Watchmen Season 1 Episode 8 Recap

In the previous episode of HBO’s Watchmen, after learning that the Seventh Kavalry was after him, Angela bashed Calvin’s head in to reveal his true form as Dr. Manhattan. In Watchmen Season 1 Episode 8, we learned how Angela and Dr. Manhattan came to their arrangement.

The Tunnel of Love

In Saigon, Dr. Manhattan approached Angela on VVN Day. He blended in with those celebrating him for liberating Vietnam. Dr. Manhattan, who told Angela to call him Jon, asked her to dinner. He told her who he was and that they would be together for ten years. Jon told her about events in their relationship, except for a time where it would just be dark. He knew everything before and after, like they would be in a tunnel.

Since Dr. Manhattan could change his form, Angela, who was now a police officer, presented him with dead people with no next of kin, whose identity he could take. She reluctantly showed him Calvin, and he accepted it. Six months later, they got into an argument and she told him to leave. He came back with a device for her to push into his head. It would suppress his memories; he would only be able to use his abilities as a protective reflex, like during the White Night.

Utopia on Europa

Before he met Angela, Dr. Manhattan was on Europa, a moon of Jupiter. There, he created paradise. His Adam and Eve were Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks. Jon modeled them after a couple who owned a manor in England. The couple had taken in Jews fleeing Germany and housed Jon and his father before they went to the United States. They had given Jon a Bible and explained the creation story after he had seen them making love. They made him promise to create something beautiful.

When Jon left after his argument with Angela in 2009, he went to Adrian Veidt in Antarctica. Veidt had offered him the device; it had been his plan before trying to kill Jon in the 80s. He cautioned Jon to wrap up unfinished business beforehand, so Jon teleported to Will in New York to ask for his help on behalf of Angela.

Jon told Adrian about the utopia he’d created on Europa. He’d abandoned it because the people he created only wanted to serve him. Adrian wanted to go there, and Jon teleported him to Europa.

Out of the Tunnel

After Angela removed the device, Jon teleported to the backyard. Their children saw him walking on the pool, and he teleported them to be with Will. Since Jon was simultaneously communicating with Will in 2009, Angela had Jon pass him a message. She asked him how he knew that Judd was part of Cyclops. Will hadn’t known until Jon passed on the message.

Jon alerted Angela to the Seventh Kavalry waiting outside with a device to teleport him to a place where they would destroy him. She tried to stop them, even though Jon told her there was nothing she could do. After Jon saved Angela, the teleportation device took him away.

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