Watchmen (2019): Season 1, Episode 7 - An Almost Religious Awe - full transcript
Under Lady Trieu's care, Angela undergoes an unconventional treatment; Laurie chases down a lead; The Smartest Man in The World delivers a stunning defense of his past actions.
- I'm Lady Trieu.
- Nice to meet you.
- How much longer?
- Three days.
There you are.
I did it!
Was I not clear in my letter?
You're pathetic!
Every one of you!
I place you under arrest.
My grandfather said he killed
Crawford, so I covered it up.
Hands! Show me your hands!
You're not supposed to take
someone else's Nostalgia.
It's very, very bad.
You ain't gonna get justice
with a badge, Will Reeves.
You're gonna get it with that hood.
Many men would be nothing without the man
who inspired them, Hooded Justice.
I'm gonna take you home now, honey.
From humble beginnings
fraught with persecution in Nazi Germany
to the shores of New York,
one small boy in a huddled mass,
yearning to breathe free,
Jon Osterman transcended pain,
suffering, and even death
itself to create a life
the likes of which history has never seen.
To some, the immigrant
son of a poor clockmaker
was the fulfillment of the American dream.
To others, the world's first superman
was a toxic nightmare.
Jon Osterman stepped into
an intrinsic field chamber
to recover his girlfriend's watch,
but what emerged was an immortal god,
impervious to the passage of time.
This victim of an atomic mishap
would forever alter the
history of humankind
by developing miraculous new wonders.
And then, Vietnam.
Was he the liberating hero
who single-handedly ended the war
and delivered his country its 51st state?
Or was he the cold blue conqueror
who decimated an entire way of life?
And so, like the Vietcong
he vanquished a decade
earlier, he retreated.
For the next 10 hours,
we'll explore the legacy of
this literally self-made man
in hopes of understanding why he was here,
and why he left.
From humble beginnings
fraught with persecution in Nazi Germany
to the shores of New York...
Are you gonna take my money or not?
Show me.
I told you she was gonna try.
- That you did.
- Please let me see it?
What did we tell you last week?
And the week before that?
I have to wait till I'm grown up.
People who wear masks
are dangerous, Angela,
- and we should be scared of them.
- Why?
Well, they're hiding something.
It's just pretend, Dad.
Well, it's only pretend until it's real.
And when you're a little older, you'll
be able to tell the difference.
Until then, take this
on back and Mom and me
will get you mooncakes
for the fireworks. Deal?
- Deal.
- Go ahead.
It's gonna be okay, baby. All right?
We're gonna be right behind you.
Aah. Did you fall out of bed again?
What happened?
I'm guessing you don't
remember asking me that...
five times already?
I'm happy to go over it again.
Your memory's a bit...
broken.
You took an entire bottle
of Nostalgia pills
that weren't yours.
And now is when you usually ask me
how you got from locked up in a jail cell
to here, with me.
Well, since you OD'd on my drug,
Agent Blake called me up and
asked if I could save your life.
So, here you are, getting your life saved.
Don't touch. It's your treatment.
And now is when you ask,
what treatment?
And then, I give you the
tutorial injection.
Wait. What the hell are you...
So, you've taken
someone else's Nostalgia.
Don't panic. We can help.
Introducing mnemodialysis, a treatment
by Trieu Pharmaceuticals.
At this moment, foreign memories...
have invaded your b-b-brain.
Those memories have
embedded by consolidating
into neural networks,
clogging existing pathways
and threatening higher cognitive function.
We call this process
"recollective infestation."
The only remedy for infestation
is to call a good exterminator,
so let's get in there and spray.
Mnemodialysis saturates the brain
with cerebrospinal fluid
provided by a natural host
and literally flushes
Nostalgia from the cortex.
The procedure is delicate
and somewhat tedious.
Consider keeping yourself
occupied by meditating
or reading a good book.
Thank you for trusting
Trieu Pharmaceuticals
with the most precious of
possessions... your mind.
Goodbye, and have a pleasant
return to consciousness.
Was that informative?
Don't ever fucking do that to me again.
That's what you said last time.
This tube...
it's connected to a natural host?
That's right.
My grandfather?
What's happening?
It's a side effect of the treatment.
Your grandfather had very painful memories.
They're coming out of you now.
I need to talk to him.
You just spent the last few days being him.
Contact right now is a bad idea.
I'm sorry, Detective,
but you wouldn't know where
he ends and you begin.
As the treatment clears out
your grandfather's memories,
you may reexperience your own,
vividly and without warning.
Do you mind if I asked what
knocked you out of bed?
It was my...
tenth birthday party.
My mom and dad gave me a pony.
Good morning. It is now 12 hours
until the Millennium Clock is activated.
All personnel please report
to your assigned stations.
Hey. She still in there?
We wouldn't be here if she wasn't.
- Why don't you go in?
- Go home, Cal. Huh?
Excuse me. Hi, uh,
I need to see my wife.
I've been calling, but no
one's answering the phones.
Yes... Of course.
Please step aside, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Abar. I'm Bian.
Can you see and hear me okay?
- Yeah.
- I understand
you want to see your wife.
Unfortunately, the timing
couldn't be worse.
We're preparing to activate
the Millennium Clock,
and for your own safety,
we can't grant access
to unauthorized personnel.
Is she okay?
Absolutely.
She's resting right now,
and she's responding incredibly well
to the treatment my
mother is administering.
Can I talk to her?
Sadly, you cannot.
Hey!
Where the hell is Agent Blake?!
I've joined the enemy.
