The first season of HBO's Watchmen has proven to be complex, riveting, and sometimes, a
little bit confusing.
It's impossible for a story like this to not end with some unanswered questions, so here
are the biggest ones we came away with.
Warning: Like having a conversation with Dr. Manhattan, you will be spoiled.
Adrian Veidt spends almost a decade essentially imprisoned on Europa We see his time there
throughout the season, interspersed with events in Tulsa.
By the season finale, it's clear what's going on in Oklahoma is not happening at the same
time as Veidt's adventures on Jupiter's most lively moon.
The proof is the golden "statue" of Veidt that Angela Abar and Laurie Blake notice when
they interview Lady Trieu.
Laurie comments on how old he looks in the recreation, and it's because it's not a statue.
When Trieu sends a ship to rescue Veidt from Europa, he's preserved for the trip by being
encased in a golden shell, and the instructions he's given insist he put his hands on his
hips before the procedure.
Trieu clearly keeps him on display for a while before reviving him just in time to show him
her master plan in action.
Just how long is not entirely clear.
When Doctor Manhattan teleports Adrian Veidt, Laurie Blake, and Looking Glass to Veidt's
base in Antarctica, it doesn't take much for Veidt to convince the others that Lady Trieu's
plan to become the next Doctor Manhattan needs to be stopped.
Veidt says his daughter won't actually save the world, as she claims, because:
"She is clearly a raging narcissist whose ambition knows no limits.
It's hubris.
Literal hubris."
Trieu definitely does seem to fit that bill.
She doesn't hesitate to kill the leaders of the Kavalry and doesn't seem the least bit
shaken.
She's dishonest, manipulative and ruthless.
Yet all those things could be said about Veidt, who does genuinely hope to save humanity with
his act of genocide at the end of the original comic book series.
"Takes one to know one."
It could be that if Trieu's plan had worked, she could have become some awful dictator.
It's also possible that Trieu would have done exactly what she said and used her new powers
to make the world a better place.
It's kinda what her dad did, right?
In episode 4, Angela, in her Sister Night guise, chases down a costumed figure who douses
himself in oil, drops to the pavement and slides away into a storm drain.
The audience's reaction seemed to be pretty similar to Angela's:
"What the f---?"
Viewers had to be expecting to get some sort of explanation or at least a clue as to who
this mysterious "Lube Man" was in the finale, but he wasn't even mentioned.
The show's creators did offer some clue as to his identity, though.
HBO has been publishing supplemental materials on its website under the title "Peteypedia,"
written in the world of the show by FBI agent Dale Petey.
The last entry isn't credited to Petey, however.
It's credited to an FBI deputy director, who explains that Petey is no longer employed
by the FBI because of his obsession with masked vigilantes and his meandering reports.
Among the possessions removed from his office?
"[...] a jug of what appears to be some kind of canola oil."
When we first meet Will Reeves, he's over 100 years old, retired from his secret life
as Hooded Justice, but spurred back to action after meeting Doctor Manhattan.
For someone who's lived for over a century, he's in miraculously good health.
Even though he claims to be wheelchair-bound at first, we eventually learn he's perfectly
capable of walking all on his own.
The most obvious answer to how Reeves is in such good health is Lady Trieu.
She's a scientific genius who has no compunctions about using unconventional methods to achieve
her goals.
Someone like Trieu seems more than capable of keeping a man alive and healthy longer
than most.
Or maybe Hooded Justice is just made of stronger stuff than the rest of us.
At first, the message from Doctor Manhattan that Will relays to Angela in the movie theater
seems like nonsense.
"You can't make an omelet without breaking a couple eggs."
"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"
But when Angela goes to clean up the egg carton she slammed on the kitchen floor during her
argument with Jon, she remembers Jon telling her "Watch the eggs."
Lo and behold, one egg remains unbroken.
During Angela's first meeting with Jon, he explained he could transfer his power into
an egg that would grant someone else who ate it his abilities.
"I suppose I could transfer my atomic components into some sort of organic material."
Angela takes the egg to her backyard and downs it.
She slowly reaches out to the water of her pool to see if she'll be able to walk on water
like Jon.
Then the screen goes black.
Will Angela be the new Doctor Manhattan?
We're intentionally left in the dark on that question.
Upon his return to Earth, Adrian Veidt isn't met with the praise and forgiveness he expects.
"May I ask you what everybody thinks happened to him?"
"Aw, nobody cares."
Armed with the recordings Veidt made for President Robert Redford, Laurie Blake and Looking Glass
insist on arresting Veidt for his crimes.
Veidt laughs at the idea, but Looking Glass knocks him out cold.
Assuming they return to the U.S. with Veidt and the proof of his crimes, the whole world
will presumably learn the peace forged after what was thought to be an assault by extra-dimensional
aliens was a lie, and that the U.S. president was secretly handpicked from the shadows.
Will the Cold War reignite?
Or, alternatively, will Veidt's recordings prove no more effective than Rorschach's journal?
Will most people find the revelations too fantastic to be true and ignore them as crazy
conspiracy theories?
Many of these questions could be answered in a second season of Watchmen, but show creator
Damon Lindelof has said repeatedly he wanted the first season to tell one self-contained
story, just as the original comic series did.
He hasn't completely ruled out future seasons, though he seems adamant he won't be a part
of it unless there's another story he eventually wants to tell in the world of Watchmen.
He also says he's open to the idea of stepping back and letting someone else tackle another
season.
So will there be a season two of Watchmen?
"You avoided answering by saying, 'Nothing ever ends.'"
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