Now you knew Damon Lindelof wouldn’t allow us to see the birth of the god queen Angela Abar (Regina King). Sorry, I had to get that out in the open before we begin. Okay, what a finale, right? There are even more questions than answers, but the same could be said of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original graphic novel. Critiquing the sins of the recent past against the most difficult questions of how to proceed in the here and now made Watchmen one of the greatest novels ever written. Honoring that lineage has made the television show one of the best watches of the decade.
The graphic novel used the Tales Of The Black Freighter, the popular pulp rag that followed a marooned pirate on a bloody trail of revenge, to slowly reveal the truth of the giant squid and the pain of each masked hero. Similarly, Veidt’s trial on Jupiter’s moon informed the television audience about the survival mode of each individual in the series. The Game Warden (Tom Mison) became the obsessive, lovesick villain Veidt needed to compete against so he wouldn’t go insane. In the end, Veidt’s still able to perform the trick that made him a legend: the magic bullet catch. But, in becoming what Veidt needed, the Warden became someone he did not recognize. “The mask makes men cruel,” Veidt confesses before tossing aside the Warden’s body like so much trash. Veidt says his goodbye in front of a procession of servants, each one with the same face, but different expression. A man wears many masks in his life, the kaleidoscope of expression warns. What will these innocent and hurting people become now that a second deity has abandoned them?
Trieu turned Veidt into the icon he always wanted to be, before displaying him proudly in her garden. Senator Joe Keene (James Wolk) and Jane Crawford (Frances Fisher), worried their heritage and status in the world would be lowered, tried to make a god in their image to turn the tide. Lady Trieu (Hong Chow) sought to prove she earned her trillionaire status and deserved to be the god who would change the world. Laurie (Jean Smart) needed to protect her broken heart, and Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson) needed to feel safe again. Angela, driven by a century or more of trauma that had been handed down through her family line, aimed to protect wherever the long arm of the law came up short.
All these needs hardened into anger—or, those feelings that mask anger. Will Reeves (Louis Gossett Jr.) explains it best to Angela in the theater. “It was fear. Hurt. You can’t heal that with a mask, Angela. Wounds need air.” In a fake church, inside an abandoned warehouse, before a frayed American flag, these hurt parties converge for a lynching. White Kavalry members look on with glee; they’ve waited a long time for this particular form of entertainment. Blinded by greed and hate, seeing a god on his knees assures them of their superiority. There’s something particularly wonderful about Angela explaining to them in detail that the only reason they have their stolen technology is because Trieu wanted them to have it. They believe themselves to be clever, but their plan is half-baked. Keene’s power striptease in front of the congregation of Cyclops superiors works as a showcase of the superiority they feel. Unashamed, unafraid, he even wears the underwear Manhattan wore when he attacked Vietnam. It’s a part of the warlord era of Manhattan. No surprise there.
Jon (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) transformed himself into Cal over the years he was partnered with Angela. After Veidt dropped the squid and Laurie left him, Cal was free for the first time in his life to make his own decisions. Where last week centered on the dangers of love, “See How They Fly” explores the rewards of love. Cal crafted a beautiful haven that lacked the substance that makes life great: love. In the bar, and over the course of their decade long relationship, Cal poured love into Angela. He gave her the family she secretly longed for, and supported her emotionally. In his quiet life as a stay-at-home dad, Cal could finally be at peace.
Cal’s final moments reflect his development from detached god to family man. Once inside of the battery powered cell, his ability to stay in the present becomes compromised. A river of Keene’s blood allows him to transport Laurie, Veidt, and Looking Glass to Veidt’s Arctic lair to stop Trieu, but he doesn’t send Angela. “I don’t want to die alone,” he explains. Under his pain and humiliation, the moments he clings to are his happiest moments with Angela. His last moments are his most human. When Angela registers this is the end, she watches him be be torn apart by an invisible energy. From this moment until the the end of the episode, Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor exceed any emotional sentimentality they’ve expressed this season.
The finale reveals a new question that’s quietly supported the backbone of the entire first season: who’s responsible for our safety? Will tells Angela that with all Cal’s powers, he could have done more with his time on the planet. There were multiple times in the series where Angela, Jean, and Wade could have stopped pursuing the bad guy, looked the other way, or dropped out of the force entirely. After the White Night, after they learned Judd’s true identity, when they realized the conspiracy went all the way to the top, leaving would have been the smart thing to do. The largest departure the show takes from the comic book comes in the form of true heroes.
Fallible, wounded, and struggling, this older, wiser, and more enlightened group don’t turn to their vices, defy the law, or hide their mistakes. Laurie, who’s struggled with telling the difference between the good guys and the bad, saves Angela by calling the Martian phone booth and warning her about the incoming frozen squid bullets. Gibbons and Moore ended their tale on a mixed note of delight and despair: Laurie makes amends with her mother and runs off with a nice, stable man that loves her. Rorschach begs for his death, unable to live with the pervasive injustice plaguing the world. The world becomes a more diverse and peaceful place, but Veidt murdered 3 million people and walked away as a free man. The artists leave a door open. Rorschach’s journals have fallen in the hands of a right-wing copy editor for one of the country’s largest publications. An actor with very little political experience began to consider a run for the presidency. The heroes avoided disaster, but not laid it to rest. In Lindelof’s world, growth comes in the form of acknowledgment. Ideally, Laurie would get Dan (her Owl boyfriend) out of prison. Wade would be able to process his trauma, and hopefully, Veidt would be prosecuted. Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. A new weapon of mass destruction entered the field of play. The digital targeting display of the squid drop looked exactly like a bomb. If the world learned of Veidt’s deception, they’d also know and most likely try to recreate his organic weapon.
In a show that ultimately turned out to be about the power of love, Lindelof and his team of writers appear to be asking us to trust in the law. There’s no guarantee Veidt will face justice, but Laurie and Wade trust in it enough to arrest the man, and get the process started. As impeachment proceedings begin, Watchmen finds another surprising way to shine a light on real-world darkness.
This ending holds a lot of catharsis. Art’s ability to heal is superficial, but not unimportant. On this journey, we have seen a country capable of both apologizing to citizens impacted by slavery, and capable of enacting a financial solution to decades of inequality. We saw thriving Black communities with rich artistic centers. Black love saved the world, and a Black woman became a god. (I don’t care that we didn’t get to see it. That’s what happened.) More than that, generational trauma got a nationwide introduction to a large American audience. Physically feeling the pain of your ancestors is a common trait amongst all humans, and yet when we try to describe it, it sounds like a fairy tale. We have not allowed ourselves to properly come to terms with that trauma on a national level. It’s left us angry and hurt, and afraid.
Bian (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) lost a daughter, a mother, and a certain future. She knew many realities. Her memories were more than her former life in Vietnam. She made new memories in a new country, with a new mother, and a new understanding of reality. This certainly made Bian one of the most interesting characters on the show.
The show’s greatest shortcoming will be the limited exploration of the lives of the colonization and child survivors of war in modern America, particularly as it pertains to Asian Americans. Spending more time with Bian before the death marches, or showing how she experiences a day running the factory would have given us more insight into her perspective. At the end of the episode, the police take Bian into custody. Certainly, these beginnings serve for a great villain origin story. We may never know if Bian would bring Lady Trieu back to life via artificial insemination, cloning, and/or Nostalgia. If the truth of what Veidt did ever got out, the world could dissolve into chaos. Lady Trieu’s mother/daughter wouldn’t have trouble finding allies. Leaving Bian’s story open leaves a thrill of excitement for any future projects.
In a conversation with Marc Bernardin, a former Los Angeles Times film critic, Lindelof said he’s not yet had an idea worthy of continuing the series, but given the landscape of television prestige shows like Big Little Lies and Fargo, nothing about the future of Watchmen is set in stone. Like life, it’s all helter skelter.
Stray observations
- Well, I was the fool for wanting to see Lube Man return on a Lindelof show. I should have known better. In my head canon, he will remain Agent Petey until someone from the show confirms otherwise. I think the appearance of Lube Man and the kids’ greedy relative from episode three helped make the world feel more lived in.
- Speaking of Petey, is he still chilling with seven dead bodies in an underground bunker? Someone go help him, please.
- Now that we’ve left the Golden Age of Television, I had been worried that the next era would be quickly-slapped-together reaction pieces relying on name talent to sell moderately good shows. Fleabag, Killing Eve, and Queen Sugar gave me hope that thoughtful, measured, and meditated pieces could take center stage. Watchmen joins their ranks as a show telling only as much story as need to be told. Shows limited in scope but expansive with reach pack a powerful punch.
- Finally, it has been my absolute pleasure to take this journey with you guys. Your comments, theories, and general messages of joy made an already great show, a wonderful experience. Thank you so much, TV Club.
413 Comments
Whoever it was in previous discussions that called Veidt being in the statue, good work. I thought it was so far out of left field at the time that it couldn’t possibly be true.
They called Lady Trieu being Veidt’s daughter as well. But nobody called that method of conception.
In the grand tradition of claiming that such-and-such goes against the comic, I do think that Karnack being full of Vietnamese refugees is a little different from the 3 helpers that we always saw in the comics?But I guess that maybe Adrian got rid of a bunch of people as squid-day got closer, and just kept the 3 around for last-minute stuff.
Yeah, all we know is those three were the last of his staff and they’d killed everyone else. If Roy Chess fell through the cracks no reason why a cleaning woman wouldn’t.
If I remember correctly, he mentions in the comics how he only hired people that couldn’t speak English and killed off most of them as he did Squid day.
Yup. Lady Trieu had some similarities to Veidt that the theory made some sense. But I couldn’t picture Veidt as a parent (absentee or otherwise) or as somone who partook in casual hookups. The show’s answer was at once competely unpredictable and perfectly in character.Now the only question is what was the “fuel” for Adrian’s sample procurement? I’m betting on a mirror. . .
Turning Veidt into a statue is also a hilarious reference to Horace Smith’s poem “Ozymandias”.
So how long was he frozen in gold as a statue? (I also want to call this “engoldened”.)
One of the few finales where being quite predictable at times was *deeply* to its credit, not to mention to the credit of the series as a whole. I’m gonna need the Cal/Angela theme ASAP, Mr. Reznor.
At any rate, not to parlay in conspiracies (but to totally go full tinfoil) does anyone think Johns didn’t actually have huge delays, and once DC realized how fucking incredible Watchmen was going to be, directed him to extend the release of Doomsday Clock finale to this upcoming Wednesday to maximize corporate multimedia synergy in one of the more stupendous ways the world’s ever seen? An act of kismet on this scale doesn’t feel remotely coincidental… Edit: by no means am I claiming that these are anywhere on par in terms of quality – but two COMPLETELY diametrically-opposed (at their very core) sequels to Watchmen being released in 2019 really does merit some form of contemplation, in my eyes.
I kind of question why DC greenlit Doomsday Clock if Watchmen (2019) was coming? Because the latter makes the former redundant.
How does it make it redundant? Two interpretations are better than one, especially considering how far apart their angles of attack are on the legacy of the original series. If they were telling the same story, sure, but both seem like they can very happily coexist.
Both things can exist and be totally fine? Let’s not pretend that people watching the shows and movies who aren’t already reading comics suddenly want to read comics.
I’d never read a superhero comic before starting to watch the Arrowverse shows. I’d never read Watchmen until after watching the first two episodes of this series. It does happen, man.
I’m pretty sure Doomsday Clock was greenlit before Watchmen was even discussed. DC Rebirth (which included Doctor Manhattan) started in 2016 and Lindelof wasn’t brought on to the Watchmen project until 2017.
“I kind of question why DC greenlit Doomsday Clock if Watchmen (2019) was coming?”
For what it’s worth, Doomsday Clock’s publication started around the same time that Watchmen was even announced, and Doomsday Clock was in the planning stages for literally years.
Also, one was a comic series meant to impact the entirety of the DC publishing universe and one was a TV series that was a direct follow-up to the original comic and took place in the original comic’s original universe, which is not the DC universe.
Its good business as they are two separate mediums but on the same theme. Increased conversation about Watchmen in the mainstream will make it more likely people seek it out the original material & come across the new doomsday material, and bringing out new Watchmen material in the comics brings it to the forefront of fans minds so it’ll make them more likely to wanna seek out the TV show to see what happens there so it’s all a clever little matketing/pr circle of profit as far as DC are concerned and a win win for their partners (like HBO).I suspect DC will be monitoring responses too, both financial and opinion based as it’ll give them a good idea of future avenues to pursue with the content.
I strongly disagree that the show makes Doomsday Clock redundant. I think my love of Doomsday Clock is increasingly putting me into a minority, so ignoring questions of quality, the sequel show and the sequel comic are such entirely separate interpretations that one certainly does not make the other redundant. The show focused on the emotional heart that beat within Watchmen while the comic focuses on the more comic book-y aspects, using them smash together the Watchmen characters into the current DC Universe. By the end of the show and where the comic has thus far landed, Dr. Manhattan aren’t even really the same character anymore and everything else has also gone in way different directions in each property. Also, I don’t think this ended up going as far as DC and the Doomsday Clock creatives originally intended, but Doomsday Clock has sort of been used as a launching pad for bringing back old DC characters back into the fold. The goals and execution of each thing are just very, very different and I don’t think either is harmed by the other existing as I have been happily devouring both over the last month or so.
It’s not the ‘00s anymore, nothing an IP holder does is without synergy
Except for DC, where you’ve got… two Flashes, at least two Supermen, a couple Deadshots, a bunch of Black Canaries, and THREE Deathstrokes across movies and TV.
There was very credible speculation at Bleeding Cool (which is a red flag, but made it even more remarkable since it felt so credible) that the reason DC delayed Doomsday Clock was to coordinate its finale with Snyder’s Justice League and Batman finales as well as a couple of other things; that everything would be hitting in a major way on the same day.
Well, Doomsday Clock was supposed to have been completely long before Watchmen was ever supposed to start airing, so I doubt it.
At any rate, not to parlay in conspiracies (but to totally go full tinfoil) does anyone think Johns didn’t actually have huge delays, and once DC realized how fucking incredible Watchmen was going to be, directed him to extend the release of Doomsday Clock finale to this upcoming Wednesday to maximize corporate multimedia synergy in one of the more stupendous ways the world’s ever seen? An act of kismet on this scale doesn’t feel remotely coincidental…I do think that the show’s cultural penetration has definitely worked its magic, but I also wouldn’t want to give DC THAT much credit. The delays are likely more inspired by the clusterfuck that is the DC community – they’ve been shuffling their shit around a lot, including cutting Tom King’s Batman run short to make some space to fix it.Also goodness gracious is Doomsday Clock bad. Lindelof’s take really makes it stick out how combining the Watchmen characters with regular DC canon doesn’t work. Ozymandias’ schemes sound almost pedestrian when put into the same world where stuff like Identity Crisis or Tower of Babel had happened.
Doomsday Clock is two years late because Gary Frank is drawing an oversized highly detailed book and didn’t start working on it three years ahead of time. It’s like expecting Frank Quietly to hold a monthly schedule on an oversized book. It’s not gonna happen.
There’s one question I do have: who the fuck is Lube Man?
Petey! The whole Fogdancing excerpt from last week all but confirmed it. V curious if whatever they add to Peteypedia this week will make it ironclad.
Fair enough but I hate nonsense like Peteypedia. It’s paratext that only the most diehard fans would read. If you’re gonna have shit like Lube Man or The Elephant in The Room you shouldn’t leave the explanations for them on a random website, it should be in the show.
Paratext is literally the M.O. of Watchmen at its core, haha. See: review paragraph two, aimed at all those who skipped The Black Freighter when reading the original series.
