[Spoilers for Watchmen’s seventh episode, “An Almost Religious Awe,” below.]
It was inevitable that Watchmen’s big, blue centerpiece would rear his gleaming dome at some point during HBO’s ambitious sequel series, but you likely didn’t expect him to be yanked from someone’s gored forehead. That’s exactly what happened during last night’s episode, however, which ended with Regina King’s Angela Abar taking a hammer to the head of Yahya Abdul-Mateen II’s Cal to reveal that her supportive husband’s been a vessel for the superhero’s essence this whole time.
It makes some amount of sense, honestly, if only because it explains the relative blandness of Abdul-Mateen II’s character, who’s essentially just served the role of dutiful husband this whole season. It also dovetails beautifully with the reveal of the Seventh Kavalry’s plot, which involves destroying Doctor Manhattan and bestowing his powers on James Wolk’s racist senator. More clarity regarding the relationship between Angela and Doctor Manhattan (née Jon Osterman), as well as his supposed Mars residency, is on the way, but showrunner Damon Lindelof still offered some insight into the twist to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I started this whole journey from the perspective of a fan—what would I have to see in a television show daring to call itself Watchmen? Dr. Manhattan was near the top of that list,” he said.
He continued:
But even higher was that we needed to tell a new story with a new character at the center of it. Once we landed on Angela Abar as that center, the new rule became that any legacy characters we were using (Veidt, Laurie and Hooded Justice) could only be used in service of Angela’s story…she was the sun, everyone else needed to be orbiting around her. So how could Dr. Manhattan, a man with the power of God, be in service of Angela’s story as opposed to the other way around? Based on his past (and all the tropes of Greco/Roman mythology), the answer was intuitive…love. We knew this relationship could only work if Manhattan took the form of a human, and so, the idea of Cal was born. And yeah, it came early. Almost from the jump.
Lindelof goes on to discuss the secrecy of the twist, saying that not even King and Abdul-Mateen II knew about it before they were cast. He also touches on how the show’s themes of appropriation relate to the Seventh Kavalry’s plan, and breaks a few million hearts by confirming that, no, we will not be seeing the comic’s Dan Dreiberg in the final two episodes.
Two episodes? To wrap this whole thing up? Lindelof knows it sounds crazy. “I’m answering these questions before it airs, but if I were watching the show, I’d be starting to panic that we can’t possibly bring this all together in just two more episodes,” he says. “So, uh…don’t panic?”
No promises.
78 Comments
This show is so exciting. It gives me butterflies in my stomach.
I’m glad they didn’t cast the great Black Manta in a thankless bland husband role. I’m excited to see if we get to see the proper Doctor Manhattan and if it’ll be Abdul-Mateen II in CGI blue form.
You just wanna see him naked don’t you?Apparently Tom Mison had a stand in for this in his Dr Manhattan… costume?
Oh really? I wonder when Tom Mison saw his stand in’s penis, he thought “mine’s a bit bigger. People are going to think I have a small penis!” Lol
Based on the preview for next week it looks like we’ll be seeing him in blue paint.And I am also happy he has a larger role. I thought it odd that they would cast and up and coming actor in such a small role.
The preview for next week makes it look like Dr. Manhattan is wearing a Dr. Manhattan party-mask in the flashback, so I wonder if that’s how we’ll see him for all the past scenes. For the present scenes, I can see them have him just be Cal with a blue glow.
Agreed, my only complaint with episodes 1-7 was that they seemed to be wasting Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Do not cast Cadillac from The Get Down and then make him boring!
According to Tyler Perry if you just had a video of this guy making breakfast in bed for his wife in slo-mo so it took 100 hours you’d have a whole host of subscribers…oh wait now he’s picking up the kids and we’re breaking new records!
Two episodes? To wrap this whole thing up? That’s two hours of storytelling. Most movies tell whole, complete stories, from beginning to end, within that span of time. Why are you concerned that Watchmen can’t wrap up its tale within the same span of time that movies tell a whole story?
The same reason someone reading a novel might be worried that the plot won’t be able to be resolved satisfactorily in 10 pages even though entire short stories get told in less. They are different mediums and different types of storytelling.