The police in this city smother our people
under their shoes.
- Beware the Cyclops.
Film projectors. Cyclops is
using some kind of mesmerism.
You can hang yourself now.
Agent Blake, you there?
Agent Blake, come in.
What is it, Petey?
Remember when you told me to drive over
to Detective Tillman's house because you...
or, you know, Looking
Glass, because you thought
it was really unusual that he
ratted out Detective Abar,
and you were worried that maybe he
was working with the 7th Kavalry?
Yes, Petey. I remember it
as if I said all of that to you verbatim.
Anyway,
I'm pretty sure he's not working
with them because, uh...
five of them are here, and
they're extremely dead.
Are you sure they're Kavalry?
Yeah. Yeah, they're all
wearing Rorschach masks.
Well, actually, hold on, one of them isn't.
Mirror Guy, where is he?
Not here.
Kind of strange considering he's a
cop, that he didn't call this in, huh?
Should I call this in?
Uh, uh... No, you
should not call it in.
You should stay exactly where you are.
I'll be there as soon as I'm
done with my thing here.
What thing?
Agent Blake?
Hello?
Agent Blake.
Mrs. Crawford.
Howdy.
May I get you some tea?
- Oh thanks, no, I'm fine.
- You sure?
Please, have a seat.
- I can make some coffee...
- Mrs. Crawford,
I know who killed your husband.
What?
His name is Will Reeves.
He was a policeman in New
York, back in the 1940s,
and he has history here in Tulsa.
He's Angela Abar's grandfather.
I-I don't understand.
Angela said she doesn't have any family.
Well, we all have family, Mrs. Crawford.
Some of them we just... don't talk about.
Well, why would this man want to kill Judd?
Well, this is the part that gets weird.
Angela OD'd on her grandpa's Nostalgia,
and while she was under, she talked, a lot.
It's as if she was channeling
the old man, reliving his life.
I've got it all on tape
if you want to listen.
Like I said, weird.
It turns out that...
Will Reeves was Hooded Justice...
the very first masked vigilante.
And he was black.
I mean, this is a guy who inspired
two generations of heroes, my
folks and myself included,
but he had to hide who he was.
Because white men in masks are heroes,
but black men in masks...
are scary.
Thank God times have changed.
Yeah, thank God.
But the point is,
when she was walking a mile
in Grandpa's memories,
Angela kept saying one word
over and over and over:
Cyclops.
Am I supposed to know what that is?
Back in the day, it was a racist
cult, hot for mind control.
- Reeves...
- Whoa, whoa, whoa. Mind control?
Yes, I know. I know.
Now, this may come as a bit of a shock,
but I think that Reeves
believed your husband
was a part of this whole Cyclops thing,
and that's why he killed him.
And what do you believe?
Well, I-I wouldn't be doing
my job if I didn't at least
entertain the idea that the
chief of police of Tulsa
wasn't a secret white supremacist.
Which has to make you
wonder about his friends,
like Joe Keene.
What if the 7th Kavalry is
just Cyclops by another name?
And what if Senator Joe used
them to kill a bunch of police
so that he could put all the cops in masks,
and pretty soon, no one can tell
the good guys from the bad guys,
because everybody's covering
their fucking faces
and pledging loyalty to
their newly elected leader,
President Joe?
Well, that was the original idea,
but something extraordinary happened,
and suddenly,
president seemed a bit small potatoes.
- What?
- I'm sorry.
Was I not supposed to confess yet?
You've just been going on and on and on.
Shit!
What the fuck are you doing?
Hey, it's me.
Laurie Blake just stopped by. You
want me to kill her or what?
Good afternoon. It is now nine hours
until the Millennium Clock is activated.
All personnel designated
green, please report
to the medical wing for removal
of any remaining metal implants.
Which man looks more trustworthy?
- What?
- First instinct.
Which is more trustworthy?
The candy man.
Why?
People don't fly kites alone.
Which woman looks more scared?
The one who's about to jump.
What makes you think she's going to jump?
Why would else would she be on a ledge?
Which woman is the angriest?
They're exactly the same.
Are you sure?
I'm sorry, but what does this
have to do with my treatment?
Oh, nothing.
It's, uh, research for my dissertation.
It's on the adaptive function of empathy,
and the role of rage suppression
in social cohesion.
I have a son that's about your age,
and I can barely get him to open a book.
Is it hard lying to him?
- What?
- About being a police detective.
My understanding is you're not
allowed to tell your children.
It's for their own protection.
Not yours?
They lost their parents.
If they knew what I did, they would worry.
If you don't want your kids
to worry you're a cop,
then why are you a cop?
Detective Abar?
Detective Abar?
Are you okay?
Okay.
I'm not scared.
That's him.
I'm sure.
Can I listen?
If you don't want your
kids to worry you're a cop,
then why are you a cop?
You ain't gonna get justice
with a badge, Will Reeves.
You're gonna get it with that hood.
Detective Abar?
Detective Abar?
Whose was it?
What?
Whose memory did you just experience?
Yours or your grandfather's?
Mine.
Well, that's progress.
It means the treatment is working.
I have these dreams sometimes.
They feel so real.
I'm an old woman.
I'm scared...
and it hurts.
What was it like for you...
when you saw what he
saw, felt what he felt?
It hurt too.
Hear ye! Hear ye!
So begins day 365
of the People versus Adrian Veidt,
alias Ozymandias,
alias Master.
All rise for His Honor, the Game Warden!
Be seated.
Very well. Let's get this over with.
Madame Prosecutor, you may
offer your closing argument.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
Honorable Warden,
Master.