But stuff like The Black Freighter and the newspaper clippings in Watchmen weren’t paratext, they’re text. They were created by Moore and Gibbions to flesh out the the story and, unlike Peteypedia, are included with the story rather than in supplemental material.
Like all that dumb “paratext” at the end of Watchmen issues.
That’s not paratext that’s text.
Sure, just as this is part of the text. Mixed media is a thing. Stop being Old Man Yells At Cloud on this specific issue.
I don’t want to read, I want to watch related cartoons like Short Treks or The Animatrix.
The Peteypedia rules, though, and it’s exactly the kind of stuff that I would want out of a Watchmen adaptation. It’s not necessary but it’s there to explain functions of the world. And it’s so well produced!
Just hope they find some way to incorporate the PeteyPedia stuff onto the Blu-ray like the Histories and Lore from the GOT Blu-rays or the interactive character guides because it’ll be a waste of it just stays on a website.
Someone wasn’t a fan of the Watchmen comics end text excerpts, I take it, because this is quite obviously what they were analogous to
Add that Peteypedia doesn’t work in Canada (I mean, if you have a direct URL to a given article, you can use it, but it’s a sizeable hassle that tests the limits of both my patience and my Google-Fu), and I agree with you: shown or implied on-screen or GTFO.
Yep, so frustrating trying to get around to see it here in Canada.
Yeah same issue in Europe. Shouldn’t be hard to remove the re-direction from the Peteypedia page.
Peteypedia just asks me to choose if I want Canada HBO or USA HBO — I just picked USA the first time and it just works.
It worked for me when I clicked on the USA side of the Canada/USA open page.
The online material is fun because it keeps with the comic where Moore would put in that extra material each issue to flesh out the world. Nothing on Peteypedia was essential but then Lube Man was never remotely important.
I think it works as a way of making the show’s reality more fleshed out and three dimensional. It’s like, if I’m watching Archer or 30 Rock or something, sometimes there are references to old pop culture or classic literature or whatever that I don’t get. So I go on Wikipedia and look up what Bartleby the Scrivener is in order to understand the joke, and in doing so I’m also learning more about the real world. Watchmen does the same thing (how many people googled “Tulsa riot 1921″ after the first episode?), but it also mixes in references to fake stuff, because then that makes the fake world seem more three-dimensional and believable. Which is the same thing the back matter in the original comics does, only updated into a modern cultural/technological context.
and remember all the people googling philosophers following ultimately meaningless LOST easter eggs
The elephant was at least kindof explained on screen in a line by Ozy, where in response to a question about how he learned something he said “an elephant whispered it to me” or something, which implied to me that using elephants to copy and/or extract folks’ memories was a tech he’d developed.
I like Peteypedia stuff but I agree it should only be for things that are more ephemera than what seem somewhat consequential.
Yup. He was terminated as an FBI agent and the contents of his desk given away – including “a jug of what appears to be some kind of canola oil”.
Perfect. Thanks for the update!
I thought you were joking…
Boom! Lindelof said in his interview with Rolling Stone, “Well, there is one piece of IP that you have yet to see, and that is the final Peteypedia entry, which will drop on Sunday night. I’m not saying it’s going to definitively answer your question, but it will certainly add lube to the fire.”
https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/09/memo-dale-petey.pdf
And when you click “canola oil,” you get this:
hover cursor over “canola oil” in the PDF and you’ll find a hidden hyperlink. “American Zero Story” LMFAO
Season 2: Symphony of the Lube Man
Played in KY-minor
Peteypedia this week confirms that Petey is Lube Man. It also is sort of a bummer in what else it tells us about Petey’s fate.
We know who Lube Man is. But I have another question — do we really think that all the Cyclops were killed by Trieu’s laser beams? They disappeared without a trace. We know that Trieu can teleport people. And it seemed like Trieu was hinting at something worse when she acknowledged that she was going to kill them.If there is a season 2, I wonder if this is a thread that will be picked up.
I know she was a baddie as well, but seeing Trieu just completely outthink, outplan and outflank the utterly overmatched Cyclops was extremely satsifying.
Satisfying and hilarious. “It’s tough to be a white man in America” says a US senator planning to run for president. The human eye isn’t capable of rolling hard enough, which is why that line made me laugh…right up until my brain caught up with the fact that his character isn’t a caricature. It’s an accurate reflection of how many powerful white people think.
He was such a fun deliberately two-dimensional villain. “I’m about to become a God. Hanging my dick out just feels excessive”
I mean, he did have a point there with Dr. Manhattan. You’re a god and you put us all to shame down there, do you really have to have it out all the time?
Imagine my disappointment when Keene’s speech mirrored almost word for word what my college-educated friends told me this weekend; that they were suspicious of a show like Watchmen because whose agenda is it serving really? idk maybe the agenda of people trying to be more open and empathetic?
They’re not your friends.
Sounds like you need to go rummaging in your “friends” closets to see if they have some robes hiding about.
I can’t speak for your friends, but i find a great irony in people who are suspicious about shows like Watchmen for their agenda but then go and gobble up Fox News and other Alt-Right News as their primary news source without ever questioning their agendas.Well, maybe irony is too light of a word. Harrowing is more like it, and when someone is selectively incurious—often citing suspicious agendas or other subliminal conspiracies at play—it sets off an alarm in my head. We’re all capable of building and sharpening our faculties for reason, logic, and intellect, and we should use those faculties to filter the information presented to us by the world to form our own views. And, in accordance with that, we should be greatly concerned when any person or institution tells us not to think about something.
Whenever someone uses the word “agenda” I get weary. A film or TV show has a gay character, suddenly it’s pushing the “gay agenda”, etc, etc. The people who proclaim as much give way too much credit to conspiracy theories—maybe people are trying to tell a story the way they want to tell it? Sure there can be potentially uncomfortable issues they are dealing with and, wow, maybe they’re dealing with them empathically, but it’s not necessarily an “agenda”.
Not sure if you’re capable of self-awareness but are your less leftist friends so ignorant as to lump you into the category of “watches MSNBC/Salon and read news from Vox affiliates (i.e. “alt-left” news).” Hard to talk about growing and learning when you’re spewing such tired talking points.Hopefully you keep your boogeymen all to yourself is all I’m saying, kiddo. The world isn’t as black and white as you think.
when someone is selectively incurious—often citing suspicious agendas or other subliminal conspiracies at play—it sets off an alarm in my head. We’re all capable of building and sharpening our faculties for reason, logic, and intellect, and we should use those faculties to filter the information presented to us by the world to form our own views. Unfortunately, the first part of your quote seems to describe a wider swath of America than it should. It seems that people are reveling in willful ignorance…
Yeah, I was at a a potluck over the weekend, talking about how fun and thought provoking this show is, and a guy who used to be chill (until he bought a house) just couldn’t get over that they “made my favorite character into a white supremacist.”
Time for me to get some new friends…
I don’t get the outrage of 7K adopting Rohrshach as their mask. It absolutely fits the character from the comics, who enjoyed his moral superiority over anyone he thought was beneath him. And while I suspect Rohrshach would have looked down on the 7K, it makes sense they’d have been drawn to him.
Wait, who was his fave character that they “made” a white supremacist? Rorschach? Cuz even there they are just as ambiguous about that as the comic book was (sure, he has influenced Cyclops, or whatever they’re now called, to mobilize but that doesn’t mean they understood him necessarily).
Wait, Keene was his favorite charecter?
Are they talking about Rorschach? Because he wasn’t a white supremacist. The whole point is that his writing was hijacked by an extremist group and perverted into a justification for their own philosophy. Something that happens all too often in real life, particularly in conspiracy circles.
I make the good faith argument that Rorschach was never (explicitly) racist, that racists have simply co-opted his hardline stance and turned it racist. But I can see why they think a Rorschach mask as a Klan hood is upsetting; I just wish they thought about what is being communicated more than the first obvious conclusion.
I’ll allow the opinion that Rorschach is the most interesting character.But favorite character? Well, that’s just a HUGE fucking red flag.
I think it’s time for you to recycle your friends.
I too was suspicious regarding Watchmen because after the opening scene I thought it was going to try and make me feel bad for cops. Glad I got over myself and kept on watching.
Yeah. The cops in masks part in the trailer looked pretty worrisome. I always knew I would end up watching the show but that image….
A friend of mine in Argentina of all places is a Trump fan as well as a fan of comics. I asked if he was watching Watchmen and he said no, it was lefty garbage.
Argentina is where the nazis fled to after losing ww2
yeah it’s so weird how many people are put off by a show that features white supremacists as antagonists. They didn’t seem to mind Oz and Breaking Bad, among other shows, so perhaps something that recently happened caused them to change their minds about it. Wonder what that could be?
Seeing as we have actual US Senators saying things like that make it hit pretty dang close to home
It was great to see Bob Benson on screen again, doing his signature mix of charming, conniving, and sleazy.
A few years ago my brother-in-law, who is not powerful but IS well-off, told me it was easier to be a woman or a black man than a white man in America and then asked me why I got so upset when he said that.
Their plans were so stupid and made sense for them as a whole.
Honestly, to me it felt empty. By the third episode they had become more farce than threat, so it undercut the tension and catharsis of them being overcome. That’s just me, though.
Well, the fact that Judd was in on it and came wearing a smile for three years while he played a long con… it’s kind of terrifying and sinister and makes you wonder about all sorts of people you thought maybe you had pegged wrong… that maybe you were right.
They were a farce but about to become a threat.
Most of the villains in politics these days are so farcical and two dimensional that the whole thing still seemed pretty accurate to me.
My only disappointment is that they died feeling only a fraction of the fear they instilled on generations of black people (and in all likelihood, many other minorities).
It is a shame they didn’t have to face anything close to the fear they brought to minorities throughout the decades/centuries(?). However Lady Trieu getting interrupted and going (paraphrased) “oh shut the fuck up already” and just vaporising them was completely understandable.
Catch 22, makes them disappointing villians.
As real life and any Elmore Leonard story will tell you, being incompetent and dumb does not prevent one from causing a great deal of damage.
Great finale I felt, I’m not sure what I was expecting but it was different than I thought it would be. Kinda actually surprised they didn’t explain Lube Man. Did they say how Will held the boiling egg earlier too?The music cutting off when Looking Glass wrenched Veidt got me real good. Keene getting gooped was also hilarious and reminded me of Lost when Lindelof and crew would set up just a total shitbag villain and give them a great death in the finale, glad to see that tradition is still going for him.And also EXCELLENT reviews this whole season Joelle!! They’ve been great companion pieces to the season.
Lube Man was all of us.
A great finale is about the Lube Man we met along the way.
There was a tiny lube man inside me the whole time
uh…phrasing…you know what, never mind.
The show was really about the Lube Men we became on the way.
This is the way.
Well, only on weekends.
Thanks for the recaps. What a tremendous show.It was so much better than I had ever anticipated.
It was far better than it had any right to be that’s for sure.
ITA. And I knew next to nothing about Watchment prior to the series. I loved it. We mere mortals don’t deserve Regina King & Jean Smart.
As someone here said last week. If they don’t stick the landing it’s the journey. That landing I think came very close. To humanize a superhero/god in the moments of death Manhattan/Cal was genuinely great and it was surprisingly moving. The mechanics to get there were fine in a kind of techno-forward dance club aesthetic, but I loved that they kept the love story central and that was enough.To Joelle Monique, it has been years on AV Club since I felt a television viewing experience was not complete without checking in on the observations of a gifted writer. You brought that back. Thanks most sincerely.“It’s been a hoot”
The journey was great. I was just a little disappointed by the ending. I know this is a very comic book guy thing to say and HBO’s Watchmen is a new story in a new medium and all that, but Dr. Manhattan being killed that easily (or at all, really) feels like a cheat. If you’re going to have a bunch of characters unironically call someone a god, they better live up to that description.If there is a second season, I hope the egg gambit somehow results in the return of Jon Osterman, not just the elevation of Angela Abar.
The first thing Dr. Manhattan learned was to put himself back together after his original human body was torn to atoms. So, I don’t think it’s certain he’s dead.
Eggs-aclty! [PUNS!]Also, I think the reference in the finale to Dr. Manhattan’s “copy” on Mars going through a predetermined set of functions doesn’t mean that it’s *just* a copy….
Dr. Manhattan being killed that easily (or at all, really) feels like a cheatI don’t believe that he was killed. The atomic energy Trieu extracted from him never got transferred into her or anyone else. Maybe he transferred his power to Angela (or the egg), maybe he’s going through a re-materialization process like the book. Maybe he is on a whole different plane of existence. This is a comic book we are talking about, nobody is ever really killed. Especially not a character like Dr. M.
“If you’re going to have a bunch of characters unironically call someone a god, they better live up to that description.”
Just because people called him a god doesn’t mean he was a god.
I agree with you – I also thought it was weird that Trieu’s machine (and her palm) got annihilated by the frozen squids, but Angela was able to escape with what looked essentially like a Tupperware storage bin lid? And Red Scare/Pirate Jenny were fine?Maybe I missed a minor detail but that seemed a little inconsistent.That said, in spite of those things, I think this episode was pretty amazing and I’d still probably give it an A.
You saw some of the police including those two retreating into/under the police cars for cover whereas some less smart ones did not.Not really sure what Angela used was made off but there are some strong plastics out there I guess?! I guess really it was just what was needed in order to get Angela from the phone to the cinema and I can let that go…
You make an interesting point. Ozymandias tried to kill him once and his response was basically, “who do you think you’re dealing with?” There were a few choices like that, designed to expedite plot: his inability to anticipate something as simple as a teleportation death ray because “that’s what happens” in a chicken-and-egg world, Laurie’s slow reaction to an ambush. In the end not enough to spoil anything though. Magnificent show.
I thought the show’s arc made pretty clear that everything happened more or less the way Jon wanted it to happen. If you reconstruct it in chronological order Jon left Earth to make a better place without messy people messing it up, but pretty quickly realized that it was an onanistic exercise and got bored. He sent Veidt there to learn basically the same lesson, and came back with a plan to hand off his mojo to someone who deserves it. He chose/fell for Angela, worked out what series of events would lead to her getting (some of) his mojo and a happy ending while he gets the end he was hoping for. Then he nudged it in motion and let it all happen.
Dr. M has been bested before. In the novel Veidt was able to keep his plan from him using technology to thwart Manhattan’s ability to see everything that was going to happen. He may appear to be a god to most people but he’s not infallible. As to the events of this series though? I took it as clear that he intended to give his powers to Angela. As Reeves said, he’s mostly squandered his powers and never did much to make the world better.
Counterpoint: Manhattan was tired of being a god. He wanted the chance to live a normal life again, for the time he could. After which he wanted to die, and pass on his gift to someone he thought might use it better, and circumstances presented him with the opportunity.
Im glad I’m not the only one who thought this. The idea of Manhattan being caught and killed by a bunch of unsophisticated racist hillbillies is pretty hard to swallow.
Dr. Manhatten was killed because Dr. Manhatten let himself be killed. He knew that dude Angela shot by the teleport gun wasn’t down. He could have vaporized the truck or done any number of things to avoid this outcome. He knew everything, and yet he still went down this path willingly. Everything that took place happened because he allowed it to. All of it was part of his plan. For any number of reasons, some of which we can see and others that may be more mysterious, Dr. Manhatten decided that dying (and apparently transferring his power to Angela) was the best option.
