'Watchmen': HBO's Peteypedia file hints at the identity of Lube Man in a big way or is it just to mislead us?

With all the major revelations happening on ‘Watchmen’, it’s easy to forget Lube Man, the mysterious silver-clad figure who slides into a sewer grate on the run from Sister Night (Angela Abar). The weekly-updated supplemental material for the show, collected on HBO’s Peteypedia site is making sure you don’t forget him and may have offered a big reveal as to both his identity and his superhero name - the Fogdancer. 

Agent Dale Petey’s (Dustin Ingram) latest memo is a lot more introspective, and self-indulgent than usual, even by his standards. Apparently shaken by what he believes may be the death of Laurie Blake (Jean Smart), Petey spends the rest of the memo talking about a book called ‘Fogdancer,’ a copy of which was found in Wade Tillman’s (Tim Blake Nelson) home and which Petey has his own formative experiences with. 

‘Fogdancing’ is a book in the ‘Watchmen’ universe that was written by Mike Shea - who also wrote the pirate comics frequently referenced in the original ‘Watchmen.’ ‘Fogdancing’ is a story about Howard McNulty, a veteran of the “Fogdancers” - an American special forces team who were responsible for government-sanctioned war atrocities that were never made public, such as the use of the biological weapon called ‘Sunset Haze’. Over the course of the surrealist novel, Howard tries to make amends for his past, gets addicted to a drug called ‘Shut-Eye’, blows up a ‘Sunset Haze’ factory, finds out he’s been mind-controlled by ‘Shut-Eye,’ and then wakes up to find out it was all a dream. In the end, he shoots himself to find the one true end.

In the memo, Dale Petey appears to have been quite inspired by the novel, as were several superheroes in the ‘Watchmen’ universe, from Mothman to Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) himself. Dale Petey was inspired enough by the book to submit an entry for a recap competition in a magazine devoted to Mike Shea, and ‘Fogdancing.’ His entry won last place, an event that Dale Petey describes as his “origin story,” inspiring his “absolutist zeal for factualism in history.” That might not have been the only thing the experience inspired. 

It should be noted that the Fogdancers in the novel all wore a “skin-tight silver suit shimmering with SPF-666” - SPF-666 being a special gel that kept them safe from fire and biohazards. “Lube-Man” himself wore a skin-tight silver suit, and has been seen to cover himself with an unidentified gel. Lube-Man is most definitely inspired by the Fogdancers, and it should be noted that “Lube-Man” isn’t a name he chose for himself. 

Agent Dale Petey has been shown to have a deep fascination for masked characters throughout history, even before his appearance on the show. On ‘Watchmen,’ his only role thus far has been to bear witness - a role that Dale Petey himself seems to fit quite comfortably into. For all his talk in his memo of origins, and masks, it’s not a stretch to imagine Petey has a secret identity of his own - he even showed Agent Blake that he was bringing a mask into Tulsa. 

The implications, however, are heavy enough that it might actually be a mislead. Nothing Dale Petey says explicitly ties him to the Lube-Man/Fogdancer identity, but the latest memo at least implies that the show wants us to think that the connection exists. If not Daley Petey, though, then who?

Another, less obvious option is Adrian Veidt. In the post-credits scene for episode 8 of ‘Watchmen,’ Veidt is seen reading the ‘Fogdancing’ novel, the story of a man possibly trapped in a prison of his own making appealing quite strongly to him. We know that the scenes with Adrian Veidt has so far all been set in the past - could Veidt have returned to Earth and taken up a new identity to move freely around Tulsa as he endeavors to uncover a deeper truth? 

Of course, Lube-Man might just be the show’s own version of Hooded Justice, in that the original comic never revealed his identity either, but seeded the complementary material with hints as to who was beneath the mask. With only one episode, we’re either about to find out who Lube-Man is, or be left with a mystery that won’t be resolved until a future revamp of the ‘Watchmen’ series reveals his identity in a video-game, or somesuch. 

The next episode of ‘Watchmen’ airs December 15, on HBO.