'Watchmen' Episode 7: Dr Manhattan reveal and Angela's 'attack' on her husband Calvin explained
We've seen a lot of weird and wonderful things on HBO's 'Watchmen' TV series all season. From Lube Man to Hooded Justice, there have been plenty of strange and surprising moments but none as shocking as those revealed in Episode 7.
Episode 7 'An Almost Religious Awe' revealed that despite what people think, Dr Manhattan isn't actually on Mars after all. In fact, he's been living in Tulsa all this time, hiding in plain sight as Calvin Abar (Yahya Abdul Mateen II), the husband of Angela Abar aka Sister Night (Regina King).
Cal himself doesn't seem to remember his past or have his powers but Angela does know his secret and she hammers the truth home, literally. In the episode's final moments, she takes a hammer to Cal's head and digs into his brain to retrieve a strange metal object shaped like Manhattan's iconic symbol, probably some sort of device to shut out his true memories.
This raises two very pressing questions: Was Cal ever a real person or just a disguise for Dr Manhattan? And if Manhattan really did become human, did Angela just kill him? The answer to both those questions, as a quick recap of Manhattan's comic book origins would reveal, is a big blue no.
The first "trick" that Dr Manhattan learned right after he got his powers was how to put his body back together one atom at a time. In fact, he doesn't really need a body because he's actually made of pure energy, which he can convert into matter to create a physical form for himself.
So just so we're clear, Cal Abar isn't a disguise or a pre-existing person whom Dr Manhattan decided to impersonate. He's not a shapeshifter who decided to look like Cal, he literally rebuilt himself to become Cal.
As for Angela's "attack" on Cal, it most probably didn't actually kill him. The point wasn't to kill Cal and release Manhattan because Cal is Manhattan himself. What Angela wanted to do was wake up Manhattan and remind him who he is and if a hammer to the head can't do that, then what can?
'Watchmen' Episode 8 'A God Walks Into Abar' will air on HBO on December 8.