Watchmen Fans Are Traumatized by Episode 4’s Baby Scene

HBO’s Watchmen aired its fourth episode tonight, and its vast and insidious conspiracy got even weirder. This was especially true with regards to Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias’ (Jeremy Irons) storyline, which has been essentially self-contained from the rest of the narrative of the show. This week’s episode brought some sinister and bizarre context to what exactly is up with Veidt — and audiences had some visceral reactions to it. Spoilers for this week’s episode of Watchmen, “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own” below! Only look if you want to know!

This week’s Veidt interlude opened on him fishing in a lake on his estate, and catching two humanoid-like babies. He took the babies to a steampunk-looking microwave device, and began to play some music as the device did its magic. Once the device was done, the latest clones of Ms. Crookshanks (Sara Vickers) and Mr. Phillips (Tom Mison) arrived.

Veidt then introduced the latest iterations of Crookshanks and Phillips to their lives, which got especially bleak and confusing as they learned that he’s using their clone bodies as test subjects for a human-launching catapult. During this whole process, Veidt revealed that he had been trapped in his current predicament for four years and that it had gone from a paradise to a nightmare that he wanted to escape.

While there was certainly a lot to take in with this interlude, the presentation of the babies – and the way that they were essentially “microwaved” into adulthood – resonated with audiences in a unique way. Fans have taken to Twitter to voice their confusion and disgust with the scene. Here are just a few of our favorite responses.

Valid Reaction

Nightmare Fuel

Upsetting

All in a Day’s Work

Same?!

Important Question

I’m Baby

No One Was