From the moment the accused
pulls us from the water
to the moment he inevitably slaughters us,
we are governed by one law,
a law imbued in us by our creator
when he gifted us with life
and this glorious paradise
in which to live it.
Thou shalt not leave!
Is the accused guilty of murder?
The evidence is indisputable.
Even from the time before he came to us,
he freely admits he not only took the lives
of fellow costumed adventurers,
but those...
of three million innocent people!
Does he apologize for manufacturing
an enormous alien being and using
it to perpetrate mass genocide?
Does he show a shred of remorse?
No.
He tells us such wanton
carnage was a necessary
sacrifice to achieve utopia.
And so for years,
he hurled our lifeless bodies
into the great beyond.
Lives we offered unto him
without questioning his intent,
an intent he made evermore clear
in a series of
self-aggrandizing monologues,
espousing his own superiority
and his true purpose.
Escape.
Thou shalt not leave.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the choice is simple.
Resign yourself to our
Master's cruel whim...
or find him...
guilty.
The prosecution rests.
Master Veidt,
you have chosen to represent
yourself, and, yet,
over the course of this past year,
you've offered no testimony nor evidence
to contradict the prosecution's case.
If you have anything to say
in your defense, say it now.
The defense...
rests.
Ladies and gentlemen, I owe you an apology.
Not for the foul disregard for decency
that just emanated from the
bowels of the accused,
but for placing upon you the burden
of judging him.
For it is the foundation of
a fair trial that every man
be judged by a jury of his peers.
You are not his peers.
As such, I have taken the liberty
of assembling an alternative jury
much more suited to the task.
Go!
What say you, madam?
How do you find the defendant?
Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty...
Hey!
You hungry?
Then why'd you come here?
I have a secret plan to save humanity,
and it starts in Oklahoma.
Can't tell if you're kidding.
Sure you can.
Why did you come here?
My husband and I were tired of Saigon.
Tulsa PD was hiring...
Seemed as good a place as any.
And you were looking to start
over after his accident.
It was a car crash, right?
I've done a lot of research on memory.
Total amnesia's extremely rare.
Unless you're in a soap opera.
In real life, it almost never happens.
It happened.
Of course it did.
I can't imagine what it was like.
No sense of who he was or who you were.
His whole life up to that moment just...
gone.
How do you know about Cal?
- Your grandfather told me.
- I spent all of 20 minutes with that man.
He doesn't know shit about my husband.
- Well, he knows shit about you.
- Yeah?
Let's follow my tube and see
what he knows about me.
It would be a bad idea
to see him right now.
Then why did he want me to
take his fucking pills?
He didn't think you'd
take them all at once.
Nostalgia's more tolerable in small doses.
And who's Nostalgia is
your daughter tolerating?
I'm sorry?
She told me about her dreams,
where she's some sick old lady,
and I'm just wondering
whose memories are you slipping to her?
Her own.
What?
I'm slipping her own memories to her.
Bian's not my daughter.
She's my mother.
Before she died, I harvested her
memories, and then I cloned her.
Of course, she wouldn't be my mother
unless she had my mother's
experiences, so...
over time, I've been
reintegrating her memories
while she sleeps via IV drip.
You're a fucking crazy person.
I'm on the verge of
completing my life's work.
Is it wrong to want my
parents with me when I do?
Your dad's here, too?
He will be.
And your life's work is turning
on your big fancy gizmo
so that you can save humanity?
You make it sound ridiculous
when you say it like that.
So then tell me what it fucking does,
your clock.
No.
Good afternoon. It is now four hours
until the Millennium Clock is activated.
All personnel, please report
to the viewing platform.
Lady Trieu's invocation
is for our ears only.
The future thanks you for your service.
Agent Blake.
I hear you cracked the case.
Hooded Justice?
I didn't see that coming.
Not a lot of 100-year-old
vigilantes rolling around.
A trapdoor?
- I'm sorry?
- Who has a fucking trapdoor
installed in their living room?
Ah.
Jane told me I was tempting fate
by sending you down to Tulsa,
but for reasons that will soon
become obvious, I couldn't...
Oh Jesus, please don't.
- What?
- Talk me through your fucking plan.
Let me guess.
When you were just a boy,
your father put you on
his knee and told you
that you'd been born into
the Order of the Cyclops,
and that it was your legacy to grow up
and be the most powerful
racist fuck in the nation.
That's not at all what happened.
I'm tired, Joe.
I'm tired of all the... silliness.
You want me to ask you why
I'm strapped to a chair in
an abandoned J. C. Penney,
or what that cage is for?
Fine.
Just know that I don't give a shit.
Oh, you'll give a shit about this, Laurie.
You of all people.
You're wrong about Cyclops.
We're not racists.
We're about restoring balance
in those times when our country
forgets the principles
upon which it was founded.
Because the scales have tipped way too far,
and it is extremely difficult
to be a white man in America right now.
So, I'm thinking...
I might try being a blue one.
When I was 15 years old,
I graduated from MIT.
Four years later, I bought it.
By 24, I had revolutionized
the fields of medicine,
energy, nanotech,
and at 30,
I designed and launched the
first micro-fusion spacecraft.
But there were failures, too.
My greatest was Nostalgia.
I gave people the means to visit the past
so they could learn from it,
so they could evolve and transform
and better themselves.
Instead, they became fixated
on their most painful memories,
choosing to experience
the worst moments of their lives...
over and over again,
and why?
Because they were afraid.
Afraid that once unburdened
by the trauma of the past,
they would have no excuse not to move
gloriously into the future.
