‘Watchmen’ Season 1, Episode 7 ‘An Almost Religious Awe’ Review

Watchmen approaches the end of its first season. At this point, we have answers about the strange pills known as Nostalgia. With an origin story finished, a trip down someone’s memory lane taken, we now go to the present timeline. Sinister plans near their completion as opposing sides have all they need. On the sidelines, things look down for the smartest man in the world, wherever the world he is. Unexpectedly, a man reaches the inevitable revelation of his true identity.

On Sunday’s episode Watchmen, Angela Abar/Sister Knight (Regina King) awakens from a Nostalgia-induced coma. Later, Angela remembers memories of her own instead of her grandfather’s, Will Reeves (Louis Gosset Jr.). Elsewhere, Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) faces trial. Meanwhile, Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) prepares for her Millenium Clock’s unveiling. As this happens, Laurie Blake (Jean Smart) deduces the truth about Judd Crawford’s (Don Johnson) death. Realizing the unveiling plans of both the Seventh Kavalry and Lady Trieu, Angela returns home to break the news to Cal Abar (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II).

Guilty

Colin Hutton/HBO

Whoever threw Veidt into the paradise-prison he is in now took much time and effort to make sure that he does not leave. Also, the place does a lot of things to Veidt that could quickly drive an average person crazy. For instance, we have the strange Mr. Phillips (Tom Mison) and Ms. Crookshanks (Sara Vickers) clones. The peculiar duo has a change of role this time as they become both the prosecutor as well as the jury for Veidt’s trial. All of these clones brand Veidt guilty after Crookshank Prosecutor and Judge Gamewarden render their verdict. Veidt may have enjoyed experimenting on the clones, having them at his will, but this time, he is on the receiving end of their judgment. Veidt may have numerous attempts to escape from his paradise-prison over the past thirty years, failing each time miserably. It is perhaps the goal of the paradise-prison, as well as whoever put Veidt there, to drive Veidt crazy. Seeing Veidt cry before his sequence ends hints at him close to losing his mind.

Crack the Case

Mark Hill/HBO

Laurie is tired of living the life of a hero. She may choose not to admit it, but the life she leads does not stray far from her Silk Spectre days. The only real difference is that Laurie lives one identity unconcealed. Laurie remains in the business of fighting crime, and this is likely the reason why she gives up once Jane Crawford (Frances Fisher) embarrassingly uses a trap door on Laurie. Laurie’s no-nonsense character goes beyond the typical superhero, exposing cliches and uses much sarcasm to deal with her problems. One can say that she is a cynic, given her disbelief in the life of vigilanteism she once lived. Although one thing does shake her down to the core: the mention of a blue man makes Laurie reevaluate her point of view.

Angela’s Origin Story

Mark Hill/HBO

Angela descends from a line of Uniformed Personnel, from her grandfather, Will, a New York Police Officer, to her father, Marcus Abar (Anthony Hill), a U.S. Army Vietnam War Combatant who later settled there. Also, Angela has an eerily similar childhood experience to that of Will, watching her parents die from an explosion during a celebration of Manhattan Day in Vietnam. She later lives as an orphan before her grandmother, June (Valeri Ross) comes to pick her up. It remains unclear how Angela made her way to America since June dies, but that will likely appear in the next episode. Throughout Angela’s dream sequences, snippets of Will’s memories appear. She does not stop having them even after ending the bizarre treatment that she soon discovers since the tube on her arm connects to an elephant instead of Will. Sure, an elephant never forgets and all, but that was some downright crazy animal abuse. An encounter of Will and Angela may soon happen, one that both of them deserve and will bring conclusions to the mystery of Will’s plans.

In Trouble

Mark Hill/HBO

Angela gets down with business as soon as she regains full control of herself. While Trieu was busy with further boosting her ego at the unveiling of the Millenium Clock, Angela found herself in a room with a globe. This globe turns out to be the receiver of all Manhattan Boxes all over the world, keeping recordings of people who wish to contact Dr. Manhattan. The Blue God is still the stuff of legends despite how long ago did he leave his last footprint on the earth. However, we soon discover that Dr. Manhattan never left; instead, he hid among the people who live in it. With all the strange twists that the show induces, one can safely assume that Cal is Dr. Manhattan, especially with Angela merely walking away from Trieu’s revelation of Dr. Mnhattan’s identity. This assumption becomes true when Angela takes out Dr. Manhattan’s logo out of Cal’s forehead, after, of course, hitting Cal with a hammer. Angela knew that Will and Trieu knew about Cal’s concealed identity, an identity she helped hide.

‘Watchmen’ Season 1, Episode 7 ‘An Almost Religious Awe’ Final Verdict

Watchmen slowly seems to turn into a retelling of the graphic novel’s story. Here, it has new characters that, while having unique identities, serve as future reincarnations of the past’s heroes. Trieu mirrors that of Ozymandias, although less genocidal. Angela, on the other hand, can either be a third Silk Spectre or Hooded Justice reborn. Despite these callbacks to the original material, however, Watchmen has a story that is just as political as the old guard, but modern enough to relate to the current generation.

Watchmen continues Sunday, December 8th with ‘A God Walks into a Bar’ at 9/8c on HBO.