Because Lost had a lot more hours to wrap things up and really fucked the landing. I like Lindelof but a lot of people still have a grudge because of Losts ending.
I stand by my belief, the people that had the biggest problem with the LOST ending were science fiction fans that watched a show about science vs faith that got mad that the writers chose faith over science for the final season.Because emotionally, the big moments hit like gang busters.But people still quibble over the science.
Has nothing to do with the science…it was all the mysteries that were never solved, or solved unsatisfactorily.
Every show has dropped plots, retcons, and some form of unsatisfying revelations to some viewers in some way, shape or form.Lost haters seem to specifically be stuck on plot revelations or non revelations that don’t have scientific answers.What the island is?How did they make the flash sideways? Etc etc.Lost has had a larger backlash than most shows due to its convergence with the internet and “lore nerds” that want to fill up Wiki and Fandom entries, that care more about the world building and lore then the characters on the show they are watching.And it’s a trend that hits back hardest at Sci-fi and Fantasy leaning shows far harder than any other type.
There’s a difference between not getting scientific answers, and a show essentially using the “uh…the whole thing was a dream” cop-out. You can’t ignore all the horribly loose threads by yelling “faith” and burying your head in the sand. Which is why Lost will always be remembered as a classic example of a show that started strong and completely boffed the landing.
Except the whole they didn’t say the whole thing was a dream cop out.They never established how the power of the island worked. But they always established the power of the island.There’s just a loud group of people who would have preferred a bad science fiction ending that “explained everything” instead of ending that went with “this is what happened to these people due to this island and it’s attempt to help them fix themselves”
Ah yes, the “power of the island” explained everything. Thanks for proving my point.
It doesn’t prove your point.It’s the premise of the show.People crash land on an island that has unexplained phenomena.They never owed an explanation for how the island was capable of such phenomena.
You’re right. The island remains mysterious at the end. Personally, I hoped the real world (who they were) and the sideways world (who they could be) were going to reconcile into one. But the anger over the finale was/is childish and irrational. I was put off by the conclusion being Buddhist Limbo, though.
See the Leftovers for a good ending and a great character driven show. Lost was a waste of time
Refresh my memory….when did the show use the “uh…the whole thing was a dream” cop-out? As I recall, whatever happened, happened. Christian laid it all out pretty clearly. And I didn’t really need to know all the whys and hows of the island’s mysticism, and the Dharma nonsense, and Eloise’s weird Lamp Post room. I cared about these people, at this moment in time.You may have hated how Lost ended, and that’s ok! I loved it then and still love it. I believe that a TV series that ended 10 years ago and is still being hotly debated is probably a great show.
“Every show has dropped plots, retcons, and some form of unsatisfying revelations to some viewers in some way, shape or form.”No, only shitty shows.
I think that’s fair, though for me, my main issue with Lost’s ending (and I know this was mostly ABC’s fault) was I just kinda got… bored with it? Which seems odd because I’ve watched shows that have had twice as many episodes as Lost and not been bored (Hell, I watched a soap opera nearly daily for twenty or so years till it was cancelled, although to be fair often it was just something I’d put on to unwind and not think after a long day of classes and work) but—while there were some moments I loved in the final season especially, it really did seem in this case like I was watching it out of a sense of duty to stick with it till the end (which, yah, is my own fucking fault, I know…)
There are definitely pacing issues in S6 of LOST.Some of them studio imposed with budget cuts prior to the filming of the season.Same of them self imposed from retcons That changed direction (Man in Black being able to leave the Island), changing plot due to internet reaction to leaks (Ilana meant to be Jacob’s daughter), and most important the island plot needing far less time to reach its climax than the flash sideways.I do think it’s a final season that rewards a rewatch when you don’t care about the mystery of the flash sideways.But, I definitely can see how on first watch it can feel glacially slow as you wait for the convergence.
I swear, I thought the flash sideways was an alternate timeline (primarily because of showing the island under the water at the end of the previous season) and I was a little disappointed it wasn’t. Because that would have been so much more interesting. But I’m not mad. Although I do wish the three-toed statue had a better, more important story.
