Watchmen episode 8 ends with a post-credits scene and here's what it means for next week's season 1 finale. The ordeal of Adrian Veidt AKA Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) has been the most bizarre aspect of Damon Lindelof's "remix" sequel to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' graphic novel. Seemingly unconnected to the main story set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Veidt has been isolated in an idyllic country manor with an array of servants, which are clones of his butler Mr. Phillips (Tom Mison) and his maid Ms. Crookshanks (Sarah Vickers).
As Watchmen progressed, it became clear that Ozymandias was a prisoner who was plotting a means of escape. Watchmen episode 8, "A God Walks Into Abar", made Veidt's whereabouts and predicament explicit: He is trapped on Europa, the moon of Jupiter 390-million miles from Earth, in a 'paradise' constructed by Doctor Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II). The blue super being delivered on his promise to create new life but, after he terraformed Europa and made the first of his Phillips and Crookshanks clones, Manhattan abandoned his creation. In 2009, after visiting Ozymandias at his Antarctic retreat, Karnak, Manhattan teleported Veidt to his Europa paradise as a 'reward' for inventing a means to allow him to live as a human named Cal Abar with Detective Angela Abar AKA Sister Night (Regina King) via mechanically-induced amnesia.
At first, Veidt enjoyed his peaceful new home on Europa, styling himself as a literal lord of the manor. But he grew bored of paradise and of his simpleminded servants and Adrian yearned to return to Earth. As he tried to make his escape - and made contact with an Earth satellite passing Jupiter - Veidt was captured, tried, and found guilty by the Game Warden, his overseer, for the crime of violating the one rule of paradise: "Thou shalt not leave."
What Happens In Watchmen Episode 8's Post-Credits Scene?
Watchmen episode 8's post-credits scene actually begins during the credits with audio of Phillips and Crookshanks asking Veidt if he will stay, Ozymandias repeatedly refusing, and the servants taking turns smashing ripe tomatoes into their master's face. This moment seems to occur soon after Veidt's farcical trial. The scene then cuts to Veidt in a dank prison cell and it's one year later because, in each episode of Watchmen where Ozymandias appears, there is a time jump of one year.
The Game Warden visits Veidt on his anniversary with the traditional yellow and purple cake prepared by his servants. Veidt's masked overseer then reveals that he was the original clone (the 'Adam' of this Eden) built by Doctor Manhattan and he even watched his creator construct their paradise. The Game Warden again asks Veidt if he will stay, but Ozymandias explains that this 'Heaven' isn't enough for him and that his "8-million children" on Earth need him, which lays bare Veidt's twisted God complex. Furious, the Game Warden tells Veidt to enjoy his "f@$#ing cake" and exits. After Adrian blows out his candles, he notices a metallic horseshoe buried in the cake. This is the same horseshoe a previous Mr. Phillips mistakenly gave Veidt instead of a fork to cut his cake on his one-year anniversary. Overjoyed, Veidt uses the horseshoe and begins digging at the floor of his cell.
Ozymandias Is Escaping And... Returning To Earth?
When the post-credits scene ends, Veidt is hard at work trying to escape his cell; getting off Europa entirely and returning to Earth has to be his objective. How he will accomplish the latter is the big question but the World's Smartest Man must have already invented a contingency plan. However, it's interesting to note that there are seven candles on Veidt's cake, indicating that since he arrived in paradise in 2009, Adrian is making his escape in 2016 - 3 years before the main story of Watchmen.
Since all of Ozymandias's scenes are flashbacks, it's possible that Adrian Veidt is actually already on Earth and always has been throughout the primary story in Tulsa. This begs the question: Was Ozymandias the thing that crashed from space into Oklahoma on the night Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) purchased the farmland where she built her Millennium Clock? And if that was Veidt who plummeted to Earth, where has he been for the last three years? The answers will surely come in Watchmen's season 1 finale.
Watchmen's season 1 finale airs Sunday, December 15 @ 9pm on HBO.