All right, I still have a few reservations, but I am essentially fully on board. Let’s get to the symbols and whatnot.
Vietnam
I think this is a good thing to rope back into the narrative. The Watchmen graphic novel feels very… light on addressing Vietnam. On one hand, it’s hard to think of where there would be space for it in the story. On the other hand, it’s a part of the original that I don’t think has really sat well with me. I don’t think Alan Moore is unaware of the horror of Dr. Manhattan’s actions, but I think his focus when he depicts them is different.
Anyway, there’s two movies here, Fogdancing and Silk Swingers, which appear in the graphic novel. They’re on the same level of the VHS rack, so that you can see them. What do they mean? That a bunch of clickbait sites are going to talk about them. I’m making a decision right here to stop noting these symbols except in cases where they don’t make sense or where they definitely/might mean something. This sort of passive, content-less symbolism isn’t inherently bad, but I’ve had my fill of it from this series. At a stretch, the Fogdancing VHS may signal that we’re supposed to read this sequence as parallel to the sequence with Lady Trieu on the farm, but I’m not sure what else there is to say other than that to say they depict opposite events.
There’s someone holding some lettuce in a shot, and this is what is starting to grate about the symbolism of the show. A trick to making your work seem deeper than it is is to use a few recurring symbols over and over again in order to artificially link sequences or ideas. But what it results in is a map of ley lines: a “coherency” which only exists in the minds of the people attempting to make connections.
Here’s the thing, though: Watchmen doesn’t need to do that. It has plenty of legitimate story choices and connections, and all of this feels as if someone on set told the production crew to add as many references as they could so that clickbait sites would generate buzz about the show. I can’t say for certain! But I think it is safe to say that some of these connections seem much stronger than others. Watchmen had some questionable links as well. I’m still not sure whether the Gordian Knot Lock Company is good or bad (I’m leaning toward the latter).
The use of triangles is a lot shakier than the use of circles/watches/smiles. Not everything has to be perfectly mapped out on a bulletin board: were someone to attempt to build an exhaustive, ready-made analysis into the work they were writing, I think it would likely result in something with a similar problem. My point isn’t that all symbolism should be rigorous and calculated, or that we should judge it as if it is supposed to be: it’s that it is easy to throw in a couple repeating signs and spam them throughout a work. They don’t automatically have any narrative nutritional value: like lettuce, they’re empty calories.
I’m not entirely sure if the show means for us to compare the suicide bomber to the lynch mob in Tulsa (that seems bad to do in such a short sequence), or if it is laying narrative groundwork to say that, even after dosing on Nostalgia, the brain is forced to connect traumatizing memories to each other, even if some of the memories are not the person’s own.
I do think there was a bit of a missed opportunity here to explore how Angela’s family was complicit in the annexation of Vietnam, but we’re getting more Vietnam scenes next episode, so the show may return to this.
And I definitely forgot to check the supplementary documents last week. This time, I have remembered to check. There is a bit more on the subject I was discussing in the previous paragraph in one of the documents for this episode.
Lady Trieu’s Nostalgia Treatment
What this sequence demonstrates to me (other than what’s possibly a bit of ropy CGI on a reflective metal object in Angela’s room) is that Trieu Industries does not need real memories in order to create images that they can display in someone’s brain.
Looking Glass MIA
Hm, one of the Seventh Kavalry members is missing a mask. I wonder if that has anything to do with where Looking Glass might possibly be.
The Cyclops Confrontation
Laurie is getting embarrassingly outplayed, even though supplementary documents for the previous episode indicate that she is suspicious of Mrs. Crawford.
One thing that I’m not sure makes any sense is Blake outlining that the idea was to get cops to wear masks so that racists could infiltrate their ranks. But the cops supposedly have a racism-detecting machine, and Looking Glass can (so he thinks) tell when people are lying. That’s not the real issue, though, which is: racism isn’t something that you need a mask to disguise. There’s a line about not being able to tell the good guys from the bad, and it’s unclear if this is supposed to be some sort of Statement About Our World. The plan that Keene was initially pursuing isn’t established very well.
