Watchmen Post-Credits Scene Sets Up Major Collision With Ozymandias

The latest episode of Watchmen provided a major twist for the franchise with the addition of a post-credits scene, a surprising first in the HBO series that reveals key new details and sets up next week's series finale in a major way. After focusing on the exploits of Doctor Manhattan for a majority of the episode, the episode "A God Walks Into Abar" jumps to the aftermath of Ozymandias' trial for a bonus sequence that will likely feed into the main conflict of Watchmen, setting all of the major characters on a collision course for the last episode.

But what does this mean for Adrian Veidt, who was previously shown attempting to engineer an escape — but in this episode's flashback he's clearly longing for a sense of purpose that Doctor Manhattan provides.

In the post-credits scene, we see Ozymandias being punished for his guilty verdict from the previous episode, and the clones take turns shoving fresh tomatoes into his face as he's chained up. It's a poor attempt to convince him to stay in their dull paradise, but this doesn't seem like rehabilitation compared to cruel and unusual punishment.

We then cut to him reading in his cell when the masked clone delivers a cake with seven candles on top — a sign that he's been trapped and abandoned in the colony Manhattan made on Europa for nearly 7 years, which is the same amount of time that Ozymandias has been missing.

After his torture session and tomato meal has ended, Veidt is returned to his cell where he reads a copy of Fogdancing, the novel written Max Shea (who is the in-continuity author of the comic book Tales of the Black Freighter). He receives another cake courtesy of his jailer, and the two debate the futility of both of their existences, but Ozymandias laments that he is actually needed on Earth so that he can save humanity.

When he's left alone, he discovers an object left inside of his cake — the horseshoe that he was given in previous episodes by his loyal clones. They obviously still care for their master, as they have gifted him the means to escape his jail cell.

Whether or not he manages to get away from Doctor Manhattan's paradise on Europa remains to be seen, but the series has always made it painstakingly clear: NEVER bet against Ozymandias.

The series finale of Watchmen airs next Sunday, December 15th, on HBO.