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Warning : MAJOR SPOILERS forWatchmenEpisode 7
HBO’sWatchmenshockingly reveal that Doctor Manhattan has been obscure in plain plenty as one of the show ’s major eccentric : Cal Abar ( Yahya Abdul - Mateen II ) is Doctor Manhattan , and has been all along . Further , Cal ’s wife Detective Angela Abar AKA Sister Night ( Regina King ) has been hold open Cal ’s secret - even from himself .
Watchmenepisode 7 , " An Almost Religious Awe " , filled in Angela ’s backstory of growing up in Vietnam , something only alluded to thus far . The granddaughter ofWill Reeves AKA hood Justice(Louis Gossett , Jr. ) , Angela was orphan when she was 10 years old by a terrorist attack on the day of remembrance of VVN ( Victory in Vietnam , i.e. when Doctor Manhattan won the war inWatchmen ’s universe ) that kill her parent - an descent fib that eerily recall her grandfather ’s . Angela also briefly meet her gran June ( Danielle Deadwyler ) , who came to Saigon for her , before June short died as well . Meanwhile , Doctor Manhattan ’s presence in the background of young Angela ’s life foretold the fact that they would not only meet but become a couple when she grows up .
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" An Almost spiritual Awe " lay many cards on the table thatWatchmenhad been holding closely to the undershirt , especially when it comes toDoctor Manhattan , who everyone believes has been live on Mars since 11/2/85 . This includes his ex - buff Laurie Blake ( Jean Smart ) , who resigned herself to Doctor Manhattan"not giving a sh*t"about humanness anymore . But it turns out the blue super being has been a front inWatchmensince the beginning - something several of the characters on the show not only knew but have been plotting to take advantage of .
Cal Abar Is Doctor Manhattan In Disguise
Cal Abar is Doctor Manhattan disguised as a human but with a twist - he did n’t remember who he is ( until Angela ' woke ' him at the end of the episode ) , and this was in reality his idea so that he and Angela could live a normal biography together"for a while " . Using a covert story that Cal was in a motorcar accident in Vietnam that gave him total amnesia - a conditionLady Trieu(Hong Chau ) doubt - Cal took on a human form and locomote to Tulsa with Angela . As a willing amnesiac , Cal happily play house - husband to their adopted tike while Angela fight crime as a masked police officer .
However , Watchmenhad flatten contextual hint about Cal ’s identity since the beginning : Will Reeves insisted that Doctor Manhattan could take human form - an estimation Angela quickly shot down and later , Cal also dismissed since Manhattan is blue . In fact , both Angela and Cal always held to the publicly accepted estimate that Doctor Manhattan is on Mars . Meanwhile , Cal was nimble to dismiss that Heaven and Hell exist to their adopted children , which is something Doctor Manhattan has always claim . Laurie Blake also note how"hot"Cal is when they converge ; as his ex-wife , Laurie still long for Doctor Manhattan , hence theitem in her briefcasethat she does n’t part with . In fact , his very name , " Cal Abar " , is a clue : " Cal " is evocative of Kal - El , Superman ’s real name , and Doctor Manhattan is theSuperman ofWatchmen ’s universe . " Abar " refers to the fact that he met Angela in a saloon in Saigon ( and " A God Walks Into A Bar " is the title ofWatchmenepisode 8) .
The Seventh Kavalry/Cyclops Want To Steal Doctor Manhattan’s Powers
Angela violently ended Cal ’s guise , retrieved the hydrogen atom ikon from his os frontale , and woke up the real being beneath - Jon Osterman ( Doctor Manhattan ’s human name ) - because she know they ’re in trouble ; Doctor Manhattan is the target of theSeventh Kavalry ’s original plan . 7 G are really the present - day incarnation of Cyclops , the branch of the Ku Klux Klan Hooded Justice fought in the 1940s . Will Reeves killed Chief Judd Crawford ( Don Johnson ) because he learned that Judd and Senator Joe Keene ( James Wolk ) conjure together to take over water flea .
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The " warfare " between the Tulsa Police and the 7 K was a front for their genuine schema : Cyclops knows Doctor Manhattan is on Earth and they contrive to capture him , slip his powers , and give it to themselves , likely by using the teleportation gadget they point toLooking Glass(Tim Blake Nelson ) . Despite Keene claiming that water flea are n’t racialist , he told Laurie Blake,“it is extremely difficult to be a bloodless man in America right now so … I might try being a blue one . “Meanwhile , Lady Trieu take her Millennium Clock will"save humanity " , seemingly by stopping Cyclops from becoming an regular army of Doctor Manhattans . Whichever side will prevail inWatchmen ’s final episodes , the clock is tick .
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Watchmenairs Sundays @ 9 pm on HBO .
