Watchmen Season 1 Episode 3: “She Was Killed by Space Junk”

Director: Stephan Williams

Starring: Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Jeremy Irons, and Jean Smart

Rating: TV-MA

Runtime: 53 minutes

Watchmen zooms out and accelerates the pace in a fantastic episode that excellently marries the old world with the new. Jean Smart’s, Laurie Blake, dominates with dramatic heft while providing a much-needed glimpse into the larger narrative stakes.

Return of the Old Guard (Spoilers)

Each episode of HBO’s Watchmen has gotten better than the last, and “She was Killed by Space Junk,” is no exception. Laurie Blake – previously Laurie Juspeczyk, the Silk Spectre – is back as a badass FBI agent in charge of hunting vigilantes. They do not shy away from her famous past as a vigilante but are quick to establish that contemporary Blake thinks all vigilantes are criminal, and a joke. They quickly dispatched her to Tulsa in the hopes of solving Judd Crawford’s murder to defuse mounting tensions surrounding the masked conflict in the region. Her presence is intended to protect the Defense of Police Act (DOPA) being piloted in Tulsa. A program that Blake finds patently ridiculous. However, Blake begrudgingly agrees in the hopes of receiving a pardon for Dan Dreiberg – Nite Owl.

One-hundred percent of the focus in this episode is on Blake, allowing the audience an entirely new perspective on the series plot to this point. Strolling into Tulsa with an entirely masked police force torturing suspected members of the 7th Kavalry appears suddenly, and plainly, absurd. Blake is quick to dress down all the masks we have come to know. Smart carries her character with a palpable sense of authority that easily overrides most of the Tulsa Police.

With that, Smart also manages to fill Blake’s shoes with a disarming amount of emotional vulnerability. Framed by a lengthy voicemail from Blake to Doctor Manhattan – in what amounts to a phone booth to Mars – of an extended joke, Blake accuses Manhattan of abandoning the Earth. Further, of never actually caring about any of humanity: herself included. However, after years of silence from Mars, this time he responds by dropping a station wagon at her feet. His own punchline.

What’s on the Horizon?

The reliably absurd – tonally more Ennis than Moore – episodic vignettes starring Jeremy Irons officially reveal his character as Adrian Veidt: Ozymandias. The action taking place at the Manor is clearly some type of punishment put upon Veidt. However, the exact reason, location or identity of his jailor is totally unknown. With the fate of Blake at the forefront of this episode, one can’t help but wonder how Veidt and Manhattan will factor in.

Blake has totally shaken up the status quo in Tulsa. Her opposition to the masked experiment in Tulsa promises to breed intriguing conflict. Perhaps more importantly, the collision of these two worlds has provided a broader narrative context. Thirty years later, the world of Watchmen has come to ahead. The power of the mask is on trial.

Click here for more TV reviews