Watchmen – An Almost Religious Awe Review

I have to admit, so much happened in “An Almost Religious Awe” that I don’t really know where to jump into this review. I suppose the best jumping-off point would be with the continuing deepening of what we know about our protagonist, Angela Abar – especially since she seems to be the link to the majority of the episode’s major plot points (Laurie Blake being the other, and I’ll touch a bit on her arc later on). Coming on the heels of an episode that absolutely turned the mythology of Watchmen on its head, I expected a bit of housecleaning and perhaps some more answers to appear this week. Instead, we were given perhaps the biggest story twist of them all: Doctor Manhattan has been on Earth – and on the series – the whole time.

Angela’s life has, much like her grandfather Will’s, been defined by tragedy. In “An Almost Religious Awe” we get to witness the bombing that led to the death of her parents (and the beginning of her own secret identity as Sister Night*). That such a moment happened on a day celebrating Doctor Manhattan’s role in ending the Vietnam War, well, that’s just a perfect bit of foreshadowing for the episode’s major reveal. In fact, the flashbacks of Angela in Vietnam are awash in Doctor Manhattan imagery, from the orphans painting Doctor Manhattan statues to the brick wall art depicting the blue god with the word murderer painted on it and red paint symbolizing the Vietnamese blood on his hands. Doctor Manhattan may have won the war, but he also killed many (something that doesn’t phase him in the graphic novel – he’s above that sort of human emotion) and led to a country becoming colonized by the United States. It turns out that colonization wasn’t great for everyone (shocking, I know), and there are still many angry Vietnamese, as evidenced by the bombing that kills the Abars. Angela’s life parallels Laurie’s in striking ways, and it’s easy to understand why she would be chosen by Doctor Manhattan as the human he reaches out to so that he can be kept safe on Earth until such time that he’s needed.

*That Angela’s secret identity is cribbed from a Blaxploitation film is a pretty slick move on the part of the episode’s writers Stacy Osei-Kuffour and Claire Kiechel. There wasn’t much black female representation on film back in the 70s, and there certainly weren’t any superhero-esque characters for Angela to look up to. As Laurie said, people wear masks to hide from their trauma. Angela took that a step further in adapting her identity directly from her trauma.

So, Doctor Manhattan is on Earth and Angela’s known the whole time. Looking back from our current vantage point, the reveal completely tracks with all we’ve seen of Cal. First, his discussion of heaven with the kids a few episodes back was as cerebral as could be – a mark of Doctor Manhattan. Then there was Laurie’s comment that Cal was fucking hot (which, yes, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is a very attractive man) after spending some time interviewing him one-on-one – something Angela was very worried about, and we now understand exactly why. Laurie spent two decades with Doctor Manhattan – if anyone on Earth could recognize that he was hiding behind the eyes of Cal, it would be her (and I suspect she likely felt some connection to Cal she couldn’t quite put her finger on – we know Laurie is a generally strong judge of character and a crack detective).

And, finally, there’s the lingering question of just how Cal and Angela survived the White Night. From the flashback we saw, Angela was about to be shot at point blank range and Cal was in another room. Their unlikely survival makes a lot more sense now that we know Doctor Manhattan was there. If he can bleed through Cal at moments (as we saw with the heaven discussion), it makes sense that he would have done something to save Angela and Cal from the Seventh Kalvary members. For all Doctor Manhattan’s faults (and there are many), it helps to have him around in a crisis (especially when his own survival is threatened).

So, what does this mean moving forward? I have no idea. Is Cal gone from the world (Angela made it seem like this choice to implant Doctor Manhattan in Cal’s head was one they both made together, giving them some additional time to be together, but knowing that at some point in the future it would mean the loss of Cal’s life to save the blue god)? Will we be seeing the traditional image of Doctor Manhattan next week (blue, all-powerful, and super naked)? Who will be playing Doctor Manhattan (no one has officially been announced as the character, so I suppose we’ll see if it’s still Abdul-Mateen or if someone else takes up the mantle)? So many questions to look forward to next week. As far as what it means for the story, well, Angela might just have foiled the Seventh Kalvary plot by releasing Doctor Manhattan, but there’s just as much chance that she only moved the plot forward.

An interesting thing to remember about Doctor Manhattan from the graphic novel: He lives his life outside of linear time, experiencing every moment of his life all at once, which means he repeats everything he’s lived before over and over again. And, not to get too cute with symbolism, but that’s really the heart of Watchmen: Each of our characters is repeating something over again. Angela is reliving her grandfather’s life – working through her trauma through the wearing of a mask. Laurie is, clearly, reliving her mother’s life (and now, filled with cynicism toward the world, her father’s as well). Judd Crawford and Joe Keen are trying to make America great again for white men, much like their fathers before them. And Lady Trieu is literally bringing her parents back to life. All of this has happened before and all of it will happen again.

I love cyclical storytelling, when something in a series shows that despite the characters seeming to learn a lesson, it’s clear that the lesson won’t stick for future generations, and I’m loving this riff on that even more. Seeing these characters repeating the same actions, successes, and missteps of their fore-bearers makes them all the more human. It also takes a rather cynical view of humanity, which, considering the state of our current world, makes some sense. We’re often so focused on searching for a way to make things better that we rarely take the time to look into what made things “bad” in the first place. The focus on Nostalgia as a way to both escape to the past and, as Lady Trieu mentioned this episode, force ourselves to relive our mistakes, evokes this theme beautifully. Keen is looking for a way to escape to the past – to find the America that was “better” for him and those like him (and, of course, worse for those who weren’t cis straight white men). Only, instead of simply raising an army of white supremacists to send him to the White House, he’s going to try to become a god. After all, if Doctor Manhattan managed to win Vietnam for America without a political agenda, imagine all the “good” Keen can do with those powers.

Final Thoughts:

— It’s rare with a show like this that I get to toot my own horn, but boy was I pleased to see that my prediction that June Crawford would have more to do with Keen’s plan was confirmed. As I said previously, the show tipped its hand here a bit with the casting of Frances Fisher, but boy, what a scene with her and Jean Smart. It’s rare that a villain gets the upper hand on Laurie Blake, but she was completely played here.

— The best chance for Laurie to get out of the pickle she finds herself in? Well, that would be “Mirror Guy” freeing her. I suspect Laurie has already put two and two together and figured out that Wade is now sporting a Rorschach mask and has infiltrated the Seventh Kalvary (Petey’s description of the bloodbath at the house and Wade not being there should be enough for her to figure this one out). Those two teaming up to try and stop this crazy scheme (while Angela works on things from the other side of the coin) should lead to a great finale.

— Speaking of Angela, she learned that Lady Trieu’s clock is meant to save the world. Just how that links up with the Seventh Kalvary’s plan (which she also knows about, thanks to Will), I don’t know.

— We got a bit more of Veidt’s arc this week, with a strange trial taking place (over the course of an entire year of his time, apparently). With Doctor Manhattan having been on Earth for a number of years at this point, I’m starting to lean more on my idea that Lady Trieu is somehow involved in his captivity. After all, she’s worked in space travel (as she listed in her past accomplishments), and the episode lingered on that shot of the Veidt statue in Trieu’s possession following our interlude in court. Another link? In her speech, Trieu mentioned that with the clock, we will look on our works and not despair, a riff on the “Ozymandias” poem – and, of course, Veidt masked name was Ozymandias. Too many links for it not to simply be a coincidence.

— I have it on good authority that something important happens after the credits in next week’s episode. So, be sure to watch them.