Warning: SPOILERS for Watchmen Episode 7
HBO's Watchmen is nearing the end of its first season, and its eighth episode contains plenty of references and Easter Eggs to the original comic series. The entire season has featured several easter eggs in each episode, and they just keep coming with Episode 8: "A God Walks Into Abar."
While Episode 7 revealed that Angela Abar's husband Cal was actually Doctor Manhattan, Episode 8 reveals how Angela and Manhattan meet, as well as Manhattan's past, present, and future, which he experiences all at the same time. Manhattan was never on Mars, as was believed after the original Watchmen comic. Instead, he was on one of Jupiter's moons (Europa) creating life. He then meets Angela, determining to live with her as a mortal, giving himself amnesia so he wouldn't know to use his abilities. Here are all the Easter Eggs, references, and hidden secrets fans won't want to miss from one of the craziest episodes yet.
9. Rhapsody In Blue
At the very beginning of the episode, Doctor Manhattan is walking down the street in Vietnam on VVN day. Wearing a suit and a Doctor Manhattan mask, the music playing is George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue." Music has been a recurring source of added drama an irony in both the comic book and movie version of Watchmen, and the same is true here... given the context of the episode, and Manhattan's particular skin pigmentation.
8. A God Walks Into Abar
The episode title is a playful reference in and of itself, as a play on words due to the fact that Doctor Manhattan, a being with god-like powers, does indeed walk into a bar. However, the reason he walks into a bar is to walk into the life of Angela Abar. It's a very fitting and clever title, all things considered. Is it strangely tragic when fans recall the last time Manhattan walked into a Vietnam bar in the original comic? Yes, so don't.
7. Dave Gibbons-Style Artwork
When the episode explores Jon Osterman's childhood long before he was transformed into Manhattan, audiences see how he and his father are taken in by a lord and lady of a manor house in the English countryside. The lord and lady gift Jon with a Bible, and in a moment of foreshadowing, tell him about its first book, Genesis, wherein God creates the universe. There's a picture of Adam and Eve, and the artwork is explicitly evocative of artist Dave Gibbons' work (if not his actual illustration), co-creator of the original Watchmen comic.
6. Mr. Blue in Antartica
Manhattan later goes to visit Adrian Veidt at his fortress in Antarctica in 2009 (the same one seen at the end of the original comic book). As he enters the fortress, another blue-themed music track plays: "Mr. Blue" by the Fleetwoods. The song is perfect in a few ways. Firstly, Doc Manhattan is undoubtedly 'Mr. Blue' in more than just pigmentation, as the song's lyrics deal with a struggle for love. Seeing as how Jon and Angela just had a fight and Jon is seeking Adrian's help to become mortal so that he could be with her, the song fits perfectly.
5. Ozymandias Merch
As Jon and Adrian carry on their discussion about the dilemma and its possible solution, several pieces of Ozymandias merchandise, including action figures, can be seen on Veidt's desk. It's a callback to the original story, when Ozymandias -- during his prime years as a masked vigilante -- had his company translate his popularity into equity.
4. "I Made It Thirty Years Ago"
When Jon asks Adrian if he could possibly devise some way to make him mortal, Adrian responds by saying he created a device to do just that "thirty years ago." That response is par for the course for Adrian Veidt, noted super-genius. But it's also a nod to the original storyline, in which he tells Nite-Owl, Silk Spectre, and Rorschach that he has already executed his plan for peace "thirty-five minutes" before they arrived to stop him. It's also similar to Lady Trieu's response in Episode 4, where she has already made a baby for the childless couple whose land she wanted to obtain.
3. Chicken, Eggs, or Both?
Eggs have been a rather significant motif in the entire Watchmen series thus far, but Episode 8 is where the true meaning is revealed: meant to ask the classic paradoxical question: "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?"
This question matters due to the fact that Angela inadvertently set in motion all of the series' events thus far. When Doctor Manhattan's memories and abilities are restored in the present, he reveals to Angela that he is talking to her grandfather in the past and her in the present at the same time. She asks Jon to ask her grandfather how he knew Police Chief Judd Crawford was a part of Cyclops and that he had a KKK hood in his closet. Her grandfather in the past, who recently killed Crawford in the present, asks Angela (via Jon) who Crawford is.
He had no idea who Crawford was or what he was involved with until Angela revealed it to him, which set him on the path to killing him. However, Angela had no idea about Judd's activities until after her grandfather killed him. So: which came first, the chicken or the egg?
2. Jon Blows Up More Rorschachs
Near the episode's end, the Seventh Kavalry arrives with a cannon that will teleport Jon against his will, where they will then destroy him. Before this happens, Angela tries to take out as many as she can, hoping to prevent what Jon has declared as inevitable. He joins her, taking out the Kalvary members to protect her, blowing up their heads in a similar manner akin to when he kills the original Rorschach at the end of the comic. However, he still gets teleported away at the episode's end.
1. Fogdancing...Again
Episode 8 does have a lengthy post-credits scene, showing Veidt imprisoned by his servants for trying to leave. It's now revealed that Veidt is on Jon's creation of life on Europa. While he did travel to Europa willingly, he becomes disillusioned over time, hating the love his servants give him as he isn't needed by them like he believes those on Earth do. What wasn't a prison becomes one.
Kept in a cell, Veidt is given a book to read which happens to be Fogdancing by Max Shea. This isn't the first time Fogdancing has been referenced. The book has been featured in the third episode of the series, as well as in Episode 7 as a movie adaptation. Max Shea was one of the creators forced into service by Veidt to make his giant alien squid, and then killed to keep the truth buried.
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Expect to see one last Watchmen Easter egg breakdown with the season finale! And if there are any we've missed, be sure to let us know in the comments.