‘Watchmen’ Ending Explained: What Really Happened to Doctor Manhattan?

MAJOR SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING OF HBO’S WATCHMEN EPISODE 9, “SEE HOW THEY FLY” AHEAD

The first season of Watchmen didn’t end with a bang, but with an egg. The last episode of the HBO show’s first season cut away to black right at the moment where we would learn, yes or no, if Angela Abar (Regina King) had absorbed the powers of her deceased husband Doctor Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) by eating an egg.

So is Angela Abar the new Doctor Manhattan?

Let’s back up, and break this down.

Eggs have been a persistent “symbol” throughout the show and now we finally know why. After watching her beloved husband get murdered before her eyes, Angela Abar returns home with her grandfather Will Reeves (Louis Gossett, Jr.) and three children with the news that Doctor Manhattan knew he was going to die no matter what Angela did this entire time. (No wonder he wanted 10 years to forget who he was and to live amongst us as a normie.)

However, Will Reeves also tells Angela that Doctor Manhattan told him that it had to be this way, and that “you can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.” This confuses Angela until she sees the carton of eggs she threw on the kitchen floor in Episode 8. Jon specifically told her to “watch the eggs.” Hmm? Wonder what that could mean. Angela then flashes back to the moment she met Jon. He revealed that theoretically, he could pass his power into an organic substance — like an egg — and whoever ate it could inherit his powers. Angela teases that if he did that and she ate the egg in her hand, then she could walk on water. Jon confirms that it would work in theory.

As soon as Angela sees one last egg in the carton, she decides to test Jon’s theory from all those years ago. We watch her go outside to the very pool that Jon walked on water upon the night before. She cracks the egg, eats it, and then takes her shoes off. The final shot of the episode is of the bottom of Angela’s foot touching the surface of the water.

So, again, is Angela the new Doctor Manhattan? Did she easily succeed where Senator Keene (James Wolk) and Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) both failed?

It’s obvious that Watchmen wants to leave this ending ambiguous. That’s why it cut away when it did. However, since the episode focuses on origins, people attempting to steal Doctor Manhattan’s powers, and the notion that Jon never did as much good with his powers as he could have, we’re tempted to say, yeah, Angela Abar is a superhuman now.

What’s interesting is through her persistent sacrifice for Jon, Angela has proven herself to be the kind of person who wouldn’t use her powers out of evil (like Senator Keene planned) or hubris (as Ozymandias [Jeremy Irons] suggests his daughter Lady Trieu would). The “moment” that Jon fell in love with Angela is also the “moment” that proves her worth.

It’s still unclear whether or not Watchmen will return for a second season, but since tonight’s episode featured a number of references to “origins,” we wouldn’t be surprised if it HBO does renew the series. Not only do we need to know if Angela is able to walk on water, but what happens to the world when the truth about Adrian Veidt’s squid is revealed? Come to think of it, if Adrian goes to federal prison, would he be in the same jail as an old friend named Dan Dreiberg? And even though Lady Trieu was killed by her own father, her daughter/mother Bien (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport) was spared from the squidfall. Sounds an awful lot like Bien might have gotten her own origin story…

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