‘Watchmen’ Episode 7 reveal about Cal Abar being Dr Manhattan was brilliant considering HBO show’s casual approach to plot twists
'Watchmen' Episode 7 saw Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) reveal Dr. Manhattan had never left Earth for Mars in the first place, which led to Angela Abar (Regina King) calling Trieu's claims of saving humanity a bunch of horses**t. But of course, it wasn't really.
All Angela was trying to do here is to hide the fact that she knew anything about Dr. Manhattan or his present form. A small group of fans called it right after the second episode, so they are definitely going to be basking in the glory of "I told you so".
This is, however, not true for the majority of the audience. They thought the fan theory about Cal Abar (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) being Dr. Manhattan, was too out there. The hints were present, as they were for the other revelations we saw revealed over the previous six episodes.
The biggest hint being Laurie Blake's big blue dildo designed by Nite Owl titled Excalibur -- read Ex-Cal-Abar. However, because of the implausible circumstances, the revelation shocked and surprised audiences.
The treatment of this revelation in comparison to others indicates the makers had always known fans would guess many of the things they had in store for the show. Be it Lady Trieu cloning her mother and using Nostalgia to bring her back in the form of her daughter Bian, or the fact that Hooded Justice was Will Reeves; these were revelations that were made without any theatrics.
Yes, there were drum rolls, quite literally so, when we watched Reeves' past unfold through Nostalgia. That's as dramatic as it got. Remember how Reeves' association with Lady Trieu was introduced through a muted scene? Take for instance Lady Trieu's conversation with Angela, she revealed in a very matter of fact tone that Bian was her mother and all that she had tried to do was ensure her parents were present to watch their daughter achieve her goals and dreams.
Right after, Angela asks Lady Trieu if her father was somewhere nearby as well. To this, Lady Trieu responds, quite off-handedly he will arrive soon. Of course, this has now sparked a conversation about who could be Lady Trieu's father.
If we go back to episode 6, the show revealed how Senator Joe Keene has been using the Seventh Kavalry for political mileage and that was another plot development that was served in an off-handed manner. Keene's conversation with Looking Glass (Tim Nelson Blake) was about how the squid attack was a planned faux event orchestrated by Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons).
The fact that Keene was just wearing a Rorschach mask is not spotlighted, in fact, it takes a backseat compared to what Looking Glass discovers -- that there was no extra-dimensional being gunning for humans.
To not dramatize such revelations in the past has worked greatly in favor of the show. For fans who discussed easter eggs and scenes frame by frame, not dramatizing the twist gave them credit, in a way.
For fans who tuned in weekly to just enjoy a Damon Lindelof show, this treatment of a plot twist overwhelmed them enough to try and understand the circumstances better, thereby getting them to invest further in the 'Watchmen'-verse. Considering how very few had picked up on the possibility of Cal being Dr. Manhattan, the same treatment in reverse worked really well.
It definitely had viewers go "WTF?" Especially Cal's look when Angela referred to him as John? His expression, surely, was mirrored in hundreds of fans who tuned in this week to watch the episode.
The next episode of 'Watchmen' will air Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.