OK, so, I’m not always good at avoiding spoilers for popular things. It happens. I don’t really mind that too much in the grand scheme of things, though. Sometimes it helps me pick up clues before a reveal, and if there aren’t any, it’s usually a sign something ain’t right.
As such, I heard the sixth episode of Watchmen was a season highlight. But damn, if that wasn’t the god’s honest truth I don’t know what is.
Essentially, Abigail swallowed her grandpa’s Nostalgia drug, the stuff that helps people remember stuff. She swallowed a whole bottle, though, and the pills aren’t intended to be for anyone else, and never that many. She’s going to die of a drug overdose, and there isn’t much Laurie or the other cops can do to help her, even calling Cal in to talk to her.
So, instead, we see the life of Will Reeves.
And he was Hooded Justice.
That part I more or less knew. That’s actually pretty cool.
What I didn’t know about was the execution of it, showing Will joining the NYPD back in the 40s, experiencing racism from other cops and citizens, and being warned to watch out for the “cyclops”. After arresting a man for arson against a Jewish deli, Will almost gets killed by other cops trying to teach him a lesson.
So, he uses the rope and the bag over his head to fight crime as both Superman and his own personal hero Bass Reeves did.
There’s so much good going on here. The story shows the racism Will experiences everywhere, including from his “Minutemen” teammates (most notably his lover Captain Metropolis), the thing that pushed his wife away, and how his childhood trauma influenced who he became. Most of it is in black and white, sometimes it’s Abigail standing in for Will, and other times, we get splashes of color from the pilot episode scenes. The whole thing moves like a dream as Will/Hooded Justice moves through New York, beats up criminals (especially the Klan), and finally straight-out murders the racist cops who almost murdered him because they were using a mind control projector to force black people to murder each other.
So, yes, that projector would be how Will could truthfully claim he killed Judd Crawford because we see that too.
So many of these episodes of Watchmen have been episode-long studies of different characters. It’s been a real joy to watch, but this one here, this one elevated all that and showed the past as prologue.
The episode ends with Abigail waking up in Lady Trieu’s care. So, there may be more to do with her long lost grandpa real soon…
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