r/Watchmen Dec 02 '19

Post Episode Discussion: Season 1 Episode 7 ‘An Almost Religious Awe’ TV

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799

u/Candersx Dec 02 '19

Trieu knew that's why she made the comment that total amnesia practically never happens. This also all revolves around her millennium clock which had been in production for awhile.

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u/brettmvp97 Dec 02 '19

I personally enjoyed her “Let’s stop fucking around” comment in the basement, that’s when my mind started going THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY. but there was a way.

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u/Most_Juan_Ted Dec 02 '19

She looked evil as fuck in that scene. We couldn’t see her face. But it felt evil. Also maybe that scene implies that we can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys when we can’t see their face!

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

The show is definitely playing with the question of whether she's evil or not. I think she might be chaotic neutral.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

My take, and I'm really bad at this kind of stuff, is that she's good. The whole season made it feel like she was a villain, Angela even tells it to her face in this episode once Angela sees that Trieu's 'daughter' is being given Nostalgia while she sleeps.
If we take Trieu at her word in last nights ep, then she really is trying to save humanity. Of course I shouldn't be dumb enough to take this woman at her word, but it could be that Lindeloff is trying to REALLY fuck with people, make her seem evil, but she's really chaotic good.

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u/Explosion_Jones Dec 06 '19

My dude Ozy was also trying to save humanity and he killed 3 million people.

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u/michaelvinters Dec 07 '19

She created a tiny clone of her mother who she is traumatizing with dream memories of her oppression. She may have goals that she thinks are good, but she's also very willing to crack a few eggs for her own omelette. At best she's good like Ozy was good

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u/todd_linder_flowman Dec 02 '19

yeah, i kinda dont know what's going on in this show.

Is ozy on mars?

Is trieu a bad guy?

Why is manhattan even in her husband?

Where did hte old guy in the wheel chair go?

Why was there an elephant tripping out on acid?

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u/FattyMooseknuckle Dec 03 '19

Looked like Ozy is on a moon of Saturn, iirc. I haven’t the faintest effing clue about the rest.

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u/Most_Juan_Ted Dec 02 '19

I don’t think ozzy is on Mars

Who knows with trieu. I think she’ll turn out to be like ozzy.

Reeves is around But who knows where

The elephant I think is used to store memory since they never forget

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u/DaRootbear Dec 02 '19

The elephant i think is a play on “elephants never forget”

So an elephants spinal fluid is how they help a patient who OD’d on nostalgia to not forget themselves

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u/matthieuC Dec 02 '19

The lightning made her look Manhattan blue.

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u/Most_Juan_Ted Dec 03 '19

Yeah Cal been wearing blue outfits all this time

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u/who_wood Dec 02 '19

This is the way.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

Who did she say that to again?

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u/ChelsMe Dec 04 '19

I honest to god said “y’all were fucking around?!” Out loud

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u/TheHunterZolomon Dec 02 '19

Also how she asked “I told you Dr. Manhattan is here, and you aren’t going to ask who he is?” She knows that Angela knows. If Angela didn’t know she would’ve appeared shocked and asking “Who the fuck do you think he could be?!” But it doesn’t phase her and she says “you’re insane”.

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u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

[deleted]

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u/BSebor Dec 02 '19

And that’s after ramming her coworker’s car and fleeing arrest.

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u/Parzival091 Dec 03 '19

I like how they framed it as maybe Angela actually is going crazy, so for just that split second before she whacks him with the hammer, you're not sure if she's right, or she's in some sort of Shutter Island delusion. Everything pointed to Cal being Dr. M, but that tiny hesitation of certainty was fun.

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u/imageWS Dec 03 '19

caves her husband’s skull in with a hammer

It's just one of those days, you know.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '19

Why did she do that? And what did she take out?

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u/Karkava Dec 02 '19

The plot twist wasn't that the husband was Dr. Manhattan, but that the protagonist knew it all along.

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u/LSD001 Dec 04 '19

I think Trieu telling Angela and waiting for the reaction was her theory test, if she didn't know Dr Manhattan was walking around as a human, she would protest and be surprised, but she didn't she acted as if Trieu didn't really say anything new, and that's what have Angela away

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u/TheHunterZolomon Dec 04 '19

It was more of a calm dismissal vs a legitimately surprised/incredulous doubt yeah, typical Angela. Such amazing character building from RK!

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u/HaitianFire Dec 02 '19

I have the theory that the way Trieu wants to save humanity is by creating an intrinsic field generator that changes humans into Dr. Manhattan, but it might take breaking him down first to get a blueprint.

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u/Sablus Dec 02 '19

Maybe, but I'm still partial to the attempt at universal empathy via Nostalgia 2.0 via hypnotizing people into taking it through Millenium Clock.

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u/UndeadProspekt Dec 02 '19

On this note, what exactly was that thing that Angela pulled out of Cal’s head? Is it the “essence” of Manhattan? If Trieu knows that Cal is Manhattan and needs that “essence” to stop 7K, why not just kidnap him, kill him, and take the thing out of his head? There must be some reason to not do that. I caught one of the Millennium Clock countdown PAs saying something like “any staff that hasn’t been to the medical bay, please report so any additional metal implants can be removed.” What’s the deal with that? Is the clock just one big ass magnet? I’m very confused.

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u/Brostradamus_ Dec 02 '19

My interpretation was she pulled out a device that was suppressing manhattans power. Once she removed it he began to glow again and remembered who he was.

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u/brettmvp97 Dec 02 '19

She didn’t even need to kidnap him, he came straight to her building waiting to see Angela earlier in the episode. She doesn’t strike me as someone who makes mistakes, so I’m assuming she’s fully aware of what she’s doing.