Furthermore, given Dr. M’s nonlinear perception of time, it would make sense that he would not fear death as the rest of us do. To him, it probably feels like there are points in time both before and after he existed, and so what? To a being like him, fearing death is probably equivalent to fearing the time before you were born. You didn’t fear one kind of non-existence, so why fear the other?
He knew everything, and yet he still went down this path willingly.No, it’s not this. He didn’t do anything because he had already done what resulted in his death. If he were able to change it, he would have experienced it changed already. I elaborated on how Dr. Manhattan works in a post on the previous episode, but long story short, he doesn’t know what’s going happen, he IS already there, because for him it’s already happened. His life ended when he became Dr. Manhattan and experienced his entire existence all at once. After that, he could only comment on it.
I thought the last episode felt very comic booky. And not even Alan Moore comic booky, but like Rob Liefeld took over writing the show or something. Bang! Pow! Biff!The crowning glory was probably the terrifying weapon of mass destruction being, functionally, medium-to-heavy hail. Which somehow just straight up puts a hole in a person, but then can’t make a dent in some plastic. It all suddenly felt very .. well, Rob Liefeld.
The ending wasn’t the strongest (it wasn’t transcendent like many other episodes this season), but it didn’t ruin anything either. It tied most things up pretty nicely. It was a decent ending that I’m satisfied with.
Yeah, i liked the finale well enough but there was no “HOLY SHIT” moment to match several other spots in this season. This was like a boxer putting together a fantastic first 11 rounds, then just protecting his lead in the last round. Did what he needed to do, and overall just a solid outing with some extremely high highs and not many lows (except for lack of Lube-man resolution).
Hey, that was me! :)I think the journey will always be the big takeaway from this show, and its loose ends allow the imagination to run wild—something that keeps the original comic relevant to this day. The ending itself was frankly too expository for my tastes. The ending of the comic has Rorschach and Night Owl solving the mystery left behind by the comedian’s death, and the only big expository moment was Veidt explaining his plan. Here, Judd’s death felt a long way off from where we started, and it seems like a lot of stuff was just flat-out explained to Angela by others, as opposed to her figuring things out. Almost every scene in the finale featured a character explaining a master plan, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. In an interview Damon said that their original plan was 12 episodes, but it made the middle of the show feel flabby, so they cut it down. I wonder now if that was the right choice. The comic feels perfectly dense, and willing to follow tangents when needed to flesh out the world. The show had to be so focused on the plot that Looking Glass completely disappears in the penultimate episode, we get little-to-no perspective from Bian, and Petey feels like a complete anomaly. I think I might sacrifice the season’s pacing for a bit more nuance, but that may just be because I fucking love the show and desperately want more of it.
I get what you are saying, first Keane and then Trieu, heck even Veidt, (now we’re going to freeze my squidlets and then they will………..) But they got this very complex show to the finish line. The talk in the theater though was necessary. Possibly also because I was mesmerized by Gossett’s fingers, the arthritis that has set in but he used them with such emphasis in what he was saying to Angela. Did anyone else notice that?Not being one to have read the graphic novel, (but saw the film) still a tremendous feat of storytelling and I was never lost.
I absolutely noticed his fingers. And that the only letters left on the theatre marquee as they left were “DR M”.
I’m fine with Petey being a non-entity because his real point was to be the connection to the brilliant online reading material being episodes.
I didn’t like episode eight for the same reason, it felt like Dr. M explaining in excruciating detail all the ways he had affected the plot in the previous seven episodes.
I think I liked the finale more than you–but well said, and I agree on all points.
I feel like this might have been Lindelof just getting insecure about the way his other shows have been treated. “You don’t like mystery boxes? Fuck it, let me just lay it all out for you here.”
Ultimately, I’m kinda torn on the ending. Partially, I think it reduces the thematic complexity of the comic to something a bit more pat with clear heroes and villains. Among the many other things Watchmen does is deconstruct the various ways comic vigilante archetypes might lead to huge issues in the real world. Manhattan is slowly disconnecting from his humanity and incredibly alienating to the people around, Rorschach’s objectivism makes him completely unable to function in a society, Ozymandias’ intelligence factors into his becoming a grimly utilitarian egomaniac who can kill millions like it’s a math problem, and Dan and Laurie are well-meaning but fundamentally ineffectual. It’s really not about good guys beating bad guys, but shows how everyone tends to think of themselves as the good guy, all the ways they’re lying to themselves, how real people often suffer when the powerful get these delusions into their heads, and how this is not the easily solvable problem it is in most popular entertainment. Hooded Justice was originally supposed to be a klansman, underscoring this point. The show seems to upend a lot of what the original series was going for not just with HJ, but with Laurie and especially Manhattan, too.
Overall, it’s ultimately much neater. Love conquers all, the obvious villains are defeated, and Ozymandias gets arrested. Pretty straightforward.
But it’s just so damn good at telling that story, using a middle-aged black female lead (which is more or less unprecedented), that it feels revelatory in its own way. So for me, the question I’m left with is how should I care that it’s not really Moore’s Watchmen? Artistically, I don’t think I do. As its own thing, it’s pretty excellent.
100% agreed with everything you just said. This is where I’m at as well
I’m struggling to divorce myself from the source material. I think it’s the only way to truly enjoy the show. The show is its own thing, and as its own thing it’s wonderful.As a sequel to the comic, it’s got some irreconcilable problems.
In an interview Damon said that their original plan was 12 episodes, but it made the middle of the show feel flabby, so they cut it down. I wonder now if that was the right choice. The comic feels perfectly dense, and willing to follow tangents when needed to flesh out the world. The show had to be so focused on the plot that Looking Glass completely disappears in the penultimate episode, we get little-to-no perspective from Bian, and Petey feels like a complete anomaly. I think I might sacrifice the season’s pacing for a bit more nuance, but that may just be because I fucking love the show and desperately want more of it.I agree. 12 was maybe overkill, but I feel they could have tied everything you’ve mentioned + get more screentime between Laurie, Adrian and Jon if they just settled for 10. Put the players in their places and turn Keene into mush in episode 9, focus on Trieu, Veidt and the wrap-up in 10.
I very much enjoyed the ending, not least because it actually wrapped up all the main plot points, but I think it would’ve been better served if there was another episode in there, basically splitting the finale into two full episodes. The first episode dealing more with Trieu, Bian and Veidt’s stories leading to this moment and more setup for Trieu’s heel turn. Also more with Wade and Laurie, who were mostly sidelined in the last few episodes. It could’ve ended with Manhattan being teleported to Keene. The finale then could’ve been Angela arriving, Keene’s plan failing spectacularly as Trieu’s is set in motion, more interaction between Dr. M and Laurie and Angela and, well, more interaction between everybody. There were multiple scenes with fantastic actors, that have been killing it all season, that were mostly spent as exposition dumps. I wouldn’t have minded more breathing room between all the exposition. Irons and Chau played off each other fantastically. I would’ve loved more of that. Then you have the fact that Laurie, Manhattan, and Veidt haven’t seen each other in years, decades in Laurie’s case, and there isn’t much interaction there. This is particularly sad because Laurie has changed her outlook drastically in many ways and I would’ve loved to see that explored more in her interactions with Veidt. I also wished there was more interaction between Angela and Wade, who were both basically relegated to observers, given that their last interaction was Wade betraying Angela to save her family, but Angela still doesn’t know that.
Watchmen should have gone 12 episodes or at least 10. I felt lost not knowing what Bian’s motivations were to impregnate herself with Ozy’s sperm and having Trieu briskly semi-explain her reason felt like a let down. I wish we had more insight into the machinations of the modern day Cyclops other than generic racist bad guys but everything else you mentioned was spot on.
In an interview Damon said that their original plan was 12 episodes, but
it made the middle of the show feel flabby, so they cut it down. I
wonder now if that was the right choiceI wonder why then they didn’t just do one more episode. 9 episodes is an odd mark in general. You hardly ever see a 9 episode season (usually 8, 10, 12). And I think one more episode could have helped smooth over a lot of those issues you touched on.
Yes, great show and great reviews. I did kind of want to see Angela Manhattan, but I can totally respect the decision not to do it (and that long drawn out ending shot!) I was worried that the show would not do the original justice, but I think they really nailed it while absolutely keeping the show its own thing.
“To humanize a superhero/god in the moments of death Manhattan/Cal was genuinely great and it was surprisingly moving.”He wasn’t human anymore, that is the point of his arc the first movie and a question people raise about having powers. Our frailties make us human, what would powers do? It’s like he went on to higher things but couldn’t leave behind his fetish for girls in masks and costumes. It comes across more like a fan written plot with the main character as writer. It is also very similar to the storyline for the Beyonder in Marvel’s Secret Wars. A god who couldn’t handle how all his desires were satisfied by a wave of his hand. So he planned to rebirth himself as a human with limitations so he could enjoy the struggle for what he wants and enjoy a smaller part of the universe. There was even a subplot where Molecule Man’s girlfriend Volcanna gets some of his powers as a gift as he is taken into the cube to,….?. with the Beyonder.
Hence why “humanized” was in italics
“Black love saved the world, and a Black woman became a god.”HBO better not ruin the show by having a 2nd season. That was a perfect ending and Regina King is a goddess.
*HBO announces second season of ‘Watchmen’ headed by Benioff and Weiss, who announce “We sure have some thoughts about that black love ending”**Kiotary wakes up screaming*
Season 2 is going to have a lot more rape.
Regina King was a revelation for me, in this. I know she’s been in some other good things, it’s just mostly not stuff I’ve watched. Going through her IMDb history, the most recent thing I probably would’ve seen her in season 6 of 24, but I watched that a really long time ago, and I doubt she was given much to do.There’s a lot of talented actresses in TV dramas, but I have a hard time imagining someone who put together a better performance and demonstrated such phenomenal range to earn the Emmy win. If she doesn’t even get nominated, I’ll riot.
She just won an Academy award so even if she doesn’t get near an emmy, she’s doing fine. Honestly the fact that Watchmen got shut out by the golden globes is a bad sign. But we all know how great King is.
Reminds me of The Leftovers being snubbed as well despite having some of the best performances on telly then (including Regina King in S2!) – so I’m not holding my breath for Watchmen.
ehhhh, the golden globes aren’t necessarily the best barometer for awards season. Whereas the Emmy’s, Oscars, (and Grammy’s/Tony’s) are made up and voted on by Academies that consist of professionals in the various mediums, the golden globes are created by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assoc., which is really just comprised of American entertainment reporters for various international news outlets (Du Monde, Der Spiegel, etc.) I say all that to say this: it’s far more likely that the other awards ceremonies will have more people who actually watched these performances and can offer more insight into who and what are actually being nominated. I agree that it was a damn shame that the GG’s didn’t do anything for Watchmen, but I don’t think that’s going to necessarily be the case moving forward for the rest of the Awards Season. I’ve been wrong before though, so who knows.
I’m sure if she’s not nominated she’ll be just fine, but the point is overlooking her would be a crime and emblematic of the ongoing issues Hollywood has with acknowledging non-white artists.
I just kept thing about how they’re explaining the Manhattan death scene to her, where her naked blue husband is being pulled apart to a molecular level into a giant hovering machine, where it will be transferred to the small Asian woman nearby, and she has to cry on cue. Not sure how you prepare for that kind of scene, but she NAILED it.
You should go back and watch her in Southland (a criminally under-watched and under-rated series, and an incredible showcase for Regina King).
…better still, watch AMERICAN CRIME STORY and the 2nd season of THE LEFTOVERS. she’s truly one of the greats of her generation
And check her out in “227.”
Just came here top say this. Southland was an absolute gem of a show with so many incredible performances.
Yes yes yes. I still havent gotten over Southland’s cancellations. I LOVED that show.. I was already a fan of Regina, but that solidified it for me. her, Shaun Hatosy and Ben Mckenzie were outstanding.
I was just about to post “check her out in Southland” but thought “hmm…I should probably look at the replies first! ; P Yes! She was amazing in Southland. The scene where her home was being invaded and she goes room to room with a shotgun is something I won’t forget. She was such a badass in it.
Yes, she was so good in Southland. Is it on Hulu? The whole series was fantastic.
Yes, all 5 seasons of Southland are available on Hulu.
Came here to say the same…three years later. /SouthlandRules
Well then, you should go back to the previous Lindelof show, The Leftovers, where she’s a part of the main cast in seasons 2 and 3 (and I assume is part of the reason Lindelof knew to hire her for this). You should watch it anyway, especially if you liked Watchmen, but…
One of her first roles was Rod Tidwell’s (Cuba Gooding Jr’s – I know I’m not supposed to talk about him nowadays, sorry) wife in Jerry Maguire. She was awesome way back in 1996.
YES! When Jerry calls her when Rod is knocked unconscious,and she cries to him “Bring him back this family is my life”, and when his brother says he’s too small to play NFL and she starts beating the shit out of him.
First adult role, maybe. Some of us remember when she was a pre-teen/teen on the Marla Gibbs sitcom 227, which was her first acting role (according to Wikipedia).
“One of her first” is what was said.
You really need to watch the previous Lindelof show, The Leftovers, to see King in all her glory (in seasons 2 and 3). It remains one of my all-time favorite shows.
I love her voice.
She was amazing in The Leftovers, particularly in scenes with Carrie Coon.
Regina King is a goddess.Her name is literally “Queen King”. There’s a self-fulfilling prophecy if I ever saw one!
she should team up with King Princess and Queen Latifah, I’d watch that
Agree 100%. Before that finale I would have embraced a Season 2. But now? No, I’m fine. This was a very satisfying ending and I really like the ambiguity.
Jon Osterman was a white man wearing blackface.
Or just don’t watch a second season.
Anybody with skin THAT perfect must have some divinity in ‘em.
I go back and forth on the question of doing a second season. ON the one hand I think this one season was close to perfect and it would be cohesive for it to end where it did. OTOH it introduced so many new characters and new elements that there’s definitely enough to explore for another season or even more.
I mean, the story, the characters, and the production were sooooo good that I’d love for it to endlessly continue, and as you said, there’s plenty room for it… BUT when something is THAT good, I believe it’s best to leave as it is.
That’s how I feel as well for the most part. But generally this is the minority view. It’s what Noel Murray a long time ago called the “beautiful corpse theory” of television. That it’s better to have a shorter closer to perfect run than to keep going and sacrifice quality, even if only a little bit. Most people are generally of the opinion of if something’s good just keep doing it for as long as possible I’ve found.
Agree with everything except no second season?? I want more!!!!! This story is not over.
Maybe, just maybe, HBO has learned from the hot messs that was season 2 of Big Little Lies that limited series that generally stick the landing rarely need a second series. Oh who are we kidding. Of course they’ve not learned this.
When Trieu started monologuing, I knew for certain that her plan was going to fail. If only her dad had cared to impart a little fatherly wisdom.
He said it was her hubris. He did his monologue after his plan was complete because he didn’t underestimate his adversaries. Trieu underestimates everyone noted by the fact she didn’t expect Angela’s presence, Manhattan’s momentary lucidity, and her father’s intelligence
Well, he did say in one of the best lines of the series: “She’s a raging narcissist…..it takes one to know one.”
Better yet, he said it IN LATIN first…
The funny thing, is that he absolutely had to say it in Latin, just to be pretentious.
Ugh Latin is so passé, I would have said it in Sanskrit.
Sanskrit?!? Oh how gauche. Me personally I would have said it in Aramaic.
No Lube Man? F-But seriously, great ending to a great show. I don’t think it needs another season, but lord knows there are plenty of places for it to go. Thanks Ms. Monique for doing such a wonderful job recapping it.
Peteypedia kind of answers what happened to Lube Man, but it would’ve been nice to see him slide on in there in the end.
