PODCAST | We celebrate our 200th episode inside the offices of Transmedia giant Starlight Runner. Guests Jeff Gomez, Steele Filipek, Fabian Nicieza and the entire SLR team help us break out the bubbly and rank the best Comics, Movies & TV Shows of the Decade!

PLUS: Watchmen puts a new spin on Dr. Manhattan, Mandalorian keeps Baby Yoda’ing us and Wonder Woman takes on Ghostbusters in a weekend Trailer Truth or Trash Duel

About the PODCAST: We talk Comics, Movies, TV & Pop Culture every Wednesday night 8pm ET.

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Segment 1: Opening Credits

Opening Credits
Trailer Truth or Trash:
Wonder Woman vs Ghostbusters

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Segment 2: Watchmen Watch: Episode 8 Review

HBO’s Watchmen: 12 Big Questions We Have After Episode 8

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2486321/hbos-watchmen-12-big-questions-we-have-after-episode-8

Did Doctor Manhattan Give Will Reeves Powers?

The Watchmen comic book never gave readers an exhaustive rundown of the many ways Doctor Manhattan can affect the reality around him, so it wasn’t altogether surprising when the TV show introduced the concept of his abilities being transferrable to other forms of organic matter. That reveal seemingly offered up answers for Will Reeves’ more unnatural behavior, such as his ability to escape handcuffs and to grab boiling eggs straight from the pot. Plus, it would make sense that Doctor Manhattan would try and guarantee Will’s survival up until at least the 10-year mark, so that he could keep watch over Angela. (Even if Will did get some of Doctor Manhattan’s abilities, is he alone?)

3. Did Angela Actually Doom Judd Crawford?

Angela’s time-jumping question to her grandfather Will is the kind of time-traveling paradox situation that’s fairly common to sci-fi narratives. However, I have to believe Damon Lindelof’s creative team will completely flip expectations when all is said and done, and that Angela’s actions will have various ramifications that viewers hadn’t been aware of. In any case, even if Judd wasn’t wholly deserving of a forced suicide, he was seemingly still guilty of conspiring with Senator Keene, so his day of reckoning was certainly near already.

4. Does Doctor Manhattan’s Pre-Cal Appearance Matter?

“A God Walks Into Abar” purposefully hindered audience’s views of Doctor Manhattan’s face during both the flashbacks in the bar and on Europa. However, it wasn’t entirely clear if there was a plot-related mechanic involved, or if his face was only being hidden in order to put more emphasis on Yahya Abdul-Mateen II whenever he goes full Manhattan blue. I can’t imagine that there will be an additional twist related to the superhuman’s non-Call appearance, but I wouldn’t be shocked.

5. How Are Lady Trieu And Adrian Veidt Connected?

Beyond a squid-shaped shadow of a doubt, Adrian Veidt has deep ties to Lady Trieu that go beyond the fact that she currently owns all of his companies. In this episode, Veidt quipped that “a little elephant” told him about Doctor Manhattan’s Europa life, which is seemingly a direct reference to Lady Trieu. Her company’s logo, after all, resembles an elephant’s face; not to mention she was housing an actual elephant that was used to soak up Angela’s Nostalgia. But are they related? Acquaintances? Enemies?

6. Where Is Looking Glass?

Though Looking Glass appeared to be a goner the last time we saw him, the character’s survival was more or less confirmed in Episode 7, though his whereabouts have remained a mystery. Anyone hoping for Looking Glass to do heroic things to save Doctor Manhattan from the Seventh Kavalry was out of luck, sadly. Here’s hoping the mentally fractured cop chose to go directly after Senator Keene and the teleporter in order to stop the 7K’s plan.

8. Does Topher Have Special Abilities?

For the most part, Angela and Cal’s kids have served as emotional connections, as opposed to fully developed characters in their own right. However, each of Topher’s appearances have hinted at something else happening under the surface. Is that just the show finding ways to mirror Topher and Doctor Manhattan’s distant nature, or have there been an actual genetic changes while Topher lived under the same roof as the hibernating Manhattan?

10. What Does The Millennium Clock Do, Dangit?

Theories abound concerning Lady Trieu’s Millennium Clock, because no one is buying that all it does is tell time. Is it some kind of time machine? Will it give everyone on Earth (or at least Tulsa) superpowers like Doctor Manhattan? Or will it instill in everyone a sense of empathy and peace, providing the opposite of the traumatic psychic energy put forth by Veidt’s squid monster? Or will it do one of roughly a million other things?

