Review of 'Watchmen' 1.3

Watchmen checked in with a clarifying, excellent episode 1.3 this week, introducing Jean Smart as FBI honcho and super good-guy killer Laurie Blake, and giving us a nice extended rendition of Desmond Dekker's "Israelites," one of my many all-time favorite songs (in fact, I'm listening to it on YouTube right now).

Blake is a sarcastic, effective, very necessary character. The episode went by quickly, and I wasn't paying 100% attention—I never can in a story like this—so I may have some of this a little wrong, and I don't like watching a scene twice to check, but I think Blake is Dr. Manhattan's former wife or ex-girlfriend, and he's currently on Mars. Even if he's not on Mars, I'm certain that humans are on Mars in this alternate reality, and that's another nifty departure of Watchmen's reality from ours.

Blake also calls Manhattan (the man on Mars, not the borough) via a phone in a blue phone booth that connects her to Mars, and tells him a variety of lamely sage jokes, the best of which being about what a girl does with an extra brick—I used to tell a two-part version of this two-part joke when I was a kid (I heard it from someone else)—but in Blake's version the punchline is the brick comes down on God's head. This is picked up nicely in what almost happens to Blake at the end of this episode.

But first, I also much like the tension between Blake and Sister Night—they make a good pair of adversaries, who may well come together in the end, even though Blake eats good guys for breakfast, or something like that, as she makes clear to everyone. But Sister Night's her match, and I liked her response to Blake's attempt at intimidation.

But back to the end, a car falls out of the sky and almost on Blake's head, almost fulfilling the brick in her joke. Maybe that was the car we saw lifted off the ground either in this or a previous episode? It's hard to tell in this gonzo narrative, but I can at least tell that it's appealing, and I'll continue to watch.