He returns to Moloch's apartment, but he discovers that Moloch is so recently dead that his cigarette is still smoldering. The police have the building surrounded and know that Rorschach is inside.
Detective Fine [From outside Moloch's apartment]: Rorschach! This is the police, we know you're in there.
Rorschach: No! No!
Detective Fine: If there's anybody in there with you, send 'em out unharmed.
Rorschach: No! No, no, no, no!
Detective Fine: Come out and make this a nice, clean surrender.
Rorschach: Walked right into it! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Never surrender.
Detective Fine: Alright, I hope you're ready, hero.
Rorschach: When you are.
Realizing he's been set up for the murder, Rorschach makes a torch out of a spray can and fights his way out of the building. Nonetheless, he is captured and unmasked.
Rorschach: Give me back my face!
He is identified on the TV News as Walter Kovacs, age 35. Walter is jailed for the murder of Moloch until sentencing.
The state psychiatrist, Dr. Malcolm Long, tells Walter that he won't want to be in the general population, because criminals he captured will want to get even. He gives Walter a psych assessment.
Rorschach [examining psychiatrist's inkblot test]: A pretty butterfly.
As Walter looks at ink blots, he recalls moments in his life. At an early age, he sees his mother kissing a man. She slaps him and says that she "should have had that abortion."
Rorschach [looking at psychiatrist's ink blot]: Some nice flowers.
We also see a young Walter seriously injure much bigger kids who are taunting him.
Rorschach [looking at psychiatrist's ink blot: Clouds.
Walter resents being called "Walter" by the psychiatrist.
Rorschach: You keep calling me Walter. I don't like you.
Prison Psychiatrist: Ah. You don't like me? Well, why is that?
Rorschach: Because you're fat. Wealthy. Liberal sensabilities.
Rorschach talks about how evil society is and recalls a seminal event, when he was a young Rorschach, and he uncovered the grisly murder of a 6-year old girl by a pedophile.
Finding a cleaver at the scene of the crime, he brutally cleaves the murderer's head in two with multiple blows. After killing the murderer who begged to be arrested . . .
Rorschach: Men get arrested. Dogs get put down.
He tells Long that "Walter died that night" and only Rorschach remains.
Rorschach: You see, Doctor, God didn't kill that little girl. Fate didn't butcher her and destiny didn't feed her to those dogs. If God saw what any of us did that night he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew... God doesn't make the world this way. We do.
In prison, Walter is taunted by another inmate on the food serving line, and Walter splashes him with hot grease from a deep fryer, burning him horribly. Rorschach screams to the rest of the population . . .
Rorschach: None of you seem to understand. I'm not locked in here with you. You're locked in here with mr!
Laurie snoops around in the basement of Daniel's building, and she finds the Night Owl's lab and his flying machine. She pushes a random button that activates the ship's flamethrower, starting a fire in the lab. Daniel comes down to help her put out the fire. He tells her that the ship is called "Archie" after Merlin's pet owl, Archimedes.
He says that he inherited a lot of money from his father who was disappointed that he became a crime fighter. Daniel tells Laurie that Hollis was his hero. She tries on the night vision owl goggles, and she says that this must be how Jon sees. Daniel looks disappointed and goes upstairs.
A newscast in the background reports the buildup of Soviet tanks. Laurie follows and tells him "Jon sees a lot of things, but he doesn't see me." The two make love on the sofa as Daniel observes that they may be going too fast. Laurie says that they have all the time in the world.
Locked in his cell, Rorschach is taunted by a dwarf, Big Figure, a crime kingpin he had arrested 15 years earlier, now looking for revenge. Big Figure tells Kovacs that he can wait as long as necessary to get into his cell.
Daniel has a strange dream in which he and Laurie are naked on a field under the stars. She pulls off their "skin" revealing their superhero costumes as a nuclear explosion goes off and vaporizes them. He awakens, and Laurie finds him staring at his Night Owl gear.
Laurie: Dan? Is everything alright?
Dreiberg: God I'm tired of being afraid, afraid of war, afraid of the mask-killer... and afraid of this goddamn suit, and how much I need it.
Laurie: Me too. So to hell with it; let's take Archi out.
Dreiberg: You're serious.
Laurie: I used to be a masked avenger too, you know; I'm used to getting up at 3 in the morning and doing something stupid.
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