It’s December 15, 2019. I am writing this post before the final episode (of the season?) airs. I should have written it days ago, but something has made me reluctant to begin it.
It’s 2006, and I am watching the DVD release of a show that will change me. I select “play all.” I’m not going anywhere. I have plenty of time.
It’s December 9th, 2019, and I’m watching an episode of a television show that has inspired me to write regularly again.
It’s October, 2019, and I’m re-reading a graphic novel which I’ve read before, and finding new things to appreciate about it.
Anyway, enough with the very bad pastiche. I’ve gotten it out of my system. Let’s start talking about the penultimate episode (of the season?).
I think this episode is another one where the show does a lot of things that most other series aren’t even trying to do, but it also gets in its own way a lot (an example: the show’s constant desire to explain things to any viewers who may not have read the graphic novel). It’s also another instance of the show portraying a character differently than the graphic novel, but without necessarily showing us how that character became this character. Dr. Manhattan is far more recognizable as the same character in this show than, say, Laurie is, but there are still some tweaks to his character that don’t make tons of sense and that we, as an audience, are supposed to just kind of accept. (Probably the most egregious case here is that Dr. Manhattan says that he regrets what he did in Vietnam. Why? What changed? The show doesn’t seem to know, but it does know that it wants you to see Dr. Manhattan as a Good Guy going into the final stretch.)
One of the biggest reasons that this character doesn’t feel quite like Dr. Manhattan (besides the mannerisms being more human) is that the way the show is doing determinism/foreknowledge is different. In the graphic novel, for instance, Dr. Manhattan attends the Crimebusters meeting knowing that he will eventually have a sexual relationship with (the underage) Silk Spectre. But he doesn’t attend the meeting just to meet her: he attends the meeting because that’s also what his character wants to do at this point in time. This episode is basically the Mars portions of the graphic novel, but it only seems to have taken its lead from Dr. Manhattan showing up and teleporting Laurie to Mars, which is maybe the one instance in the graphic novel where he causes something to happen for a purely deterministic (or so it seems) reason, which is part of the graphic novel’s tension between determinism and free will.
This Dr. Manhattan is a Dr. Manhattan stripped of a lot of his complexity and contradictions, presumably in order to make him more of a Good Guy, and with a bonus helping of meta-commentary about plot structure. So this episode felt a bit like hearing a familiar song in a different key, with slightly detuned instruments.
Okay, with that general observation out of the way, let’s move on to breaking down individual elements of the episode.
The Manor Flashback
I’m not entirely sure what the point of the Manor Flashback is, other than to explain exactly why those two are the lifeforms Dr. Manhattan created, and also to give us more butterfly/terrarium/bell jar imagery.
It’s worth noting that there are three kinds of butterflies in this terrarium: blue butterflies, brown/leaf butterflies, and butterflies which have blue wings with brown/leaf wings on the underside, concealing the blue when they are held together.
In fact, this whole room seems to be echoing that, with its blues and browns and the tree wallpaper.
Also, the music playing is… “The Blue Danube.” We get it.
The scene where the couple gives him a Bible (which is bound in dark blue material) is just… it seems as if it’s from a different show? The episode has already done the Genesis/Dr. Manhattan thing earlier, when Angela asks if he rested on the seventh day.
Actually, wait, I take it back: I forgot that they tell Jon they were “creating a life.” Maybe this flashback does have a larger purpose. Or maybe it doesn’t! This is yet more egg/reproduction imagery that may or may not lead anywhere.
The Argument
One thing I thought was odd: Cal says that he left his watch in the intrinsic field generator. But it wasn’t his watch: it was Janey Slater’s.
Antarctica
This is yet another mention of “solar wind.” Nelson Gardner mentioned that Moloch’s weapon used the solar winds. And his head is unaccounted for. Is this going to have something to do with the plan?
I don’t want to talk about the “problematic” bit. This whole scene is bizarre: this Jeremy Irons is a lot closer to Veidt than the Jeremy Irons on Europa, and is the implication just that he’s kinda lost it being in a hell paradise?
The magic memory blocker thing looks like Janey Slater’s earrings. Does this mean anything? Probably not anything other than “we’ve read the graphic novel,” or else it’s just that they’re both pieces of jewelry mimicking Dr. Manhattan’s “logo.”
The Proposal
Now, see, I think this is a much better callback to the silhouette imagery from the graphic novel.
The Egg
More egg imagery. If no one’s said it in the show yet, I think the next episode will have someone do a “break a few eggs” bit.
There are more eggs later in this episode, and I am interested to see what my opinion of the egg symbolism is after the show finishes.
The Rest of the Episode
Honestly, I’m not sure that I have much more to say about the rest of the episode. I think that Dr. Manhattan has said that the “tunnel of love” ends in tragedy, but that tragedy isn’t necessarily his death, and he did say that he needed to ensure an “optimal outcome.” We aren’t sure what he’s told Will Reeves, other than that he should expect the children at some point in 2019. He told Angela that she needs to see him walking on water, and I am guessing that there’s an egg (or something) waiting for her in the house, maybe.
Let’s go through some of the things that have yet to be resolved:
What landed on the patch of property Lady Trieu bought.
What’s up with the egg/genetics stuff in the show (if anything is).
Where Looking Glass is (I assume in Senator Keene’s lair).
What Lady Trieu needed from Karnak.
Fogdancing, apparently, since the supplemental materials for this episode are all about it.
Where Veidt is (I assume he’s on Earth already).
The brainwashing technology.
The final part of Veidt’s message on Europa.
The Native imagery, but I assume this will not actually be resolved.
Whatever the Game Warden’s deal is. Why the mask? Why does his version of his origin story (seemingly) conflict with Dr. Manhattan’s account of creating his paradise?
The solar winds (didn’t Lady Trieu say that her clock was solar-powered?).
And then some other things that I’ve mentioned, probably. If I don’t finish this write-up now, I’m not going to do so before the finale airs.
Also, I really like the choice to never show the face of the original Dr. Manhattan. That was extremely good.
Uh, here’s some stuff from the supplemental material which may be relevant.
Now I’m gonna re-read my posts on the show and see if I can add anything further in the comments to this post. I’ll probably watch the finale tomorrow morning.