This week, we got to learn a lot about Will Reeves and how his life’s journey. We saw the creation of Hooded Justice and the highs and lows. It was a brilliant episode. My name is Kent, and I ask 5 weekly questions and then people answer them. Any comments in BOLD are written by me. I hope you enjoy and if you or someone you know may want to do this blog, contact me, leave a comment, etc.
1. Why was June so mad at Will for him not wanting Marcus to follow his path?
Jim: I really can’t say as I know, so what do we do when we don’t know? We speculate with confident tones!! I will say as much as this one of my favorite 60 minutes of TV in a long time, I wish they found a way to explain what happened with his home life more…. I would just guess having to hide everything about himself (color, identity, sexuality etc….) was probably just taking its toll on him…. as much as every other moment was lacking nothing, the home life seemed to lack too much…. I mean, the reveal that she was the baby he found was simply passed over as a one-off. (Out of every episode, this one could have used another 10 minutes to fill in some of those gaps, maybe even 15 minutes. It was so good and it left me wanting more info that I am fearing we may never get.)
Chris: This was my only issue with the episode. I wish they had shown more of the consequences at home for Will’s choices. I’m sure his hero duties and the stress he was under was causing a lot of problems, but they didn’t show any of that. (It almost felt like they had to cut something and maybe they felt this was the least interesting aspect, or maybe it took too long to delve into, but either way, it would have really been helpful.)
Kent: I don’t know how many episodes I have said that this is my new favorite, but this was my favorite episode so far. I do feel cheated slightly because 10 more minutes could have given us a bit more story. The home life aspect would actually have interested me more than the Captain Metropolis stuff, if I had the option to choose.
2. Angela appears to be in Lady Trieu’s care now. Any ideas on how that happened?
Jim: 2 possibilities…
1- much like Ozymandias in the books, Lady Trieu seems to be the smartest person in the world (left on the world?). But in doing that, Ozymandias was plugged in to everything, and constantly had information coming to him, legal and otherwise (bugging). She could have a source inside the police station, or have tapped the cactus as well? Or
2- Blake could have called Trieu for help when she was left with no option, as Nostalgia was a Trieu drug, she may have known that only Trieu could help her.
Who are we kidding, there are infinite possibilities, including Lube-Man still keeping tabs on Angela, except really working for Trieu. (I would laugh if Lube Man was the main reason and also wasn’t Petey.)
Chris: While Angela was in her coma, Will might have found out and asked Lady Trieu to intervene. (I am sure that she has people feeding her info as needed, so it would make sense.)
Kent: Lady Trieu seems to be the Dr. James Andrews of this world when it comes to Nostalgia, so you would take Angela to the best. It makes the most sense to me that Blake would do that for her, or maybe Cal pushed for it.
3. Do you think that the mesmerizing techniques will be utilized in future episodes? Any thoughts on Cyclops?
Jim: I would imagine that we will see more of the mesmerizing technique, either by 7K, or Lady Trieu. The story seems to relish in small details, so they wouldn’t have introduced it simply to explain the hanging.
So like 7th Kavalry, Cyclops seems to be an offshoot of the KKK, whether it is a separate sect, or a research department or something of the KKK I don’t know. Does anyone think the symbol looks a little like Trieu’s clock thing? (I can see a similarity there. Good eye! I was going to say eyes, but the whole cyclops thing, it just didn’t feel appropriate.)
Chris: The cyclops is linked to all of this. In the last episode, the cyclops symbol was painted on the wall of the Kavalry’s hideout. As far as the hypnotizing, I have a feeling it will be a major player in the last 3 episodes. (You may like my theory, Chris. And I just rewatched some of ep 5, and the painted symbol looked really good.)
Kent: Okay, first and foremost, I don’t like James Marsden, who played Cyclops in the X-Men films. I don’t like Cyclops in the great X-Men cartoon back in the early 90’s. I don’t like that James Marsden is playing Stu Redman in the reboot of Stephen King’s The Stand. Yeah, I don’t add much to the conversation here, just venting. But I have a theory.
