Summary: A flashback shows Will's father OB getting a letter which he keeps in his pocket. In the present, Angela smuggles Will away, not believing he killed Judd. Will claims to have psychic powers and that Judd was part of a conspiracy. Angela grieves and leaves Will in her bakery. The cops find Judd and Wade questions Angela. Angela reflects on the White Night, a day that 7K members coordinated a series of attacks on cops, killing dozens of them, forcing them to all wear masks to protect their identity. Angela barely survived the night. Red Scare goes to Nixonville to attack the white supremacists he suspects murdered Judd. Angela gets a DNA sample from Will and tests it at a center. She then goes to a wake for Judd and pretends to feint so she can investigate him. She discovers a KKK suit in his closet, which she takes before leaving. Angela returns to Will who has freed himself. She also learns that Will is her grandfather. She goes to turn Will in but suddenly her car is taken away by a magnet from the sky with Will inside. Elsewhere, the Master gets his servants to perform a play about Dr. Manhattan. His servants are revealed to be clones.
The Good: There's quite a bit to like about this. Will is a very interesting character already and I'm enjoying Louis Gossett Jr's performance. The character's arrival amped up the intrigue massively, and his relationship to Angela adds even more to an already exciting dynamic. Will single handedly drove the plot forwards in this episode, suggesting a deep conspiracy involving Tulsa which should be fun to explore. The first steps taken in this episode were through the reveal that Judd is likely part of 7K which took me by surprise. It seems that Will murdered him to make a statement against the 7K. The twist that Will is Angela's grandfather is an interesting one. We still know very little about Angela (which is consistent with the idea that these masked heroes are very defensive about their identity), so we don't fully understand the significance of this reveal yet. But I am certainly interested to get to know her family history a little bit. One scene in particular that stood out was when Angela moved Will into the car, which was framed as if she was giving him a loving hug. This suggests there are more family problems to this character than what meets the eye, and that she may be in dire need of a grandfather who cares for her. I was impressed with how the show conveyed this message to me through visuals alone rather than through exposition. I also really liked the flashback to the White Night which solves some of the early mysteries of the show. This nicely explains why the 7K are so feared and detested by the cops, since they have been shown to ruthlessly act against them and murder them. It also explains why Angela and Cal have adopted 3 white children, since they were Angela's partner's kids. I liked these answers and I thought that the White Night was presented to us in a pretty good way. I also liked what this flashback sequence did for Angela, suggesting that like all other masked heroes, what really fuels her is anger for what the 7K did and what they can do in the future. This idea that anger is what fuels heroes is an interesting one and I'm curious to see how the show explores it from here. The Bad: Unfortunately the perspective that this show takes is at odds with the message it is sending. It's difficult to root for the police to beat racism when in our world they are a primary cause of systemic racism. As such, it feels strange to root for the police to resolve racism, especially when there is explicit police brutality in this episode with Red Scare's attack on Nixonville. Additionally, the view that all racists are white supremacists is a very short-sighted perspective to take, and it does not do justice to the complexity of racism in society. As a result of these issues, it gets difficult to buy into the problems presented in the show and it's hard to root for the heroes to solve these problems. I think that this show hiding character from us will be a big problem. Keeping Angela as such a mystery seems like a big mistake since she is the main character of the story, and we view the show from her perspective in most scenes. Not knowing who she is and what she wants makes it difficult to fully invest. For example, it's very unclear why she didn't inform anyone about Judd's body and why she is hiding Will. Sure she knows he couldn't do it because he is really old, but he himself confessed! As a cop, surely she should be working to solve who really murdered Judd rather than attacking some white supremacists. It's unclear why she keeps all of this secret, and as such, I can't invest in her story since I don't understand why she is doing all of this. The Unknown: Who is Will? How did he hang Judd? Does he actually have powers? Who were his friends in "high places" that seemingly saved him at the end of the episode? How did they know where he was? Who is the master? What is this play? It seems to be telling the origin story of Dr. Manhattan. Why is this important? What is the significance of the watch? It seems that Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks are clones. How have clones been created? What is the master doing with them? Where is this all happening? Was Judd corrupt? Why was he fighting the 7K if he was one of them? Could the robes have been planted in his closet? Was he even an active member, or was it just an heirloom of some sort? It wasn't the Rorschach mask, it was the old school KKK outfit. Is this an important detail? Best Moment: Angela finding Judd's robes. It was a big reveal that opened up the story in a big way. Character of the Episode: Will. Conclusion: There wasn't a whole lot to this episode, but some questions got answered, the story was built up, and we learned more about the characters. A decent episode overall. Score: 61
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
March 2024
Categories
All
|