Watchmen (2019) 1.08

A God Walks into Abar

Dr. Manhattan finds Angela in 2009, on the 22nd anniversary of her parents death. She is a police officer in Vietnam. She is in a bar, when he finds her, drinking a beer. He asks her to have dinner with him the next night. She laughs in his face and doesn't believe that he is really Dr. Manhattan.

He tells her about his operation on Europa, where he created life including a man and a woman. He tells her about his childhood and the two people who inspired the people he created. Their story, that of Angela and Doctor Manhattan, flashes forward seveal times over the course of the episode.

Angela comes up with a way for Doctor Manhattan to hide himself, in plain sight. She shows him the body of a man, named Calvin Jelani. Cal doesn't have any family.Doctor Manhattan assumes his appearance.

Doctor Manhattan goes to see Adrian Veidt in his polar headquarters. It has been 22 years since they last spoke. Veidt agrees to help Doctor Manhattan forget. It is what he wants. Dr. Manhattan tells Veidt about his operation on Europa and the life he created. Veidt sounds interested. Doctor Manhattan sends him there.

Dr. Manhattan takes the ring that Veidt gave him and goes to see Angela. He explains to her what it will do, how it will cause him to forget who is and what he is capable of doing. She follows his instructions and pushes the ring into his forehead.

The story flashes forward to 2019. Cal/Jon wakes up. Angela tries to talk to him but he seems distracted. He sends the children away to be with Will. He flashes back to a visit he paid to Will Reeves, in 2009. Angela, in 2019, asks him how Will knew about Judd Crawford's past. He asks Will in 2009. Will didn't know in 2009, but now, in 2009, he does.

Angela tells him about what the Seventh Kavalry have planned. Jon tells her that the Seventh Kavalry are outside with a cannon designed especially for him. She grabs weapons and heads outside to deal with the Seventh Kavalry. She puts up a good fight, kills several of them but they are too much for her. Jon shows up, just as it looks like she is about to be killed, and helps her to kill the rest of the Kavalry men. Angela is relieved but then the cannon activates and Jon diappears.

Adrian Veidt, on Europa, is humiliated by his servants, who were created by Dr. Manhattan. He is returned to his jail cell after they rub tomatoes in his face. The game warden brings Veidt a cake that Mr. Phillips and Miss Crookshanks made for him. They exchange a few words. Veidt notices, after the game warden leaves, that there is a piece of metal in the cake. It is the horseshoe. He pulls it out of the cake wipes it off and starts to scrape at the floor with it.

Thoughts

I noticed the title when I started to watch the episode but it wasn't until after I watched it that I noticed that Abar in the title was spelled as one word and not two.

Jon's skin is blue in 2019 but he still looks like Cal.

I've had some of the end spoiled for me, but I don't know everything that is going to happen in the final episode.

Veidt is reading a book called Fogdancing when the game warden brings him the cake. I could do online research into it but I'm afraid I might also find spoilers in the process of my research. What little I have found is that it is not a real book but something that exists in the Watchmen universe.

I did enjoy the twists and the way in which Doctor Manhattan exists in multiple places at the same time. I think there was an issue of the comic book series that played off of the same idea. 

I thought this episode was, like the last couple, quite good. It still feels like things are coming together but I'm not sure that they will resolve everything. I'm not sure that I want them to resolve everything.

I love the chicken and the egg analogy that is used in this episode after Will finds out about Judd Crawford's background from Angela's question.