To be fair, that’s what they wanted you to think.Which is part of the problem with the flash sideways. They want you to think it’s an alternate universe created when the bomb went off right until they reveal it’s not.And here’s the funny thing, if they had decided the Flash Sideways were a purgatory created due to the bomb and the island and not just the power of the island once Hurley becomes the new Jacob, I think more people would have liked that since it would have involved science fiction..
I think even if they hadn’t set it in a church (albeit a church with symbolism from most, if not all, religions) it would have been a little easier to take for a lot of people. Put it in a beautiful garden or a park or something like that. And, really, they should have made the flash sideways a split universe. Like, they’re living the one they showed on the island, but the bomb split something and they’re also living the flash sideways and then make the part at the end where everyone is waiting for everyone else to die and join them just a nice little thing at the end. That whole thing had way too much focus and I think it distracted not only from the story as a whole, but from the characters’ stories.
I can agree with using something more denominational, hell why not just go all in and have it take place at LAX and end with them getting on a plane.The flash sideways is interesting to me because it’s also very much a way for the writers to have their cake and eat it. Like you said it does takeAway from the on island stuff, but, since it is the same characters and not an alternate universe it allows the writers to give characters a happy ending and work through what they didn’t on island.It is a very writer-y thing. And it’s one of those things that stand out to me during lots of shows finales and final seasons where how much are the writers writing for them vs how much is meant for the fans. And there is a dichotomy there that doesn’t always match up.
I can deal with something in a story I disagree with if it is done in an attempt to serve the story. There’s more than one way to write a story that works within the story and we won’t all agree with all of them. But, this didn’t seem to serve the story (when I say that, I include the characters’ stories, not just the overall story.) I agree, they wrote it for them, not for the fans or even for the story they were supposed to be telling.
While I have no issue with the ending of Lost, I do understand why a lot of people do. The whole time it was on, the main focus was on the mysteries. If they hadn’t thrown so many mysteries at us, people probably wouldn’t have focused so much on them (Watchmen is a good example of doing it right. There are mysteries, but not so many that focusing on the characters is a secondary thing.) If they wanted it to be about the characters more than the mysteries, they should have had much fewer mysteries. I honestly think they couldn’t figure out a good way to answer a lot of the questions, so they just said, “It was about the characters the whole time!” I really think they had a great concept and it started out great but they didn’t realize how long it would go and so they floundered. They had some good characterization, especially at the beginning. And I really cared about the characters. But they put too much focus on the mysteries for me to believe they always wanted it to be mainly about the characters.
I have no problem with the ending of Lost, I just really needed the three-toed state to mean more.
But didn’t you read the other poster? It doesn’t have to mean anything, because, you know, um…THE ISLAND! 🙂
I think it’s also because also a lot of people didn’t learn that the flash sideways was in fact a purgatory that the main people created for themselves instead of the Island itself being purgatory. I see way too many people online that believe the latter when it’s clearly the former.
The number of people who still just don’t understand the ending of LOST at the basic level of they weren’t dead all the time, everything that happened happened is staggering to an almost comical level.
I know right? I’ve seen people claim that everything was just an imagination of Hurley’s and he’s just rotting away in that mental hospital still. I think some people just wanted this nonsense to be the real ending lol
Yes! People say, “They lied to us!” about when they said it wasn’t purgatory and everyone was alive and all of this was actually happening. People think that the ending means it really was purgatory the whole time. I partly blame ABC for this, though, because of their showing the plane crash set with no one around it with the closing credits. That was a mistake and they should have known it because the fans of that show are definitely going to think that means something and it’s not just the network wanting to have a picture of something with the closing credits instead of a black screen. I mean, I didn’t think anything of it, but I’m not surprised a lot of people did. (If it had meant that they were all dead the whole time, that really wouldn’t have made sense with the ending of the show, but ABC didn’t have to go and confuse the issue.)
I quibble over the fact that the story could have been told just as effectively in two seasons. This post hoc argument that it was a primarily character driven show as opposed to plot driven is laughable.
