Summary: Laurie tries to get Angela to agree to treatment but she passes out and finds herself reliving Will's life. Will becomes a cop in 1938 and is warned to beware of Cyclops. Will arrests a white man, Fred, who burns down a Jewish store but is surprised to learn that his fellow cops set him free. Will comes in angrily but is calmed down and sent to continue his day. Later, the white cops kidnap Will and threaten him by hanging him before cutting him down. On his way home, Will saves innocent women from an attack, becoming Hooded Justice. He returns home and admits to June that he's angry. Afterwards, Will makes an attack on Cyclops by finding out where Fred works. Will is met by Nelson who enlists him to form the New Minutemen. Later, Will discovers that Cyclops is using mind control on black people to get them to fight each other. He doesn't get any help from the Minutemen and investigate son his own, murdering an entire building full of Cyclops members. Will returns home and sees his son putting on his makeup and panics, screaming at him. June decides to leave him after this, seeing that the anger has taken over him. The flashbacks jump to years later, showing that Will used the Cyclops mind control to get Judd to hang himself. In the present, Angela wakes up next to Lady Trieu.
The Good: Well here it is. It was only a matter of time before a Damon Lindelof show goes completely insane with an episode hyper-focused on a single character, whose story is told in a meaningful and creative way, making for a very memorable experience. This episode channeled the same feeling as other outstanding episodes like "The Constant" and "International Assassin" and had its own spin on the formula to create an equally riveting piece of television. The examination of Will in this episode was nothing short of phenomenal. He has been such a mystery so far, so it was fascinating to pull back the curtain on his life and see what he's all about. And true to what this show has been about so far, Will is all about anger. Anger is what fuels him, and throughout this episode it is about the only emotion he seems to feel. Going through what he has, it's easy to understand his rage, and there were many horrifying moments in this episode that really accentuated why Will has every right to be upset and take vengeance on the racists in Cyclops. But if things were so black and white, this episode would not be interesting. Getting justice may be good for the world but it certainly isn't good for Will or his family, and that leads to the depressing end of the episode where Will seemingly loses faith in the Minutemen, and in his rage, he loses his own family. The episode has shown how supportive June was of him, but Will never seems to give anything back to her. And when their son is born, Will is as neglectful of a dad as he could possibly be, leading to a shocking scene where his son puts on the Hooded Justice makeup, forcing Will to look at the horrifying legacy he is leaving behind. And it's this moment that finally alienates June, leaving Will to live out his life as a lonely man, still bent on getting justice against Cyclops and nothing more. It's a sad story to watch and it's paced and executed to perfection to make us sympathize with the character and feel the struggle that he does. This nicely fits with the theme of racism and with the stories that are being told in the present day. Anger has been on display throughout the show on a consistent basis, and the show is plainly sending the message that angry vigilantism is not true justice. Here we see Will taking out Cyclops with pure rage, but they don't ever go away. There's no change and all that happens is that Will loses who he is and loses his family. This nicely ties in with the present day story where Angela is one of several characters who are also fueled by anger, wanting nothing less than to murder all the racists to solve their problems. But if there's one thing that Will's story tells us, it's that this type of justice is no true justice at all and that more needs to be done to solve these problems. The examination of these themes in this episode only added on to what was already a great experience. Something that I thought was really impressive was the episode's outlook on superheroes. Once more we see that the masks are worn to hide trauma. Will wears the Hooded Justice mask to hide his own identity and his pain, pretending to be a white man to push his own pain to the side so he can be something that he's not: a hero. The show has painted its heroes in a consistently gray perspective and it does so here again. And Will is not the only example. Captain Metropolis is another example of this, as despite being a hero he turns his back on racism, only willing to push forward his own agenda for the people rather than doing something genuinely helpful to society. His story isn't fully fleshed out and I would like to know more, but I get the feeling that I will have to read the comics to learn more about him. The reveal that Will was Hooded Justice was really well done. It's a very unique take on this character to have him be black the entire time, and I've learned that this was a unique take from this show, not part of the original Watchmen comics. I really love this idea and I think that it's the kind of bold story choice that justifies the existence of this show as a Watchmen property. This is somebody with a vision enacting the story that they had in mind. Now is a great time to bring up the American Hero Story TV show segments that had been shown in previous episodes up until this point. I'm very grateful that we were shown these scenes because they informed me about who Hooded Justice and the Minutemen were. Without them I would have been legitimately confused about Will's identity and who Hooded Justice was. What we were shown ended up being just enough for me to understand the weight of the Hooded Justice identity reveal, while also making it a pleasant surprise to learn that Will used to be one of the vigilante superheroes of the past. I also thought that these sequences were plain fun as I really enjoyed seeing a TV show within a TV show that was shot in a completely different style from everything else. The scenes were fun while also giving me some important story details without me even realizing it. The overall presentation of this episode was astonishing and was one of the biggest highlights of the episode. The filming was top notch, and I was almost always impressed by one thing or the other. Be it the impressive switching between Will and Angela's face or something like the astonishing POV shot of Will being hanged, I was almost always in awe at the style in which this episode was filmed. I also thought that the black and white filter was an inspired choice and that it worked really well for this story. The Bad: Nothing was bad. I suppose that the one thing this episode was missing was a single moment that really made me feel something for Will. The episode had several fantastic scenes but nothing quite went far enough to make me feel as much as the aforementioned episodes "The Constant" and "International Assassin" did. The Unknown: Was there a greater purpose to Nostalgia? Why did Trieu make it? What happened to Angela while she was unconscious? How did Trieu get her? Will Angela be affected by this experience? What is Will's current agenda? Why did he murder Judd specifically? Does he have a plan to take down Cyclops/the 7K? Best Moment: Will finally snapping and murdering everyone in the building before coming home and lashing out at his own son. It's horribly sad to see this man cave in and let anger completely dominate who he is, ruining his life in the process. Character of the Episode: Will. Conclusion: What a phenomenal piece of television. This was absolutely superb from start to finish, giving us a highly personal experience with Will while also giving us big reveals, a compelling story and one of the most memorable television experiences I have had. Add on the outstanding acting, editing, cinematography and overall presentation of the episode, and you have one hell of an experience. Score: 87
1 Comment
Joe Y
1/5/2021 12:21:58 pm
Watchmen is Lindelof personified. Great in pieces. As a whole? I'm not so sure.
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Aaron DhillonJust a university student who loves to watch TV. And analyze it way too much. Archives
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