‘The Watch’ Recap: ‘The What?’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘The Watch’.
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The day that we finally decide that we’ve had enough, when it comes the current path we are on, is a special day indeed. Because it means we are finally ready to embrace change and everything that it can offer us, and the days ahead will be full of new experiences and new perspectives as we finally walk a path that brings us joy and contentment and outright fulfillment. But while that is definitely cause for celebration, and a proud moment to reflect upon when we are far removed from darker days; the moment we actually decide to alter our course is in fact… a tad messy. Because we simply don’t know what direction we should be heading in, when we start the journey or how exactly we will get where we want to go. 

If anything, this relates to our conversation today, simply because this particular conundrum served as the focal point of this week’s episode of The Watch. For ‘The What?’ saw everyone at the City Watch, eager to forge a path forward and make peace with their demons and of course… become competent police officers. But they simply didn’t have a clue where to start in those respective quests, but that certainly didn’t stop them from trying. Which allowed for more lighthearted and delightful moments to take place as they more or less threw caution to the wind and decided to try something, anything, in order to find direction, such as some actual investigative police work. After all, they needed to know what Carcer needed in order to properly control that dragon and well… it didn’t take long for their digging to pay off in spades.

Because they quickly came to learn that he was in need of a powerful item to control said dragon and the best place to find said item, was to infiltrate the one place that it would still reside within, the headquarters of the Assassins’ Guild. But of course, getting in there without probable cause would be no easy task and that allowed for a grand, two-pronged plan to hatch. Part of which involved Lady Sybil going undercover to find its exact location, whilst the rest of the Watch snuck in via connecting underground tunnels, the kind that were attached to the Musician’s Guild. Which meant that in order to get in there, the rest of the team would have to nab membership to that particular guild, and that led to one hilarious sequence. Wherein the team posed as a band named ‘The What?’, and wouldn’t you know it? They can play and they can rock, and they were solid enough on the stage to earn their Musician’s Guild membership after all.

However, while they dealt with a taste of stardom, Lady Sybil was exploring the Assassins’ Guild and that brought about some fascinating moments for her, and an opportunity for the audience to get to know what makes her tick. Because we were able to learn in this episode that when she was young, she stumbled upon an assassin as he violently murdered her parents. And of course, thanks to the laws of Ankh-Morpork, it was all done in a perfectly legal manner and all of this matters… simply because she was able to come face to face with that very assassin (and the ever-sassy Death as well) and that allowed for her to heal an old wound by seeing this assassin be captured by the Watch in a tense and clever manner. And while the team didn’t get their hands on the artifact in question… they did manage to solve a crime and grow in the end and that’s really what makes this episode so worth our while.

Because everyone’s journey in this tale offered up some fascinating insight as to how exactly we enact change in our lives. For example, Lady Sybil’s path in this tale helps to remind us that sometimes the only way forward is to confront our past in a bold and fearless manner. Because when we do, we can finally put yesterday to bed and move on. And the Watch’s journey here, serves as a fine lesson in how sometimes, when there is no clear path forward, we just need to choose a direction and go for it. Because more often than not, just giving it our best shot will accomplish wonders, since it gives us experience when it comes to what we actually want out of life and if the stars align, we might indeed enjoy a little success, just like our heroes did in this tale. In the end however, this really was quite the delightful and quirky episode. One that was filled to the brim with character growth and some serious laughs and well, all this story does, is compel folks that are intrigued by this series to continue the journey, in order to see what other lessons and off-the-wall moments await us as this fascinating inaugural season continues along. Until next time.

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