That’s not exactly it. It’s more that Abrams and Co. created many mysteries in the early seasons that they never has solutions to. They just made it up as they went along and wrote themselves into a corner. So hopefully, what he has learned from this is just to plot out all his story arcs in advance.
I think we already know that he’s learned his lessons from Lost when you consider how well he wrapped up The Leftovers.
Yeah but Lindelof nailed the ending for The Leftovers though.
I dunno if you have ever watched a tv show before in your life but quite often they fail to wrap things up neatly in a single season, let along the last two episodes of that season.I have faith in the show but what youre saying is inherently ridiculous. Like come on.
I dunno if you have ever watched a tv show before in your lifeI dunno if you have ever fucked yourself, but now would be a great time.Yeah, some shows don’t stick the landing. But the fact is that it shouldn’t be considered impossible to wrap up a season in two hours. If you can’t do that it’s because you’re a shitty writer, not because it’s inherently impossible.Fuck your condescending bullshit.
Sorry to upset you.
Yeah, I don’t quite get the worry. This was conceived to be a single season story and even then, they were able to cut an episode for being unnecessary. It’s not like there’s years of plot threads that need to be resolved. It’s like looking at issue 10 of the comic and saying “How can they wrap this up in two more issues?”
As great as it was there’s something very un-Dr. Manahattan-y about him settling down as a human male to pursue a romantic relationship, given where the comics left off with him.
I keep thinking, well, it’s HBO, and Lindelof has something like carte blanche at this point, so the final episodes can each be two hours long if they need to be. I will certainly be surprised if they can wrap this all up in just two hours.
“I will certainly be surprised if they can wrap this all up in just two hours.”
The last two episodes are 1h3m and 1h7m.
That’s crazy. So I guess Lube Man is Petey, despite the fact that it’s not the same actor wearing the Lube Man suit. It seems like the only answer there’s time for, at this point.
I think I might prefer Lube Man to remain unexplained forever. That would make that tiny scene even better.
Will Anthony Mackie show up as Dr. Manhattan’s secret sex partner? …this show seems to make stranger possibilities … er, possible!
I totally read that the first time as “sex panther.” Would also watch.
60% of the time, it works every time!
This show is WAY better than it had any right to be.
I’m dead convinced that stuff like this and Joker are writers going “Well I have this great script about racism/economic inequality/something actually meaningful but Hollywood only cares about superheroes so I’m just going to jam some superheroes in here and call it a day”
I don’t think the two are really comparable. I agree with regards to Joker, a film that truly felt like it was another thing all together that had the comic stuff pushed on it. Watchmen on the other hand feels like a very natural follow up to the comic, and not a story that needed to be crammed into an existing IP.
This show, Fargo, Bates Motel and some others I’m sure I’m missing are the reason people need to STFU about remakes and sequels and television adaptations of things. This is proof they can work. And when in reality ninety percent of things are garbage that doesn’t mean amazing things like this can’t happen. And I’m down for things just being good.
Hannibal is another great example.
Yup. I cant believe I forgot that one because I’ve had this argument before and it was for Fargo, Hannibal and Bates Motel.
God yes. Hannibal was art.
I do think we’ve had enough good examples (I hear 12 Monkeys was also pretty good) to warrant giving ideas like these some benefit of the doubt. But we also get PLENTY of shows like Taken and Limitless that very blatantly only ever existed to earn some $$$ off a name.That being said I think it acceptable to approach any of these with a healthy skepticism. Although a lot of it comes down to the creator selling their approach to the material. I’d be lying if Noah Hawley announced a TV adaptation White Chicks or some shit and I said I would be anything but 100% on board.
12 Monkeys is another I put with those but forgot this time. It even surpasses the source material. I mean when ninety percent of everything is crap I think all these shows beat the odds. To automatically cry foul once announced without seeing a single picture or clip or episode is just dumb
You take that back! Limitless was solid from the get-go and quickly surpassed the quality of the movie in my opinion. It had a heart to it the movie never possessed, and Jake McDorman was great in the lead role. It felt like the show Chuck to me but was far less silly. I still lament its cancellation. If it had started just a few seasons later and still retained those ratings numbers, it probably would’ve survived to a season 2.
