"If I can take his power, I can fix the world. Disappear the nukes, end starvation, clean the air. All the things he should have done."
—Lady Trieu on taking Doctor Manhattan's powers for herself
"See How They Fly" is the ninth and final episode in the first season of HBO's Watchmen, and ninth episode overall. It aired on December 15, 2019.
Premise[]
Everything ends, for real this time.
Plot[]
November 1, 1985[]
Adrian Veidt films his message to Robert Redford, congratulating him on his inauguration as the next U.S. President and explaining that he planned it. Meanwhile, a cleaning lady is shown as Veidt is giving his speech with cue cards. She goes unnoticed as she gets into Adrian's office without any problems. Once inside, she puts in a password on what appears to be a computer, and a painting of Alexander the Great goes up; revealing a refrigerator storing various vials. She switches one of the vials with hand lotion, and uses vial #2346 to inseminate herself. She talks to herself in Vietnamese while doing so about how she wants to, “ride the strong winds, crush the angry waves… Slay the killer whales in the Eastern sea… Chase away the Wu army, reclaim the land… Remove the yoke of slavery…" She then says how she will not bend her back to be a slave.
2008[]
Lady Trieu arrives at Karnak and pounds on the door. Adrian Veidt opens the door and the woman removes her protective mask to reveal that she's Trieu. Trieu says that she wanted to talk to him, but Veidt isn't interested until she says that he manufactured a transdimensional being to kill three million people. Adrian denies it, but Trieu points out that no one gives him credit for it. She thanks Adrian for saving the world, and Adrian invites her in for tea.
Inside, Veidt tells Trieu that Redford doesn't return his calls and that the last conversation they had, Redford said that he could have become President without Veidt. Trieu looks at Veidt's teleportation device and he explains that he teleports the squid into the stratosphere using a random algorithm to cause the rain's randomly. He proudly states that at that altitude, even the most trained meteorologist can’t tell the difference between a cloud of cephalopods, and a tropical storm.
Trieu then tells Adrian that it's a rerun because he's still doing the same thing as twenty years ago, just on a smaller scale. She asks him what happens if he lets the "clock" start up again, and Adrian figures that they'd be back where they started at. Trieu offers to make every nuclear weapon disappear on the planet, and says that there is someone without limitations who could do it. She knows that Doctor Manhattan isn't on Mars and that it’s just a decoy going through the motions in a predetermined pattern. She believes that he's on Europa, and explains to the older man that she built a satellite to scan for Manhattan's unique frequency of radiation and it should reach Europa in five years.
Trieu says that she just needs to confirm where Manhattan is before she destroys him and takes his power. Once she does that, she can fix the world and do everything Manhattan should have done. Trieu has designed a quantum centrifuge to strip Manhattan of his energy and transfer it into her, but she can't afford to build it so she hoped Adrian would stake her $42 billion. Adrian wonders why she would hope that, and Trieu says that she's his daughter. He insists that he's never given himself to a woman and that like Alexander the Great, he believes such hedonistic activity is a distraction from more important things. Trieu is quick to point out the hidden refrigerator with Adrian's sperm, and says that she's subject 2346. Her mother was one of the Vietnamese refugees working at Karnak in 1985, and Adrian says that the woman was a thief. He notes that he gave up his parents' wealth to demonstrate he could achieve anything starting from nothing, and he offers Trieu the same. Adrian insists he will never call her "daughter".
On Europa, Adrian blows on the rotting birthday cake, and the manor shakes. A space probe lands on Europa and Adrian smiles in satisfaction. He then goes through the tunnel that he dug with the horseshoe. Adrian emerges outside and approaches the probe, and the Game Warden arrives and orders Adrian to get back into his cell. When Adrian refuses, the Game Warden shoots him in the chest. The Game Warden goes over, and discovers that Adrian caught the bullet. Adrian kicks the Game Warden to the ground, gets up, and heads towards the probe. The various Crookshanks and Phillips clones arrive and shout a warning, and the Game Warden tackles Adrian from behind. Adrian drives the horseshoe into his chest, comforts the dying clone, and says that it's almost over. The Game Warden asks him why he made him wear a mask, and Adrian says that masks make men cruel. He removes the mask and says that having a worthy adversary kept him sane for the eight years of his imprisonment. The Game Warden asks his master if he was a worthy adversary, and Adrian says that he wasn't. He subsequently dies, and Adrian tells him that he did however put on a hell of a show.
