Watchmen takes on Dr. Manhattan and Angela’s relationship in a beautiful ode
This week’s Watchmen focused on the 10 years of Angela and Dr. Manhattan’s relationship, and it was interesting to see how they got to where they are.
To be fair, this episode of Watchmen is a beautiful marriage of all the storylines I was questioning and shows us just how much these characters are connected to each other. For instance, we know now why Ozymandias was on what felt like his own planet and with a bunch of clones.
Throughout the episode, we learn of Angela and Dr. Manhattan’s relationship and it is incredible to see Jon Osterman brought to life in this way. Starting as the blue man who loves to walk around naked, Jon falls in love with Angela while she is in Vietnam and, through his weird sense of time, he sees their entire life pan out before him.
The worst part about this all is the realization for Angela that she is the reason behind Judd’s death. Part of his sense of time is that he’s experiencing everything at once. Their first meeting goes linear for Angela, but for Dr. Manhattan, he sees it as more of a branching out of instances and he can always return to them.
So when he is talking to her grandfather from 10 years ago and modern-day Angela at the same time, she tries to get answers and accidentally tells her grandfather of Judd’s KKK robes and his connection to Cyclops. But still, there is work to be done, so Angela forces Dr. Manhattan to address the issue at hand: the Seventh Kalvary.
In a powerful moment, Angela takes on the entire Seventh Kalvary by herself in the beginning. Driving a car into them, it is only when the odds seem stacked against her that Dr. Manhattan steps in to save her after telling her that the moment she decided to save his life was the moment he fell in love with her through his warped sense of time.
The problem is that, in the end, Angela thinks they won. Jon steps out, taking out the out the Kalvary except for the fact that he let himself get evaporated by this laser situation that they had. Angela looks to him and says, “We won. You were wrong.” And Dr. Manhattan simply points out to her that he wasn’t and dies before her eyes.
At the very end up the episode (after the credits) we get a look at Adrian and what he’s doing in his jail cell. His “utopia” that he took from Jon results in him carving himself out of jail, torturing himself time and time again, and it is an extremely interesting take on that character and his need for mental fulfillment.
Next week is the season finale, so it is going to be interesting to see how everything ties together. I, personally, can’t wait to see what’s next!
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