Everything you need to know from the comic after Episode 3

The third chapter of HBO’s Watchmen brings the goods. The original comic looms large over the opening two episodes, but in the third one we finally lean in. There’s no going back now.

Watchmen is much more of a sequel to the comic than it first seems. It’s set decades later and focuses primarily on a different set of characters, but there’s no question that it’s a direct continuation of the story laid out by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons, and colorist John Higgins more than 30 years ago.

I’ve seen most of the season already and am here to fill in the blanks. The idea isn’t to leave you with spoiler-y details that the show will get into further down the line, but rather to give you the context you need so you can better understand what just happened. 

If you’ve never read the comics and don’t plan to soon, but you still want to keep up with HBO’s Watchmen, keep reading.

Laurie… Blake, is it?

Everyone, please say hello to Silk Spectre II.

The third episode of Watchmen introduces FBI agent Laurie Blake, a key character from the comic and a former costumed vigilante herself. Laurie was actually the second individual to go by the name of Silk Spectre; the first, Sally Jupiter, is her mother. 

Laurie’s surname, Blake, comes from her father, Edward Blake. I’ve mentioned him here before, but only by his vigilante name: The Comedian. There’s more to the story of Sally Jupiter and Edward Blake, but we don’t need to go there just yet.

The episode makes it clear that Laurie carries a torch (and a massive sex toy) for Doctor Manhattan, and yes they do have a romantic history. It happened before the events of the comics, before even the passing of the Keene Act in 1977. The two drifted apart in the years that followed the end of costumed vigilantism, as Manhattan withdrew from humanity more and more.

Laurie was never enthralled with the idea of fighting crime from behind a mask, and she readily gave it up when the Keene Act passed. But she did keep in touch with her old allies, including one Dan Dreiberg – formerly known as Nite Owl. They re-connect in the comic and fall backwards into a romantic relationship.

We haven’t met Dan yet on the show and it’s not entirely clear what happened to him. At the end of the comic, after the squid falls on New York City, he and Laurie fully invest in their relationship under new, assumed names: Sam and Sandra Hollis. That’s the last we know of them.

The third episode of Watchmen offers some hints the present state of their relationship, but not what led to it. We learn that Laurie keeps a pet owl, named Who, in an apparent tribute to her former partner. We also find out that Dan may be in jail, when Senator Joseph Keene Jr. (more on him below) suggests that, as a future president, he could pardon her “owl.” Keene uses that suggestion to sell Laurie on an idea, so she clearly still harbors some feelings for her old flame.

Laurie’s joke

Laurie’s not much of a comedian… or is she? Used as a sort of framing device for Episode 3, the hour begins with Laurie’s stepping into a phone booth that lets her send a voice message to Doctor Manhattan on Mars. And she uses her time to tell an extended joke.

The bricklayer bit is open to interpretation. The eventual punchline makes it clear that with the bricklayer’s daughter, Laurie is talking about herself. Her dad, Edward, was a freelance costumed vigilante until the Keene Act passed, after which he became a government-sanctioned agent. Laurie isn’t into all of that mask business anymore, but she did end up carrying on Edward’s legacy.

Fans of the comic might also spot shades of Doctor Manhattan’s pre-origin life in the bricklayer bit. Jon Osterman, the son of a watchmaker, had at one point hoped to follow in his dad’s footsteps. But the senior Osterman shattered his son’s hopes after the bombing of Hiroshima at the end of World War II. Jon’s dad, taken aback by the changing world, urged his son to pursue a life of science.

As for the heaven’s gate part of the joke, Laurie is directly referencing the lives and actions of three key players from the Watchmen comics: Dan Dreiberg, Adrian Veidt, and Doctor Manhattan himself. Through these descriptions, we also come to understand how Laurie feels about all three in the present.

Laurie’s not much of a comedian… or is she?

Dreiberg, who in the joke goes to Hell because God deems him “too soft,” did indeed craft all sorts of crimefighting tools, including a flying ship. The aircraft that crashes in Watchmen‘s first episode in fact has a number of similarities to Dreiberg’s “Owlship.”

The “Smarty-pants” referenced in Laurie’s joke is Veidt. This is actually the first time the show makes explicit reference to Veidt’s role at the end of the comic. “I dropped a giant alien squid on New York,” he tells God in Laurie’s joke. “And everybody was so afraid of it, they stopped being afraid of each other.” So God sends him to Hell for being “a fucking monster.”

The last one at the gate (or so it seems) is Manhattan himself, or “Blue God” in the joke. He rattles off his accomplishments – walked on the sun, fell in love, ended the Vietnam War – but adds that he “mostly stopped giving a shit about humanity.” He already knows he’s being sent to Hell because “I’m already there.”

But lo and behold, there’s a fourth person! “It’s not a hero, it’s just a woman,” Laurie says. She was standing behind the other guys. She tells God that he gave her no talents, unlike the three men who were in front of her – and that’s basically true in the comics. Then she drops the punchline: “I’m the little girl who threw the brick in the air.” The brick then falls out of the sky and kills God.

What it all means for Laurie Blake’s continuing story remains to be seen.

Say hello to Sen. Joseph Keene Jr.

So it turns out that the son of the U.S. Senator who was instrumental in ending freelance costumed vigilantism has his own relationship with masks. It’s the younger Keene who helped turn Oklahoma into a state where police wear masks.

There’s not much to say about Keene yet. His scene with Laurie makes it clear that the whole masked police thing is basically a pilot program in Oklahoma, rather than a federal mandate. He says that other states are interested, but it’s Oklahoma that’s leading the charge.

We also learn that the Seventh Kavalry regards Keene as a “race traitor,” which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Keene’s Defense of Police Act (DOPA) is a direct result of the White Night. There’s some irony here, given the work Keene’s father did to curtail the behavior of costumed vigilantes. “Masks save lives,” Keene Jr. tells Laurie. “My reputation, my name is built on that idea.”

Think back for a moment to the first Watchmen episode, and the early scene at the newsstand. At the time, the owner of the stand referred to the younger Keene as a “clone” of his dad. Keene Jr. may believe masks are the answer, unlike his father, but they’re alike in the fact that they both work(ed) in support of strengthening government-authorized law enforcement.

Adrian Veidt, re-masked

While Episode 3 doesn’t do much to tell us where Adrian Veidt actually is, we now know he’s there against his will to some extent. There’s a mysterious “Game Warden” watching over his actions and apparently keeping an eye out for efforts to escape.

Is Adrian really imprisoned, though? In his letter exchange with the Game Warden, we learn that he had some say in establishing the terms of his current living situation. Laurie’s joke makes it clear that Adrian is responsible for some serious devastation in his past, but could this idyllic castle setting really be the prison he’s serving time in for those crimes? 

We’re not meant to know that yet. Adrian is clearly up to something. He’s working on a kind of protective suit that is apparently meant to keep its wearer safe in extreme cold. He’s also got some kind of mini-catapult in his workshop, and all manner of design sketches scattered around. None of this ties explicitly back to the comics

But! Adrian does at one point put on a costume of his own, and it’s his old Ozymandias outfit. Whatever he’s working on in secret, it’s clear that he’s still tethered to that masked identity in some way. Expect more answers on that front in the weeks to come.