Bian and Angela
There are a few indications in this scene of where Lady Trieu’s plan is going to go. My assumptions are as follows:
She is planning to implant memories of trauma and oppression into the heads of others, or else turn the oppressive violence of America against itself. (Perhaps worth noting here is that Nelson Gardner’s head is unaccounted for, according to a supplementary document).
She is going to betray Will Reeves.
Her father is Adrian Veidt.
Perhaps it’s worth noting here that Nelson Gardner’s head is unaccounted for, according to a supplementary document. This has parallels to a missing head that plays a large role in the graphic novel (or perhaps it’s possible that we’re supposed to suspect Gardner isn’t actually dead?): the head of the psychic is actually key to the entire ending of the graphic novel.
Here’s what we’re given to work with in this scene.
Bian’s dissertation is “on the adaptive function of empathy and the role of rage suppression in social cohesion.” I am 99% sure this is meant to prepare us for Lady Trieu’s plan.
The mix of memories draws parallels between Will Reeves and the VLF members, but also complicates them, as Reeves used his hood to attempt to get justice, while the puppeteer is (ostensibly) shot without a trial.
The flashback suggests that Angela’s desire to be a cop seems to come from a place of vengeance. Reeves’s initially came from a sense of law and order (or so he thought).
Additionally, examining the supplementary documents I neglected to look over last week gives us several pieces of information:
I think it’s pretty clear what humor has been left out of the translation. She raised her child not as a product of Pax Americana, but as its destroyer (elephants, particularly matriarchs, remember).
I think it’s also noting that Rushmore is specifically referenced. Mount Rushmore National Memorial, of course, owes its existence to the federal government breaking the Treaty of Fort Laramie (the 1868 one), and it was once occupied by AIM.
It’s unclear to what extent the show wants us to see parallels between black people moving to Vietnam after it was forcibly annexed and the role of, say, Bass Reeves policing Indian Territory:
Given that Petey refers to Vietnam as a “frontier,” I think the show very much intends us to make the comparison. I do not think Trieu would view Angela Abar as much different from The Comedian.
And I think this is another example of (extremely dark) humor which the article writer did not pick up on:
This is all adding up to a very specific (though not yet full) picture.
Adrian Veidt’s Trial
Pass.
Lady Trieu and Angela
The blue fish in the fishbowl is a nice touch.
Laurie and Senator Keene
I still don’t think that this show has a handle on Laurie. It seems to think that her motivation for becoming this person who is quite unlike the version of herself in the graphic novel is that she became “tired of all the silliness.”
Also, Looking Glass is definitely going to show up there, or at Angela’s.
Lady Trieu’s Speech
Actually, I am not quite sure that I’m entirely right about the direction Lady Trieu is going in. She seems to have become disillusioned with the idea that revisiting the past will help people learn from their mistakes. Perhaps it is possible that she plans to alter people’s memories so that society can “start over.”
The Rest of the Episode
All in all, nothing too much happens toward the end. An unusual choice.
No, but for real: I am excited for the next episode!
Also, I’m worried that Senator Keene is going to succeed in his plan (at least partially). But how does the Seventh Kavalry know who Dr. Manhattan is?
Also, I’m pretty sure that the butterfly in the vivarium in this episode that is on Veidt’s statue is going to have some sort of meaning. I might add some thoughts in the comments after I publish this if I think of anything major.
Overall Feelings
All in all, I think that everything that happens in this episode that takes place on Earth is very good.
I do think it’s possible that the bubble dimension (?) that Dr. Manhattan (?) created for Veidt will come into play, perhaps as a possible solution, or as part of Lady Trieu’s plan. I also think it’s possible that Veidt is already on Earth in some way in 2019. We still don’t know exactly what landed in Tulsa on the farm Lady Trieu bought.