Watchmen (2019) 1.06

This Extraordinary Being

The episode opens with a scene from American Hero Story, the TV show about the Minutemen. Two FBI agents have Hooded Justice cornered. They convince him to take off his mask but then he beats them up.

Angela experiences her grandfather's memories thanks to the load of Nostalgia pills she took. She lives the memories as if they were her own. Will Reeves became a police officer in New York City in 1938. He was one of the few African Americans on the force. Butler, another African American officer, warns him to look out for the cyclops.

It isn't long before Reeves finds out about the cyclops. He tries arresting a man who firebombed a Jewish deli. He takes the man to the police station but soon thereafter the man is let go. Some White officers perform a mock execution and beat up Reeves. They threaten to hang him for real if he sticks his nose in the affairs of white folk again.

Reeves responds by becoming a masked crime fighter, Hooded Justice, the first masked crime fighter. June, his wife convinces him to put makeup on around his eyes, to make others think that he is white. Captain Metropolis convinces Will to join his group of crimefighters. Reeves soon finds out that Captain Metropolis isn't as interested in justice but in money and carnal pleasure.

Hooded Justice figures out what the Klan is up to. They have been using mesmerizing film projectors to cause unrest in Harlem. Reeves tries calling Captain Metropolis for bakup but Metropolis has no interest in fighting the Klan. Hooded Justice has to deal with them single-handedly, which he does.

The last of her grandfather's memories that Angela experiences is from the night that Judd Crawford was killed. 

Angela eventually wakes up and finds herself in a bed with intravenous tubes connected to her arm. Lady Trieu is watching over her.

Thoughts

This was a much more focused episode than the first five. Adrian Veidt was not in this episode. Most of the actors in this episode had not been in earlier episodes and the ones that had were not in this one for very long.

Hooded Justice is finally revealed to be a Black man in this episode. He is portrayed as being White in American Hero Story in this and previous episodes.

I'm not completely sold on Hooded Justice's sexual relationship with Captain Metropolis. It's there. It is shown but there's no other indication of that side of Will's life.

June, Will's wife, was played by Danielle Deadwyler. She was also in The Harder They Fall (2021) and an episode of the second season of Atlanta.

Most of the flashbacks were in black-and-white with occasional splashes of color. 

I really like this episode. I feel like I got some answers. I don't expect all my questions to get answered clearly.