In episode 5, they talked about Reflectatine, and we know that Wade uses it on his mask. It is my theory that if he is wearing the mask, he will be immune to the mesmerizing techniques. This will play a role at some point this season or possibly next. That would give Reflectatine a purpose and give Wade even more storyline. Everybody wins.
4. Will we learn more about the Minutemen’s true intentions? It seemed like they may have had good intentions but fame and money were more important, but we only kinda saw that with Captain Metropolis.
Jim: in the books, it was Silk Spectre’s husband, Leon, who was the manager, who focused on promoting and monetizing the group…. also, Dollar Bill, the guy in the ad, did, in fact, work for the bank they mentioned…. I do believe they had great intentions, but there were some factors they had to balance. I was surprised to see Metropolis steering the group away from black crimes, but I guess if HJ had to paint up white, I should’ve expected it. (I do love all of this valuable info, plus a Dollar Bill reference is a treat.)
Chris: I think they did have good intentions, but they didn’t want to deal with decisive issues. They wanted to defeat the “villains” and get their photo-ops….oh and money. I think the whole reason they wanted hooded justice was to help legitimize themselves. (Those photo ops are super important.)
Kent: This is the epitome of good intentions and what most of us think about good intentions. They tend to go awry. If you can toss is fame and money, then it’s most likely going to go awry. Toss in hookers and blow (unconfirmed) and then you have a big mess. I do hope that they go back to the Minutemen at some point, but I would understand if they didn’t. I don’t know how necessary it would be at this point. As we have said, this episode had so much quality content, and yet we want just a little more because we’re greedy.
5. I’ll give you 2 really simple ones here. You can choose to answer one or both. 1) Why was the lady playing piano seen throughout this episode in color and not black and white? 2) Which song did you prefer: “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” or “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”? See, I made that easy.
Jim: I think because many times, the pianist was Angela playing a “Fly on the Wall” role throughout the episode…. it was the only character that was always Angela, as opposed to the others where she would change back and forth. I do love every music choice they make, but I would say there is more double meaning to I Don’t Want to Set the World On Fire, as HJ never set out to be what he was, he just wanted Justice like the movie he used to watch. But in doing so, he launched masked adventurers, which changed his world forever. (Good point on the fly on the wall role. That makes a lot of sense.)
Chris: I think she was in color to make sure we noticed her every time. During Will’s entire life, he never forgot what happened as a child. He carried it with him every day, and the piano helped to symbolize that. (Very nicely said. I’m not going to be able to offer much beyond that.)
Kent: While I may prefer “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” ever so slightly, I also thoroughly enjoy “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” and I think it was the better fit with the theme and story of this episode. Jim already mansplained everything that I was going to say. I will say, the song has a special place in my heart thanks to the Fallout video game series. They always choose great music. I must say, this show, by and large, has nailed the music. I thought that the way that they did the piano lady was a really nice touch. That’s what continually impresses me about this show. There are a lot of great TV shows out, but a lot lack certain subtleties and nuances. This show does a lot of the small things really well.
Final Thoughts – We saw a Superman comic. Was this just a nod to this being a DC product or potentially a sign of things to come?
Jim: Neither…. it is a parallel to HJ’s origin … the world being destroyed (Tulsa Massacre) sent off in space (hidden in a trunk) finding a family (finding his eventual wife in the field), and having to live in what seems to be an alien world as to where he was raised (Black Wall Street, a successful black community, versus being treated second class or worse in the rest of the world). (Thanks, Jim for making my question look foolish. But that was a really good response. I still may challenge you to a rap battle though.)
Chris: …….I don’t think I can provide a better answer than Jim on this one. (Yeah, I can just picture his smug smirk on his face right now. Bastard!)
Kent: I can barely fit in Jim’s car. It wasn’t meant for a man of my dimensions. Really, what am I supposed to offer after Jim dropped that response? I was so impressed with this episode that I made a new Fallout 4 character and modeled him after Will. Only 3 more episodes to go. I’m really excited to see what kind of cliffhanger they offer at the end of the season.