The entire fate of the world will be determined with one last chapter of HBO’s Watchmen. We don’t know how they’ll do it, but we can’t wait to finally get answers to the many mysteries we’ve obsessed over throughout the season. Here are our 12 biggest questions for the finale. Tick tock, tick tock….
1. Who did/will Dr. Manhattan give his powers to?
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Forget “Chekhov’s Gun,” we’re all about “Manhattan’s Egg.” You don’t discuss transferring your atomic powers via an organic vessel unless you are going to. Or already have. Dr. Manhattan will either give some or all of powers to someone else before the Seventh Kavalry can take them. Our best guess for who that might be/was? Angela’s grandfather Will, the original superhero of the Watchmen world, who he met with ten years earlier.
2. What is Lady Trieu’s real goal?
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Lady Trieu wants to “save f***ing humanity” from white nationalists gaining the powers of a literal god, but is that all she wants? She seems to also hate Dr. Manhattan and possibly America itself for annexing Vietnam. She might even be working with the unaware Seventh Kavalry to achieve revenge for her country. But is it possible that she might have the exact same aspirations as Joe Keene and she wants to steal Manhattan’s powers for herself? Her motives and endgame are likely as complicated as Adrian Veidt’s were in 1985. Will they be more or less sinister?
3. What does the Millennium Clock do?
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Bian said, “It tells time.” Yes, but time is relative, especially for someone with Dr. Manhattan’s powers. So what time is the massive, nearly indestructible Tulsa building telling? And what might it have to do with the mesmerism technology Will used to make Judd Crawford kill himself? Is the Millennium Clock a type of bomb? Time machine? Hypnotic device? Or does it instill memories in people, a la Trieu’s Nostalgia? The possibilities seem both endless and terrifying.
4. Who is Lady Trieu’s father?
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Her daughter-mother clone Bian will be there when Lady Trieu accomplishes her life’s work, but she also said her father will be too. So who is he? The three best candidates seem to be Dr. Manhattan, Adrian Veidt, and Laurie Blake’s father, the long-dead Comedian. Death hasn’t stop Lady Trieu from having her own mother around, so even a crazy theory like Blake being her father isn’t impossible.
5. Where is Ozymandias now?
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Adrian Veidt’s entire story has been told in flashback so far, but we expect him to catch up to the current timeline in the season finale. If he made it off Europa after 2016, when and how did he do so? Lady Trieu seems like his only hope, so did she save him with a spaceship? Or via teleportation? If so, where is he now? Have we already seen him back on Earth? Is that gold statue in her vivarium actually him in his own Han Solo-in-carbonite-esque prison? And what role did a horseshoe actually play in all this?
6. Why did the Seventh Kavalry collect old watch batteries?
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One of our first questions from the premiere has still not been answered, though it has been slightly focused. They are planning on destroying Dr. Manhattan and stealing his powers. How will old Manhattan-created batteries help them do that?
7. Where is Looking Glass?
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Joe Keene showed Wade Tillman his entire sad life was a lie. There was never an alien squid. Then the Seventh Kavalry tried to kill Looking Glass after they used him. He escaped, along with one of their masks, so what is he going to do with it? Did he already infiltrate the Kavalry? For what purpose? Could he help save the day before they acquire ultimate power? or is he focused on anyone who helped maintain Ozymandia’s lie?
8. Will the world learn the truth about Adrian Veidt’s squid?
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A “vast and insidious conspiracy” is trying to steal Dr. Manhattan’s powers. Meanwhile, Adrian Veidt’s own conspiracy that killed three million innocent people seems on the verge of finally being made public too. But with so much going on, will the truth of Ozymandias’ “alien” squid finally become public? Or will it remain the greatest lie ever told all in the name of world peace? And who, if anyone, still wants it to remain a secret and why?
9. Will Laurie Blake learns the truth about Dr. Manhattan?
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Laurie Blake’s unique “suitcase” and her calls to Mars proved she is still somewhat attached to Dr. Manhattan. How will she react to learning she was talking to him (and calling him “hot”) the whole time without knowing it, i.e. in the form of Angela’s husband Cal? How much more can one person take in a life full of tragedy and insane situations? And could it be another ex that helps saves her? Could Nite Owl finally appear for an unlikely reunion of the Crime Busters?
10. Who is LubeMan?
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Sister Night saw a tall, lanky masked man in a full skin-tight gray body suit. He lubed himself up and escaped down a sewer when she gave chase. And that’s all we’ve seen of him. At least in the suit. Was that mysterious figure who only appeared in one scene actually Special Agent Dale Petey? He fits the body type, and two new files on the show’s companion website certainly point to him as being the strange “Fogdancing” figure we saw.
11. Who is Will really working with?
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Dr. Manhattan met with Will long before the former Hooded Justice knew Lady Trieu. If Lady Trieu’s plans are more nefarious than we think, Dr. Manhattan would also know that, which means Will knows that too. Who is Will really working with then? Did his alliance with Dr. Manhattan give him the power to stop Lady Trieu from going too far? Or is she truly Will’s ally as well?
12. What is Dr. Manhattan’s plan?
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He said the Seventh Kavalry will destroy him, but it seems unlikely Dr. Manhattan would let an evil group steal his powers without a plan to prevent that. So even if he did/will transfer his powers, how exactly will that prevent Joe Keene from becoming an all-powerful god? Why was Dr. Manhattan unconcerned by any of this during his final moments with Angela? Why was it “important for later” that she see him standing on the pool? What did his actions after waking up in 2019 have to do with his ultimate plan?
And what did waffles have to do with any of it? And broken eggs?
We’ll find out during the season finale. Tick tock. tick tock….
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