‘Watchmen’ trailers hint at Regina King’s character’s transformation into Sister Night as she takes on Rorschach's followers, 7th Kavalry
Regina King's role of Angela Abar aka Sister Night in HBO's 'Watchmen' would be one of the many fascinating new additions to the universe originally created by Alan Moore. The show is set 30 years after the events that took place in the comics, which ended with the dead Rorschach's journal reaching a news publication.
This would explain Rorschach gaining a following in the future, who would hold his journal sacred. In the reality of 'Watchmen' Dr. Manhattan helped the U.S. win the Vietnam War. This aided Richard Nixon greatly because he was never impeached.
Not only did Nixon not get impeached, he also repealed the 22nd Amendment, which essentially restricted a presidential candidate to serve a maximum of two terms at the Oval Office. So in the show, Robert Redford (played by the real Robert Redford) has been the President of a country ridden with vigilantism among other things for a total of 28 years.
After followers of Rorschach targeted and attacked cops in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the government has allowed the cops to wear masks as well, hoping to aid them in hiding their identity, but is Angela really one of them? From the looks of it in the trailer, she is definitely working against the Kavalry. However, she may not have sided with the cops completely either.
In one of the recent trailers of the show, we see one of Angela's close associates Laurie Blake (Jean Smart) psychoanalyze her need to wear masks. She tells Angela that people need masks only when they want to hide from the pain of a personal tragedy.
The people who wear masks seek out justice to erase the pain she says, but Angela doesn't agree. She says that she wears the mask for her safety. When this conversation plays out in the trailer, we also see Angela having a panic attack, in a way confirming her associate's diagnosis.
Does this tragedy have anything to do with the start of her alter-ego Sister Night? This is definitely something we would love to see evolve over the season, but beyond this, we need to understand who Angela really is and what she is fighting.
Show creator Damon Lindelof's statements at a panel at the Television Critics Association meet indicated the show was about “race and the police.” Lindelof said: "There are no grandiose solutions. In a traditional superhero movie, the bad guys are fighting aliens. When they beat the aliens, the aliens go back to their planet and everybody wins. There’s no defeating white supremacy. It felt like a pretty formidable foe." With this, it can be assumed the Seventh Kavalry has transformed into a white supremacist group.
From the trailers, it looks like she is fighting the Kavalry that now has access to information about police officers and organizes planned attacks in their homes. She works with the cops, especially Chief Judd Crawford (Don Johnson).
However, their working relationship doesn't seem to sail too smoothly. For instance, in the same trailer, Angela tells Crawford there is a guy in her trunk. A guy that possibly belongs to the Seventh Kavalry and can be questioned.
What is, however, interesting is the fact that this is not what Crawford seemed to have expected from her. What he did expect from her was a speech about how they should calm down. This indicates that Angela has recently gone through a huge transformation that has influenced her actions.
The trailer also indicates Angela is now involved in a fight that is above justice and retribution. It is a fight to stop a war and a lot seems to depend on Angela's choice.
'Watchmen' will premiere October 20 on HBO at 9 p.m. ET.