"She Was Killed By Space Junk"
Airdate: November 3, 2019
Laurie Blake, the former Silk Spectre II and now a member of the FBI's Anti-Vigilante Task Force, is tasked by Senator Joe Keene to investigate the goings-on in Tulsa. Upon arriving in Oklahoma accompanied only by the younger agent Dale Petey, she questions the briskness of Judd's funeral considering he is the topic of a murder investigation. The funeral itself is interrupted by a Kavalry member with a bomb strapped to his chest who takes Keene hostage. Laurie kills him and Angela tosses his body into the grave, blowing up Judd's casket in the process. Later, Laurie catches Angela investigating the tomb and questions her about Judd's death, but Angela is uncooperative.
Laurie later calls her ex, Dr. Manhattan, and tells him a long joke before admitting that she still thinks about him. As she steps outside, Angela's car crashes in front of her. She takes this as a sign of Dr. Manhattan's acknowledgement and breaks into laughter.
Elsewhere, the manor lord sets has Mr. Phillips test out a space suit. After Phillips freezes to death he goes hunting, only to be stopped by the Game Warden, who reminds him of the terms of his imprisonment. The lord scoffs at this and issues a reply letter, signing it Adrian Veidt.
Tropes:
- Batman Parody: The vigilante Laurie arrests during her fake bank robbery is an obvious Batman send-up. He even sounds like the infamous "throat cancer voice" of Batman in The Dark Knight Trilogy.
- Brick Joke: Literally the point of the long joke Laurie tells Dr. Manhattan. She first tells the story of a bricklayer's daughter who tosses a brick into the air. She seemingly forgets the punchline and instead tells another joke about God sending Ozymandias, Dr. Manhattan, and Nite Owl to hell, before the bricklayer's daughter appears before God. The brick she had thrown in the first story then lands on God's head, killing him.
- Moments later, Angela's car, which was abducted in the previous episode, falls just inches away from Laurie as she steps out of the booth, which she takes as a return brick joke from Manhattan.
- Dead Man's Switch: The Kavalry officer crashing the funeral has a bomb he says will go off if his heartbeat stops. Thinking he's bluffing, Laurie shoots him... and the bomb starts beeping with Angela barely getting the body into the grave before it goes off.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: In his letter, the manor lord complains about being treated like a "Republic Serial villain"... the line Veidt used in his infamous Wham Line in the original comic.
- The Reveal: The manor lord is an aged Adrian Veidt and this is his prison.
- Titled After the Song: After "Space Junk" by Devo, which Laurie plays in-universe.
- Wham Shot: Combined with the Wham Line of the manor lord in costume to show he's an older Ozymandias.
- What the Hell, Hero?: An important part of the set-up of Laurie's Brick Joke is God sending Ozymandias, Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan to Hell for their respective inabilities to help people: Nite Owl because he went for Awesome, but Impractical superheroics, Dr. Manhattan because he was omnipotent but useless and Ozymandias because he killed millions of people and dares to call it "heroism".
