Hi folks, Veronica Rampant here! Who's watching the Watchmen? I know, I know. I just can't stop thinking about this show, and I need to disgorge the contents of my brain here, before it makes my head explode.
I haven't seen this Sundays' finale but, fair warning, if you haven't seen the series yet, avert your eyes, cause there are SPOILERS BELOW.
First of all: holy shit, you guys. There are so many layers here. I feel like the show rewards rewatching, much like the original comic series invited re-reading and interpretation while you waited for the next issue. As a meditation on the superhero genre, the show is really just super smart. It gets to the heart of what superhero stories are about, which is trauma and the ways we struggle to resolve trauma and seek justice by creating meaning out of what happened to us - that trauma is an origin story for the hero we're meant to be. Each of these characters wears the trauma of their origin story. That Hooded Justice is a black man who was about to be lynched, who then ran out and fought crime with a noose around his neck, makes TOTAL SENSE. His wife is incredulous that he put the hood back on, and why wouldn't she be? Reliving your trauma makes no sense to the rational mind. But to our subconscious, it feels like we're resolving something. Mirror Guy, aka Looking Glass, can't get over the humiliation and pain that happened when he was in the hall of mirrors, to the point where, even when he knows the squid attack was a hoax, he STILL goes back and gets his expensive security alert system out of the trash - because that's what it takes for him to feel secure.
And then there's intergenerational trauma. OH YES. Which episode 6 explored with such a degree of sophistication that I don't even know where to begin talking about it. I mean, aside from being beautifully shot, the fluidity between Angela and her grandfather's experience in THIS EXTRAORDINARY BEING is both beautiful and terrifying, and encapsulates an "origin story" for Angela's search for justice that resonates through generations of people she never even met. I mean, look at this. Is this not Sister Night's origin, as well as Will Reeves's?
Are we gonna get to explore Silk Spectre's intergenerational trauma next? Cause OMG OMG YOU GUYS I don't know if I can handle it.
Speaking of what happens next - what are your predictions for tomorrow's finale? If you're not into making/reading predictions, you can skip the rest, but here are my thoughts/questions/proposals:
First of all: Did Dr. Manhattan kill Angela's grandmother? After Angela's grandmother dropped dead of a heart attack, the camera pans back to a mural of Dr. Manhattan on the wall behind her, with the word "Murderer" scrawled on it. Dr. Manhattan knows all, and sees time backwards and forwards. Would he have influenced events just to keep Angela in Vietnam? So he could meet her in the bar 25 years later? Come to think of it, the original Cal Abar died from a "suspected heart attack" as well. There are just a lot of people keeling over with convenient heart attacks in Vietnam, is all I'm saying.
Second: is Angela going to take over Dr. Manhattan's powers? There's been some speculation on this point around the internet, and here's how I think it's gonna go down. Remember when Angela and Jon are in the bar and he says that technically, he could imbue organic material with his powers and transfer them, and she says, "you mean I could eat an egg and walk on water?" And then when Jon comes back, he walks on water, saying "you're going to need to see this later." And then goes and makes breakfast, pulling eggs out of the refrigerator. But Angela smashes the eggs. Does this indicate a lack of consent (Jon said he'd never transfer his powers without the other person's consent?)
What do you think, AICNers? What do you think is going to happen in the finale?
Roni Out!
www.janetharvey.com
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