Lube man slides on in and grabs Angela, slides out of there to get her out of the squid hail.
I found this season interesting. The season-long story was never quite as interesting as what was happening at the character and world level minute-by-minute. (And, unfortunately, Angela sort of became the least interesting of the characters we followed by the end.) THAT SAID, I found this series a worthy successor to the original story in a lot of ways. I think it even reaches transcendent status for a few episodes and deserves several awards. I don’t need to see where Angela’s story goes from here. But I think…I could probably be into watching more stories taking place in this world.
On a plotting level, this all came together fairly neatly. Thematically, some of it feels a bit too tidy to me; especially Veidt getting arrested for his crimes after all these years. For a sequel to a comic that was famous for not giving tidy, happy endings, that felt a bit too good to be true.One thing I found very strange about Angela’s choice at the end is that she should know that Doctor Manhattan’s powers turn you into, well, Doctor Manhattan, progressively detaching from humanity and comprehending yourself as a puppet who can see the strings. She found interacting with him so frustrating because of that that she wanted him to become not-that; but now, she readily decides to do that to herself?
It’s about her beloved husband’s legacy, and perhaps that of her grandfather as well. The former is an expression of love and the latter an expression of responsibility. If you possessed the power to make the world a better place, wouldn’t you have to do it?
I mean, the questionableness of anyone having Doctor Manhattan’s power and trying to use it “for good” was one of the major themes of the source work.
Oh, absolutely. I certainly don’t think anyone should have that kind of power. But I can easily come up with a lot of reasons someone would take the power given the opportunity. Angela in particular has some good ones.
And I don’t think in the moment she’s thinking of wanting his powers to do some good, but that this egg is the last bit of her beloved husband and eating it is the only way they’ll be together. She’s already learned from her grandfather that hiding behind a mask doesn’t work, doesn’t take away the pain and trauma, and from Lady Trieu that trying to fix the world is a fool’s errand.If there is a S2, and King is onboard, it’ll be interesting to see how they navigate this.
She didn’t appear to consider how it would affect her relationship with her kids at all. I know she’s a badass, but she’s also a mother and I thought that should be a consideration.
But…she won’t. We have a classic 12-issue comic series and 8 episodes of a TV series that make it clear she won’t. Why would we assume she would be any more capable of taking action than Manhattan was? Seeing the strings is inherent to the power.
My reaction watching it was that she would still be herself but have a little bit of him co-existing in her, maybe enough to give her some powers, but not that he would take her over. I don’t think he’d want that for the love of his life. So he just put a little, weaker version of of his atomic structure in the egg.
Angela’s already had some trial by fire in terms of taking Will’s Nostalgia/sharing her mindspace with some else’s identity but still emerging out the other side intact, and the show seemed to pointedly throw so many terrible things her way that could make her want to reject everyday humanity yet she engages anyway and built a family.I am a little fuzzy on how the show addresses her willingness to engage in semi-extrajudicial police brutality by the end, but I guess if she learns to reject the mask/trauma/fear-that-looks-like-anger then maybe she is equipped to be more grounded than Jon?
I think that’s what Jon/Cal’s message to her was about. “Don’t touch the light”, if you take his powers don’t become like he was.
That doesn’t make much sense, though, Osterman didn’t make a choice to be the way he was. His personality was shaped by his inhuman perspective on life as granted by his powers.
I think Osterman/Manhattan muddles two things which are to me distinct, and I think Moore meant them to be distinct too: Manhattan’s perception really is an eternal present that encompasses his whole life, and also he’s passively infuriating. But Jon Osterman was ALSO passive (and maybe eventually would’ve become infuriatingly so?). Manhattan can’t change the future because he only appears to have foreknowledge of it, and to that extent he’s trapped, but his behavior is a product of his character (which of course contributes to what happens, but if he were a different person, different things would happen).
Veidt getting arrested is hardly tidy considering the ramifications of the big lie being exposed.
It feels kind of ambiguous. Remember that Jon Osterman had to be torn apart and reassemble himself from the cosmos to become Manhattan, which probably accelerated his detachment from mortal humans. I wonder if Angela-as-Manhattan would be more like Cal: capable of controlling matter and all that, but not necessarily comprehending it. Cal was able to teleport some goon to Gila Flats without knowing; Angela might be able to do the same while remaining aware of it, but she might not have the metaphysical knowledge that comes from reassembling yourself at the atomic level to, say, synthesize lithium. Of course, presumably she could also recover from death in the same way as jon, so keep an eye on that during the season 2 finale
That’s kind of what i don’t understand- didn’t Manhattan tell Veidt that putting himself back together was the first thing he learned? What are the chances he couldn’t pull himself back together after Lady Trieu’s failed attempt?
Probably my one complaint this season was Veidt’ s far too convenient confession video. The fact that he’d make one at all seems out of character.
If I’m being honest, a lot of Veidt felt out of character from the comic. But Jeremy Irons was such a scene chewing delight it doesn’t really matter.
Yeah I was really hoping when he saw him this episode we’d find out the video was filmed after the fact, when he first started to feel unappreciated/see the lack of permanence to his “success.” I like a lot of what they did with him, and I’d watch Irons read from a phone book, but while later Veidt worked for me a lot of their earlier him not so much
For a minute I thought that either Keene or Trieu was actually going to become th new Dr. Manhattan, and then … immediate lose interest in whatever schemes they had for reshaping the world. Instead they would just see the universe exatly as he saw it, and realize how trivial all their plotting was. Sort of the main feature of being Dr. Manhattan is that you’re so powerful that barely anything registers as being worth the effort.
I thought it would have been better to end on her still deciding whether or not to eat the egg, which places the tension on the character’s decision rather than whether or not her attempt to get superpowers paid off.
I think it’s because she knows that he isn’t as detached as he thinks he is. He views humanity, and his connection with it, and its scaled importance differently than most, and he nearly was detached in the comic before Laurie snapped him out of it. But then he feels that connection and goes of to try creating life, and rather than abstract or alien sort of life he goes right to life he felt an attachment to. When he gets worship from them, which seems hollow to him, rather than try something new he goes right back to seeking the human connection he previously knew. He finds it, falls in love (or rather already was), gives up his life in a manner of speaking to keep that love, has children who we have no reason to think he didn’t love. When Angela asked if she’d lose him when she implanted him he said he’d lose memories but not himself, so there’s no reason to think that wasn’t genuine. This is a long way of saying (hey I’m on a red-eye what else do I have to do but this) that he repeatedly showed he still feels human connection, it’s just wrapped up in a bigger picture that complicates and shades it. I think she knows that he never really lost himself, plus now she can truly understand him finally
“One thing I found very strange about Angela’s choice at the end is that she should know that Doctor Manhattan’s powers turn you into, well, Doctor Manhattan”
You should rewatch the show and concentrate on the character of Cal. You might realize you’re not entirely correct.
It seems especially shitty because her kids have already lost three parents.
yeah but you need that cliffhanger sudden cut at the end by the pool
Props to the conception of the poster. Angela, blue, standing in front of a giant yellow circle—that look’s like an egg’s yolk—overwhelming her.As a fan of finite stories, I was hoping the high quality of this series wouldn’t be diluted by another season. The finale and last shot were perfect endings. But, you know, I would absolutely watch Agent Blake, Mirror Guy, and especially Angela “Dr. Manhattan” Abar, solving mysteries. I even ship the first two.Nice parallel with what Will told his granddaughter, about not wearing masks and Angela now having godlike power on the inside, being herself as the hero. (And that’s going to be one hell of a conversation to explain to the kids.) It also nicely made literal that sharing terrible experiences and trauma, but also love and good experiences, with a loved one makes you and them stronger. All of Cal/Jon’s and Angela’s good and bad times, the sum of their love and experiences, literally make Angela stronger and wiser.
Thanks, Joelle, for your incisive, literate, personal reviews.
On the one hand, this episode tied together almost all the loose threads. (Except for LubeMan, but Peteypedia answers that.) (And except for who the guy was on Angela’s porch in episode 2 or 3 who wanted to see the kids.)On the other hand, the last three episodes got me really emotionally hooked, and this episode left me a bit cold. Maybe it just felt too comic-booky to me, and not in a good way. I’ll need to watch it again to understand how I really felt about it.
It felt a little emotionally distant to me too compared to some other episodes, but the plot kept me on my toes enough that I don’t mind too much (maybe it’s because we spent so much time with Adrian and Triue and they’re chillier than the other characters?) My only other quibble is I would’ve liked Jon to have a moment with Laurie, but he did save her at least. Overall, though, such a great series.
(And except for who the guy was on Angela’s porch in episode 2 or 3 who wanted to see the kids.)I thought it was pretty clear that he was one of the children’s grand parents or other blood relatives. Which cleared up any question of why Angela and Cal gained custody as opposed to them.
It seemed to me that all of the great, nuanced characters they created along the way turned into uncomplicated tropes in this last episode. They all felt very untrue to who they were being set up to be.
Yes, the last episode was all plot instead of character-driven.
I’ve read the comic many many times and every time the final issue feels a bit flat. The rest was so brilliant and complex and then the final issue is just people standing in a room realizing Veidt won. This episode wasn’t in the top echelon (5,6 and 8 are masterpieces for me, with 3 being very close) but it ended effectively and paid off enough, so that’s all that matters.
“(Except for LubeMan, but Peteypedia answers that.)”
Peteypedia is next to impossible to access here in Canada (the browser for HBO always wants to switch to the Crave TV browser (the Canadian catch all service that carries HBO Canada) and they don’t have it so… what does it say?
Petey was fired and a jug of what looked like canola oil was found in his desk
Open up an incognito or private window (or whatever your browser calls is). Then it works here in Canada.
This week’s includes a memo from FBI brass saying Petey was fired after going against orders to cease investigations in Tulsa. Someone was sent to retrieve his badge and Petey then basically disappears. The writer of the memo offers Petey’s personals from his desk, including copies of rorschach’s journal, comic books, and a bottle of what might be canola oil. He also mentions destroying a NIN record and says Laurie is in DC being debriefed.
The memo closes out saying Petey may be at risk of vigilantism and maybe he always was, so they might be investigating him eventually.
Effective immediately, Dale Petey is no longer an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and his employment by the Anti-Vigilante Task Force has been terminated.(Former) Agent Petey’s computer folder will be deleted from the share server in 48 hours, after which time his meandering, self-indulgent memos (he certainly puts the “I” in FBI) and ridiculous documents will only exist as hard copy. Let the legacy of “Peteypedia” be an example of how NOT to conduct professional electronic discourse. Moving forward, I expect to see only the most succinct analysis and most pertinent information in your folders, not exhaustive summations of television programs as if they were in any way relevant to anything, nor schematics of pornographic space-age sex toys. Understood?Similarly, a maintenance crew will be boxing up the contents of Petey’s office later this afternoon.Anyone interested in taking anything from the stacks of media, ephemera, and straight-up junk cluttering his workspace — multiple copies of Rorschach’s Journal, hundreds of “comic” books (why our society is still so obsessed with pirates is beyond me) and a jug of what appears to be some kind of canola oil, help yourselves.Let the record reflect that I have personally removed a new album by The Nine Inch Nails entitled The Manhattan Project, as my son listens to that garbage, it is rotting his brain, and it brought me great personal delight to smash this “music” into pieces.Finally, I know there has been considerable chatter about what happened to Petey and his recent work with Agent Blake. Let me address those matters briefly and in order of importance.I can confirm that Agent Blake has resurfaced following her disappearance in Tulsa. She is currently being debriefed at a secure and classified location due to the sensitive nature of the discoveries she made over the course of her investigations, none of which I am privy to. For those of you whispering that said discoveries involve hoaxes and conspiracies linked to our Commander in Chief, I will remind you all of your oaths. What matters most is that Agent Blake is alive and well and she wishes to thank those who cared for her pet owl while she was away.As for (former) Agent Petey, the circumstances of his dismissal are as simple as they are baffling. After defiantly refusing my direct order to suspend his activities in Tulsa and return to Washington, I had no choice but to instruct the field office there to relieve him of his badge.My understanding from Tulsa PD is that he has now gone missing. Given the simultaneous deaths of a U.S. senator and a prominent trillionaire, it would appear Petey has taken it upon himself to continue the investigation despite our closing it. It’s clear now from his memos that Petey (Hero Enthusiast-Obsessive/Solipsist on the Werthem Spectrum) is at risk for vigilante behavior, and most likely, always was. Perhaps sooner or later, this task force will be investigating him.God help us all,Here ya go, just rude nobody replied to you…
Basically Petey is a big fan of this fictional cult novel called “Fogdancing” The main character of the book at times wears a slick silver bodysuit. Then there’s a memo written by another FBI guy because Pete apparently disappeared and it says he’s been fired and there’s a big jar of what appears to be canola oil in his desk
he also talks in that excerpt about somebody infiltrating a building through a duct…must have got pretty slippery to squeeze in
Just saw this (two months later) and you probably know the answer by now, but in case you don’t:
The FBI fired Petey right after the end of the series for being too obsessed with representations of costumed adventurers in popular culture, and found bottles of canola oil when they were cleaning out his office.
Just saw this (two months later) and you probably know the answer by now, but in case you don’t:
The FBI fired Petey right after the end of the series for being too obsessed with representations of costumed adventurers in popular culture, and found bottles of canola oil when they were cleaning out his office.
I think the problem is that they could have used an episode more. I wouldn’t mind this one focusing a bit more on Trieu and Wade in the build-up to Keene’s hilarious self-own and THEN ending with the reveal that Trieu is, in fact, the actual big bad. Like, the conclusion makes sense, it’s coherent, answers any actual loose ends and ties everything thematically and narratively… But I loved the show’s willingness to just tell a tangent – in a similar manner to the original comic. Moore’s biggest success as a storyteller in Watchmen is how he keeps everything at a brisk pace regardless of content; everything is equally fun and exciting and it never feels like the book has to spin its wheels for a while to establish important exposition or whatever. The show generally nails this.Maybe a third of episode 8 is actually relevant to the plot itself – the rest of it is really about getting to know Jon’s headspace, which is obviously important, but not moving anything forward. And it’s awesome. Episode 5 only really has two important elements to it (establishing the Chekhov’s Confession CD and getting Angela to trip on Nostalgia), there rest consists of world-building and a character study. And it’s phenomenal.In comparison, the finale is really all about resolving the story, so I was sort of disappointed we don’t get to spend more time in the world – see what became of Wade, get more interactions between Adrian and Laurie, not to mention Laurie and Jon. I was hoping for an epilogue of sorts.
Wasn’t the guy on the porch the kids’ grandfather?
I think it’s the fact that the kids’ grandfather was played by Jim Beaver that led to some people, including myself, that he would have another appearance; e.g., that he was a 7K member or something.
“And except for who the guy was on Angela’s porch in episode 2 or 3 who wanted to see the kids”He was the kids grandfather (?). I believe that scene was there to tell the audience that the kids were not Angela and/or Cal’s biological children – that they were adopted
Ultimately I can’t look back on the season without thinking of Blade Runner 2049 – often spectacular, clearly ambitious, and yet… vestigial, the production budget not quite masking the synergy of IP usage.If anything, they could have expended a lot less effort with a far more naturally-attuned universe like, say, The American Way. But again, it’s the IP that steers the ship.
Like Blade Runner 2049, this Watchmen both pays homage to and surpasses the original source material.
