Watchmen Recap with Spoilers: Everyone Has Skeletons in Their Closets in “Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship”

HBO’s Watchmen debuted last week and not only plunged audiences into an alternative version of 2019 based on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ iconic comic book of the same name, but it also quickly established the major conflict of the series’ world and dealt viewers a shocking, unexpected twist. In the closing moments of the episode, Watchmen killed off a major character, Chief Judd Crawford (Don Johnson). Tonight, in Watchmen‘s second episode, the real mystery begins: who killed Judd and why?

Spoilers for tonight’s episode of Watchmen, “Martial Feats of Comanche Horsemanship,” below.

Germany World War I. A German officer selects a specific young woman from the typist pool to come take dictation because she speaks fluent English. He then dictates to her a propaganda flyer about how much better Germany is for black people with the intent of swaying black American troops away from their cause. The little boy from last week’s opening ultimately finds the pamphlet in his father’s uniform pocket. That same pamphlet becomes the “watch over this boy” note in the hands of the old man at the site of Judd’s hanging. Angela takes the old man back to her bakery and when she interrogates him, he claims to be responsible for the hanging, but she doesn’t believe him. He does tell her that Judd had skeletons in his closet. His name is Will.

Angela is paged and informed of Judd’s death and pretends to not know. She arrives on the scene where investigators are taking evidence. Looking Glass comes to sit with her in her car to let her know about the situation, revealing how much Judd suffered. It’s a tense conversation, but Looking Glass says he’s crying beneath his mask. Reporters with wing packs try to breach the area to get information but are taken down by the police. Angela says they need to get Judd’s body down. We get a flashback to the start of her friendship with Judd, Christmas Eve several years ago. Angela and her husband are having a sweet moment in their living room when their home is invaded. It’s the White Night attack and Angela is shot in her kitchen and while she took down one assailant a second one stands over her with a gun. She wakes up in the hospital days later. Judd tells her that the whole force was attacked and that her partner and his wife were killed in their bed. Their kids survived, though — those turn out to be the kids that Angela is now raising as her own. Also, most of the police force quits after the event.

With Judd’s body down, Red Scare decides they should raid Nixonville. Angela isn’t on board with this, but as the fight breaks out in Nixonville, she takes out her grief and rage on one of the racists then goes to her car and tries to keep herself together. Next, we see her, she’s taking the mug she let Will drink from to the Greenwood Center where she submits a DNA sample to a kiosk intending to find out who Will is. At home, there’s a white guy sitting on her porch. He wants to see the kids. He has visitation but is willing to take a payoff to just leave. She then goes to tell Topher about Judd’s death. He says he’ll tell his sisters then asks to watch television. American Hero Story is playing.

Angela goes to a gathering at Judd’s house and after briefly chatting with Senator Keene, Angela faints. Judd’s wife has her rest in their bedroom and tells her to take all the time she needs. As soon as she leaves, Angela gets up and investigates using essentially x-ray goggles and finds something disturbing in Judd’s closet: a full KKK robe and hood with a sheriff’s badge pinned to it. Angela soon leaves.

The character suspected to be Veidt (played by Jeremy Irons) at his estate puts on his play and it’s a dramatic recreation of Dr. Manhattan’s origin with the manservant Mr. Phillips actually being incinerated in the “intrinsic field generator” prop while another man descends, nude and painted blue as Dr. Manhattan. It’s soon revealed that all of the servants, both male and female are clones of some sort. The presumed Veidt chooses a new Mr. Phillips and the servants carry off the corpse of the previous one to the cellar where it’s alluded to that there are others. At the bakery, Angela finds that Will has gotten out of his handcuffs and even gone to the store for food. She shows him what she found in Judd’s closet. Will says he’s going to be rescued by “friends in high places” and Angela gets a call with the results of the DNA test and discovers that Will is her grandfather. Angela decides to arrest him and puts him in her car, but before she can get in herself, an aircraft with a large magnet takes the whole car and Will away the only thing left behind being the propaganda note and a very confused Angela. Friends in high places, indeed.

Watchmen airs Sundays at 10/9c on HBO.