This Millennium Clock
is a monument to the new.
Countless generations will gaze upon
our mighty work,
and without despair...
I know you're in there.
I took your pills.
You showed me your life.
Why?
I know why you killed Crawford.
What do you want from me?!
Will!
Open the fucking door!
What the fuck?
Subject disconnected.
This lady yell at you
like that all the time?
Yeah.
You can go now.
Well, hello there, Angela.
I-I'm June.
I'm your grandma.
Hi.
I'm here to take you home.
Your daddy ever mention me?
Mm-mm.
Figures.
Your his mom?
Yeah, I was his mom.
A ways back,
he told me he wanted to put on a uniform
and come here to Vietnam and fight.
I said if he did, I'd
never talk to him again.
He came anyway.
He was stubborn, your daddy,
but he forgot where he got stubborn from.
The war ended.
He met your mom.
Lots of opportunity in a brand-new state,
so he stayed.
A couple years went by, a couple more...
then I had a heart attack.
Mm-mm. I was fine.
It was just a little bitty one.
But such things tend to
have sentimental effects,
so I wrote your daddy a letter.
Had to send it to the army here
because I had no address for him.
It came back unopened,
with a big stamp on it.
"Deceased."
Turns out, he never
listed me as next of kin.
As far as he was concerned...
I didn't exist.
That's when I found out he had a wife...
and she was gone also.
And then, they told me
he had a little girl.
A little girl who was all alone
with no next of kin.
So, I bought me a plane ticket,
and I came here to get you.
Tell me something about yourself, Angela.
Anything.
I'm gonna be a police officer.
Of course you are.
What else you got in there?
Oh! I remember this one!
You do not want to fuck with Sister Night.
- This your favorite?
- I'm not allowed to watch it.
Why not?
My dad said we should be
scared of people in masks.
Well, that's because someone
in a mask scared him
when he was about your age,
and he never really got over it.
Do I have a grandpa?
Lots of movies out there, um...
Why you carrying around this one?
She looks like me?
Know what?
She does look like you.
I reckon there's not a lot of...
people here in Vietnam who do.
No, ma'am.
Tell you what.
I have a VCR in Tulsa.
We'll watch this first thing.
Where's Tulsa?
Tulsa's in Oklahoma, honey.
It's where we're from.
Precious cargo.
Can't be too safe.
Subject disconnected.
Subjected disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
- Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
I don't know why I keep coming
to these stupid phone booths
and telling you jokes.
It's not like you ever
had a sense of humor.
I know you're probably never
gonna hear this anyway.
Sometimes, it's...
Sometimes it's nice to pretend.
So many prayers unanswered.
I own and operate thousands
of Manhattan booths around the world.
You wouldn't believe
what people ask him for.
They beg and beg and beg for his help.
Beg for him to come down from the heavens
and make things better.
But he ignores them, every single one.
Do you know why?
I give up.
Because Dr. Manhattan isn't listening.
He's not even on Mars.
Where is he?
Right here in Tulsa,
pretending to be human.
Are you the one who put that
idea in my grandfather's head?
Actually, he put it in mine.
Angela...
are we going to keep fucking around here?
Or are we going to be
honest with each other?
Tell me how you know my grandfather,
and tell me what the
fuck you're doing here,
and don't say it's saving fucking humanity.
Your grandfather came to me
because he needed someone
with my resources to help him
stop the 7th Kavalry.
Stop them from doing what?
In less than an hour,
they're going to capture Dr. Manhattan,
and they're going to destroy him.
And then, they're going to become him.
Can you imagine that kind of power
in the hands of white supremacists?
I'm sorry, Angela. I know
you asked me not to say it,
but I am saving fucking humanity.
I'm leaving now
'cause that's the craziest
shit I've ever heard.
Okay.
You didn't ask me who he is.
- What?
- I know you think I'm crazy, but...
I just told you Dr. Manhattan is here,
in Tulsa, walking amongst
us as a human being,
and you never asked me who he is.
Why you always hungry?
Fast metabolism.
I'm gonna go check this out.
- Tell Scare to move.
- No, he's not gonna move.
And you're under arrest.
Jen,
tell Scare to move. I
don't want to hurt him.
It's Abar! She wants you to move!
She says she doesn't want to hurt you!
Fuck her!
Did you tell her she's under arrest?!
You crazy fucking bitch!
Fuck you!
Angela?
Are the kids asleep?
Yeah.
- You okay?
- I'm fine.
I don't understand. What happened?
I came to see you,
- but they wouldn't let me...
- Cal, I need you to stop talking
and listen to me, okay?
Okay.
You're a great husband,
an amazing father,
you're the best friend I've ever had.
I love you.
I love you, too.
Time to come out of the tunnel.
What, uh...
- tunnel?
- Don't be scared.
We talked about this.
We always knew that this day would come.
- What day, Angela? I don't know what
you're talking about... - You do know.
You just don't remember.
Did we talk about this before my accident?
There was no accident.
What?
It was a lie.
A lie so that we could be together.
At least for a while.
If it's any consolation, it was your idea.
Honey,
I don't know what...
they did to you,
but I think the drug you took
is messing you up.
You're not yourself.
No, Jon.
You're not yourself.
My name is not Jon.
I am so sorry.
Hey, baby.
We're in fucking trouble.
- I love you.
- We just met.
When'd you fall in love with me?
I... was already in love with you.
Before you even saw me?
I don't experience the concept of...
before.
So... there's no moment?
- Moment?
- A moment.