The other Crookshanks and Phillips say goodbye to Adrian as he goes to the probe. The last Miss Crookshanks gives him his headpiece and kisses him on the cheek, and wishes him godspeed. Adrian looks at her for a moment and then enters the probe, and the probe lifts off and heads for Earth. He sees the words that he left to spell out his message with the corpses of the various Crookshanks and Phillips: "Save Me Daughter", and Trieu's recorded voice tells him that his return journey has begun. The voice inside the ship invites him to step into the preservation chamber, in order to avoid dehydration, starvation, and potential insanity. and Adrian does so and becomes frozen in a protective metal case.
Now[]
Trieu Industries employees take the Adrian "statue" out and take it to Bian, who removes the case as Trieu comes in and tells Bian that she has to tell her now before Adrian says something. The girl acknowledges that she knows she's actually Trieu's mother, and the chamber opens to reveal the unfrozen Adrian. Trieu offers him water and says that she was surprised when the images showed her his message on Europa. She says that it meant a lot for him to acknowledge he was her daughter, and Adrian says that Dr. Manhattan sent him to Europa and is masquerading as a human on Earth. Trieu explains that she's going to destroy Manhattan and take his power in an hour, and she brought Adrian back so he could see her success. Bian has clothes for Adrian, and he realizes that Trieu cloned her mother. He sees the Millennium Clock outside the window and realizes that Trieu actually built it and says that it's beautiful, and Trieu tells him that they have a god to kill.
The group drive to the Dreamland Theater in Tulsa and Trieu goes over to Seymour's newsstand to get her newspapers. He hands them over, and Adrian looks at a newspaper showing Redford is still President. Seymour notes that Adrian looks like Ozymandias, and Adrian asks him what everyone thinks happened to him. The vendor says that no one cares, but he heard that one day Ozymandias walked off into the jungle and never came back. Adrian says that Ozymandias was stranded on Europa quietly going insane, and a metal sphere from the Clock arrives and hovers in the air. Seymour and Adrian look at the sphere, and Adrian says how, “Israel is desolate, and her seed is no more. And Palestine has become a widow for Egypt. As he sees The Millennium Clock turned on, he tells the vendor that the end is nigh.
Joe Keene's father, Joseph David Keene Sr., arrives at the abandoned department store housing the 7K base. Inside, other 7K soldiers take Laurie to the cage they've been building. She sees Jane, and Joe greeting his father, and tells her captor that she would have never pegged Senator Keene Sr. as a secret racist. She also asks what exactly it is that they're waiting for. Gunshots come over the guard's radio, and the soldier at the other end says that people are shooting at them. The guard tells Joe that they have a situation, and a Rorschach -masked Wade comes over and tells Laurie to stay cool. He says that he'll get them out when he has a chance, and explains that the 7K came to his house to try and kill him. Meanwhile, Joe tells the soldier on the radio to take the shot. Laurie sees Jon appear in the aforementioned cage as she’s strapped to the chair and gasps when she realizes that Cal was Jon all along. Joe tells Dr. Manhattan that he's finally got him.
Back at her house, Angela questions a 7K soldier, who tells her that she can't stop them. She breaks his fingers until he answers her.
Joe begins to undress, and as he does so says that thirty-for years ago, Adrian Veidt unleashed his monster onto the world. Bu that this wasn't his giant one-eyed octopus, but his puppet president. He goes onto say how Redford first took their guns. And then, he made them say sorry. Over and over again. Sorry. Sorry for the alleged sins of those who died decades before they were born. Sorry for the color of their skin. Joe continues that all they wanted was to get cops in masks, to take some power back and start themselves a little culture war. He mentions how if he and the other 7K members controlled both sides of it, then he could come riding up on a white horse, right into the White House…. He confesses that three years ago, they sent out their guys to get the war rolling.
Angela shoots her way in through the front door.
Joe explains that three years ago, one of his men got teleported to Gila Flats on White Night. Manhattan teleported him there, and Joe asks Manhattan where he is in time. The being says that it's 1985 to him, and Joe explains that the cage is made of synthetic lithium that they got from melting down millions of watch batteries. Everyone cheers, and Joe says that he brought Laurie there so that someone who cares about Manhattan is there when he dies.
