Everything in the Watchmen Finale, From Angela, to Dr. Manhattan, to Veidt, Explained
We didn't forget about Lube Man.
Spoiler warning: obviously, the purpose of this story is to discuss the finale of the first season of HBO's Watchmen. If you haven't yet watched, and plan to, well, stop reading here. Seriously! Stop reading now. We are going to be talking about the ending of the show.
The first season (series?) finale of Damon Lindelof's Watchmen came to an explosive conclusion.
We got definitive answers on most of our lingering questions and thoughts—and a cliffhanger that could lead to more.
One major thought remains: Who is Lube Man?
Watchmen. Man. We learned a lot this season, huh? Damon Lindelof's kinda-but-not-quite sequel to the iconic graphic novel came to an explosive conclusion with its ninth episode, and while it seemed like there may have been a lot of pieces moving—we needed answers on Angela, Lady Trieu, Senator Keene and the Seventh Kavalry, Looking Glass, Will Reeves, Laurie, Adrian Veidt, and Dr. Manhattan, just to name a few—the show somehow managed to stick the landing. Lindelof came through with a finale that encapsulated exactly what he's managed to do throughout the entire series run: capture the spirit of the graphic novel and its returning characters, while still offering up amazing new characters and a new story for audiences to comprehend, enjoy and interpret to their every desire.
So now that it's all over, let's take a look at how all of our major storylines wrapped up, and what lingering thoughts or ideas we might have had.
Lady Trieu and Adrian Veidt
A few weeks ago, Lady Trieu revealed that her "daughter," Bian, is actually her mother, a clone being pumped with memories as she sleeps. It was clear, in this same revelation, that Lady Trieu's father was someone of great importance too, hinting "oh, he'll be here." And in the opening scene of the finale, we learn exactly who that person of great importance is: Adrian Veidt. We don't need to get too far into the nitty gritty, but on the same night that Veidt made his video recording for then-Future President Robert Redford, a cleaning woman (named Bian), impregnated herself with the semen that Veidt stored in his lab.
This explains quite a bit, particularly Lady Trieu's extraordinary intelligence; it's even uttered in the opening scene. If he's the Smartest Man in the World, she, by genetic inheritance alone, would be the Smartest Woman in the World. It checks out.
With some father/daughter issues clearly needing sorting out—Veidt won't give her any money, and also won't acknowledge her as his daughter—he eventually did acknowledge her, that time that he got onto the moon and created a message. As a result, she sent a shuttle to Europa to retrieve him; here, he was encased, Han Solo style, in a bronze statue—the same one we saw in her Vietnam garden earlier in the season.
And let's flash back on this moment just briefly: at the start of the fourth episode, when Lady Trieu very, very aggressively is introduced and buys that family's farm? She sees an item crash landing on earth; some, at the time, thought this was related to Dr. Manhattan. That was close, but not quite. It's now rather clear that this was Veidt, crash landing back on earth from Europa. What else could have been of such grave importance for a trillionaire with a giant evil plan?
Just in time for her grand triumph—more on that in a moment—she has her father removed from the casing. At this point, she shows him everything that's done, and eventually her plan is revealed: she's built the millennium clock not to "tell time," but rather as a device to harness and steal Dr. Manhattan's power; she wants it all for herself
After fulfilling her end of a deal with Will Reeves—vanquishing the remaining members of Cyclops—she comes very close to succeeding in her plan, until Veidt (who, along with Laurie and Looking Glass have been zapped away to his lab by Dr. Manhattan) comes up with a plan to stop her. He can freeze his squid rain, which would make their impact as strong as a gattling gun from the skies. In doing this, he destroys the millennium clock, which collapses in on Lady Trieu, killing her after she'd killed Dr. Manhattan, but at least before she could steal his powers.
Veidt and Trieu are such mirror, parallel characters that it's a marvel we didn't see the twist coming sooner; as he says when he knows that everyone would be doomed if she got Dr. Manhattan's powers, she's a raging narcissist ("Anyone who seeks to attain the power of a god must be prevented at all costs of attaining it."). In more common terms? "It takes one to know one," the man who calls himself 'The Smartest Man in the World' says.
And while it sure seemed like Veidt was having his moment of redemption—and, in a way, he did—Laurie and Looking Glass weren't soon going to forgot what he did in 1985. When Veidt launched into a typical rant explaining his innocence, Looking Glass, whose entire life became a PTSD reflex after what Veidt did, was just the right person to shut up, hitting him with a wrench mid-rave. "He talks too much," he says with a laugh, in one of the episode's best moments.
