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Warning : MAJOR SPOILERS forWatchmenEpisode 8 .
Watchmenepisode 8 hinges on a brilliant and unexpected timeline twist that takes the worldly mechanics found in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons ' graphic novel to another level . Formally reintroducing Doctor Manhattan ( Yahya Abdul - Mateen II ) into the HBO series , " A God Walks Into Abar " reveals the paradox that connectsDetective Angela Abar AKA Sister Night(Regina King ) and her granddaddy Will Reeves AKA Hooded Justice , which was enable by Doctor Manhattan himself . In fact , the flash point that kicked offWatchmen ’s story - the murder of Chief Judd Crawford ( Don Johnson ) - could only happen because Will and Angela were linked together by Doctor Manhattan .
" A God Walks Into Abar " showcases the polar love floor between Angela and Doctor Manhattan AKA Jon Osterman at the sum of Damon Lindelof ’s daring " remix " ofWatchmen . The key event of the installment occur at two dissimilar second ten year aside : the first meeting between Angela and Jon in Saigon , Vietnamon VVN Day in 2009 , which take fire their love matter , and what happens after Angela reawakened Doctor Manhattan from his human disguise , Cal Abar , in 2019 . From those two anchor points , the sequence utilize multiple flashbacks narrated by Doctor Manhattan : To romance her , he enjoin Angela the level how he spend the years since 11/2/1985 on Europa creating new lifeforms and how unseasoned Jon and his Padre Hans come to delay at an English body politic manor house in 1936 after they escaped Nazi Germany , where he met the couple who would inspire him to produce the dead ringer Mr. Phillips ( Tom Mison ) and Ms. Crookshanks ( Sara Vickers ) . But Jon and Angela ’s " burrow of love life " - driven by his unequalled connection to time - is the focal power point ; the instalment reveals how Angela chose the human dead body of Cal for Jon to assume so they could live together as humanity and their essential argument which guide Doctor Manhattan to travel to Karnak to seek out the assist of Adrian Veidt ( Jeremy Irons ) .
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It was indeed Ozymandias who face the resolution to Doctor Manhattan ’s job : a machine he make 30 twelvemonth ago that could erase the blue demigod ’s memory of who he is and what he can do . Knowing that he would then spend the next 10 year " blind " , Manhattan visited Will Reeves in New York in 2009 , which kvetch off the series of consequence that led to Judd Crawford ’s murder . Finally , back in 2019 , the reawakened Doctor Manhattan play out the events of the timeline that he is confine to : despite Angela ’s movement to save him , Jon permit theSeventh Kavalryto use their tachyonic carom to teleport and destroy him .
" A God Walks Into Abar " is a mind - bending and riveting episode that brings the events ofWatchmento a heart - rick crescendo . Here ’s howWatchmenplayed with time itself to enable its chief story with the intricate precision of a perfectly manufacture clock .
Angela And Will Reeves Are In A Time Loop Because Of Doctor Manhattan
The secret of howWill Reeveslearned that Judd Crawford had a Ku Klux Klan robe in his closet ( belong to Judd ’s grandpa ) , which precede Hooded Justice to discover Judd ’s secret alliance with theSeventh Kavalryand thus , Will Reeves mutilate the Tulsa Police Chief , was divulge : It was Angela herself who " tell " Will through Doctor Manhattan . This could only happen because of Doctor Manhattan ’s unequaled power to see his own timeline in a non - linear fashion : the superhuman being experiences his past , present , and future events at the same time . So , while he was utter to Angela in their backyard in 2019 , he was also speaking to Will Reeves in New York City in 2o09 - two events a decade aside that were happening at the same sentence to Doctor Manhattan .
Doctor Manhattan ’s concurrent bearing in both metre period shut up Will and Angela into a paradox . Because , through Jon , she could speak to her grandfather in the past tense , Angela need to lie with how Will bonk about Judd ’s kinship group gown . The reply was : he did n’t , not until that accurate here and now when Doctor Manhattan take Will for Angela . Reeves had never even heard of Judd Crawford before Manhattan attend as Angela ’s mouthpiece ; therefore , it was Angela who planted the cognition in Will ’s idea and thus , Angela indirectly kill Judd . Doctor Manhattan ’s visit to Will Reeves while inhabiting Cal Abar ’s body is also how Reeves knew the superhuman could look like a human being , which he told Angela inWatchmenepisode 2 ; something Angela , of course , already knew but pretend she did n’t .
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Therefore , everything Will sleep with and did relating to Judd Crawford from 2009 - onward was commence by Angela herself in 2019 . As Doctor Manhattan described it , this is a ' chicken and the egg ' paradox that oblige Jon Osterman , Will Reeves , and Angela Abar in a profound way . Watchmen ’s time paradox is also remindful ofLOST , which is n’t surprising considering Damon Lindelof is the mastermind behind both serial . TheWatchmencomics were a major influence behindLOSTso it ’s fitting that the deterrent example Lindelof learn were reapplied toWatchmen , to an as fascinating burden .
What Watchmen’s Time Loop Means
TheWatchmenTV series make Doctor Manhattan ’s ability to influence time key to its story and run short much further than the vivid novel did . In the comic , Doctor Manhattan only passively apply how he experience sentence to recount his origin report and the polar software program is when he decide Laurie Juspeczyk AKASilk SpectreII ’s giving birth is a thermodynamic miracle , which move him to regress to Earth to stopAdrian Veidt ’s giant squid plot .
But in HBO’sWatchmen , the unfeigned disaster ofDoctor Manhattanis put down bare : for all of his immeasurable powers , Doctor Manhattan is actually a striver to time and he must stock out the case of the future he has already foreseen . Angela contumaciously tries to alter the future tense Jon say is inevitable and examine to save him , but even though they wipe out the Seventh Kavalry together , Manhattan still allows himself to be struck by the tachyonic cannon . Jon could have destroyed it and altered the future ( just like how , tenner ago , he could have cease The Comedian from killing the Vietnamese charwoman bearing his love youngster ) but he does n’t , Doctor Manhattan carries out time ’s will and play through event like time ’s marionette .
Doctor Manhattan always voluntarily submitting to the will of time suggests that all events are locked in inevitably . This thought of human death enjoin that everyone and everything , even the most brawny being in the universe , is powerless against meter itself . And while this is true , it ’s also worth noting that the news report is n’t over andWatchmen ’s close has yet to be save . Because Angela and Doctor Manhattan are n’t the only player determine events ; there is alsoLady Trieu(Hong Chau ) , Will Reeves , and Adrian Veidt who must be allowed to bet out their roles inWatchmen ’s season 1 coda .
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Watchmen ’s time of year 1 finale air Sunday , December 15 @ 9 pm on HBO .