Angela comes in and tells everyone to stop, training a gun on Joe. She says that whatever Joe thinks is going to happen won't happen, and explains that Trieu has been planning her operation for much longer. Joe doesn't believe her, and Angela puts her gun down so Joe will listen. She explains that Trieu told her that she was going to stop Joe, and Joe asks where she is then. Angela then tells Joe about how Trieu let the 7K steal the batteries they needed to build the cage to take Manhattan's power.
Joe reveals that Judd Crawford and Jane Crawford got close to Angela and Cal to see if he really was Dr. Manhattan. Undeterred, Laurie tells Joe that he looks ridiculous in those panties, but Joe says that he’s about to become the most powerful man in the world… So waving his dick in people’s face was overkill. Joe also confesses that when Judd got killed, he couldn’t resist bringing Laurie to Tulsa, to see Jon die since she was one of Dr. Manhattan’s girlfriends. Joe goes inside the chamber with Laurie, Angela, Wade and the Cyclops members in attendance. A blue wave hits, leaving Angela with her ears ringing. Jon is seen still alive, but not for long, since now Lady Trieu and her employees get inside the 7K hideout. Lady Trieu sees Angela shortly thereafter, and says she wasn’t expecting her, and is sorry she has to see this. But she is fulfilling her promise to Will Reeves to give him justice after all these years.
Adrian and Laurie reunited and he calls her by her former last name when calls her Ms. Juspeczyk. She assures her that she isn't dead, while Trieu notices that Joe isn't there. She opens the transference chamber and Joe's liquefied remains pour out.
Trieu goes on thanks for them capturing Dr. Manhattan for her and says how this was the only way he wouldn't see her coming. She chastises Joe and the other Cyclops members for not knowing that absorbing atomic energy without filtering it first, meant that whoever did it would simply pop like a water balloon every time.
Trieu then reads Will's letter stating how they all represent the senior leadership of Cyclops, an organization that has terrorized and victimized men, women, and children of color for a century, including this very place, the site of the Tulsa race massacre. That they have plundered, and pillaged, and murdered in the name of white supremacy.
Jane eventually interrupts her; telling Trieu to just do it, figuring she's going to have them killed, and she vaporizes all of them with her machine. Inside the cage, thanks to the remains of Joe Keene that got into his cage, Jon had enough power to teleport Wade, Adrian, Laurie to safety back in Karmak.
Bian initiates the transfer and Angela asks Manhattan what's going on. He says that the cage makes it hard for him to be present, and he sent the others somewhere to help. Angela wonders why he didn't send her, and Manhattan says that he didn't want to be alone when he dies. He tells her not to touch the light. A beam of light comes down from the sphere, slamming into Dr. Manhattan. Jon then screams in agony.
Back in Karnak, Adrian tells Laurie and Wade that they're in his office, and Jon did it to save the day. Wade tells Adrian that the last dimensional incursion in Tulsa was three weeks ago, and finds the chamber where Adrian sent the squid from in 1985. Adrian is shocked that Laurie now works for the FBI, and insists to Wade that he saved humanity. He then activates his teleportation device, targeting it on Tulsa.
Bian continues draining Jon's energy, and Angela asks him what she should do. He tells her to go, saying that he can't hold himself together. but Angela refuses to abandon him. Jon stares at Angela and remembers their life together, and says that he's in every moment at once when they're together. He reverts to Cal and tells Angela that he loves her, and then disappears in a burst of energy that knocks Angela back.
Adrian tells Laurie that he designed the baby squids to dissolve shortly after impact. If he freezes them before teleport, it will be like firing a Gatling gun from the heavens. Adrian admits that Jon is already dead, but they have a window of opportunity before the centrifuge transfers Manhattan's energy into his most worthy adversary. He figures that Trieu is a narcissist whose ambition knows no limits, and she won't fix the world as she claims. Adrian warns that Trieu won't rest until they all prostrate themselves to her.
Trieu enters the cage and prepares to receive Manhattan's energy.
Adrian teleports the frozen squid to Tulsa and says that everything within five square blocks is going to be obliterated.
Bian wakes up Angela and asks if she's okay. She tells Angela to tell the arriving police that they have to go or they'll get hurt. Red Scare and Pirate Jenny get out with the officers, and the phone in a nearby Manhattan booth rings. Bian answers it and Laurie tells her to take cover, and asks where Angela is. The girl tells Angela that the call is for her. Angela takes the receiver and Laurie tells her to run.