When you realized, "I'm in love."
This is the moment.
I just told you that you can't save me.
And you're gonna try to anyway.
- Nice to meet you.
- How much longer?
- Three days.
There you are.
I did it!
Was I not clear in my letter?
You're pathetic!
Every one of you!
I place you under arrest.
My grandfather said he killed
Crawford, so I covered it up.
Hands! Show me your hands!
You're not supposed to take
someone else's Nostalgia.
It's very, very bad.
You ain't gonna get justice
with a badge, Will Reeves.
You're gonna get it with that hood.
Many men would be nothing without the man
who inspired them, Hooded Justice.
I'm gonna take you home now, honey.
From humble beginnings
fraught with persecution in Nazi Germany
to the shores of New York,
one small boy in a huddled mass,
yearning to breathe free,
Jon Osterman transcended pain,
suffering, and even death
itself to create a life
the likes of which history has never seen.
To some, the immigrant
son of a poor clockmaker
was the fulfillment of the American dream.
To others, the world's first superman
was a toxic nightmare.
Jon Osterman stepped into
an intrinsic field chamber
to recover his girlfriend's watch,
but what emerged was an immortal god,
impervious to the passage of time.
This victim of an atomic mishap
would forever alter the
history of humankind
by developing miraculous new wonders.
And then, Vietnam.
Was he the liberating hero
who single-handedly ended the war
and delivered his country its 51st state?
Or was he the cold blue conqueror
who decimated an entire way of life?
And so, like the Vietcong
he vanquished a decade
earlier, he retreated.
For the next 10 hours,
we'll explore the legacy of
this literally self-made man
in hopes of understanding why he was here,
and why he left.
From humble beginnings
fraught with persecution in Nazi Germany
to the shores of New York...
Are you gonna take my money or not?
Show me.
I told you she was gonna try.
- That you did.
- Please let me see it?
What did we tell you last week?
And the week before that?
I have to wait till I'm grown up.
People who wear masks
are dangerous, Angela,
- and we should be scared of them.
- Why?
Well, they're hiding something.
It's just pretend, Dad.
Well, it's only pretend until it's real.
And when you're a little older, you'll
be able to tell the difference.
Until then, take this
on back and Mom and me
will get you mooncakes
for the fireworks. Deal?
- Deal.
- Go ahead.
It's gonna be okay, baby. All right?
We're gonna be right behind you.
Aah. Did you fall out of bed again?
What happened?
I'm guessing you don't
remember asking me that...
five times already?
I'm happy to go over it again.
Your memory's a bit...
broken.
You took an entire bottle
of Nostalgia pills
that weren't yours.
And now is when you usually ask me
how you got from locked up in a jail cell
to here, with me.
Well, since you OD'd on my drug,
Agent Blake called me up and
asked if I could save your life.
So, here you are, getting your life saved.
Don't touch. It's your treatment.
And now is when you ask,
what treatment?
And then, I give you the
tutorial injection.
Wait. What the hell are you...
So, you've taken
someone else's Nostalgia.
Don't panic. We can help.
Introducing mnemodialysis, a treatment
by Trieu Pharmaceuticals.
At this moment, foreign memories...
have invaded your b-b-brain.
Those memories have
embedded by consolidating
into neural networks,
clogging existing pathways
and threatening higher cognitive function.
We call this process
"recollective infestation."
The only remedy for infestation
is to call a good exterminator,
so let's get in there and spray.
Mnemodialysis saturates the brain
with cerebrospinal fluid
provided by a natural host
and literally flushes
Nostalgia from the cortex.
The procedure is delicate
and somewhat tedious.
Consider keeping yourself
occupied by meditating
or reading a good book.
Thank you for trusting
Trieu Pharmaceuticals
with the most precious of
possessions... your mind.
Goodbye, and have a pleasant
return to consciousness.
Was that informative?
Don't ever fucking do that to me again.
That's what you said last time.
This tube...
it's connected to a natural host?
That's right.
My grandfather?
What's happening?
It's a side effect of the treatment.
Your grandfather had very painful memories.
They're coming out of you now.
I need to talk to him.
You just spent the last few days being him.
Contact right now is a bad idea.
I'm sorry, Detective,
but you wouldn't know where
he ends and you begin.
As the treatment clears out
your grandfather's memories,
you may reexperience your own,
vividly and without warning.
Do you mind if I asked what
knocked you out of bed?
It was my...
tenth birthday party.
My mom and dad gave me a pony.
Good morning. It is now 12 hours
until the Millennium Clock is activated.
All personnel please report
to your assigned stations.
Hey. She still in there?
We wouldn't be here if she wasn't.
- Why don't you go in?
- Go home, Cal. Huh?
Excuse me. Hi, uh,
I need to see my wife.
I've been calling, but no
one's answering the phones.
Yes... Of course.
Please step aside, sir.
Good morning, Mr. Abar. I'm Bian.
Can you see and hear me okay?
- Yeah.
- I understand
you want to see your wife.
Unfortunately, the timing
couldn't be worse.
We're preparing to activate
the Millennium Clock,
and for your own safety,
we can't grant access
to unauthorized personnel.
Is she okay?
Absolutely.
She's resting right now,
and she's responding incredibly well
to the treatment my
mother is administering.
Can I talk to her?
Sadly, you cannot.
Hey!
Where the hell is Agent Blake?!
I've joined the enemy.
The police in this city smother our people
under their shoes.
- Beware the Cyclops.
Film projectors. Cyclops is
using some kind of mesmerism.
You can hang yourself now.
Agent Blake, you there?