Just wanted to say thanks, Joelle, and that I am really happy the AV Club brought you on for these. You definitely improved upon the experience of watching the series. Not to mention that it’s nice to see some other brown faces around here. There’s not as many of us as there used to be. And as for the show itself, I tried to temper my enthusiasm going in to prevent disappointment even though I was a huge fan of the original novel and think The Leftovers is easily one of the best series of all time. Not to mention that Dr Manhattan (along with Swamp Thing and my screen name’s namesake obviously) is one of my favorite literary characters. But even so, I couldn’t contain my excitement week to week, and it still ended up surpassing what I could have hoped for or anticipated. Lindleof, Regina, Reznor, and Ross especially all outdid themselves. I can’t wait to watch it all over again, and I do hope he gets inspired sooner rather than later to come up with something for a second season eventually.
A lot of what Jon was saying in the cage were lines from the comic, including from the flashback to 1977 in issue 2
”Finally, it has been my absolute pleasure to take this journey with you guys. Your comments, theories, and general messages of joy made an already great show, a wonderful experience. Thank you so much, TV Club.”Thank YOU, Joelle! It’s been a real pleasure reading your thoughts each week, and I’m so happy to have been along for the ride. Fuck, this was just SO good. I don’t know if I desperately want another season or if I absolutely do not want another season.
I’m disappointed she eat the egg: it would have been better if it was a temptation (in the religious sense) that she resisted. It would have been funny, though, if we watched her immediately sink through the water.
Season 2 pitch: Adrian ends up in the same prison cell as Dan for some reason and it’s a remix of The Odd Couple for 9 episodes.
With Lube Man breaking them free from prison just like how Owl freed Roscharch in the comic.
Damn, I’d watch that. Especially if they lean into Veidt being the thinker and Dan the builder.
Please don’t make anymore Watchmen. At least not for a while. The season was great. It told a full story well and it wasn’t burdened with servicing IP.
First of all, thanks for the splendid job with the recaps, Joelle. They’ve provided a lot of deeper insight that made me appreciate the show even more. It’s becoming rare nowadays reading a review that’s not just “These are the things I like and more importantly don’t like about this show/movie!”.It’s not a perfect finale, but it’s pretty solid. It made a choice and stuck to it, so I applaud it for that. Making the show ultimately hopeful instead of succumbing to the cynicism of its source material is, IMO, the right call, and one Moore himself would’ve agreed with, if he were to say anything about it. Instead of the deconstruction the original series did, it’s a building back together of sorts, and Manhattan regaining his humanity in the end symbolizes that perfectly.Would I love to see more of this world and people? Sure. But if this is all we get, I’d be content.
Speaking of Petey, is he still chilling with seven dead bodies in an underground bunker? Someone go help him, please.
Petey and Huell (Breaking Bad) are hanging out together at a Whataburger awaiting further instructions that will never come.
If there is a season 2, 3, etc. Fargo’ing it is the best option. A 90s story, a story with Angela well settled into her godessness etc
Thank you, Joelle! It’s such a treat when a good series gets matched up with an exceptional reviewer. Your recaps were beautifully written and your insights added so much to my appreciation of the show.
I think off the cuff, and not able to marinate on the finale, that it was a satisfying ending to the season(series?). There is enough mystery and unanswered questions to have another season(s)—hello Lube Man. I’d love to see the aftermath, if nothing else, with Adrain getting captured and the public explanation of what happened in the end, with Senator Keene being a glob of goo. Angela and the egg, walking on water or not, are just an extra dynamic.
Thanks for the really insightful reviews, Joelle! Hope there is another season so you can come back and do this again.My thoughts on this season:1. Damon Lindelof sure can write one hell of a character arc. Angela, Adrian, and to a lesser extent Looking Glass, Trieu, Laurie and Will all had moments to grow, surprise us, and ultimately show us who they were in insightful ways. Also, I wish more shows could tell serious stories with the moments of levity that Lindelof is able to create.2. I liked the twist where Veidt admits to his raging narcissism, which doubles as his subconscious mea culpa for the comics. He didn’t save humanity because he cares about them, he saved them because he wants to be worshiped. He knows his daughter will too.3. I’m sad that Lady Trieu was killed off. Mainly because I think Hong Chau was damn fantastic, and brought a condescending intelligence that rivaled and mirrored the maniacal brilliance Jeremy Irons brought to the aging Veidt. Here’s hoping she gets cast in something else interesting.4. I do hope we get the Lube Guy/Petey origin story as the opening to a theoretical Season 2. However, if we never hear from him again, at least we have that brilliant WTF moment.5. I do kind of wish somebody (Trieu or Angela) had received John’s powers at some point in this episode, though I respect the decision not to, and understand the narrative problems that would bring (especially the former).Overall, probably my favorite show of the year in a really strong year. Certainly gets me hyped for whatever comes next.
3. You have to think Lady Trieu has her DNA and memories all queued up to be cloned by Bian 2.0.
You can be a narcissist and still care, unless you’re literally someone with full on NPD, which I don’t think is the case here. In the comic book, Veidt makes it clear that he feels all of the death he created and Manhattan seems to believe him,
Great finale to an incredible show I only managed to catch up with in the last week. But like some others here I do feel just the slightest disconnect …The problem to me with going back to Watchmen (I haven’t read any of DC’s use of the characters) is that the original series was perfectly self-contained. I don’t know how Moore’s plans evolved when he learned he couldn’t directly use the Charlton characters but what he produced has always struck me as profoundly its own thing. I never wanted to know more about what was going on in that world, outside the margins of the story Moore told, or wanted to know more adventures of the characters. They came onto stage to tell that story and when the story is done they leave with it; they’re constructed to make the points Moore wants to make, and (in my opinion) no more.So Watchmen the series does an amazing thing. Its level of execution is absurdly high, high enough that it’s not silly to discuss it in the same breath as the comic. It finds mostly plausible*, interesting things to do with the characters it inherits from the comics, develops fascinating new ones, directly engages with difficult thematic material and does so to great effect. I don’t think the finale was one of the season’s better episodes, but it was very good and I’m mostly happy with the denouement.Except … I never felt the urgency of connecting this to Moore. Yes, the plot ultimately hinges on Manhattan’s powers, and the show makes something of Moore’s ideas about why a person might wear a mask … but Angela didn’t feel to me like a character who sprang by necessity from the comic; she was a great character unto herself who just by accident of biography and intellectual property ended up in a position to meet Dr. Manhattan. This version of the Watchmen world didn’t feel like an inevitable outgrowth of the comic, but a clever idea that grafted onto it very well, and the grafting on of additional clever ideas somehow seems antithetical to what I admire about the comic in the first place.* I know why a human man would fall for Angela Abar/Regina King. But Manhattan is a passive character, and that he was out looking for company and so insistent on getting a date with this particular woman (with the possibly unintentional implication that he had a semblance of a plan) feels a little off to me.
The finale covered a lot of ground and felt a little incomplete and rushed compared with the pacing of earlier episodes. A few things in particular were disappointing . . . Laurie’s swagger disappeared and her character was just a spectator in the last few episodes . . . the penultimate episode dropped the bomb that Angela was the one who revealed Judd Crawford to Will using Manhattan as a time/space medium and that was not addressed in the finale . . . how did Pirate Jenny, Red Scare, et al survive the frozen squid then it punched a hole through Trieu’s hand? . . . We didn’t get to see Angela and LG fire up the Owl craft Jalopy – what a tease. What was the purpose of Lube Man if this was a one-season series?
Pirate Jenny and Red Scare were shown getting inside a car.
I’m kinda with huja on this one – I doubt a car roof could withstand hail that Ozymandias likened to a Gatling gun.Or maybe it could. What do I know?
I think they actually went under the car, not in it. The chasis along with the batteries, which I’m guessing are on the bottom as well, could have protected them from hailing squids.
In the scene with the Tulsa massacre, were people using gatling guns? It would make the story so very tight, but I don’t really want to watch that scene again right now.
They were
They only got into the car after being pelted several times from what I recall.
“how did Pirate Jenny, Red Scare, et al survive the frozen squid then it punched a hole through Trieu’s hand?”
Well, apparently metal car roofs are harder to penetrate than human skin.
But somehow not harder than a plastic crate?
Everything shown in that scene outside of Trieu’s hand and the transference machine just kind of indicated hail storm as opposed to gatling gun. Even the scene displaying the aftermath. That place should have been completely destroyed, instead we had some broken windows and a handful of tree limbs. Hardly the “will destroy everything in a 5 block radius” warning Veidt gave.
The frozen squid thing was complete wizard-did-it rule-of-cool stuff. There’s such a thing as terminal velocity, so what Ozymandias did was basically cause some heavy hail to happen. Then it punched a hole in Trieu’s hand because that’s a cool-looking special effect and then didn’t punch through a plastic lid because that would’ve killed the main character. Traditional comic book rules.
Huh. Who could’ve predicted that the character with “angel” in their name would become a god?
Even if it had been a so-so finale, which it was most definetely was not, running ‘I am the eggman’ over the closing credits capped the season. Bril.And brilliant reviews Joelle. Equally as insightful and delightful as the series.Thanks
A little Lindelof appreciation here. He and HBO seem to make a great team. Lindelof likes to swing big and that means he misses as much as he hits, but all his pure home runs (save the first few seasons of Lost – and I for one appreciated the finale) come from his partnerships with HBO. I hope they work together again soon.
The older senator looked just like Jeff Dunham’s Walter puppet.
I was a little disappointed by this finale. Don’t get me wrong, the season as a whole was great but this felt just a tad rushed. Veidt choosing to rebel against Trieu seemed a bit out of left field to me even though he explained why he was doing it. And Angela maybe becoming the next Dr. Manhattan felt like an odd choice given she’s shown no real motivation to have actual superpowers. I really expected her to just throw that egg away given what I knew about her character.
The thing that truly disappointed was how they handled Laurie. Here she is reunited with Manhattan and Ozy for the first time since the squid attack and she was so nonchalant and passive. She didn’t try to say anything to him or looked shocked that he looks like a totally different person. Previous episodes showed that she still misses him, but when he finally appears she’s mum.
I did think it was odd that Laurie had no reaction when someone casually revealed that Manhattan was Angela’s husband. And her role in the season as a whole was diminished a bit by this episode as she really had no purpose in the story other than being witness to what was going on. The other thing is it seemed like the writers had more complex plans for Judd given how he tells Will that he doesn’t understand what’s going on and that last week we see Angela unintentionally point Will at him. But given this episode, just seems like he was what he appeared to be on the surface. Again, not bad just a bit odd and disappointing.
I agree that she didn’t have much to do in the finale, but I think her main purpose was the moment where she decided to arrest Ozy. Sure, LG could have made the decision himself if it was just the two of them there, but Ozy could take on one of them, and I think it needed someone from the original story, someone who always knew the truth and the real Ozy. It’s an “arc of the universe bends towards justice” moment, part of all the more optimistic notes the season tried to end on, and I think it needed Laurie — especially when paired with her long joke in episode 3 about being the last one standing. And with her whole journey from disillusioned Fed who didn’t seem to put much stock in justice (just preferred to take down people naive/dangerous enough to pursue it on their own) to someone trying to restore justice with her final act of the show, I think it works well.
Also, to me, she’s the obvious choice for who we follow if there’s a second season. She’s a Fed, you can take her out of Tulsa and put her anywhere. And there’s a great plotline with her and Dan waiting to be written.
Yes, but it was anti-climatic and out of character. She spends all season missing and moping about Manhattan to the point where she travels around with a dildo simulating him, but when he finally shows up, she’s got nothing to say or do? Not even a “Jon! What happened to you?!?” I get her logic about her doling out justice, but what about her personal feelings and emotions?!? Same for LG who I was expecting to leap ontop of Ozy and start ringing his neck or at least breakdown at learning that the most traumatic event of his life was all a fake put up by the guy standing in front of him, and that the very system that he works work assisted in keeping this fake.
The other thing is it seemed like the writers had more complex plans for Judd given how he tells Will that he doesn’t understand what’s going on and that last week we see Angela unintentionally point Will at him.I don’t think that’s an abandoned plotline, just typical racist posturing. Keene also talks a mean game about “only” being power hungry and that he’s playing a hick for the Kavalry – until the finale revals that of course he just hates blacks. Lying to yourself is a big theme in the original, so it seems like a nice extension of that.Angela points Will at Judd primarily to underscore the inevitability of what’s going to happen. Jon really cannot change anything – in the end, he’s not a god, just humanity’s feeble, accidental attempt at one. It helped lessen the blow of his passing in the show – I still disagree with this desicion, but fate is an elegant way to handle it and consistent with the original.
I can see that but it feels a bit disappointing based on how the show framed Judd’s story being more than it seemed. Not saying it’s not believable that Judd is a piece of shit racist, just that it seems odd the show spent the time it did rehashing what happened to him if that was the case.
I’m proud to say I totally called the Carbonite thing! Wooooo!
AV Club, please have Joelle Monique do more recaps, reviews, and articles in future. She is amazing and one of the best writers and reviewers here. Looking forward to seeing more of her writing in future.It’s interesting and humorous that the whole twist of this show was about a surrogate baby with a father complex/daddy issues wanted to take over the world by tricking white supremacists into thinking they were going to steal Dr. Manhattan’s powers for themselves. But overall this was a great season and great show. Amazing job by Lindelof and especially HBO and this amazing year of TV. Too bad it got snubbed at the Golden Globes and probably will at the Emmys too, because it deserves at least a nomination. So much material and unanswered stuff left over for a potential second season if HBO allows it. Especially now that the strongest being in existence is dead as the world’s biggest secret that kept the planet at peace is about to be exposed as a fake fraud.
Stuck the landing indeed. “Doomsday Clock” finishes this week also and it’s striking how different the two completely separate Watchmen sequels are in storylines and quality. It’s insane that we get to compare and contrast the two in almost parallel real time.And thanks, Joelle, for your great work here. ‘Til next time.And if “next time” is actually a written analysis of the two, that would be amazing. Think about it.
D R • • M • • • • How you say, enlightened marquee moment….
I just want to jump in the “Thank you, Joelle” express, because your reviews, and I’m not exaggerating here, are as relevant as complimentary material to the show as “Peteypedia”. I sincerely hope that, if there’s a second season for this show, the producers take notice of your work here and hire you for something like that, Ms. Monique!As for the show, it ended as solid as it had begun. Lindelof seriously improved his already great credentials with “Watchmen”. Despite being its own thing, its great accomplishment is being a consistently great show that requeires little to no effort to reconciliate with and fit into the source material. The show expands on the comics without never actually contradicting it. Even some small disparities can be explained with a bit of an open mind.Since I love racist villains getting their comeuppance as much as everybody else, I loved Trieu verbally bitchslapping the jackasses from 7thK. But to me the most satisfying thing was Keene Jr. flaunting his master plan and superiority to Laurie, just to get “You look stupid in those panties” as a reply! I laughed out loud!In the same vein, I cheered at Laurie and Looking Glass arresting Adrian, because that smug jackass had it coming for a long time, and he failed to realize that no, he’s no longer the Ozymandias from 85. Age got to him, physically and mentally. He still can catch a bullet, but now he can easily be taken from behind by LG, a thing that Rorschach, a formidable fighter, couldn’t do in his prime. And let’s be honest: today Adrian is just another white billionaire boomer with the “bootstraps” and “the ends justify the means” mentality., so fuck him…Finally, since I’ve not seem anybody pointing this yet: the final scene of Angela going to test the “egg” in the pool is the pay-off of a scene from the penultimate episode, when Angela confronts Jon/Cal in the pool, asking where has he sent the kids to, and to leave the pool. He replies: “You need to see me on the pool”. To which she asks, “Why?”, and got the answer: “It’s important for later”.
