The third episode of Watchmen Season 1 was structured around a joke. It also allowed fans to meet a very important part of the Watchmen world and learn the fate of at least one of the world’s former heroes.
Here is a recap of Watchmen episode 3, She Was Killed by Space Junk.
Watchmen: Meet Blake
Blake (Jean Smart) showed up for the first time this week. As a matter of fact, it was a Blake joke that played out around the episode this week.
Blake is Laurie Juspeczyk, the former Silk Spectre. She has since retired from being a vigilante due to the law and has become a law enforcement officer with the FBI’s anti-vigilante task force.
She is introduced in an interesting scene where she goes in to rob a bank. When a costumed vigilante comes in to save the bank, they turn the tables on him and Blake actually shoots him down (he was wearing kevlar, but honestly, she wouldn’t have minded if he wasn’t).
See, despite being a former superhero, she hates vigilantes now and considers anyone acting as one as a joke.
She also knows Senator Joe Keene Jr., the son of the man who created the law banning vigilantism. He is also who created the law that allowed Tulsa police officers to wear masks to protect their identities after the Seventh Cavalry White Knight attacks.
He sends Blake to Tulsa to investigate the murder of Judd Crawford. He also sweetens the deal by saying the President can pardon anyone, including certain owl friends (which means Owl-Man is in prison).
Blake in Oklahoma
Blake has no love for Oklahoma and actually said at one point in this episode that she sees no difference between a masked vigilante and a masked police officer.
She also has made it clear that she doesn’t care about the Seventh Cavalry and has no respect for the Tulsa police officers either, really putting Looking Glass in his place. She also knows the identities of the police and knows that Angela is not retired but is instead Sister Night.
Blake wants Angela to tell her what she knows and also drops the news that she knew Judd had the hidden room in his closet and she wants to know what was in there (it was the KKK robe).
There was also a great line here where Blake tells Angela that when her father died, they found a hidden room in his closet as well. This was a great tie in to the original Watchmen since Blake’s father was The Comedian, and it was his death that started the entire story.
Oh, and Blake made it clear she is also not a fan of Adrian Veidt.
Attack at Judd’s funeral
Angela is asked to give the eulogy at the funeral for Judd Crawford, but that was interrupted.
While speaking, a member of the Seventh Cavalry comes into the cemetery from underground with explosives hooked to him. He wants the “race traitor” Joe Keene Jr. and if he dies, the bomb attached to him will explode.
Blake shoots him dead.
She thought the bomb was fake, but it was very real and Angela is able to save everyone by pushing him into the grave hole and shoving the casket on top of him as he exploded.
Between this and the bank robbery shooting, it is clear that Blake has some major problems and doesn’t have the best instincts anymore.
Blake’s joke
The episode also has breaks involved which show Blake at a telephone-type booth that sends messages to Dr. Manhattan on Mars. She tells him a joke, and apparently does this frequently.
She starts off telling a joke about a man who builds something for his house but has an extra brick. His daughter then tells him not to destroy it and throws the brick into the air, before saying that she ruined the joke already.
Blake then starts a new joke where three heroes go before God when they die to see if they go to Heaven or Hell.
The first, an Owl, tells God that he used his God-given talent to save people and make the world a better place. When God asks how many people he killed, the Owl said he kills no one and God tells him he is weak and sends him to Hell.
The second man was a genius (Ozymandias) and God asks what he did with his God-given talent. The genius said he saved the world. When God asked how many people he killed, he said millions with a smile. God said he was terrible and sent him to Hell.
The third man was a God himself (Dr. Manhattan). When God asked him how he used his God-given powers, he said he just did what he wanted. He fell in love with one woman and then another and did nothing to save anyone. God asked how many people he killed and he said it didn’t matter because — alive or dead — people meant nothing.
God sent him to Hell.
As God was leaving, a fourth person showed up. It was a woman that God had never seen before. He said that was unusual and asked her who she was. She said she was the girl who threw the brick into the air and when God looked up it came down and crushed his head, killing him.
Where does God go when he dies? Hell.
After the joke, she asks why she keeps doing this because Dr. Manhattan doesn’t care and won’t answer. She leaves and then hears something from the sky. Then a car crashes to the ground in front of her and when she looks up she sees a light shine and then leaves and she starts to laugh.
Dr. Manhattan is listening.
Meanwhile, at the Manor
So, Veidt is still doing crazy things to his servants this week at his Manor. As a matter of fact, this week he finally reveals that he is Veidt for the first time.
This week, he puts his servant into an interesting suit and ends up freezing him to death.
Veidt is frustrated and decides they need thicker skin. He heads out with his bow and arrow and kills a buffalo. However, before he can do anything with it, another man on a horse shows up and shoots at him.
Veidt then gets a letter from the Game Wardon who said that their agreement with Veidt’s captivity was based on specific rules and if he tries to do something like this again, he will not miss when he shoots him.
This is a giant game for Veidt who has a letter written to return to him stating that the shooting was all just a big game.
He then finishes his part of the episode by putting on his Ozymandias costume and heading out for a midnight hunt.
Watchmen airs on Sunday nights at 9/8c on HBO.