Agent Blake, come in.
What is it, Petey?
Remember when you told me to drive over
to Detective Tillman's house because you...
or, you know, Looking
Glass, because you thought
it was really unusual that he
ratted out Detective Abar,
and you were worried that maybe he
was working with the 7th Kavalry?
Yes, Petey. I remember it
as if I said all of that to you verbatim.
Anyway,
I'm pretty sure he's not working
with them because, uh...
five of them are here, and
they're extremely dead.
Are you sure they're Kavalry?
Yeah. Yeah, they're all
wearing Rorschach masks.
Well, actually, hold on, one of them isn't.
Mirror Guy, where is he?
Not here.
Kind of strange considering he's a
cop, that he didn't call this in, huh?
Should I call this in?
Uh, uh... No, you
should not call it in.
You should stay exactly where you are.
I'll be there as soon as I'm
done with my thing here.
What thing?
Agent Blake?
Hello?
Agent Blake.
Mrs. Crawford.
Howdy.
May I get you some tea?
- Oh thanks, no, I'm fine.
- You sure?
Please, have a seat.
- I can make some coffee...
- Mrs. Crawford,
I know who killed your husband.
What?
His name is Will Reeves.
He was a policeman in New
York, back in the 1940s,
and he has history here in Tulsa.
He's Angela Abar's grandfather.
I-I don't understand.
Angela said she doesn't have any family.
Well, we all have family, Mrs. Crawford.
Some of them we just... don't talk about.
Well, why would this man want to kill Judd?
Well, this is the part that gets weird.
Angela OD'd on her grandpa's Nostalgia,
and while she was under, she talked, a lot.
It's as if she was channeling
the old man, reliving his life.
I've got it all on tape
if you want to listen.
Like I said, weird.
It turns out that...
Will Reeves was Hooded Justice...
the very first masked vigilante.
And he was black.
I mean, this is a guy who inspired
two generations of heroes, my
folks and myself included,
but he had to hide who he was.
Because white men in masks are heroes,
but black men in masks...
are scary.
Thank God times have changed.
Yeah, thank God.
But the point is,
when she was walking a mile
in Grandpa's memories,
Angela kept saying one word
over and over and over:
Cyclops.
Am I supposed to know what that is?
Back in the day, it was a racist
cult, hot for mind control.
- Reeves...
- Whoa, whoa, whoa. Mind control?
Yes, I know. I know.
Now, this may come as a bit of a shock,
but I think that Reeves
believed your husband
was a part of this whole Cyclops thing,
and that's why he killed him.
And what do you believe?
Well, I-I wouldn't be doing
my job if I didn't at least
entertain the idea that the
chief of police of Tulsa
wasn't a secret white supremacist.
Which has to make you
wonder about his friends,
like Joe Keene.
What if the 7th Kavalry is
just Cyclops by another name?
And what if Senator Joe used
them to kill a bunch of police
so that he could put all the cops in masks,
and pretty soon, no one can tell
the good guys from the bad guys,
because everybody's covering
their fucking faces
and pledging loyalty to
their newly elected leader,
President Joe?
Well, that was the original idea,
but something extraordinary happened,
and suddenly,
president seemed a bit small potatoes.
- What?
- I'm sorry.
Was I not supposed to confess yet?
You've just been going on and on and on.
Shit!
What the fuck are you doing?
Hey, it's me.
Laurie Blake just stopped by. You
want me to kill her or what?
Good afternoon. It is now nine hours
until the Millennium Clock is activated.
All personnel designated
green, please report
to the medical wing for removal
of any remaining metal implants.
Which man looks more trustworthy?
- What?
- First instinct.
Which is more trustworthy?
The candy man.
Why?
People don't fly kites alone.
Which woman looks more scared?
The one who's about to jump.
What makes you think she's going to jump?
Why would else would she be on a ledge?
Which woman is the angriest?
They're exactly the same.
Are you sure?
I'm sorry, but what does this
have to do with my treatment?
Oh, nothing.
It's, uh, research for my dissertation.
It's on the adaptive function of empathy,
and the role of rage suppression
in social cohesion.
I have a son that's about your age,
and I can barely get him to open a book.
Is it hard lying to him?
- What?
- About being a police detective.
My understanding is you're not
allowed to tell your children.
It's for their own protection.
Not yours?
They lost their parents.
If they knew what I did, they would worry.
If you don't want your kids
to worry you're a cop,
then why are you a cop?
Detective Abar?
Detective Abar?
Are you okay?
Okay.
I'm not scared.
That's him.
I'm sure.
Can I listen?
If you don't want your
kids to worry you're a cop,
then why are you a cop?
You ain't gonna get justice
with a badge, Will Reeves.
You're gonna get it with that hood.
Detective Abar?
Detective Abar?
Whose was it?
What?
Whose memory did you just experience?
Yours or your grandfather's?
Mine.
Well, that's progress.
It means the treatment is working.
I have these dreams sometimes.
They feel so real.
I'm an old woman.
I'm scared...
and it hurts.
What was it like for you...
when you saw what he
saw, felt what he felt?
It hurt too.
Hear ye! Hear ye!
So begins day 365
of the People versus Adrian Veidt,
alias Ozymandias,
alias Master.
All rise for His Honor, the Game Warden!
Be seated.
Very well. Let's get this over with.
Madame Prosecutor, you may
offer your closing argument.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,
Honorable Warden,
Master.
From the moment the accused
pulls us from the water
to the moment he inevitably slaughters us,
we are governed by one law,
a law imbued in us by our creator
when he gifted us with life
and this glorious paradise
in which to live it.
