If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own

"If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own" is the fourth episode of the first season of Watchmen, which first aired on HBO on November 10, 2019. The episode introduces the character of Lady Trieu, played by Hong Chau, a wealthy industrialist that had bought out Adrian Veidt's enterprises on his death.

"If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own"
Watchmen episode
Episode no.Season 1
Episode 4
Directed byAndrij Parekh
Written byDamon Lindelof
Christal Henry
Production code104
Original air dateNovember 10, 2019 (2019-11-10)
Running time52 minutes
Guest appearance(s)

Synopsis

The Clarks are visited late at night by Lady Trieu, who anxiously wants to buy their house and farmland. She offers the infertile couple a baby created from their DNA and five million dollars. The Clarks agree, moments before an object from space rattles their house and lands nearby. Trieu claims it as her own.

Angela gets a call from the heritage center notifying that more information about Will has been discovered. Discreetly breaking into the closed facility, she learns of Will's connection to the Tulsa Race Riots, but that he disappeared shortly after that. She hears a crash outside, and finds Laurie laughing next to Angela's smashed car. Angela affirms the car is hers, and secretly pockets an unlabeled pill bottle she saw Will had. Later, Angela gives the pill bottle and the KKK outfit from Judd's closet to Wade for safe keeping, and asks Wade to have his ex-wife analyze the pills. Later, Angela is unable to catch an unknown vigilante, dubbed "Lube Man", after he witnesses her disposing of Will's wheelchair.

At the station, Laurie informs Angela they found unknown fingerprints on her car, and have a lead on new drone technology developed by Lady Trieu's company that may have been used to abduct her car. At Trieu's Millennium Clock facility, Trieu willingly offers the list of staff with access to the lightweight drones, while in Vietnamese, tells Angela that Will wondered if she found the pills yet. After they leave, Trieu speaks to Will who has listened from a nearby room. Trieu questions why Will does not directly tell Angela what is going on, but Will believes it is better for her to figure it out herself with events coming to a head in three days. That night, Trieu is happy to hear that her daughter Bian is having dreams of an attack on a Vietnamese village despite not being there.

Elsewhere, Adrian Veidt selects non-deformed human fetuses from a lake, and then once ashore, uses a device to accelerate their aging to a new pair of Phillips and Crookshanks. As he brings them to his manor, he explains that they will gain full intelligence soon enough to help. He has them clear a room full of the murdered corpses of other clones, which he uses to launch by catapult to test the limits of his prison.

Production
Lady Trieu is played by Hong Chau, whose Vietnamese heritage helped in her casting.

"If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own" introduced Lady Trieu, played by Hong Chau, an American actress of Vietnamese descent. Chau had not been familiar with the source material but had accepted Damon Lindelof's invitation to hear about the part he proposed for her in the show. According to Chau, Lindelof spent about an hour and a half establishing the story of the limited comic series before going into the character of Trieu, how she was tied to the limited series, and his plans for her character within the show, all which intrigued Chau. He also expressed the importance of her Vietnamese heritage to Chau's story as well as ties to the original limited series.[1] To prepare for the part, Chau reviewed the behaviors of real-life billionaires like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson, as well as Japanese scientists that were on the leading edge of cloning and genetics research.[1] The episode's title is taken from a passage in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart, the book Cal was reading when Angela tries to pick a fight.[2]

The episode includes the only appearance of Lube Man within the series, in the scene where Angela attempts to chase him down after he witnesses her disposing of Will's wheelchair. Lube Man escapes by covering himself with some oil and then sliding feet-first into a drain opening. This was a wholly practical effect. While the drain was specifically constructed to help with the scene, Regina King, who played Angela, was amazed with the stuntman's ability.[3] The mystery behind Lube Man became popular with fans of the show after the episode. Lindelof had written the scene to be "in the midst of other insane things happening" during the episode and did not expect the character or his identity to take off in popularity with fans of the show.[4] While Lube Man did not appear again, the accompanying "Peteypedia" material for the show, purportedly collected by FBI Agent Dale Petey, heavily implies that Petey himself is Lube Man.[5][6] Lindelof remained coy about confirming this, but directed readers to Peteypedia "to reach the obvious conclusion" to his identity.[4]

Reception

Critical

At Rotten Tomatoes, the episode has a 93% approval rating with an average rating of 8.3 out of 10 based on 27 reviews. The site's summary of the critics states, "Guided by the bombastic introduction of the eccentric trillionaire Lady Trieu, 'If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own' makes for a truly bizarre, highly captivating experience."[7]

Ratings

In its original broadcast in the United States on HBO, the episode had an estimated 707,000 viewers.[8]

References
  1. Wigler, Josh (November 10, 2019). "'Watchmen': How a New Enigmatic Force Plans to "Save the World"". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  2. Thomas, Leah (November 25, 2019). "Decoding the Watchmen Episode Titles". The Mary Sue. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  3. Yehl, Joshua (December 17, 2019). "Watchmen's Regina King Offers Emotional Explanation of the Ending". IGN. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  4. Hibbard, James (December 15, 2019). "Watchmen showrunner answers 9 questions about that season finale". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  5. McHerny, Jackson (December 16, 2019). "Watchmen Unmasks Lube Man, in Its Own Slippery Way". Vulture. Retrieved December 16, 2019.
  6. Goslin, Austen (December 9, 2019). "Lube Man may be a Watchmen character we've already met". Polygon. Retrieved December 20, 2019.
  7. "If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved November 20, 2019.
  8. Metcalf, Mitch (November 12, 2019). "Updated: ShowBuzzDaily's Top 150 Sunday Cable Originals & Network Finals: 11.10.2019". Showbuzz Daily. Retrieved November 12, 2019.
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