I’m pretty sure Adrian was born in the 1930s which makes me part of the generation before the Boomers (roughly birth years 1946-64) sometimes called “The Silents”. I know Boomer just means “old person” or even more broadly refers to a “state of mind” now but I’m a crank about this
Okay Zmyandias
I was really hoping she would just plop into the pool like normal and go “..motherfucker!”
Honestly, even as I knew exactly where they would cut S1, starting S2 with Angela falling into the pool, having an incredulous look, and laughing would be so much better than giving a walking personification of police brutality superpowers.
They did it, they actually fucking did it. Although I kept it largely to myself I will admit I had great misgivings about Lindelof’s ability to pull this off in a way that would work, make sense, and leave me happy – but I’m able to admit when I was wrong.Was the season perfect, no. Is there room for critique, of course.But, all in all, they stuck the landing and delivered an amazing piece of television that I strongly expected them to botch.Now if only we had more of Petey/Lubeman….
In the end, my main disappointment is an aesthetic one (which was also my disappointment with the show’s portrayal of Doctor Manhattan. He just looks better without pupils, sorry). The original comic begins and ends with the same shot of the smiley face splattered with red. So many of the episodes followed this convention, but the season begins with completely disparate images, which I don’t love. I do love that we end up at the Dreamland theater (which says DR M when they’re leaving) but I wish they’d found a clever way to capture that full-circle feeling that the novel had. Also, the season definitely plays up the egg imagery a ton, so it feels earned, but the fact that Dr. Manhattan passes on his powers via an egg is a pretty nutso plot point when you step back and think about it.
Also, the season definitely plays up the egg imagery a ton, so it feels earned, but the fact that Dr. Manhattan passes on his powers via an egg is a pretty nutso plot point when you step back and think about it.It’s not really more nutso than a giant squid out of nowhere. If anything, it works better because it’s thematic – it fits with Manhattan’s obsession with life and cycles, and it works with the theme of predetermination: is the egg Angela’s destiny, or a reward?
I saw someone say that one of the final panels of the comic is a hand brushing against the manuscript, so in that sort of “remix” capacity the show ended on a foot?
Doesn’t Angela’s first appearance involve her talking about eggs in Topher’s class? So at least with her the eggs went full circle.
I noticed in the end credits, an actor was credited as Rorschach. Did anyone else notice this and/or have any idea who it was?
Yes, I was just sitting there taking in the episode/series so not really paying attention but that jumped out to me as well. Weird because I didn’t “see” any other name/character on screen.
I think it’s the guy Keene mentions in his speech – the one who got teleported.
This entire series has gained its “intrigue” by having the original watchmen act like blubbering idiots… Nobody acted true to the comics and that was what drew me out of what otherwise was a really good show…
Agreed with the myriad of comments praising Joelle. Amazing recaps that seamlessly blend the comic and additional material. Sharp reviews that explain the stakes of the complex plot and provide excellent commentary on character arcs, themes, and everything else. Plus, this show could be catnip for political exposition, but the reviews were great at keeping it in perspective, which made it hit harder when Joelle made a comparison to today’s politics and other issues. Just an amazing blend of everything necessary for this particular show.
Great work, hope you get hired on somewhere more prestigious and better paying soon!
I hope she follows in the footsteps of Jeff Jensen.
My one complaint is that they clearly ran out of ideas for how Looking Glass fit in to anything but didn’t have the courage to kill him off. He kills 5 7k members off screen and infiltrates their base for the big finale just to… Cut a monologue short?
I don’t think that they ran out of ideas as much as Lindelof was hellbent on finishing this in 9 episodes and didn’t allow himself any space for a 10th. Thematically he has a very clear place in the finale – he’s Rorschach’s echo, in a sense.
I think in the past they’ve said they reformulated that character in the time inbetween initial conception and Tim Blake Nelson’s initial casting, so they could only beef up the character so much.I am curious how much else they developed but cut out as they winnowed down the number of episodes, since I enjoyed the series overall but it seemed weird to have a ticking clock and have several episodes in a row that mostly backtracked in the timeline a focus on single characters when there was an ensemble worth fleshing out.
I like that unlocking the vault behind the painting of Alexander the Great is “untying the knot”. Sandy never untied the Gordian knot but cut it in half.
Nice nod to 2001 when the ship landed.
Cool that Adrian’s new suit has an eye on the chest.
Honestly, I was a bit disappointed with the finale, mostly because it WAS so cathartic and optimistic. The original story ends hauntingly, with a ton of ambiguity and open questions. Nobody’s the hero, Adrian’s a villain but he wins and he’s not entirely wrong, and you’re left as much in shock, confusion, and helplessness as Dan. Here, things are too black and white. Trieu and Cyclops are clear-cut villains, Laurie and Wade and Angela and Jon are all clear-cut heroes, Jon actually does something to save the world, Veidt both redeemed himself AND finally gets put into custody for killing 3 million people… even the squid Gatling gun doesn’t seem to have caused much damage outside of the bad people they were targeting. It’s just all too… nice. Too conclusive. Too conventional. Too safe. And it’s the least Watchmen-y thing the show’s done.
I feel the same. However, it wasn’t enough to detract from the show overall, which I absolutely loved. It also had a lot of really great stuff in it but yeah, it didn’t feel so much rushed (which was the worry many of us had heading into this week) but it did feel neat and clean.
Joelle, I just wanted to say that I have loved your coverage of this show. I am nowhere near as well versed in the world of the comics as you are so having you as a guide for the intricate backstory was an essential part of my enjoyment of the show.
Anyone else a little bit confused about the timing of the spacetravel?In 2008 Trieu sends a probe to Europa, and says it will take 5ish years to get there.In 2013 Adrian flags down the probe.And then Trieu happens to have a spaceship ready to rescue him? Or she builds a spaceship after seeing his message? And she sends it to Europa to rescue him, which takes 5ish years?And then shouldn’t it take another 5ish years to get back?There are ways to explain it – the planets were closer, or her rescue rocket is twice as fast as the probe was. It’s just weird when any show mentions time so specifically, but then kindof, sortof, maybe forgets about the return trip.
She mentions some space tech that she developed in episode 7 I think. I’d assume it’s some borderline light speed stuff that she created between building the probe and now.
I think it’s more complicated than that, because when he kills the gamewarden Adrian says that he knew he had to wait 8 years. And there are also 8 candles on his final birthday cake.So he waited 5ish years for the probe. And then I think he was in court/jail for 3ish more years waiting for the rescue pod. And then the return trip was 3 years, and that brings us to 2019.And that’s all fine, except that when Adrian says that he knew it would be 8 years, that means he also knew the rescue ship would be twice as fast as the probe was? And so maybe that goes back to orbits, rather than tech (since Adrian is a smart guy)?None of this is actually bad. It’s just weird to have a show lampshade “5 years, 72 days, etc” in one scene, and then in the very next scene the math works out to 3 years for some reason.
There was also a period of time that he was a statue in the clock.
I think it does take time to get back. She only thaws him out of the gold paint shortly before showtime.
I saw that as an intentional slight against Veidt by Trieu. She displays him as a statue until the very last minute she needs him awake.
In her time set trieu became a trillionaire & made even greater technological advances than she had at the time of launching her probe so I imagine that’s why it took only a few short years compared to the original
a bit thin for all the padding
So what actually happened to the Cyclops crew? Were they vaporized? Teleported? If so, where?
Vaporised.
Incredible. Easily the best new show of 2019 and maybe the best show period. Lindelof does it again. I would be beyond pumped if a second season was ordered but this season had a beginning, middle and end. Personally, I don’t think there were many things left open ended. It’s obvious(to me at least) that Angela acquired Jon’s powers. There could potentially be some fun stories to tell there, as well as with Laurie and Wade arresting Veidt but if that doesn’t come to fruition, season 1 can stand by itself as an instant classic.
I mean…I predicted almost all of it except Trieu being the villain, and the stupid as shit Keene monologue.
I’m sorry, the monologues really wrecked things for me. Not quite as much as last week’s Manhattan doing nothing for no reason. God, there was so much good but those 2 things really took me out of the suspension.
I was on the verge of recommending this show to my friends, but now nope. And I wouldn’t be back for a season 2.
Bad Lindelof showed up at the last second and shame on me.
EDIT: I shouldn’t say for no reason. It’s quite obvious that the only way to kill Manhattan relies on him having read the script and knowing not to move so he can be trapped by hand wavey space magic. And all the fruit from that tree is poisoned for me.
I don’t really get why that is a sticking point, considering in the comics Manhattan is just as absent and passive. I disagree with Lindelof’s decision to kill him off, but it fits in like a glove with his characterization in Watchmen.
“I was on the verge of recommending this show to my friends, but now nope.”
Well, you’re an ass.
“Not quite as much as last week’s Manhattan doing nothing for no reason.”
It amazes me that people don’t understand that yes, Doc Manhattan can see the future BUT HE CAN’T CHANGE IT. He did nothing because he doesn’t do anything that hasn’t already been done. He is living ever second of his life at the exact same second. He can’t change anything.
Just because people call him a god doesn’t mean he’s actually a god.
And just because people THINK he can do anything, doesn’t mean he can.
As evidenced by the fact that he almost never does anything.
Manhattan is basically a walking plot-hole. He can do literally anything, so why wouldn’t he just do ____? Especially when it comes to his own destruction. It worked reasonably well in the book for various reasons, but not the show so much.And how does Lithium confuse him so much? The same material that he worked with so much to develop battery technology? Is there something about Lithium we don’t know? I also didn’t buy into the love story at all. Overall, Dr. Manhattan was handled somewhat poorly I think, and besides which, he was supposed to be in an entirely different galaxy anyway…
1
General question. I haven’t seen an episode of this show yet. A big fan of the comic, not so much the movie (which seems pretty common amongst people who read the book first).
Knowing how many watchmen derivatives there are, was naturally wary of this show.
I have heard it is completely different then the comic, but good in it’s own right.
I know I could research this myself. However, trying to avoid potwntial spoilers-
1. Does this show take place in the same universe as the comic, either before or after?
2. If not, it is essentially the same story told differently, or a totally different story with some of the same characters and themes?
3. Basically, whats up with this show, and why is it worth watching?
1. Yes it takes place in the same universe as the comic
2. See above. However there are a great deal of thematic/narrative rhyming with the comic so in a way it tells a very similar story that is also totally different in some ways
3. It is absolutely worth watching especially if you are a fan of original comic. It is very much a worthy successor/continuation to the comic. For years and years fans of the comic said, ‘The only way this can be done is as an HBO series’ the show exactly why.
Is it perfect? Close but no, there are flaws here and there and I’m sure it can be nitpicked or that one couldn’t enjoy it. But what is so extraordinary is that the show IS Watchmen. The fact that it features at two episodes that are among the best TV episodes I can remember is just icing on the cake.
Why the film is such an absolute failure to me is that it is Watchmen on only the most surface level. It is a near perfect facsimile in every way except any way that actually matters. The show is Watchmen through and through in all the ways that something bearing the name should be. It is bold. It is groundbreaking. It is confrontational. It invites exploration, discussion, inspection and introspection. Just like the comic it is both timely and timeless. The fact that it got made at all is a minor miracle. The fact that it is truly a worthy successor to Watchmen is a major one.
“I need you to remember standing on the pool”
Mehhhhhhhhhhh.
All humans are meant to be gods… Only through the dissolution of the false self (ego death) and acceptance of the Light of the ALL can this be obtained. The false self is the one tied to this irrational/limited/meaningless “reality”, it is not our True self. This Truth is available to all as it is from all. Wisdom is the cure/key 🙂
I don’t think that the makers of this show could have made it any better. It might have had a few very small flaws, but I loved how the series kept itself together and concluded in a nice way. I like to think that Laurie and “mirror guy” start dating. Also, the end credit Beatles song was perfect. I am sure this is just a coincidence, but my uncle was in WWII, and he said that he and his mother and sister went to see Oklahoma before he was shipped out to train. He said that the entire audience consisted of soldiers who were about to go to war, or who had just come back, and their families. And he said that the atmosphere was not uplifting, it was sitting in a room full of people that were trying to get over trauma. Having Watchmen begin and end with that musical seemed so appropriate.
I really enjoyed this (season? series?) finale, which tied up most of the loose ends, but there’s certainly enough left on the table to justify a second serving. Hopefully, Lindelof and his writing team can be convinced to stick around, as I really don’t want this to end up in the wrong hands – pun intended.Regarding Petey/Lube Man, the mention of ‘a jug of what appears to be some kind of canola oil’ at his office in the final, hilarious Peteypedia post confirms his secret identity beyond any reasonable doubt.
https://www.hbo.com/content/dam/hbodata/series/watchmen/peteypedia/09/memo-dale-petey.pdf
Dumb nigger bullshit for braindead YAASQUEENS. Lindelof should be gassed.
How did this finale leave more questions than answers? I thought it gave me almost all the answers I wanted.
Random creative question–this episode was co-written by Nick Cuse. Is that Carlton’s son? (I know Lindelof and Cuse have stayed close since Lost, and of course Cuse was hired and he chose to work with Lindelof, apparently, on Lost after Lindelof had worked with him on Nash Bridges, so…)
The Watchmen finale was great, but I’m just as excited for the AV Club’s in-depth review— and the thousands of witty posts and debates from regular commenters. Inside jokes, Simpson’s references, cancer aids… an embarrassment of riches produced by an engaged and loyal readership. And after that? Well, i’m off to read some of the other daily reviews for daring new film, tv, and music projects— each with their own lively comment sections. The front page of the site littered with top writers— just a place for thoughtful reflection on media, and most importantly, devoid of endless banal news items that are fodder for dull minds.You seem Confused?I’m sorry, I experience time a little differently. Right now I’m reading the A.V. Club in 2012. The world is a better place for a lot of reasons.Now it’s 2019 again. I’m the same person nothing’s changed; I’ll always want the A.V. Club. I tell the A.V. Club I still love it. As I lie, the A.V. Club posts three separate news articles about Baby Yoda. The comments on these stories reflect America in the year 2019, the comments are now separated into different classes, but none are funny or good. They are essentially all just bad tweets. An autoplaying video ad plays as I close the A.V. club tab for the last time. It’s 2028 and Donald Trump is President of North America. Although I no longer visit the A.V. Club, I am informed that it is dying. Terminal Cancer AIDS.
You’re right that we didn’t need to see it – Jon very clearly set it up for Angela to find the egg and understand what it was, and there is no way he would have done that as a trick, given his personality. But I would be extremely curious to see what would happen next -what would Angela do with that power?Also, while they made Trieu to be a villain given her Jon-murder, nothing else she did seemed to be that villainous, and her stated goals seemed rather altruistic. Veidt asserted that anyone wanting that power must be kept from having it, but while that may sound poetic, that doesn’t make it rational. Maybe she wouldn’t have been great, but the show did very little to make that clear beyond Veidt’s opinion. And who knows how her poor daughterMother will turn out.
Wow, this is easily the most well written review I have read on this website in years.
Thanks so much for your recaps, Joelle – the first things I would leap to after watching an episode.Lidelof does it again. After The Leftovers, I didn’t think lightning could strike twice, but he did it… and that’s from someone who has no real knowledge of the graphic novel or film.One question I hope someone can fix for me as I guess it is something I missed. If Angela took her grandfather’s nostalgia, how did she not remember her husband going to meet him? Or was that cleared up when they met in the theater at the end and I just missed it?Thanks to anyone that can help.
I’m not sure what the official fan response is to that but my take is that Nostalgia, even if you take the whole bottle at once, doesn’t give you all your memories at once. It just gives you certain memories.