Thou shalt not leave!
Is the accused guilty of murder?
The evidence is indisputable.
Even from the time before he came to us,
he freely admits he not only took the lives
of fellow costumed adventurers,
but those...
of three million innocent people!
Does he apologize for manufacturing
an enormous alien being and using
it to perpetrate mass genocide?
Does he show a shred of remorse?
No.
He tells us such wanton
carnage was a necessary
sacrifice to achieve utopia.
And so for years,
he hurled our lifeless bodies
into the great beyond.
Lives we offered unto him
without questioning his intent,
an intent he made evermore clear
in a series of
self-aggrandizing monologues,
espousing his own superiority
and his true purpose.
Escape.
Thou shalt not leave.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the choice is simple.
Resign yourself to our
Master's cruel whim...
or find him...
guilty.
The prosecution rests.
Master Veidt,
you have chosen to represent
yourself, and, yet,
over the course of this past year,
you've offered no testimony nor evidence
to contradict the prosecution's case.
If you have anything to say
in your defense, say it now.
The defense...
rests.
Ladies and gentlemen, I owe you an apology.
Not for the foul disregard for decency
that just emanated from the
bowels of the accused,
but for placing upon you the burden
of judging him.
For it is the foundation of
a fair trial that every man
be judged by a jury of his peers.
You are not his peers.
As such, I have taken the liberty
of assembling an alternative jury
much more suited to the task.
Go!
What say you, madam?
How do you find the defendant?
Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!
Guilty! Guilty! Guilty...
Hey!
You hungry?
Then why'd you come here?
I have a secret plan to save humanity,
and it starts in Oklahoma.
Can't tell if you're kidding.
Sure you can.
Why did you come here?
My husband and I were tired of Saigon.
Tulsa PD was hiring...
Seemed as good a place as any.
And you were looking to start
over after his accident.
It was a car crash, right?
I've done a lot of research on memory.
Total amnesia's extremely rare.
Unless you're in a soap opera.
In real life, it almost never happens.
It happened.
Of course it did.
I can't imagine what it was like.
No sense of who he was or who you were.
His whole life up to that moment just...
gone.
How do you know about Cal?
- Your grandfather told me.
- I spent all of 20 minutes with that man.
He doesn't know shit about my husband.
- Well, he knows shit about you.
- Yeah?
Let's follow my tube and see
what he knows about me.
It would be a bad idea
to see him right now.
Then why did he want me to
take his fucking pills?
He didn't think you'd
take them all at once.
Nostalgia's more tolerable in small doses.
And who's Nostalgia is
your daughter tolerating?
I'm sorry?
She told me about her dreams,
where she's some sick old lady,
and I'm just wondering
whose memories are you slipping to her?
Her own.
What?
I'm slipping her own memories to her.
Bian's not my daughter.
She's my mother.
Before she died, I harvested her
memories, and then I cloned her.
Of course, she wouldn't be my mother
unless she had my mother's
experiences, so...
over time, I've been
reintegrating her memories
while she sleeps via IV drip.
You're a fucking crazy person.
I'm on the verge of
completing my life's work.
Is it wrong to want my
parents with me when I do?
Your dad's here, too?
He will be.
And your life's work is turning
on your big fancy gizmo
so that you can save humanity?
You make it sound ridiculous
when you say it like that.
So then tell me what it fucking does,
your clock.
No.
Good afternoon. It is now four hours
until the Millennium Clock is activated.
All personnel, please report
to the viewing platform.
Lady Trieu's invocation
is for our ears only.
The future thanks you for your service.
Agent Blake.
I hear you cracked the case.
Hooded Justice?
I didn't see that coming.
Not a lot of 100-year-old
vigilantes rolling around.
A trapdoor?
- I'm sorry?
- Who has a fucking trapdoor
installed in their living room?
Ah.
Jane told me I was tempting fate
by sending you down to Tulsa,
but for reasons that will soon
become obvious, I couldn't...
Oh Jesus, please don't.
- What?
- Talk me through your fucking plan.
Let me guess.
When you were just a boy,
your father put you on
his knee and told you
that you'd been born into
the Order of the Cyclops,
and that it was your legacy to grow up
and be the most powerful
racist fuck in the nation.
That's not at all what happened.
I'm tired, Joe.
I'm tired of all the... silliness.
You want me to ask you why
I'm strapped to a chair in
an abandoned J. C. Penney,
or what that cage is for?
Fine.
Just know that I don't give a shit.
Oh, you'll give a shit about this, Laurie.
You of all people.
You're wrong about Cyclops.
We're not racists.
We're about restoring balance
in those times when our country
forgets the principles
upon which it was founded.
Because the scales have tipped way too far,
and it is extremely difficult
to be a white man in America right now.
So, I'm thinking...
I might try being a blue one.
When I was 15 years old,
I graduated from MIT.
Four years later, I bought it.
By 24, I had revolutionized
the fields of medicine,
energy, nanotech,
and at 30,
I designed and launched the
first micro-fusion spacecraft.
But there were failures, too.
My greatest was Nostalgia.
I gave people the means to visit the past
so they could learn from it,
so they could evolve and transform
and better themselves.
Instead, they became fixated
on their most painful memories,
choosing to experience
the worst moments of their lives...
over and over again,
and why?
Because they were afraid.
Afraid that once unburdened
by the trauma of the past,
they would have no excuse not to move
gloriously into the future.
This Millennium Clock
is a monument to the new.
Countless generations will gaze upon
our mighty work,
and without despair...
