"Little Fear of Lightning"
Airdate: November 17, 2019
The episode opens in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1985. Wade Tillman, aka Looking Glass, is a young Jehovah's Witness who gets his clothes stolen just before a psychic blast rocks New York and knocks him out. When he wakes up, he finds most people dead and a giant alien squid dropped from the sky.
In the present, Laurie tries to get Wade to spill the beans on Angela's pills, which he refuses to do. His ex-wife Cynthia informs him that the pills are Nostalgia, a drug that lets you relive someone's memories. Later that day, Wade leads a support group for people still traumatized by the squid, and sparks fly between him and a woman, Renee. Renee is with Seventh Kavalry, however, and the group lures him to a hideout. Senator Keene, a leading member, has Wade watch a video by Veidt revealing that everything — the squid, Redford's presidency — was all meticulously planned. Keene offers Wade a choice — incapacitate Angela so she can't interfere with Kavalry's plans, or Kavalry will go and take her out themselves. His worldview shaken, Wade sells Angela out to Laurie, who arrests her. He returns home, unaware that Kavalry members have followed him.
Meanwhile, Veidt attempts to escape his prison, which is revealed to be Europa, one of Jupiter's moons. He manages to use his servants' corpses to spell out "SAVE ME", a message that is picked up by the Juno satellite. However, he is yanked back by the Game Warden, who places him under arrest.
Tropes:
- Big "WHY?!": Angela screams this to Wade for his betrayal.
- Bolivian Army Ending: The episode ends with armed Kavalry members showing up to Wade's house.
- Call-Back: Wade calls himself a dummy after the Knot-tops tricks him in 1985 and steals his clothes. He again calls himself a dummy later in the episode (34 years later) when he learns that Renee is a 7K member.
- A Day in the Limelight: The show takes a break from Angela's storyline to focus on Wade Tillman/Looking Glass's backstory and motivations. Given the Bolivian Army Ending, it may or may not also be A Death in the Limelight.
- Distant Prologue: Set during the climactic squid attack in 1985 before jumping back to present-day 2019. Wade was in New Jersey at the time.
- Expendable Clone: When told that one of the puppy clones is smaller than the others, Cynthia exasperatedly disposes of it in an oven. And of course, Veidt is remarkably callous towards his cloned servants' corpses.
- Hypocrite: Wade tells the 11/2 support group that he has found that light at the end of the tunnel, but in truth he lives in terror of another attack.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: The Plot Twist that the squids aren't really alien and that they're part of Veidt's plan for peace is well-known to anyone who has read the Watchmen comic.
- Literary Allusion Title: To 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, referring to the Internal Reveal that Veidt dropped a squid on humanity to keep them afraid and complacent."If there were no thunder, men would have little fear of lightning."
- Living Lie Detector: Wade becomes this after the Knot-top tricked him and left him naked on 11/2.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Renee, the woman Wade meets at the 11/2 support group and later has drinks with, turns out to be a member of the Seventh Kavalry who purposely lured him to their hideout.
- Match Cut: The Game Warden says "no mercy it is" and kicks Veidt in the face, and we cut to a saleswoman testing a new perfume called "Mercy".
- Motif: Looking Glass is consistently associated with mirrors and reflection. His traumatic 11/2 experience happened while he was naked in a house of mirrors, Laurie derisively refers to him as "Mirror Guy", his day job is of a market researcher hiding behind a two-way mirror, his mask and hat are made of a material that reflects psychic blasts (akin to a tinfoil hat), and his reflection is shown when he enters the Kavalry hideout.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: One of the Knot-tops uses this against a young Wade, who is a Jehovah’s Witness trying to tell her to repent. Instead, she asks him if he wants to die a virgin and acts as though she is about to give him felatio, but instead steals his clothes and runs away.
- Mythology Gag: The pills are called Nostalgia, the name of a perfume brand from Veidt Enterprises, seen throughout Watchmen.
- Replacement Goldfish: Cynthia's job is a biomedical researcher at a pet cloning facility. The idea is that you never have to say goodbye to your pets.
- The Reveal: Keene is the leader of the Kavalry.
- Running Both Sides: Senator Keene reveals that after White Night, he took over the Seventh Kalvary while Judd Crawford took over the police in order to bring stability. It’s later revealed that this is a lie, and the two of them were behind White Night from the start.
- Sadistic Choice: Keene gives Wade one — get Angela out of the way, or have her killed by Kavalry. Wade chooses the former.
- Sole Survivor: Wade is one of the few survivors of the psionic blast that Veidt launched against the New York area in 1985.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra plays as the camera pans out to show the devastation created by Veidt teleporting a giant squid into New York. The song also plays in the advertisement for New York that Wade and the ad agency he works for are testing - the dissonance is in the palpable desperation to attract tourists.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Veidt figured that by revealing his grand hoax to Redford, he would fall in line with the other world leaders in hailing Veidt as a genius for "saving" the world and be his agent for change. Instead, Redford joined the other leaders in condemning a man for his confession of murdering three million people.
- The Tape Knew You Would Say That: Veidt lampshades how, in 1985, he could easily plan out Robert Redford becoming President in 1993.
- Tourism-Derailing Event: After Veidt's little stunt in 1985, New York became a pariah city and is still struggling to attract tourism in 2019.
- We Don't Suck Anymore: A pretty dramatic example — people are still so traumatized by Veidt's squid attack that in 2019, thirty-four years after it happened, the city of New York is still trying its damnedest to create advertisement good enough to attract people to come visit (let alone live in) the city.
- Wham Shot: The Distant Prologue ends with a full shot of the squid Veidt teleported into Manhattan.