11. Why Did Doctor Manhattan Show Angela His Water-Walking Skills?

Episode 8’s post-credits sequence provided some confusing context for Veidt’s horseshoe comment back in the series premiere, which almost definitely means that Doctor Manhattan’s pool walk will lead to some kind of a big reference in the finale. But why would he specifically need to show Angela that ability so soon before he was meant to be killed off by the Seventh Kavalry? Does that detail alone serve as proof that Manhattan will return in the finale in some form?

Segment 3: ‘The Mandalorian’: Chapter 5 Reaction

https://www.cinemablend.com/television/2486136/the-mandalorian-6-biggest-questions-after-episode-5

The Mandalorian: 6 Biggest Questions After Episode 5

Seriously, What’s The Issue With Droids?

When Mando arrives back in our favorite retched hive of scum and villainy, Mos Eisley spaceport, he take pot shots at the droids who run out to start checking out his ship. It’s not that he doesn’t want anybody touching the craft, he knows it needs work, but he just doesn’t want the droids to be the ones to do it.

This calls back to the first episode of the series when Mando refused to take a speeder that was being driven by a droid. He seems to have an issue with the entire concept of droids. Except, at the end of the previous episode, we see Baby Yoda and Mando (in the image above) get onto a cart that seems to be clearly being pulled by a droid. So what’s going on?

Why Does Mando Leave the Door Open?

My favorite part of this episode of The Mandalorian had to be when Mando takes the brunt of the mechanic’s anger when she admonishes him for not knowing anything about kids. That is clearly true. Any parent would never do what he does here.

First, he leaves the kid sleeping in the ship and goes off to the cantina. Then, he proceeds to just leave the door open on the ship, allowing Baby Yoda to just walk down the ramp for the world to see. As the parent of a 2-year-old, I know that it doesn’t matter how soundly your kid is sleeping, that could change any minute. This kid seems like it can take care of itself. If he had just left the ramp up, it probably would have been fine until Mando got back.So why leave the ramp down like that.

Why Was The Mos Eisley Cantina So Empty?

As somebody who has grown up with the original trilogy and can still remember the first time I saw it, when I think of Star Wars at all, the first image in my head is of the Mos Eisley Cantina. All those interesting and weird creatures. Some of them a bit scary, others simply fascinating. Even before the Special Edition filled it with even more life, it was our first glimpse into the larger world of Star Wars.

And yet, when the Mandalorian walks into the exact same place, it’s kinda dead. There are a few creatures there, to be sure, but if this were an actual western a tumbleweed would have blown in with Mando. It’s a far cry from the place we saw in Star Wars: A New Hope. Did Obi-Wan and Luke just happen to show up during happy hour? Has Tatooine fallen on hard times since the Empire fell?

Are Tuskan Raiders Ninjas?

In another callback to Star Wars: A New Hope Mando and his new “partner” Toro, run into some Tuskan Raiders and, while Toro is looking at some of them threw a pair of binocs, another pair show up standing right next to him. A hilarious reference to the way Luke Skywalker got jumped in Episode IV.

At the time, most of us probably chalked up Luke’s error to the fact that he was a dumb kid who just wasn’t paying attention. However, now it looks like that’s not entirely the case. This pair of Sand People shows up silently and they apparently do it right in front of The Mandalorian. He must watch them approach. It seems they’re just capable of moving without any evidence when they need to. Perhaps we should give Tuskan Raiders a bit more credit.

Who’s Our Mystery Man (or Woman)?

One thing that The Mandalorian has largely steered clear of so far is anything resembling a cliffhanger ending. Most major conflicts resolves themselves and while we’re certainly curious what happens next, there’s been no last minute stinger to get us really worked up and getting crazy for the next episode, until now.

The final moments of “The Gunslinger” shows us somebody approaching the body Fennec Shand, the assassin that Mando had been hunting. She still appears to be dead, but whoever it is walks all the way up to her and kneels down before the episode cuts to black. Who is this mystery person? Another bounty hunter who has been denied a prize? Were they after Fennec or Mando?Are we lucky enough that maybe Fennec isn’t dead, because Ming-Na Wen wasn’t in nearly enough of this show.

This last question we will almost certainly find an answer to before too long, it will end up being relevant somehow. The rest of the questions we’ve asked about The Mandalorian, who knows?