Watchmen Episode #5 // Review
HBO’s Watchmen Episode 5, “Little Fear of Lightning,” puts Tim Blake Nelson’s Looking Glass under the microscope, and gives the audience possibly more answers and revelations than any of the other episodes combined...but is everything as it seems? Probably not. Previously, Adrian Veidt (Jeremy Irons) fooled the world into putting aside its differences, and coming together in peace, by staging an extradimensional attack by a psychic, giant, alien squid. Now, Veidt is missing, and the world is left with a deep emotional scar as payment for its averted nuclear war. This episode asks if the cost was worth the outcome, and “how long can such an unbelievably large secret stay a secret.”
“Little Fear of Lightning” solely follows the character of Looking Glass, aka Wade, aka “Mirror Guy,” much like episode 3, followed Laurie Blake. Similarly, the writers (Damon Lindelof and Carly Wray) use a single character to reveal important things about the current state of the world of Watchmen. Wade is shown to have had a traumatic experience directly related to the “squid attack” in 1985, the resulting PTSD troubling him his entire life. Lindelof and Wray illustrate a broken man, who has never been able to fully trust anyone and lives in a constant state of paranoia. And, when he undergoes a revelation late in the episode, something that should alter his world view, the audience sees that his trauma is so ingrained in him, he may never be able to leave it behind. It’s great character work, and leagues above most other television airing today.
As stated above, there are quite a few big reveals about the history of Watchmen this week, mainly, what direct effect Veidt’s squid attack actually had on the world. Since the beginning of the series, the looming question has been whether or not Veidt’s plan went off without a hitch, or if Rorschach’s journal (depicting the true nature of the attack) was believed by anyone. Through Looking Glass, we see that many suffered deep trauma that day in 1985, and while it may have ultimately brought peace to the world, a good number of the population has not known peace since.
Tim Blake Nelson reminds everyone why he’s been such a gainfully employed character actor in the last couple of decades with this episode’s performance. He runs the full gamut of emotions in “Fear,” bringing to life a vulnerable, fragile, and lonely character that you can’t help but sympathize with...even when he’s doing some not so nice things. If Nelson and his fellow castmates don’t all get nominations for this show, it will be tantamount to highway robbery.
This is the episode that really drives the plot forward. Whether you’re an old fan of the comic, or a new viewer of the HBO show, this chapter of Watchmen is undeniably great. Loaded with so many answers and revelations that you’ll find yourself wanting to go back for a second (or third) viewing just to make sure you caught everything.
