'Watchmen' Episode 9: Did Hooded Justice really attain justice in the end?
'Watchmen' Episode 9 is a brilliant conclusion to a circle that started with Angela Abar (Regina King). Initially in the show, one of the biggest questions happened to be, "How did William Reeves learn about the Ku Klux Klan robe hidden in the dead Chief Judd Crawford's wardrobe?" You see, when Dr Manhattan was woken up by Angela in Episode 8, she saw that he was currently living a moment where he had met Reeves in the past. So when Dr Manhattan mentioned Cyclops and Chief Crawford, Reeves' obsession with the white supremacist group was awakened and he began investigating the group again.
In the finale, we learn that Reeves sacrificed Dr Manhattan to get justice for all the crimes that the Cyclops members had committed in the past. As Hooded Justice, the fact that Reeves wouldn't think twice about this decision is not surprising. The question, however, is if the sacrifice was worth the result. Did giving up information about Dr Manhattan's identity really help Reeves in getting justice? I feel that was not the case. What Reeves got through Lady Trieu is vengeance. It is the need to exact revenge on people who wreaked havoc in Greenwood, Tulsa in 1921. While the perpetrators are all not alive, he is driven by the need to uproot Cyclops by its roots.
Yes, Lady Trieu did manage to do so with one touch of a button. In return, Lady Trieu was given access to power beyond human comprehension. Lady Trieu believed that she could save humanity if she had Dr Manhattan's power herself, and in trying to attain it, she managed to erase Dr Manhattan. To say that the fault for this lies entirely with Will Reeves would not be fair. You see, Lady Trieu seems to have found out the truth about Dr Manhattan. She is aware that he is not living on Mars, and that it is a decoy to hide the fact that he is currently on Europa, one of Jupiter's moon.
However, the identity of Dr Manhattan's human form seems to have come from Reeves. The plan that the two wanted to carry out, which would have also broken Angela's heart, was to corner and kill Dr Manhattan. So when he said Angela might hate him for his actions, he was right. If Dr Manhattan hadn't managed to transport Laurie Blake, Adrian Veidt and Looking Glass to Karnak on time, the consequence of Lady Trieu knowing Dr Manhattan's identity would have been irreversible. This one move helps Veidt in coming up with a plan that would stop his daughter — yes, his daughter — from carrying her plans out. This not only puts a stop to her manic idea but also results in her death.
While Reeves might justify his actions by claiming the number of other lives that Cyclops could have ruined, the driving force behind his decisions was to put an end to the group that tortured him since his childhood. He was sick and tired of seeing the sign of white supremacy raise its head everywhere, especially Tulsa. So to stop this, Reeves decides to use Lady Trieu's help him swoop up all the killers.
One thing that Reeves had got wrong, however, is the fact that Angela would hold a grudge for attacking her husband, who is in reality, Dr Manhattan. Angela, of course, understands that Dr Manhattan's decisions are thought out and considered by him in-depth to ensure the most favorable outcome for the betterment of humanity. She cannot imagine that Dr Manhattan would have been careless enough to get caught in a trap without a backup plan. It is this exact reason that we see Angela welcome Reeves into her home, even if only for a few days.
So for Reeves, along with vengeance, came a chance to get to know his only remaining family a little better.