procedural and emotional.
Its this history that makes her sagacious and bold.
Most people seem to ignore or rather, pretend to ignore Lauries storied history.
This leads to a spiky dynamic between them when theyre flying to Tulsa.
Laurie asks curtly after Petey brings up Adrian Veidt.
You clearly have a hard-on for the past.
Much of that is thanks to her introduction.
Shadow, who looks conspicuously Batman-like, descends into the bank to make it stop the mayhem.
Laurie grabs a hostage without a moments hesitation.
But this isnt a heist, its a trap.
How did you know we were going to be here?
Did you get an anonymous tip?
What if it was the FBI?
She finds a site where the cops are brutally arresting and interviewing suspected Seventh Kavalry members.
While she clearly doesnt approve of the scope of the polices abuse, she doesnt necessarily care to intervene.
Instead, she enters the pod with Looking Glass and disrupts his sense of control in numerous ways.
The cumulative effect of watching this scene is knowing that Laurie likes to make people uncomfortable.
(May I have the control back, yo?
Looking Glass says with an outstretched hand.)
Lauries viewpoint can be boiled down to the exchange she has when she first meets Angela at the funeral.
You know how it’s possible for you to tell the difference between a masked cop and a vigilante?
she asks Angela, who replies no.
In many ways, Laurie isnt so much haunted by her past as wholly consumed by it.
That Doctor Manhattan listens is unlikely, given his lack of interest in humanity.
Adrian Veidt), and Doctor Manhattan and are judged by God for their deeds on Earth.
Each of them goes to hell, no matter their kindness or skills or power.
In the joke, the brick falls onto God so hard his brains shoot out of his nose.
Where does God go when he dies.
He goes to Hell.
Roll on snare drum.
The joke illuminates the ways people are both encased and haunted by their histories.
Yet, what powers this episode more than anything else is Jean Smarts performance.
Shes beguiling, hardened, with hidden grooves of vulnerability that only come to the surface when shes alone.
When Angela and Laurie finally interact its at Judds funeral, where Angela is tasked with reading his eulogy.
We knew we might not always be lucky and we should be prepared.
So we made a pact.
Angelas eulogy is intercut with the image of a Seventh Kavalry member crawling underground and into a mausoleum.
He straps a bomb vest to his chest and stalks toward the funeral.
Senator Joseph Keene Jr., you are a race traitor, he exclaims, trying to take him hostage.
Later that night in the mausoleum, Angela and Laurie have the confrontation this episode has been building toward.
Hey, did you know he had a secret compartment in his closet?
Laurie asks Angela with mock incredulity.
This much I know, Laurie says with a glare.
But heres the thing about me, Sister Night: I eat good guys for breakfast.
The air seems to have left the room.
Shes ready for a challenge.
Under the Hood
I still honestly have no idea where Adrian Veidts storyline is going.
When my dad was murdered, they found a secret compartment in his closet.
So I always check, Laurie says to Angela with a mirthless laugh.
But the show is obviously building toward something big in regards to Doctor Manhattan.
