How ‘Watchmen’ Pulled Off Episode 2’s Wild Doctor Manhattan Play

Watchmen Episode 2, “Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship” is chock full of horrific realizations. Our heroine, Angela Abar (Regina King) has to deal with the truth about the strange man (Louis Gossett Jr.) she found by the corpse of Judd Crawford (Don Johnson), and she also has to reckon with discovering a KKK robe hidden in Crawford’s closet. But there were still more shocks.

Far, far away from the conspiracy brewing in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the “Lord of the Manor” (Jeremy Irons) had his trusty servants Mr. Phillips (Tom Mison) and Ms. Crookshanks (Sara Vickers) put on a play. “The Watchmaker’s Son” retold the origin story of Doctor Manhattan, and it also revealed that clones exist in this new version of Watchmen.

“The Watchmaker’s Son” is as much a tribute to the original Watchman graphic novel as it is a clever way for the show to provide backstory to audiences unfamiliar with the saga. The title of the Lord’s play is a reference to the fact that before he was Doctor Manhattan, Jon Osterman felt most clearly defined by being a watchmaker’s son. In the comics, we learn that his father pushed him to aim for perfection, always. Fueled by his father’s ambitions, Jon became a nuclear scientist who got to work on top secret experiments in Gila Flats, Arizona. There, Jon met and fell in love with a fellow scientist, Janey Slater.

The scene that Phillips and Crookshanks act out is the specific moment where Jon Osterman transforms into Doctor Manhattan. In the graphic novel, we learn that Janey has asked this “watchmaker’s son” to repair her own broken watch. Jon accidentally leaves the watch inside his lab coat and when he goes to retrieve it at the lab, he is locked in a test chamber. His body is torn to pieces and reduced to atoms by what happens next. For months, he is presumed dead, until he returns as a blue super-being who gets nicknamed “Doctor Manhattan.”

The Lord’s play in Watchmen, Episode 2 is a gross simplification of these events, and we mean gross. To emulate the nuclear reaction that “killed” Jon Osterman, the Lord of the Manor literally sets off a fuse that burns his loyal manservant Phillips alive. Then, a naked man painted blue descends from the rafters, revealing “Doctor Manhattan.” Only after the play is finished, does Doctor Manhattan’s mask fall — as well as the masks of the crew — revealing that all the servants are identical clones. “Crookshanks” and “Phillips” are merely titles given to the most senior ranking cloned servants.

If that sounds complicated, Watchmen director and executive producer Nicole Kassell told Decider that filming it was even more so.

“When we make that real reveal that these are cloned servants, that was technically extremely challenging,” Kassell said. “Choosing where to put the real Tom Mison or the real Sara Vickers, and what character they are playing in that moment, and then whether it’s face replacement or doing motion capture and then moving the actor from one character [to another]…it’s very complicated.”

Other actors were brought in to ease this process, and one extra got the NSFW honor of being the body double in Tom Mison’s big blue nude scene. Kassell said, “Another actor played that portion, but obviously we used Tom [Mison]’s voice. Then once the mask came off Doctor Manhattan, we had Tom switch into that character.”

This scene doesn’t just confirm the existence of clones (and tomato trees) in Watchmen, but it offers up some disturbing implications for the story ahead. If Philips and Crookshanks can be cloned, who else can be? Why is the Lord of the Manor hoarding corpses of his cloned servants in his cellar? And what could he mean when he ominously warns, “It’s only just begun”?

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