Hey guys, Pete here. This will be my watchman episode 8 recap. The episode was
titled, "A God walks into Abar," all one word, no space. It was written by Jeff
Jensen and Damon Lindelof and was directed by Nicole Kassell. This video
will contain spoilers for everything that's happened in HBO's Watchmen up
until this point so if you haven't watched episode 8 yet go do that first
and then come back and watch this video. The chicken or the egg.
the paradox. which came first the chicken or the egg? the answer appears to be both.
at exactly the same time. if you knew how a relationship was going to end, and if
it was gonna end tragically, would you still go through with it? in this episode
we find out how Angela and Dr. Manhattan got together how he ended up hiding as
the normal human being Cal in Tulsa, how Adrian Veidt ended up on Europa, and what
the stakes are for the season, if not series finale, next week. we also got a
sense of what it's like to be a god or at least how this story's man who turned
into a god - Dr. Manhattan experiences time.
technically speaking it's a pretty amazing bit of storytelling in that we
get to experience the past present and the future just as he does. this makes it
a memorable hour of television that even though it frustrated me at times in the
sense that we knew how things were gonna turn out, still managed to floor me in
the end. season one of watchmen turns out to be a love story. one that ends
tragically and one that starts at Eddy's bar in Saigon. what exactly did
we learn as we watch these two meet and watch Dr. Manhattan try to convince her
to have dinner with him on the next night? well we learned a bit about Jon
Osterman as a boy. we learned where Mr. Phillips and Ms Crookshanks characters
came from and it turns out as a child Jon Osterman and his father were fleeing
Germany during Hitler's rise to power. on their journey out of Europe they are
helped along by a couple who live in the English manor that John uses as a model
for his new world that he builds on Europa later. after the events of the
squid attack and the end of the comic he goes away to try to create life and we
find out how that all played out Dr. Manhattan created his Adam and Eve
figures to be kinder and gentler beings that were designed to care for others
instead of themselves. he made them not in his image but in the image of the
couple that cared for him and his family and helped them get out of Europe. as it
turns out this got boring for Dr. Manhattan after a while. he says that all
his creations wanted to do is please him, to adore him. their love was infinite which
is the very reason it's so unsatisfying and why he had to leave his creations
behind and return to Earth. during their conversation we also visit
Karnak which was Adrian Veidt's lair in the Antarctic we see there how he
continued to create the periodic squid falls to help maintain world peace and
we get a pretty good idea that Lady Trieu has been keeping that up since he
travelled to Europa in 2009. when she took over his companies they found out
he was missing when they traveled to Karnak so she would have found all that
technology when they went there. in Antarctica we find out where the device
came that Cal had inside of him that we saw Angela pull out with the hammer in
the last episode we find out that the ring was something that Adrian made 30
years ago it was plan "A" for amnesia it was gonna make John forget who he was
but because of the way things played out he had to go with Plan "B" which was
blowing him up which in the end didn't work and yeah we all know how that
played out. so the ring fits into the current timeline for John wanting to
have a normal life as a human being with Angela.
in exchange Dr. Manhattan sends Veidt to Europa so that he can experience the
Utopia that he was hoping to find after he saved humanity. of course no one knows
that he did what he did except for a handful of people,
so he's been kind of lost not knowing what to do with himself. we see a pretty
interesting shot of him when we first come in where he's pissed off because
they're making more bombs when he's given them all these other options, you
know humanity is still continuing to make bombs and we hear John say as
paradoxical as it sounds the bombs make them feel safer. so we learn a lot and we
pretty much understand how we got to where we're going. there's
more to learn about how things play out in europa of course we get the end
credits scene here well we see that the Phillipses and Crookshanks just want
Adrian Veidt to stay. they ask him if he'll stay and he says no over and over
again as they smash tomatoes on his face. in his dungeon the game warden brings in
a cake we noticed that there are seven candles which means it's the seven-year
anniversary of his arrival on Europa. the game warden explains that he was the
very first one, he is the Adam created by Dr. Manhattan. after Adrian blows out the
candles he finds a horseshoe baked inside the cake and he starts to dig
into the floor underneath his bed. back in present time we watched things unfold
as we pick up right where we left off at the end of the last episode we see Dr.
