Looking Glass and the Torture of Cultural Memory in ‘Watchmen’ Season One, Episode 5, “Little Fear of Lightning”

During the Cold War, everyone feared the bomb. It was a simpler time. Of course, the 80s comic Watchmen shocked readers when the evil mastermind won and succeeded in destroying New York with a similar bomb. Even more disturbingly, he had justification for his crime, as he used it to unite the world… successfully. This diabolical twist muddled heroism and villainy forever, guiding readers into a new era of ambiguity.

Watchmen the show depicts this genocidal act with a giant squid on November 2nd, 1985. It suddenly invades from another dimension and devastates New York. Of course, in Season 1 Episode 5: “Little Fear of Lightning,” the trauma is dialed up to the highest possible extreme for Wade Tillman, the yokel who will become Looking Glass. He’s so sheltered he’s never left Oklahoma, and the event hits when he’s naked, excited for sex but panicked at the thought of sin when he’s come to spread to the good word. “Careless Whisper” plays, disturbingly and accurately predicting that the people here will never dance again. (The song repeats through the episode, emphasizing all the hauntings that have resulted.) His reflection in the carnival mirrors scream at him for his filthy desires, insisting, “You’re pathetic, and you’re a sinner. You’re a filthy dumb…