WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Watchmen’s season 1 finale.
The season 1 finale of HBO’s Watchmen floated the idea that Angela Abar (Regina King) is also able to walk on water like Dr. Manhattan, but does she? Sadly, before the question was answered, the show rolled the credits, leaving fans with a massive mystery to ponder on. Created by Damon Lindelof, the new Watchmen adaptation takes place 34 years after the events of the groundbreaking graphic novel created by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
Set in Tulsa, Oklahoma in an alternative reality, it focuses on the racial tensions in the city between the white supremacist group dubbed the Seventh Kavalry and the Police Department. However, as the series progressed, more details about what’s really going on are revealed, including the fact that Dr. Manhattan has been posing as Angela’s husband, Calvin (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), instead of being on Mars. Thing is, the Big Blue Cheese didn’t know this as he decided to forego his memories and capabilities as an attempt to live a normal life with his wife. Everything came to a head when both the Seventh Kavalry and Trieu Industries closed in on Dr. Manhattan in the hopes of extracting his powers and transferring it to Sen. Joe Keene Jr. (James Wolk) and Lady Trieu (Hong Chau). The former’s attempt ended on a disaster as seen in the finale titled “See How They Fly”, resulting in the latter to take over the process.
But while she was able to harness Dr. Manhattan’s powers, effectively killing him in the process, her plans were derailed by Adrian Veidt’s (Jeremy Irons) frozen squid onslaught. In the end, Angela, her kids and grandfather, Will Reeves aka Hooded Justice (Louis Gossett Jr.) came home. While cleaning up the egg mess that Calvin left as he attempted to cook pancakes, Angela discovered a single unbroken one, reminding her of Dr. Manhattan’s claim from the night they met about transferring his powers through an organic medium. After consuming the egg, Angela stepped on their pool - but before we can find out if she’s really able to walk on water, the episode ended leaving Watchmen viewers on the edge of their seats.
Considering where the narrative left off, coupled with the status of Watchmen with regard to season 2, will Angela be actually able to walk on water? It’s worth noting that there are currently no plans for another year of the show at this point. Despite only having nine episodes, each episode was brilliantly-made. HBO with Lindelof and his team deciding to wrap up the series on such a high note is entirely possible in order to to preserve the show’s legacy. Ending it with such a massive cliffhanger would be a bold move, not to mention a great lingering question to cap off an almost flawless run.
That being said, given the critical acclaim that its first nine episode got, and the growing following it garnered, it won’t be a surprise to see a Watchmen season 2. Seeing Angela walk on water, effectively confirming that she has the extraordinary powers of Dr. Manhattan will pose an interesting premise for the series moving forward. Prior to the show’s biggest reveals, it dropped some interesting clues, particularly hinting to the reveal the Cal was actually Dr. Manhattan all along. In the penultimate episode, Dr. Manhattan stood on their pool, and despite Angela’s insistence that he gets off of it, he told her that it’s important for her to see him standing on water for later, potentially because of her epiphany in the finale. Backing up this claim is Watchmen’s poster featuring an unmasked Sister Night bathed in blue light, seemingly setting up her fate to essentially become the next Dr. Manhattan.
More: HBO’s Watchmen Poster Gave Away The Big Twist (And We All Missed It)
