Watchmen: Silk Spectre Returns in "She Was Killed By Space Junk" Preview

After a record-breaking and mind-blowing series premiere, the narrative of Watchmen continued tonight -- and set up a pretty epic narrative in the time to come. The "vast and insidious" conspiracy that Angela Abar (Regina King) is in the middle of is set to get much wilder and weirder, and it looks like the next episode is no exception. On Sunday, HBO released a new preview for "She Was Killed By Space Junk", the third episode of the series thus far. The title draws its inspiration from a line from Devo's "Space Junk", which takes a whole other meaning after the bizarre ending of tonight's episode.

Among a slew of other things, the preview properly introduces audiences to Laurie Blake (Jean Smart), the second Silk Spectre who plays an integral role in the original events of Watchmen. In the source material, Laurie is the daughter of Sally Jupiter/Silk Spectre and Eddie Blake/The Comedian, and ultimately carries on the mantle of her mother. In this modern-day continuation of the narrative, Laurie is now an FBI agent, who has a much different outlook on life - and her identity - than she did in her first appearance.

"In our presentation of Laurie 30 years later, instead of apologizing for or mocking her younger self, we can show she's evolved," showrunner Damon Lindelof said in an interview with Vulture earlier this month. "I think that we were given clues at the end of the original Watchmen — when she says that she wants to get some guns — that she's feeling this kinship with her dad. So I'm like, 'Instead of casting somebody to play Eddie Blake in flashbacks, what if Laurie is now Eddie Blake?' Not to write her in a masculine way, but to give her that level of nihilism and cynicism. It's not an idea about redeeming the original Laurie."

"We would have Watchmen book club in the writers' room," Lindelof continued. "Every two or three days, we would unpack an issue. We would argue and debate on areas of ambiguity. I think it's just fascinating that these characters are so dimensionalized — most of them. You really care about them, but they don't fit into a very, very simple box. Laurie, I would say, lacked the same level of dimensionality that some of the other male characters in Watchmen do. I would actually argue that Silk Spectre, her mom, is fairly dimensionalized. That's a very provocative idea in 2019, let alone in 1986, that a woman is in love with her rapist. I think, through a certain prism, that idea would require some redemption."

You can check out the synopsis for "She Was Killed By Space Junk" below!

"Following a late-night visit from the senator, FBI agent Laurie Blake heads to Tulsa to take over the recent murder investigation; The Lord of The Manor receives a harshly worded letter and responds accordingly."

Watchmen airs Sundays at 9/8c on HBO.