I know you're in there.
I took your pills.
You showed me your life.
Why?
I know why you killed Crawford.
What do you want from me?!
Will!
Open the fucking door!
What the fuck?
Subject disconnected.
This lady yell at you
like that all the time?
Yeah.
You can go now.
Well, hello there, Angela.
I-I'm June.
I'm your grandma.
Hi.
I'm here to take you home.
Your daddy ever mention me?
Mm-mm.
Figures.
Your his mom?
Yeah, I was his mom.
A ways back,
he told me he wanted to put on a uniform
and come here to Vietnam and fight.
I said if he did, I'd
never talk to him again.
He came anyway.
He was stubborn, your daddy,
but he forgot where he got stubborn from.
The war ended.
He met your mom.
Lots of opportunity in a brand-new state,
so he stayed.
A couple years went by, a couple more...
then I had a heart attack.
Mm-mm. I was fine.
It was just a little bitty one.
But such things tend to
have sentimental effects,
so I wrote your daddy a letter.
Had to send it to the army here
because I had no address for him.
It came back unopened,
with a big stamp on it.
"Deceased."
Turns out, he never
listed me as next of kin.
As far as he was concerned...
I didn't exist.
That's when I found out he had a wife...
and she was gone also.
And then, they told me
he had a little girl.
A little girl who was all alone
with no next of kin.
So, I bought me a plane ticket,
and I came here to get you.
Tell me something about yourself, Angela.
Anything.
I'm gonna be a police officer.
Of course you are.
What else you got in there?
Oh! I remember this one!
You do not want to fuck with Sister Night.
- This your favorite?
- I'm not allowed to watch it.
Why not?
My dad said we should be
scared of people in masks.
Well, that's because someone
in a mask scared him
when he was about your age,
and he never really got over it.
Do I have a grandpa?
Lots of movies out there, um...
Why you carrying around this one?
She looks like me?
Know what?
She does look like you.
I reckon there's not a lot of...
people here in Vietnam who do.
No, ma'am.
Tell you what.
I have a VCR in Tulsa.
We'll watch this first thing.
Where's Tulsa?
Tulsa's in Oklahoma, honey.
It's where we're from.
Precious cargo.
Can't be too safe.
Subject disconnected.
Subjected disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
- Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
Subject disconnected.
I don't know why I keep coming
to these stupid phone booths
and telling you jokes.
It's not like you ever
had a sense of humor.
I know you're probably never
gonna hear this anyway.
Sometimes, it's...
Sometimes it's nice to pretend.
So many prayers unanswered.
I own and operate thousands
of Manhattan booths around the world.
You wouldn't believe
what people ask him for.
They beg and beg and beg for his help.
Beg for him to come down from the heavens
and make things better.
But he ignores them, every single one.
Do you know why?
I give up.
Because Dr. Manhattan isn't listening.
He's not even on Mars.
Where is he?
Right here in Tulsa,
pretending to be human.
Are you the one who put that
idea in my grandfather's head?
Actually, he put it in mine.
Angela...
are we going to keep fucking around here?
Or are we going to be
honest with each other?
Tell me how you know my grandfather,
and tell me what the
fuck you're doing here,
and don't say it's saving fucking humanity.
Your grandfather came to me
because he needed someone
with my resources to help him
stop the 7th Kavalry.
Stop them from doing what?
In less than an hour,
they're going to capture Dr. Manhattan,
and they're going to destroy him.
And then, they're going to become him.
Can you imagine that kind of power
in the hands of white supremacists?
I'm sorry, Angela. I know
you asked me not to say it,
but I am saving fucking humanity.
I'm leaving now
'cause that's the craziest
shit I've ever heard.
Okay.
You didn't ask me who he is.
- What?
- I know you think I'm crazy, but...
I just told you Dr. Manhattan is here,
in Tulsa, walking amongst
us as a human being,
and you never asked me who he is.
Why you always hungry?
Fast metabolism.
I'm gonna go check this out.
- Tell Scare to move.
- No, he's not gonna move.
And you're under arrest.
Jen,
tell Scare to move. I
don't want to hurt him.
It's Abar! She wants you to move!
She says she doesn't want to hurt you!
Fuck her!
Did you tell her she's under arrest?!
You crazy fucking bitch!
Fuck you!
Angela?
Are the kids asleep?
Yeah.
- You okay?
- I'm fine.
I don't understand. What happened?
I came to see you,
- but they wouldn't let me...
- Cal, I need you to stop talking
and listen to me, okay?
Okay.
You're a great husband,
an amazing father,
you're the best friend I've ever had.
I love you.
I love you, too.
Time to come out of the tunnel.
What, uh...
- tunnel?
- Don't be scared.
We talked about this.
We always knew that this day would come.
- What day, Angela? I don't know what
you're talking about... - You do know.
You just don't remember.
Did we talk about this before my accident?
There was no accident.
What?
It was a lie.
A lie so that we could be together.
At least for a while.
If it's any consolation, it was your idea.
Honey,
I don't know what...
they did to you,
but I think the drug you took
is messing you up.
You're not yourself.
No, Jon.
You're not yourself.
My name is not Jon.
I am so sorry.
Hey, baby.
We're in fucking trouble.
- I love you.
- We just met.
When'd you fall in love with me?
I... was already in love with you.
Before you even saw me?
I don't experience the concept of...
before.
So... there's no moment?
- Moment?
- A moment.
When you realized, "I'm in love."
This is the moment.
I just told you that you can't save me.
And you're gonna try to anyway.