As Trieu waits for the energy to enter her, a frozen baby squid falls, shooting through her hand. The squid rain down and Angela takes cover in the booth with Bian. The police and technicians die, and Angela grabs a case as cover and runs away, and the sphere shatters from the impacts and falls on Trieu. She yells out motherfucker in Vietnamese before dying.
Angela gets into the Dreamland Theater and goes into the abandoned theater. Will is sitting in a seat, and Angela goes over to her grandfather and sits down across the aisle from him. Topher, Rosie, and Emma are sleeping on the stage, and Will assures Angela that her children are all okay. Will explains that he told them he was family, and asks if Dr. Manhattan and Trieu are gone. He admits that making a deal with Trieu was Jon's idea, and Angela realizes that Jon knew he was going to die all along and Will helped him. Will says that they helped each other, and confirms that Angela took his Nostalgia pills. He figures that Angela knows his origin story now, and describes how he was sitting there when the riots broke out a hundred years ago. He explains to his granddaughter that Bass Reeves was his hero, and that's why he became a cop. Will says that at first he felt anger when he put the hood on, but that in reality it was fear and hurt. He tells Angela that Jon wanted it the way it happened and that she can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. He explains that Jon told him that Angela would understand this when the time was right. Crying, Angela says that she doesn't and Will figures that the time isn't right just yet then.
Will says that he's staying at a motel down the block, and Angela invites him to stay in their guest room for a couple of nights. He tells her that, you can’t heal under a mask, because wounds need air.
Veidt takes Blake and Tillman to the storage unit and offers them Nite Owl II's airship, Archie, which he discovered in the ice 34 years ago. Tillman says that he knows how to fly it since the police use Dreiberg's designs for their own airships, but before he can leave, Blake tells Veidt that he's under arrest for the murder of three million innocent people. When Veidt points out that she has no proof, Tillman holds up the DVD and says that he has his confession to Redford. He then asks if the FBI will arrest a sitting President as well, and she replies by saying, “sure, why not?”
Veidt then says that can’t happen because the world will end. But Blake doesn't believe it. She says to him how, “people keep saying that, but it never seems to happen.” He wonders why she would reveal the secret after all this time, and Blake tells him that some people change. Angry, Veidt asks who she thinks she is to hold judgment over him, and Wade knocks him unconscious from behind. The two of them haul Veidt into the airship after Tillman remarks how Veidt talks too much.
Angela leaves the theater with Will and her children.
Pirate Jenny and Red Scare get Bian into the back of a police car.
Angela takes her family to the bakery and lets them into her secret vault. Topher looks curiously at her Sister Night costume and then at his mother. Angela drives her family home and tucks her children into bed. She then goes to the kitchen and picks up the ring, Will comes in and says that Cal was a good man and he's sorry he's gone, but reiterates how he really could have done more.
Once Will retires to bed, saying after all this craziness, he will sleep for two days straight, Angela looks at the broken eggs on the floor. She cleans them up and finds one unbroken egg in the carton. She remembers Jon telling her that he can give someone his powers by transferring them into organic material, and if someone consumed it they would theoretically inherit his abilities. Angela goes out to the pool, takes off her shoes, cracks open the egg, and eats its contents. She then steps puts one foot onto the water to see if she'll be able to walk on water.
Cast[]
Main Cast[]
Guest Starring[]
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Co-Starring[]
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Trivia[]
- On December 12, 2019 it was revealed by Alan Sepinwall that the finale will be 67 minutes long.[1]
- The episode’s title, “See How They Fly” is a lyric from the Beatles’ psychedelic masterpiece “I Am The Walrus” which features the sinister/joyful refrain of “I am the eggman.”
- In the beginning of the episode, Adrian Veidt is filming his “confession/congratulations” video that Wade Tillman was shown by Joe Keene back in episode 5. It will be presented to Robert Redford on the day he is inaugurated as President on January 21, 1993. The giant squid is featured in a massive tank behind Veidt while he is recording the message.
- “Untie knot” is the password prompt on Adrian Veidt’s computer. “Untie knot” refers to the Gordian Knot, which Alexander the Great famously solved with his sword. The password is “Rameses II” just like in the book.
- A portrait of Alexander the Great is shown in Adrian Veidt’s office in Karnak. Alexander's face in the painting was taken from Arthur Hacker's "The Temptation of Sir Percival". Sir Percival was one of King Arthur's knights and was on a quest for the Holy Grail. The woman in the painting is actually a devil in disguise trying to get Sir Percival drunk and seduce him in order to stop him from attaining the Grail, but he looked at his sword which reminded him of the cross.
