Tonight's second episode of HBO's Watchmen, "Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship" was an exciting one for fans. Not only did it come packed with a personal twist for Angela/Sister Night (Regina King), but it deepened the mystery of who is really responsible for the death of Chief Judd Crawford (Don Johnson). If that wasn't enough, the episode was packed with Doctor Manhattan references -- including one very, very visual one that has fans on social media losing it with reactions that both hilarious, horrible, and everything in between.
Spoilers for tonight's episode of Watchmen, "Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship", below.
During tonight's episode Jeremy Irons' presumed Veidt has his staff -- Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks -- put on a play that he has written. The play, as it turns out, is a dramatization of Doctor Manhattan's transformation in which a nuclear physics experiment goes wrong in 1959 and transforms Jon Osterman into the blue, god-like being Doctor Manhattan. However, the play isn't just a dramatic retelling. The unfortunate Mr. Phillips playing the role of Jon is fried to a crisp in the faux "intrinsic field generator" while, moments later, a blue-painted man wearing a fencing mask descends from the rafters -- another "actor", this one playing Doctor Manhattan.
Oh, yeah, and this fictional Doctor Manhattan is completely nude, just like the actual Doctor Manhattan is.
Now, the idea of a naked Doctor Manhattan in general isn't a shocking thing. The character goes nude in the comics, having come to see clothes as unnecessary. The character is also famously nude in Zack Snyder's 2009 film adaptation, with much made at the time of that film's nudity. Given the precedent, it shouldn't be a big surprise that we'd get a naked Doctor Manhattan on Watchmen -- even in a fictional context but it was still enough of a surprise that fans on social media had a lot to say about it.
Read on for our curated selections of the internet's reaction to that nudity scene in tonight's episode of Watchmen and be sure to let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Watchmen airs Sundays at 10/9c on HBO.
Yep, Watchmen went there.
Spit-takes are an appropriate reaction.
We did mention this is Watchmen.