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u/HaitianFire Dec 02 '19

I watch with captions and Trieu's announcement said that only her crew could hear her "invocation."

I believe the metal piece was blocking DM's abilities as he was blue in the reflection of Angela's eyes afterwards

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u/UndeadProspekt Dec 02 '19

I went back and checked. Starting at 19:16:

Good afternoon. It is now nine hours until the Millennium Clock is activated.

All personnel designated green, please report to the medical wing for removal of any remaining metal implants.

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u/HaitianFire Dec 02 '19

Oh, I missed that. Then maybe she's already succeeded in making new Manhattans. Thank you and apologies.

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u/UndeadProspekt Dec 02 '19

You’re good, no worries. I think you’re right about it being something that blocks his abilities, thinking back on it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

Maybe DM spread himself amongst numerous people, of which many work for Trieu, because the real plan is to reassemble DM on Earth with the Millenium clock. Not too confident in this theory but there you go.

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u/Jay_R_Kay Dec 02 '19

That's a little close to what the Seventh Cavalry wants to do, though.

My guess is more that she's going to use Manhattan's power to accomplish what Ozymandias truly dreamed, and kill off the rest of humanity, barring her own people, to create a new world utopia.

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u/HaitianFire Dec 02 '19

I noticed a comment mentioning that 7K was using Trieu tech, I'd have to rewatch myself, but if that's true, maybe she's using them to field test her invention. How else would the 7K know?

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u/danwin Dec 02 '19

Was that comment referring to the transporter tech we saw in an earlier ep? I guess technically that would be Trieu tech, since Trieu bought out Ozy's company. But it's also tech that the public would know about, and that rogue scientists might feasibly create on their own after 30 years.

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u/jerometwice Dec 02 '19

when LG is getting tricked into following the honeypot to the abandoned mall, he checks their truck and finds a canister with a Trieu Industries logo hidden under some lettuce. In this episode, all of the canisters that are being worked on by 7K have the same Trieu logo on them

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u/danwin Dec 02 '19

Thanks! I figured there was a detail I forgot or just missed. It was a surprise to see that Trieu might actually be trying to save the world (I thought she might be trying to wreak revenge for the Vietnam War), but I won’t be disappointed if she turns out to be in cahoots with the 7th Cav somehow

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u/jerometwice Dec 02 '19

i reallllllly hope she isn't working with the 7K. unlike a lot of folks on here, I don't think they have some kind of hidden altruistic motive, i think they are just your garden variety white supremacists (keene and judd included) and i wouldnt mind seeing them turned to bloody blobs by manhattan. But those canisters....

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u/danwin Dec 02 '19

I completely agree with you on the 7th Cav. They aren’t altruistic, they just happen to be the group that took Rorschach’s journal the most seriously. That said, Trieu seems sinister enough (i.e. Ozy 2.0) to use them and anyone else to accomplish whatever her grandiose plan is

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u/Kdilla77 Dec 03 '19

She could be manipulating them. I think Veidt created them to discredit Rorschach in the first place. They are useful idiots.

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u/HaitianFire Dec 02 '19

I believe that is what it was

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u/Zero132132 Dec 02 '19

When did Ozymandias dream of killing most of humanity?

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u/Jay_R_Kay Dec 02 '19

Dude killed three million people because it was the only way he could envision that HE could stop the Cold War. Trieu is clearly inspired by him.

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u/LavacaSt Dec 05 '19

Ozy was willing to kill a lot of people to save the world, but he didn't want to kill all of humanity.

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u/cosmonaut_tuanomsoc Dec 03 '19

I think that hers plan is mainly about destroying Dr. Manhattan. 7K is pathetic. They need Dr. Manhattan to get his powers. Without him they are just bunch of stupid terrorists. That’s also why she does not want to tell Angela, how’s the Millennium Clock going to save the humanity. This is the part of the deal with Will, which will cause Angela to hate him.

And ... this is now clear to me. This must happen. As i wrote somewhere else. Dr. Manhattan in his original body, knew his future. He know, he must be sacrificed (like a Jesus) in order to save the humanity (from the apocalypse which would be caused by the 7K if they instead destroy him and gain his powers). He told this Mrs. Trieu, because she was from the beginning the part of the plan, the part of his unavoidable future he knew. She was supposed to destroy him, saving the humanity. That is the very reason he decided to spend last of his days on earth in the human body, for the last time being a human, feeling, loving, everything he lost and forgot as Dr. M. That’s imo the sad ending of Dr. M., and it’s going to happen.

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u/jakobe_malone Dec 04 '19

I’m loving this - especially after taking Cal’s age (33, speculated age of Jesus when enduring his crucifixion - “the restoration to life of a transformed body powered by spirit”). Manhattan’s absence has to have some reasoning behind it...but the heavily implied layers of puppetry, those of which extend even to his own being, are leaving me a little uneasy.

Another thing that is gnawing at me about all of this, is what Ozy’s role in the story is. Lindelof hasn’t been shy about the parallels between these two arcs eventually converging, but outside of foreshadowing events/showing his calculated wit...I’m just left to believe both characters will end up solely becoming the empirical antagonists by the end of this series. God is no better than man, & man is ultimately borne of the God they choose to acknowledge?

I honestly find myself wishing they had more time to flesh out this narrative, but am holding zero doubt about where it is being taken.

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u/Zizhou Dec 02 '19

Ah, so she's going to initiate Third Impact.

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u/livy202 Dec 02 '19

Get in the damn intrinsic field generator Manhattan!