“If Angela took her grandfather’s nostalgia, how did she not remember her husband going to meet him? Or was that cleared up when they met in the theater at the end and I just missed it?”Nostalgia doesn’t give you access to all of a person’s memories. When they explain Nostalgia they say that certain memories are extracted/copied and put into pill form. So you choose which memories you want to relive by taking a pill.Reeves’ memory of him meeting Cal was not one of the memories he chose to put into a pill.
That was one of the finest seasons of TV I’ve ever seen.I don’t want another season in case it isn’t as good as this.Oh and Joelle, these pieces were some fo the finest writing I’ve seen on here. A real joy to read. Thanks.
This was a season finale, not a series finale. I’d be shocked if they don’t get more seasons.
I just want to know wtf happened to the elephant.
“Black love saved the world, and a Black woman became a god.”Best ending.
1. I don’t want another season, this was perfect the way it was.2. However, watch the DREAMLAND sign as Angela & co exit the theater.
*Hong Chau. Says Google search anyways
Help me out here! Why did Dr. Manhattan feel like he couldn’t stop the events in this episode from happening and why did he let himself get captured?
Manhattan doesn’t live with foreknowledge, he only appears to. Except for when some tech is messing with his perceptions (Veidt’s tachyons in the comic, here the lithium-line cage) his entire life is an eternal present he experiences simultaneously. (Sorry if you’re familiar with some of these concepts but I’m going to try and make it really plain if you’re not.)We experience the world as a three-dimensional space, but we’re familiar with the convention that time is a fourth dimension – but unlike the three physical dimensions we can move through in any direction at will, we’re fixed in the time dimension, moving in only one direction at a constant pace. But imagine that we had the ability to perceive time the way we do the other dimensions. We could picture not just a 3D model of the universe but a 4D model. And if you could zoom out to a godlike view to see the model from the outside, you would see not only the extent of the 3 physical dimensions but the extent of time as well – the universe’s beginning and end in time could be viewed simultaneously just as the universe’s scope along the X-axis (so to speak) could be viewed in this thought experiment.So from this POV, the passage of time is an illusion created by limitations of our existence, and also there’s only one possible version of events – the one that happened, that you could see in its entirety from a godlike 4D perspective. And THAT is the POV Manhattan lives inside, his entire life compressed to an eternal present. The only reason he knows the teleport gun is gonna get him is because it’s always getting him, always has been, always will be. This doesn’t mean he’ the helpless tool of fate; Manhattan acts in accordance with his nature; if he were a different person, he would do things differently. (Like, if he were a more decisively action-oriented person, he wouldn’t have individually blasted the 7K’s heads off and then wandered in front of their ray gun, he would’ve just obliterated them in an instant.) He doesn’t choose to step in front of the teleporter to make this version of events come about, he just does step in front of the teleporter, and because he does he always knows that he does.
This is a good explanation
I hate that he has enough time to say goodbye to her before the gun shoots him but he doesn’t teleport him and Angela out of the way of the stupid laser beam. I understand to a degree the limitations of his power but I guess it’s the execution of it in the show that makes him even more inept than he should be.
Yeah, the way it plays out makes Manhattan seem like kind of a chump.But: maybe Manhattan is kind of a chump?There are two examples from the original comic that I think highlight the intersection of Manhattan’s powers and Manhattan’s personality.In the issue with the Comedian’s funeral, Manhattan thinks about the end of the war in Vietnam. He’s in a bar with the Comedian/Blake when a pregnant Vietnamese woman confronts Blake about abandoning her and their baby. When he tells her off she slashes his face, and an enraged Blake draws his gun and shoots her dead. Manhattan is holding his arm out saying “Blake, don’t …” and is clearly upset by what Blake did. Blake turns it around on him: Manhattan could have turned the bullets into steam or made the gun vanish or teleported the woman to safety, but he just watched. He’s inherently passive.And at the end when he’s arrived in Antarctica, his semi-omniscience isn’t working because of Veidt’s tachyons. So Manhattan doesn’t know where Veidt is, and he’s walking around the base looking for him to confront him. While he does this he’s saying “Adrian, this is stupid. Just because I don’t know where you are doesn’t mean I can’t turn this whole facility transparent.” BUT HE DOESN’T. He sees Veidt’s tiger-lynx-thing is waiting to basically bait him into walking into the machine Veidt will use to try to kill him, and he recognizes that’s what’s happening, and basically says “OK, if you’re going to make me play it out like this.” Rather than take action on his own terms he just sort of floats along.
Yes. Shit like that actually made me think, well maybe giving Lady Triu his power wouldn’t be so terrible? I know, she was threatening a baby’s life in her opening scene, but damn it, it’s so frustrating to see that much power pissed away. I still absolutely love the show. Just wish I could see the Blue Doctor reach his potential.
It’s his one limitation. Manhattan sees and experiences time at once – the past, present and the future blend into one experience. He saw that he gets captured and dies, so he never did anything because if he’s observed it and experienced it, it means it has to happen. His hands are tied.Or rather, this is one of two limitations. The other one is a lack of imagination. It’s left ambiguous throughout both the show and the comics how much power does Manhattan actually have and whether he can “edit” and influence the past and future. The one thing that Moore highlights about him is that he’s so detached that he’s effectively creatively sterile – he doesn’t have his own motivations beyond curiosity. It’s why he gets involved in Vietnam, it’s why his fun on Europa is so unimpressive – all he could come up with are obedient, poorly programmed clones that are based on a couple he met ages ago, and even the palace isn’t something he came up with. In episode 8, all he really does is nudge Angela towards the proper “path” to the future, but it’s she who comes up with and inspires the 10-year plan. Dude can’t even choose his own body, even though he can create it.Jon is like a master chef who also can’t come up with his own recipe and it highlights the tragedy nicely. He was never really a god – all his power did was trap him in his own mind. “He could have done more” is an apt summation of his character.
“Why did Dr. Manhattan feel like he couldn’t stop the events in this episode from happening and why did he let himself get captured?”
Because he sees the past, the present and the future and the same time and knew that he could not stop the events from happening.
He is all-seeing and all-knowing, but not all-powerful.
As has been evidenced several times in the comic and the show.
I would absolutely be fine with it ending here. I don’t want to see the writers struggle with how to portray Angela’s new powers or come up with a plot about taking down President Redford.Especially when it’s Lindelof at the helm. If he doesn’t see a path forward, let it be.Let this stand as a little story about a point in time where the events of Watchmen were relevant again. And now the world moves forward.
I love how Angela wandered into the movie theatre for a convenient meet-and-greet with her grandpa. It was a great way to wrap up the obviously tacked-on race subplot, which in the end had nothing to do with the very dumb and predictable story about stealing dr manhattan’s powers. What an awful show!
Your reviews have been a pleasure to read! Keep coming back to the AV Club; your voice is a breath of fresh air. Most of the other critics here have giant chips on their shoulders.
So are Laurie & Looking Glass gonna turn themselves in for helping with the squid attack that killed at least 1 person (but likely a few police officers) and caused 5 blocks of property destruction?
Or is Laurie gonna arrest Will Reeves for killing Jud? I’d say no.
I never watched or read anything about The Watchmen prior to this series and was confused for a lot of it but they really brought it all together and nailed it. I am going to have to watch it again now that I have a clue what’s going on. Perfect ending to cut when they did, there could not have been a better way to end it.
Joelle, I want to join in the chorus of “thank yous” for your coverage. Your work made a rich viewing experience all the richer. Thank you!
One issue I had with this finale is the sudden character paralysis of Sister Night. She’s been kicking ass all season and when it comes to saving her husband Cal/Dr Manhattan she – asks him over and over what to do while he’s drained by a machine being controlled 10 yards away by a small teenage asian girl and her mom.
How about going over there and kicking their ass and turning the machine off? No? There was nothing to stop her except the death of Cal was more dramatic and therefore her character had to stop being her character at the key moment. She’d already fought the Kalvary in the previous episode, facing and knowing the impossible odds. The Trieu lab techs didn’t seem to be armed with anything more than a big magnet.
Weren’t there a lot of Trieu employees standing around with weapons? They originally had them trained on the Kalvary group in the pews, but after that they still had those guns they could’ve used on Angela.If Angela tried to beat up Trieu and her daughter/mom, pretty sure all of those employees would have shot her. Or Trieu would’ve turned the laser on her.
I really hope they don’t do a second season, either with these characters or in another corner of the Watchmen universe. These nine episodes were so unbelievably good, against all odds, that it would be tempting fate to try to make more. Maybe revisit the material in another 30 years.
I want to see a story of the future featuring Sister Manhattan, Looking Glass, Dan, and Laurie.(will someone please pull me out of these damned grays?)
…more questions than answers? Considering we were all going into this finale talking about how many loose ends needed tying up, I was impressed by how everything came together in a single climax. Yeah, there are a lot of questions in terms of “what happens next?”, but that finale answered on every question or promise made over the course of the show.
I really feel like the ending squandered the promise of the show by being completely uncritical about the modern role of police, and police power. It beggars belief that there’d be only one secret white supremacist in Tulsa’s police force.As an officer, Abar’s not substantially less corrupt than the rest of the force – she literally beats confessions out of suspects. Is the world genuinely going to be improved by the prospect of a dirty cop with godlike power? Watchmen-the-comic was a criticism of the essential authoritarianism of superheroes; Dr. Manhattan is a terrifying view of Superman taken to his logical extreme – Dr. Manhattan is going to decide how you live and die, based on entirely parochial concerns about nationhood and what he personally likes and dislikes, and there’s literally nothing you can do about it because he can explode your head just by thinking about it.Watchmen-the-show says “well, somebody should be doing that, provided it’s the person who agrees with me.” I’m just not 100% sure I’m on-board with its moral of “what we need to heal American racial divides is fascism but for black people.”
We’ve left the Golden Age of Television? When did this happen?
Utter garbage show that is remarkably hostile to uninitiated viewers. You need a “Watchmen Studies” degree from Douche Culture University before you can even begin to swallow this overcooked tripe. So glad it’s over and never coming back.
Thanks, again, for these expert reviews! If this show isn’t renewed I hope we find another show to fill this kind of essential viewer/reviews experience.I loved that the final theme was the grand paradox that you should only give god-like powers to someone who doesn’t want it. Dr M. had a grand scheme after all—beyond spelling out his name on the theater marquee.
That was perfect for seven episodes, then very good for two episodes. If they do another season, I’ll ignore it. I don’t need this to turn into a Watchmen fanfic anthology.I know the Peteypedia technically answers the Lube Man question, but I still feel like the show dicked me over on that one. It’s not like they were playing with time constraints. Those episodes were just however long they felt like making them. They could have filmed a 2 minute scene of him reporting to Dreiberg in prison, and not left that as a big dangling silver thread. Annoying.
I can only think of three criticisms of this whole series. 1. Abar’s pain being filtered through her costumed hero guise was a bit sidelined, all we really got was her ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ near the beginning, so when it came to the emotion ‘scars need air’ payoff it was a touch flat. 2. If there was a payoff to an idea that was planted earlier, there was always a slightly patronising flashback in case you had the memory of a goldfish.
3. The ‘clock’ was built to withstand a nuclear blast! But was destroyed by some frozen calamari. Which we were told were going to obliterate everything! Then didn’t seem to do much damage at all. That is all I can think of. It was very close to a masterpiece.
I agree with all your points and still think it is a masterpiece. A masterpiece doesn’t need to be flawless.
It’s been an absolute pleasure reading your recaps, Joelle!
My favorite line in this episode is Laurie’s “your panties look fucking stupid” to Joe Keene.
Normally I have found that I complain about the ending of a Damon Lindelof show because they usually end up failing the viewer in terms of wrap up, solutions to plot, logic, yada yada. This time he pulled it off, everything wrapped up neat and tidy. Except, this time (sorry to say), I am complaining because the last episode (after so many fulfilling episodes), was kind of a let down. Mostly due to there being no surprises left for the finale. Everything ended exactly where story inevitably led. Apart from being sad that it was the end of Dr. Manhattan (and not really buying it). If he could teleport others away by touching the remains of Keene, he would have been able to get himself out. Even down to the non-reveal of Angela being powered or not. It was like I had already seen the episode before I watched it, it was so predictable. He should have figured out a way to say some shock for the last. Anyway, in my mind, it was his most successful production. I enjoyed it immensely.
Thanks also for the treat of an almost naked James Wolk. I fell hard for him in Front of the Class, and enjoy seeing him in just about anything he does, even a horrible, racist monster… but aside from his character, damn is he gorgeous.
I loved this show from beginning. Each week, I couldn’t wait for the next. The cast was damn-near perfect. Jean Smart’s rendition of Laurie felt a touch off to me, but I can accept it as my problem, not hers. I found myself rolling my eyes throughout the last episode, though. They missed the landing. Maybe it was an intentional homage to the book. I don’t know. Everyone got all comic-booky. Keene was a goddam cliched pop culture impression of a racist. He even started sounding like Foghorn Leghorn. I half expected him to “do declare” something or other by the end of his monologue. There was no subtlety. There was no attempt to show him as the hero of his own story. It was just insane indignation. He reminded me in this episode of the Family Guy joke about something being as unrealistic as a white guy’s dialogue in a Spike Lee film (joint). Trieu also went from intriguing mystery to cackling BS cliche villain: an incomprehensibly wealthy and incomprehensibly intelligent dumbass whose singular goal is literally world domination. And the means? Stealing infinite power from a near-god, standing inside a transparent box, surrounded by sparkly, glowing electro-whatever waves… It felt a lot like Superman II.And back it up to the last moments of the previous episode… Cal/Manhattan could have miracled the electro-whatever raygun into steam. His capture was neither inevitable or necessary to anything but the plot. Likewise, when he teleported Veidt, Laurie, and Looking Glass to Antarctica, except for the needs of the plot, he could have teleported Trieu to Uranus or to anyone else’s anus, for that matter. Or he could have teleported a key component of her gizmo to the center of Betelgeuse.Gods can’t be overpowered. Veidt ultimately won/survived by convincing Manhattan he was right. Trieu went for an arm wrestling match…and won? That. Doesn’t satisfy.I mean, all of those complaints aside, Cal/Manhattan could see all of this happening years in advance. Veidt had handicapped his clarvoyance in the book. That’s why he couldn’t stop him until it was too late. Cal/Man allowed it to happen this time. He chose it to happen. (A plate of cookies has just shattered against my wall.) But why? Was he weary of that immortal coil? Was it somehow related to his love for Angela? As an emotionally remote god, that love was ill-defined. In the end, in what the creators put on the screen in front of us, he gave up and died for no apparent reason.Maybe I need to watch it again. I feel like a ranted.
Foghorn leghorn. Ha! agree a lot of little characters sidelined! I think the answer is Manhattan found the one woman worthy of succeeding him and knew the only way she could was if he died. It’s hinted at by Viedt he says anyone that seeks Manhattans power doesn’t deserve it. Angela wanted nothing to do with his power. She loved him… which is another thing I’m ok with
And then she CHOSE to eat the egg. So by definition…she doesn’t deserve it (and yeah, I think a cop who beats who beats up suspects in her custody really doesn’t.)
I must say that was one of the better single season shows watched.I was very choked up when it ended. I will miss these characters immensely. Regina King has been phenomenal as Angela Abar. And Yahya A. M. acting made it such that i found their love for each other deeply moving even though it was really only highlighted for one episode. Thats acting. I even love her son, who literally has 5 scenes. I got absolute Robin in Batman’s cave energy from him when he saw his Mom’s costume.