- The verse Bian My recites is from folklore about the Vietnamese warrior Lady Triệu who lived during the third century.
- The flashback to Karnak in 1985 features several Vietnamese employees, whereas the comic only features three employees that Adrian Veidt eventually kills; this implies that he saved three of them for later while privately killing the rest.
- In 2008, when Lady Trieu confronts Adrian Veidt and refers to him as “the smartest man in the world” she’s using the nickname that had been given to Ozymandias by the press. Trieu is, of course, “the smartest woman in the world.”
- Adrian Veidt reveals that he has “never given himself to a woman.” The fact that he specifically mentions women and not men could possibly echo Rorschach’s observation about him in the original series, that Veidt is “possibly homosexual.”
- Adrian Veidt claims to Trieu that the reason he remained abstinent is because of Alexander the Great. In reality, Alexander married multiple times and fathered sons, and also may have had a male lover. This may be an error of the character and not the writers. Though it's true Alexander was noted for self-control in sexual matters. Where Veidt got this idea that Alexander stayed celibate is anyone's guess.
- Adrian Veidt’s line about achieving “everything” having “started from nothing” is a quote from the book, during the chapter when he is recounting his own origin story.
- When Angela Abar is interrogating a member of the 7th Kavalry, she starts breaking his fingers, before threatening to move on to other parts of his anatomy. That was a favorite technique of Rorschach to extract information.
- There more callbacks to the series premiere "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice" that contained references to Oklahoma!.
- The Blue Danube Waltz plays again in this episode as Adrian Veidt sees a ship arrive outside of his prison.
- The song Clair de Lune began to play as Lady Trieu explained how she launched a probe that would eventually reach Europa’s orbit.
- The way Adrian Veidt catches the bullet that the Game Warden fired, pays homage to how he did the same thing in the comic, and in the movie.
- Joseph David Keene introduced the Keene Act outlawing costumed vigilantism after things got out of hand with dangerous and violent masked vigilantes and the police strike. In the show he is revealed to be a senior leader of the Cyclops.
- "Palestine has become a widow for Egypt.” Adrian Veidt is quoting the Merneptah Stele, an ancient inscription detailing the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah’s victories. He ends with “the end is nigh,” which is generally biblical in nature, but refers in this context specifically to the sign that Rorschach, in his identity of Walter Kovacs, used to carry around in the comic book.
- Joe Keene’s high-waisted black underwear are a mirror of the ones Doctor Manhattan wore throughout his crimefighting career, before he decided to abandon clothing entirely.
- Lady Trieu refers to Doctor Manhattan as “the big blue cheese.” This is a surprisingly playful reference to Captain Marvel/ Shazam, whose enemy Doctor Sivana routinely calls him a “big red cheese.” Incidentally, Lady Trieu does have a tendency to dress like the Sivana of the comics, who favors all white outfits.
- Most of the lines Jon Osterman had in this episode were quotes taken from the original events of the comic book storyline.
- Will Reeves uses some comic book speak by referring to the Tulsa race massacre as “my origin story.” He also says “before my world ended,” both an allusion to the Tulsa/Krypton parallels with Superman and the way Batman is fond of referring to the night his parents were murdered.
- Nite Owl’s old ship, Archie (hence Adrian Veidt’s “it’s been a hoot”) is still in Karnak after freezing up shortly after transporting Nite Owl and Rorschach there to confront Veidt. Wade Tillman would indeed know how to fly it since Dreiberg licensed his technology to police departments under the umbrella of a company called MerlinCorp.
- There’s also a New Frontiersman headline that says “Four Wounded in Saigon Burning” indicating that unrest in Vietnam continues.
- Three days after "See How They Fly" aired, the final issue of Doomsday Clock was released — with both featuring the death of Doctor Manhattan.
Gallery[]
Promotional stills[]
Screenshots[]
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Peteypedia[]
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| v • e Watchmen (TV series) | |
| Season 1 | |
| 01. It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice • 02. Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship • 03. She Was Killed by Space Junk • 04. If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own • 05. Little Fear of Lightning • 06. This Extraordinary Being • 07. An Almost Religious Awe • 08. A God Walks into Abar • 09. See How They Fly |