Manhattan wake up we see that the Seventh Kavalry is outside they have a
tachyon cannon to transport him before destroying him it also sets up its own
paradox as Jon's walking across the pool which is probably important because he
tells her that she needs to see him do that for later he sends the kids away to
be with Will Reeves at the dreamland theater in Tulsa he explains that he's
expecting their arrival because he told him about it back in 2009 in that
exchange Jon is still with Will Reeves back in New York so Angela asks him how
did he know Crawford was a part of Cyclops and how did he know that he had
that Klan robe in his closet of course Will doesn't know because it's 10 years
ago so this sets up the idea who killed Judd Crawford was it Angela or was it
Will? to dr. Manhattan it doesn't really matter but to us as viewers we'd like to
find out I'm sure in the end they have to face the Kavalry there's the
wonderful moment where Jon realizes that he's in love with Angela the
question that she asked him before she's getting ready to go out and fight and he
says I just told you you can't save me and you're gonna try anyway it was
pretty badass they even gave this away in the trailer and it still landed when
you see it in the actual episode outside she does her best to fight them off
eventually Dr. Manhattan has to intervene to save her life and just when
she thinks they won a Kavalry member steps up to the cannon and transports
him away. so it is a really interesting episode of television perhaps I'm a
softie but I really dig the way they turned it into a love story it makes me
think about that famous quote about puppets he says to Laurie at one point in
the comic we're all puppets Laurie I'm just a puppet who can see the strings
and there is a kind of symmetry here where in the comic he is a human that
turns into a god here he is a god who turns back into human and for what
reason but love. so where does it leave us for the final episode we did get
mention of a little elephant Adrian Veidt says a little elephant told him
that Dr. Manhattan was on Europa that would most likely be Lady Trieu and that
would likely tie her character into saving Adrian from Europa it also makes
it more likely in my mind that Adrian is the one she's referring to when she says
her father as far as we know Dr. Manhattan is now in custody of the
Seventh Kavalry and Senator Keene they'll be trying to move forward with their
plan to turn Keene into the new Manhattan but we don't know what Will is
up to and we don't know what Lady Trieu is up to except for that we know that she's
getting ready to make her millennium clock go live so it should be a pretty
fantastic finale seeing how Angela tries to rescue dr. Manhattan what happens
with Laurie Blake how Looking Glass will figure in and I think most importantly
what Will Reeves has up his sleeve since he has had quite a bit of time to think
about this and work with Lady Trieu he's almost certainly on some kind of a plan
to fix the world just like Adrian Veidt was trying to at the end of the comic so
let me know what you think in the comments what do you think about this
episode what do you think about the big reveals what did you think of
experiencing time like a god like dr. Manhattan does do you think they pulled
it off did you find it frustrating that you knew what was going to happen
a lot of cases and if that's the case do you think that was the point it's pretty
interesting when you look at it through that lens how will it affect the end of
the story is what's about to happen to dr.
Manhattan another black spot or does he know exactly how that's gonna play out
as soon as the episode ends I always go to the Petey files to see what it can fill
in and this time it's more of a mystery than anything else well it does at least
in my opinion confirm that he is lube man that part seems to come out in his
writing about Fogdancer the incident report the memo about
nothing ever ends is pretty confusing it seems to be after whatever happens in
episode 9 but I don't think it really gives us any answers as to how that's
gonna play out I'm gonna have to go back and read it again and kind of pick it
apart and see if there's something more that I'm missing but when I first looked
at it I was like wait a minute is this a mistake that they put the wrong one up
and you have to look at it for yourself but it's kind of interesting how they
had Petey look at the writing that he made about Fogdancer when he was young and
how he interprets that now so it's definitely interesting but not
necessarily filling in any answers as far as I can tell overall I really
enjoyed this episode I enjoyed the answer is the way they put
all the pieces together of the puzzle that they laid out for us in the process
of writing this I'm just finding myself liking it even more
it definitely tickles the part of me that loved this story and the way that
it's built off of it and the big-picture stuff that they're doing with Angela's
character it's all becoming more and more exciting and rewarding from my
perspective the introduction of dr. Manhattan certainly changes everything
especially after this episode where we get that from his perspective but it
feels like they're pulling it off like they're pulling off being able to give
us a story that hits home on a human level even when it comes through that
perspective of someone who was human and became a super-powered individual God
through the choices that he made as mentioned I really want to see how this
all plays out as far as Lady Trieu's plans how they line up with
Adrian's plans what he does when he comes back what ends up happening with
Laurie and with Angela and how they're gonna wrap this whole story up so please
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for watching I'll talk to you soon