I still dont get why Manhattan decided to be so… passive about his own, and to some degree the worlds path ( which Will mentioned)But it does answer the question of why Angela wouldnt hesitate to eat that egg.
There is much to be done. Lady Treiu said thats what she wanted power for, but i could always see the glint of megalomania in her eyes lol.
All in all… this was just brilliant in so many ways. Ive truly enjoyed getting my reveiws here and seeing so many thoughtful contributions from everyone.
Wouldn’t someone as smart as Lady Trieu anticipate that her father Ozymandias would try and stop her. Everyone broke rule #1 Don’t explain your evil plan.
I have a question. If Angela experienced Will’s memories wouldn’t she know that Dr. Manhattan had visited him?
Was anyone else absolutely certain Trieu’s rocket would incinerate the remaining clones when it blasted off?
When Iron was looking through the glass floor when the rocket took off, I too was waiting to see the rockets vaporizing all the clones on the ground.
All I want for Christmas is news that Watchmen will have a second season. I need more Regina King, Jean Smart and Hong Chau badassery in my life. And more of Joelle Monique’s beautiful, insightful recaps to open my eyes to points of view and details I may have missed. Thanks so much for covering this show!
Bian was an incredible character I’m craving more about she was always presented by Trieu as a clone, her mother, and was treated as an object. But humanity persevered with in her. Not genes unlike Trieu. After Peteypedia I’m wondering if Wade was actually the most interesting character? Did he write “fogwalkers” … I mean his love interest was a vet anesthiologist? I also wonder if the squids psychic blast gave him his super power. In the moment of the squid fall he was feeling intense almost a breakdown of emotions from that undercut bun lady (I remember that style in middle school it needs to never return yet I keep seeing it) I wonder if it was an adverse reaction. He gained the superpower of never being fooled again in response. Did other people develop anything in the squid radius? Also Petey is fine he’s in his heaven. He quit the FBI and decided t0 stay in Tulsa. I wonder if he’s on to Angela and her Grandpa.
1. Either Ozymandias or Angela should have replied to Trieu or Reeves respectively when they talked about Dr. Manhattan about not doing all he could with his powers, noting that the motivations of someone with Dr. Manhattan’s omnipotence and omniscience are unfathomable and anyone who thinks their own motivations and desires would be the same once having those powers is being extremely short sighted.2. My only real complaint with the last episode is that Angela who was as per Lindelof himself said, was the main character and who was the focus of the story, seemed a bit sidelined in the last episode.3. Angela is not Dr. Manhattan. Lady Trieu did not get Dr. Manhattan’s powers so it would be a simple matter for him to reconstitute himself, after all it was the first trick he learned. Also it would be tonally odd if the person who wrote the part of the show that had Ozymandias tell Lady Trieu that no one who sought godhood should be trusted to get that godhood, would then turn around and have someone make a deliberate choice to accept that godhood. 4. If the same or similar team can make another show about Watchmen with a different focus of characters that’s fine. Otherwise leave this season as done.
It would be cool and apt if another season came about from another writer curious about an unexplained strand of this show and tying it in with another American issue that causes fear and anxiety—like how Lindelof created this show from the comic.
Hey, wasn’t Angela’s oldest adoptive son have telekinesis?
How did you come up with that theory? Was there any scene in the show that indicated he had this ability?
This. Episode 2 at 31:41.I’m not quite sure what this means because it was just never addressed or maybe somehow I missed it from any of the stuff in the show’s mini website. Is it some kind of floating 3d puzzle that work through some cutting edge science courtesy of Lady Trieu’s consumer products? Or does the angry looking kid actually have telekinesis?
I don’t think they show ever stated it, but I’m pretty sure it was implied that this is just new technology i.e. levitating Lego blocks. Sort of like the original graphic novel having all electric cars.When Angela sees him working on this her reaction isn’t “Oh my god he has powers!” or “Hey, don’t do that – we told you to hide your powers!”. It’s more of a “My kid is working on a normal puzzle so I’ll have a talk with him.”If the show had wanted us to think this kid had TK powers then they would have had other characters mention it.
In the run up to the show Lindelof called it anything but a sequel. But it was a stone cold sequel. A worthy one too.
But the thing that nagged at me through out was, would it have been better as a comic?
once again – sincere thanks for your insights and illuminations.
After a second viewing I noticed that when the frozen squid came raining down and people started taking cover, Lady Trieu and Bian make eye contact and Bian closes the door shack where she is safe. Neither made any motion toward the other. Neither said anything. Very interesting the lack of emotion/connection between the two of them.
It wouldn’t have fit with what they were doing, but I still wanted to Trieu to pull her plan off. The more it went along, the more I found myself rooting for her.
Ozy was right, though. Her altruistic goals would have quickly turned into a need to be worshipped, and then obeyed.
An excellent finale to an excellent season of television! While I wish Angela had been more proactive in the final showdown, I suppose it’s kind of hard to perform any major feats of heroism against squid rain and electromagnetic chambers. Regina King, Jean Smart, and Tim Blake Nelson still killed it, as usual, with Smart particularly getting some great one-liners. “Your panties look stupid” was an instant classic. Ozymandias finally found the one person (on the show or in the audience) who gave a shit whether he lived or died, and he killed her with frozen calamari. Ah well. At least his purpose for being here was finally revealed. Doesn’t make any of the Europa scenes any less tedious in retrospect though. If future seasons were to focus on Angela, Laurie, Will, and Wade (with Bian and Topher in the mix) I’d be down. I’m so thankful they stuck the landing.
I feel like this show has caused some sort of collective insanity. Whether it’s the people pushing that the show is woke. I guess it is if you’re a privileged Hollywood dipshit (ie. Nothing was wrong before the crude president/if Hillary won we’d be at brunch types). The show really just goes out to say POC can be fascists too, and we can’t just give all African Americans reparations (I guess the Democrats still compromise before even putting up a fight in Redford’s America too. I’m tempted to call this a realistic portrayal of the Democrats weakness, but Lindelhof makes it pretty clear that he thinks this is a good approach in the official podcast and interviews). Oh how progressive. The show’s heroes in the end are still cops, and not even good ones. Looking Glass and Angela’s primary policing skills seem to be torturing people. I guess they’re supposed to be torturing ostensibly bad guys, but does that make them appreciably less fascist. What about all the people I have to assume they torture in their day to day when we’re not watching. Sorry folks, they’re both terrible people. The writers also clearly misunderstand Dr. Manhattan on a fundamental level. Dr. Manhattan is supposed to be terrifying. He is not a hero. He is a walking horror story for those around him and really to himself as well. What the show does with Laurie is criminal.Also the fucking Holocaust happened in the Watchmen timeline!!! Stephen Spielberg doesn’t need to make a different movie! It’s asinine, tone deaf, and offensive!
Since Lady Treiu was always a few steps ahead of the Kav, does that mean she knew about the white night before hand?
I’m just glad they had Adrian give a namecheck to the Outer Limits episode that Watchman stole their whole plot from when he declared himself “the architect of fear”
Even the movie references The Outer Limits 😉
Isn’t that OL episode referenced in the final pages of the original comic? When Dan and Laurie are visiting Laurie’s mother, isn’t that episode on the TV she’s watching?
Nothing quite made me catch my breath like Laurie seeing Nite Owl’s old ship in Adrien’s lair and quietly whispering: “Archie!”
This show most definitely doesn’t need a 2nd season.
I’m not clamoring for a second season, but it it were to happen, I’d really like bumped up screen time for Looking Glass
Now that we’ve left the Golden Age of Television
Who says it’s over?
a Black woman became a god. (I don’t care that we didn’t get to see it. That’s what happened.)She totally did become a god. As she and the kids are walking away from the Dreamland theater, the marque lights are burned out/broken…all except DR M. Even the backdrop tells us she’s the new Manhattan.
I’m reposting this from the Watchmen FB group. A member posted about this and hopes spreading the word will pressure some form of action about this:The KKK is still very prevalent and active in the justice system in Tulsa. Recently, we’ve been able to out a court clerk who is an open white supremacist and KKK member named Bonnie Kukla. Even after the County Commissioners and Court Clerk were alerted to the community concern about a Klan member being employed by Tulsa county to manage court records, the county officials have chosen to protect her. So, for now, there is at least one open Klan member working in the Tulsa courthouse that we know of, and it is still surprisingly difficult to run the Klan out of town even in 2019… So Watchmen got that part of Tulsa down pretty good.
I happen to have the Court Clerks address, phone number, and email- Just providing it here in case someone wants to make use out of it:
Tulsa County Court Clerk
Tulsa County Courthouse
500 South Denver Ave.
Room 200
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74103-3832
918-596-5420
[email protected]https://theblackwallsttimes.com/2019/06/14/tulsa-elected-official-apathetic-towards-kkk-employee%E2%80%8B/?fbclid=IwAR2mqw7vA7J9M_83KHeshUt_R8zCRiEYg3msVF9qAOJ3MLfBUegqKBRJD4Q”
I loved this show until they brought back Dr Manhattan. That was a bad idea, his story arc completed in the original run. Having him get involved with humanity again for the love of a good woman is lazy writing . Part of the issue that he had was he was loosing touch with humanity and realizing how his powers were causing him to slip further and further away. He left so humanity could find it’s own way and he could move forward with his existence.His story was already told, I wanted the new generation. Not a fan service for the old one.Though if anyone was going to play Veidt, Irons is the man.
I enjoyed the show, but kind of in a detached, admire the craft kind of way, rather than being really drawn in and absorbed with it.Did people who haven’t read the comic enjoy it?
So, we will always have the perfectly constructed episodes (much like “Guest” and the Carrie Coon Regina King showdown on Leftovers), but there was a flaw in the arc that sticks in my craw: the show was about inherited trauma, Angela making the decision to assume Dr. M’s powers was not connected to that arc. Like The Winter Soldier and other Marvel movies they threw a big party for the finale and sorted out plot threads, but Angela got lost in the sauce. The show needed another episode after she discovers the egg where she decides to become Sister Manhattan. Regina King was amazing but there needed to be more tying the bangboomPOW into her thematic journey. She was not really the main character of the Dr M or the Nostalgia episode, we needed more about her other than her ability to kick ass and turn Dr M into the male lead in a Tyler Perry movie. It needed to go back to the Black Wall Street scene and show why she wanted the power and acknowledging that she would be sacrificing her family life to do so, not to mention to show that she has evolved beyond the gestapo mask tactics from the pilot. The Leftovers did a better job of having the finale complement the themes of the show…this fumble re-fumble of power was more like a thanos-glove grab than a metaphor.Also…I felt like the Ozymandias stuff was dragging and the confirmation that the entire thing was kind of disposable…confirmed that feeling.
I’m still not resolved with the series. Or better said, it’s still under my skin and I need more. You have to think HBO will be begging for a second season. As others have suggested, a stand-alone season 2 arc (i.e. outside of Tulsa and without Angela as the lead) could be a nice compromise of leaving this 9-episode masterpiece alone while still expanding Lindelof Watchmen universe. Laurie’s story still has some run, what with her work at the FBI, her Avian-Ex possibly getting out of the cage, Petey/Lubeman former colleague/one-night-stand asking for a job reference, prosecution of Veidt, D.C. fallout of Senator Keene’s reveal/demise. Lots of good raw material for a complex story without having to undo the bow that neatly wrapped up season 1. That said, leaving season 1 in a box would leave questions unanswered. Some purposely and properly so (i.e. is Angela now Dr. Manhattan?) and some a shame we’ll miss out on (i.e. what becomes on Bian? I doubt boarding school, private university and then a job at a consulting firm would be a good use of her intelligence, talents and history). What happens to Looking Glass/Wade? Does the new found knowledge of the Squid Drop free him? Or break him?
Also, one of the episodes Opened by Lady Trieu pressuring a pair of Farmers into selling their Farm moments before something fell from space that she absolutely wanted to have legal ownership to. It bothers me the series never bothered to explain what that was all about.
Veidt’s rescue ship had to land somewhere…
Pretty sure that was Veidt returning from Europa
Lube Man is us, and we are all Lube Man.
God this show was awesome, I binge watches all 9 episodes the weekened of the finale. What a show. Kept enough of what the amazing Graphic Novel was about and turned it on it’s head by having the Anti-hero inspire a new group for Nazi men and women. Too great. I am curious so see what happens to Ozzy, I remember reading the comic (only like 10 years ago because in 85 I was only 12 and didn’t want a comic with “fake heroes”) and thinking Ozzy was right to do what he did.
So, me know me late to party, it took while to find time to watch this one, but me very glad me did, it was fantastic. (And we need more blue representation on TV!) And me will join in chorus thanking Joelle for terrific recaps. Reading along with your review and community’s discussion really felt like golden era TV Club. Me only have one thing to add to discussion which might only bother me, because no one else mentioned it. This is second show me have seen where character have “me am your father” reveal, in which father is white, and child is played by Asian actress with no white ancestry whatsoever. (Me not will name second show, as it spoils pretty plot reveal). Could they not have gotten biracial actress (not that Hong Chau not was fantastic in role)? Or does world of Watchmen include Lady and Tramp genetics, where kids either look 100% like mother or 100% like father?
What a finale.
Thanks to HBO for making this available for streaming last weekend.
Has
anyone commented yet on the letters that were still lit on the
Dreamland Theater sign as Angela walked away from it? DR M – which I
took as a sign (ha) that Doctor Manhattan was still around somewhere.
Finally got around to watching this. What made the comic so amazing (and literary) was its symmetry – which, if there was any parallel in the HBO show, I missed.
Big question, though – Why was Looking Glass there? When he didn’t help Laurie escape, I started thinking, he hasn’t really contributed *anything* to the story. We’ve spent a lot of time with him, and the only impact he had, in the end, was knocking Adrian on the noggin. That’s a *lot* of backstory for that moment. I enjoyed Tim Blake Nelson’s performance, but what did it ultimately add to the story?
I was pleasantly surprised this wasn’t a giant dumpster fire despite LindelofThe assertion that Trieu would’ve also used Dr. Manhattan’s power for
evil just because she’s a narcissist could’ve been developed more
convincingly. This kind of feels like Daenerys Targaryean’s character
assassination, although less egregious since we hadn’t been following
her development for years. At least she was collecting international
prayers so she’d understand what the world would like adjusted. Osterman
didn’t intend to acquire his power, & he still committed his share
of atrocities with it. Is Angela’s policewoman perspective really a
better fit for nigh-omnipotence?
Laurie & Wade were underused. They do apprehend Ozymandias to bring him to trial afterwards, yet it
feels underwhelming. Technically it was Osterman who threw the Tillman
brick at Veidt, which makes Laurie still seem superfluous.
Am I the only one annoyed that Veidt literally has saved the Earth twice, and yet Laurie arrests him, knowing that bringing the truth to light will likely bring the various countries to the brink of nuclear war again?Veidt asks her “You were fine with letting me go in 1985, what’s changed now?” And the answer is, not much. If the world learns that there is no extra-dimensional threat, everything we’ve been told says that the countries of the world will start up their nuclear posturing and they’ll be back at another nuclear standoff like we saw in the original comic.Of course, having Angela as a potential new Dr. Manhattan would be able to stop that from happening. But Laurie doesn’t know that. As far as she knows, Dr. Manhattan is dead and there is no one around with any superpowers to stop a nuclear war. But she says “I don’t care.” She is acting like Rorschach did at the end of the original comic, but at least Rorschach had a “black-and-white” mentality for looking at the world. Laurie doesn’t have this. She just arrests Veidt for … reasons.