You won’t believe the twist in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Weekend at Bernie’s’!
LIMITLESS WAS A GOOD FUN SHOW YOU SHUT UP!*ahem*Sorry, turns out that’s a bit of a sore spot for me.
I liked Limitless. I also liked the Exorcist show. Both used the same concepts of new stories in the same universe.
Neither Fargo nor Watchmen are either remakes or adaptations. Haven’t seen Hannibal or Bates Motel, but I would bet the same could be said about them. Fargo is just… related? to the movie, like an expanded universe, so it’s 90% original. And while Watchmen is technically a sequel, it introduces a completely new story arc and a whole cast of new characters. Both shows can be enjoyed by its own merits, even if you are unfamiliar with the original material.
Despite what kind of labels could be applied to them, these shows have so much imagination and talent poured into them that of course they hardly apply to the concept of “sequels” and “remakes” the people complain about.
Not only that: the complaining is more related to films rather than series. Nobody can seriously say that original material is lacking in the latter. But if you look at what the film industry has become (specially the blockbuster portion of it), you can’t deny that sequels and remakes are not only common, but dominant. And very (VERY) few of them have a fraction of the quality you can find in Fargo, Watchmen, et al.
Oh my gosh, Bates Motel was soooo good! I didn’t want it to end.I never watched Fargo, but in the last few months I’ve been thinking I should. The fact that you just listed it in the company of Bates Motel and this show just solidified that.
I know it hasn’t been announced but I refuse to believe this is a one season show. It’s impossible haha! It’s too good! The actors deserve more stories!
The show runners always talk about completing the season, not the series.
This is gonna end with a young child staring into a snow globe with Doctor Manhattan in the background isnt it?
It ends with Don Johnson waking up in bed next to Cheech Marin only to wake up again, this time next to Philip Michael Thomas.
Oh, it’s a love story, you say? And directed by the guy who likes to weave stories but not provide resolution in his stories? Oh yes, please. Mark me down for a YES.
“Two episodes? To wrap this whole thing up?” Lindelof did “Lost”. They aren’t wrapping shit up this season.Watchmen is one of the best shows (if not the best) on TV at the moment. Although, I’m a little concerned they’re bring Dr Manhattan back. I’m of the opinion that one of the major theses of the comic was that Manhattan became god. God became bored with us and pissed off to let us fend for ourselves. He wouldn’t come back. I’m not enough of a fanboi to let it stop me watching, though.
I think he’s indistinguishable from God to humans but he has an inability to completely separate himself from humanity even at the end of the Watchmen comic. While God (I’m an atheist but going with the idea) seems to have created the universe and left it at that, Jon still has human desires like those to create and discover.Therefore, the idea that he would have more to learn about humanity and his relationship with humanity seems perfectly plausible to me. Doing so by creating a human disguise, perhaps especially a black one, makes sense in that context.If he’d truly wanted to leave humanity behind, he wouldn’t have stopped at Mars, even for a moment.
He also did The Leftovers. And has publicly stated that there is a resolution for all of this coming and that it’s a contained story like the comic. While also stating that he currently has no intention of doing a second season. That he’d much prefer someone new to do a season of it, for it not to be an owned thing from a single creator or perspective and be handed off. Specifically referencing Fargo and True Detective as the format he’d prefer to see the show take on.
we will not be seeing the comic’s Dan Dreiberg in the final two episodes.Aw. :(In their defense, casting an actor to succeed Patrick Wilson’s Dan is gonna be hard. He was pitch perfect as Dan, IMO the best thing from that movie. Dan being older would probably help, though. Maybe we could get Keith Carradine as Dan in Season 2? I’d also take Ted Danson, while we’re at it.
Ted Danson would be perfect. But then, I’ve recently fallen in love with him,so I may be biased. I think it’s because of the way he laughed at the end of season one of The Good Place.
This photo is a spoiler in and of itself, in a way. I didn’t even see the episode until last night but I saw this photo and headline before so the whole time knew it was going to be about him.