Senator Keene, Cyclops and the Seventh Kavalry
First, it must be said: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Senator Keene Jr, you god damn clown. You really thought you were smart enough to outsmart Dr. Manhattan and just steal his power, just like that? Not only did this man get melted into a puddle of blood and guts, but it was that very puddle of his blood and guts that allowed for Dr. Manhattan to zap his friends to Veidt's lair, and allowed them to save the day for everyone.
As we learned two weeks ago, Keene was leading a plan that involved Judd and Jane Crawford, along with the entire Cyclops white supremacist society (the same group that terrorized a young Will Reeves in his Hooded Justice days), to confuse the public, have everyone in masks, and eventually win the presidency. Eventually, though, this plan evolved into Keene getting more power; namely, Dr. Manhattan's power. Clearly, though, (as Lady Trieu later pointed out) this band of morons didn't do anywhere near the requisite amount of homework to pull something like this off. This meant their leader liquidized, and the rest of them vanquished by Lady Trieu's Millennium Clock, right after reading a letter from Will that let them know exactly what was happening.
And while it's played for very good comic relief that Keene's plan came nowhere even close to working, it's also a strong statement that Lindelof makes in the writing of his series. Like Adrian Veidt, we're just looking for a worthy adversary—Lady Trieu, as narcissistic and probably evil as she is, got where she is with intelligence and a drive. These fools are nothing but somewhat ambitious and filled with hate. Not worthy adversaries. Not one bit.
Laurie Blake and Looking Glass
This pair make for unlikely friends throughout the episode, as Laurie realizes that Jon has returned to earth in Cal's form, and LG has to continually vomit, reliving the childhood traumatic experience of Veidt's attack on NYC. The blasts will do that.
LG, having killed the Seventh Kavalry members who attacked him at their house, took one of their masks and is undercover; he wants to free Laurie, but he smartly lays low, knowing they'll be outnumbered. Really, these two serve as observers for the vast majority of the finale's events, until it comes time to head home, at which point Laurie tells Mr. Veidt what she should've told him 34 years ago: "you're under arrest." Veidt protests, but it's OK. They've got it under control. If there's a second Watchmen season, it's exciting to think about the adventures that this duo could get into: The Adventures of The Laurie and Mirror Guy. Into it.
Dr. Manhattan, Will Reeves, and Angela Abar
Man! Didn't expect someone to chop onions during the Watchmen finale, but here we are. This whole thing has been the Angela Abar story, and of course her grandfather—realizing who he is, and what she came from—played a major part in that at every step. Angela has a full heroes arc here, and while she can't save Jon/Cal/Dr. Manhattan, she proves herself worthy once again. The moment where Jon dies, telling Angela "I'm in every moment we were together, all at once," is stunning, as the blast of his leaving humanity pushes her away in a way that he never could himself. Equally stunning is the scene where Angela meets Will in the same Oklahoma! and Bass Reeves theater where the show first started. The jobs that Regina King, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Louis Gossett, Jr. do cannot be understated; these are utterly compelling scenes in a show that is literally dealing with nuclear superpowers. That is not easy.
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Yes! Lube man! What the hell? Who was the lube man? We're just going to go with Petey. That's that. #JusticeForLubeMan. We demand answers!
So what about the actual ending?
In the episode's closing moments, we're treated to yet another egg reference, something that both opened the series (when Angela was speaking to a class of schoolchildren) and multiple times throughout the series. When Angela is cleaning up the broken eggs on her kitchen floor, she recalls that Jon told her that he could transfer his powers, if he so wanted to; lo and behold, she finds one single egg in the carton. As she steps outside, she eats the egg (in a rather odd way, we must say), and swallows down what's inside. She goes to check if she can walk on water, like Jon, and we cut to black. Season over.
And we're left to wonder. It's hard to imagine that it didn't work, but it also suggests an important question: why eggs? Eggs represent a lot, though, and thinking about why eggs, and egg imagery, played such a big part in the series is something worth pondering. One thought is that an egg, in a way, is representative of brand new life and the many ways it can go. A blank canvas: this egg could become a baby chicken; it could become an omelette; it could be swallowed raw; or it could go rotten. The egg is symbolic of hope, and while Jon was able to stave off disaster a few times, in an egg, Angela gets to start over new. She's seen this latest catastrophe play out, and now gets a chance to start fresh. And not that Jon didn't already love her, but after seeing the two sociopaths who tried to snatch his power, it's surely a relief to transfer it over to someone who he can trust.
Even the finale song refers to that ever-so-important breakfast food; the cover of the Beatles classic "I Am The Walrus" (this recording by Spooky Tooth) howls: "I am the egg man," repeatedly. We've probably got a new egg man in this Watchmen world, and it seems pretty darn likely that it's a woman.
And that's it for Watchmen! Quite the ending, but, again, I think they stuck it. The major question now? Will there be a second season, because quite frankly we all need it as soon as possible.
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