Who Knew Devo Would Provide So Much…

Published November 4, 2019 · Updated July 6, 2022

Tick-tock… tick-tock… the plot thickens this week.

Keeping in line with my episode title analysis from last week, I wanted to send you all some information about this week’s title: “She Was Killed by Space Junk.” The name comes from the Devo song, “Space Junk” on their album, Q: Are we not men A: We are Devo! We see Laurie ask her home music system to play the disgustingly named track, “Mongoloid” when she gets home early in the episode. This track is on the same album as “Mongoloid,” which I will get to in a second. First, let’s chat about why Devo is an intentional pick for the band that carries this week’s episode title name.

So, Devo’s name comes from the idea of “devolution.” Basically, it is the idea that a species (human or not) can revert back to its most primitive forms and devolve aspects or traits that have already evolved in the natural progression of evolution. This is an actual biological theory, but it is often used to great effect in pop culture. We see that with Devo, but writers have written at length about devolution. One of my favorite, Galapagos, sees Kurt Vonnegut write about the human brain and whether it has evolved to be smarter over time. Now, stay with me here because it all relates. In Galapagos, Vonnegut writes about a financial crisis that shatters the world economy. As a direct result, people begin to become infertile with only the people on Santa Rosalia capable of producing babies. As they become the last of our species to successfully procreate, though, they also begin to devolve. The Santa Rosalians’ brains begin to shrink and they become almost furry like creatures that can walk upright but are evolved to catch fish and have babies rather than occupy traditional human roles. Leon Trotsky Trout (the narrator and spirit that watches over humanity) claims this devolution happens because all of the ills that have plagued mankind have come due to “the only true villain in my story: the oversized human brain.”

Now, let’s return to the Watchmen. It is my belief that Lindelof and writing crew use Devo and the song “Mongoloid” as a reminder of devolution to link not just to the greater themes of the story but Laurie Blake’s joke. I personally loved seeing her take on her true Comedienne role in this episode paying homage to her father, but the joke was ripe with comic book lore, as well as thematic links to the greater series purpose. The stand ins in the joke for Night Owl, Ozymandias and Dr. Manhattan are all judged by a being that finds them wanting. They are too evolved. They have evolved to a point that they have rendered themselves deficient by their excessive morality (Night Owl), excessive intelligence (Ozymandias) and total lack of empathy (Dr. Manhattan). Further, the way they are presented in the joke are in ascending order of those characters that are more evolved with Dr. Manhattan being the apex of that evolution. As Vonnegut writes, their brains have caused all the ills around them. Even God himself who renders these men into creation needs to be checked. Enter the brick killing him by the girl thought to be nothing but normal and cast aside by all those considered more highly evolved than she (Laurie Blake in the comics for sure).

In closing, I’ll bring us back to Devo and the song Laurie plays. The song “Mongoloid” is about a man that has down syndrome, but society has devolved to a point that he no longer stands out. Everyone is disabled in some way now because the human race is no longer what it once was. The lyrics stated, “His friends were unaware… nobody even cared.” I think we are building toward the idea that mankind in this world has devolved in some way to turn all of mankind into something it didn’t used to be, and all wear masks to cover it up.

It will be interesting to see how this comes to fruition with Veidt returning this week. I look forward to it and more… and please know how hard it was as a fellow SJW to type the M word so many times in this email. Disgusting…

Happy viewing,

Ash

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