6 Years Ago, A DC Series That Should Have Been Terrible Delivered an Amazing Cliffhanger Ending

DC has a knack for ending its shows on a high note. Starting with the Arrowverse’s flagship show, Arrow, the series concludes as all of Oliver Queen’s friends come together to honor him and go on one last mission. Once that’s over, Felicity Smoak joins her beloved in the great beyond, promising that two people who gave so much get to have a happy ending. Turning back the clock a little to Smallville, that program also goes out with a bang, showing Clark Kent wearing the Superman suit for the first time as he flies off to save Metropolis and the rest of the world from threats that mean to do it harm.

What makes shows like Arrow and Smallville easy to land is that their creative teams create their own flight plans. Sure, the comics serve as inspiration, but they aren’t blueprints. Another DC show finds itself in the opposite situation, picking up after the events of one of the company’s most beloved stories. And against all odds, it delivers one of the best endings in recent memory, featuring a fantastic cliffhanger.

It’s Been Six Years Since the Conclusion of the Best DC TV Show

HBO’s Watchmen doesn’t take place in Metropolis or Gotham City, where the public rolls out the red carpet for heroes. The show takes place in Tulsa, Oklahoma, over 30 years after a squid monster prevented another world war by uniting the world’s governments due to its destructive power. Angela Abar is a member of the Tulsa Police Department who is investigating the movements of a white supremacist group called the Seventh Cavalry. A few years earlier, the group killed most of the force, and now they’re setting their sights on something a little bit bigger: Doctor Manhattan’s powers. Angela is, let’s say, chummy with the most powerful being in the universe, so she helps him to stave off threats. The only problem is she doesn’t realize how many sides they’re coming from.

While the Seventh Cavalry means to use Doctor Manhattan’s strength to hurt people, Lady Trieu, Ozymandias’ daughter, claims she’s after the opposite in Watchmen‘s finale. She builds a machine capable of filtering Doctor Manhattan’s energy and plans to transfer it to herself. Unfortunately, her plan fails because Angela and a few of her allies send frozen squid to Tulsa, where they destroy the machine, killing Trieu in the process. Doctor Manhattan also perishes, but at least the world is no longer seeking his power. Well, one person still is, because Angela remembers a conversation she had with Doctor Manhattan, in which he explained he could transfer his powers to something as mundane as an egg. She finds an egg in the fridge, eats it, and tries to walk on water as the show ends. It’s a mind-bending ending and one that shouldn’t work.

Read Next

1 Year On, DC’s Most Recent TV Masterpiece Is Now Set Up To Perfectly Pay Off Its Cliffhanger

Watchmen Had Everything Going Against It

The real knock against the Watchmen comic is its pessimistic worldview. The story is devoid of hope, with even the heroes at its center eventually giving into the darkness. Of course, that’s more or less Alan Moore’s point, as he wants to deconstruct the superhero and place them in a world that’s outgrown them. While that point might be easy to get across on a page, doing it on the screen is a whole different can of worms. Zack Snyder tried in 2009 with the Watchmen movie, which honored the comic in many ways but still had to hold back in a few places. For example, the squid that Ozymandias sends to New York is nowhere to be found, being replaced by Doctor Manhattan himself.

With HBO’s Watchmen, Damon Lindelof avoids the problem altogether by more or less leaving Moore’s work untouched. While major characters from the book still make the jump to live-action, they’re not the focus. Angela takes center stage, and the end of the show implies that she might be the best person to take on the responsibility of assuming Doctor Manhattan’s role. That’s not to say she’s infallible, but it’s better that the power is in her hands than the Seventh Cavalry’s or Trieu’s. It also helps that Watchmen doesn’t do too much, allowing the audience to make their own conclusions about a world that’s far more complex than most.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!