Watchmen is one of the most detailed comic book maxi-series of all time, so it’s hardly surprising that HBO’s small screen sequel is just as densely layered. Indeed, if you pick any scene in the Watchmen TV series at random, there’s a decent chance you’ll spot at least one reference to the characters, events, and world introduced in Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ original story.
Now, many of these callbacks – including direct quotes from the comics or repeated events, such as Ozymandias reprising his famous bullet catch stunt – aren’t exactly easy to miss. Similarly, creative flourishes like mimicking the comics’ quasi-cold opens, distinctive chapter titles and smiley face iconography are pretty much self-evident. Instead, for this list we’ve decided to focus on the deep cut easter eggs that only hardcore Watchmen fans will appreciate – hopefully they’ll be enough to tide you over until Season 2 is officially announced!
10 Max Shea’s Novel
Episode 4, “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own”, opens with Oklahoma farmer Katy Clark thumbing through a copy of Max Shea’s Fogdancing during downtime at her roadside stall. Shea’s name will ring a bell for devotees of Watchmen – not only was he the author of comic-within-a-comic Tales of the Black Freighter, he also unwittingly played a part in Ozymandias’ conspiracy to avert nuclear war.
Fittingly enough, Ozymandias himself is later seen perusing his own edition of Fogdancing (during Episode 8’s extended post-credits sting). That’s not the only other time we see Shea’s book mentioned, either: a VHS case for the film adaptation of Fogdancing is visible in Episode 7, “An Almost Religious Awe”.
9 Lovers’ Silhouette Graffiti
While the Comedian’s blood-spattered smiley face badge is the most iconic visual in Watchmen, the maxi-series boasts several other striking motifs, too. Chief among these is graffiti depicting the silhouette of two lovers embracing, which evokes the real-life atomic blast “shadows” discovered at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Although this distinctive street art was spray-painted on buildings in New York City in the comics, Angela (in her Sister Night persona) passes by an identical composition in Tulsa in Episode 1, “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”. It’s unclear what a reproduction of this vivid vandalism is doing so far from the Big Apple – and the Top-Knot gang members who originated it – but perhaps this dystopian symbol acquired greater cultural significance following the events of 11/2?
8 Steven Spielberg’s Pale Horse
Speaking of 11/2, another shout out to that grisly affair comes in Episode 5, “Little Fear of Lightning”, which portrays the exact moment when millions of innocent New Yorkers were annihilated. As in the Watchmen comics, it’s soon established that those who withstood the initial “alien” squid attack suffered ongoing mental trauma courtesy of a psychic shockwave emitted by the creature as it expired.
Fast forward to 2019, and Wade Tillman (otherwise known as the vigilante Looking Glass) is sharing his experiences of that night with fellow survivor Renee, who brings up the fictional Steven Spielberg movie Pale Horse. It’s a clever expansion of a background detail from the comics – Pale Horse was the band who played Madison Square Garden on 11/2 – as well as a fun bit of world-building since Pale Horse is strongly implied to have replaced Schindler’s List in Watchmen’s alternate timeline.
7 Burgers ‘N’ Borscht, Nostalgia And Other Brands
“An Almost Religious Awe” kicks off with a flashback to Angela’s childhood – specifically, her first and final encounter with her grandmother. The main setting for their tragic catch-up is Burgers 'N' Borscht, a chain of fast-food restaurants mentioned in Chapter XII of the Watchmen maxi-series.
Burgers ‘N’ Borscht isn’t the only brand from the comics to crop up in the HBO show, though. All nine episodes are littered with stacks of fictional periodicals Nova Express and the New Statesman, while memory drug Nostalgia and The Black Freighter Inn both take their names from other, unrelated products first introduced in Moore and Gibbons’ story.
6 Ozymandias' Computer Password
This entry – which concerns itself with the flashback that gets Episode 9, “See How They Fly”, up and running – is a real double whammy. For starters, the password Lady Trieu’s mother Bian uses to unlock Ozymandias’ computer is “Ramses II”, which is the same code cracked by Nite-Owl in the penultimate chapter of Watchmen (which makes sense, as the two cyber breaches practically overlap).
Better still, the program Bian runs once she’s been granted full access to Ozymandias’ systems is called “Untie Knot”. This is a reference to the retired superhero’s Alexander the Great fixation – in particular, his own attempts to emulate Alexander’s unconventional thinking in the face of a seemingly insoluble problem (something conspicuously absent from the 2009 Zack Snyder adaptation).
5 The Illustrated Bible
Pay close attention to the illustrated bible gifted to the future Doctor Manhattan, Jon Osterman, in Episode 8, “A God Walks into Abar”. You should immediately notice the similarity between the artistic style used to render Adam and Eve in this handsome tome and that employed by Watchmen co-creator Dave Gibbons.
Indeed, the artwork on display here resembles Gibbons’ idiosyncratic draftsmanship so much, we’d be amazed if he didn’t pencil and ink the piece himself. To date, Gibbons hasn’t confirmed his involvement, although a recent tongue-in-cheek tweet suggests he almost certainly did – which is hardly surprising, considering his stated enthusiasm for the HBO series.
4 Keene’s Underwear
Prior to his ill-advised attempt to steal Doctor Manhattan’s powers in “See How They Fly”, Senator Joe Keene Jr. strips down to expose a flamboyant pair of Y-fronts. Although Laurie Blake draws attention to Keene’s briefs in typically acerbic fashion, those less familiar with Watchmen did not grasp the significance of their design within the wider series mythos.
See, before Doctor Manhattan abandoned clothing entirely (except when his official government duties absolutely demanded it), he sported a minimalist superhero outfit that essentially amounted to a pair of stylized black undies. So, no prizes for guessing what motivated Keene’s choice of wardrobe on the occasion he planned to usurp the good doctor’s god-like abilities…
3 Ozymandias Action Figures
“A God Walks into Abar” gives us a good look at Ozymandias’ inner sanctum within his Antarctic fortress, and in amongst the leather-bound volumes and scientific paraphernalia, you’ll spy some decidedly less high-brow artifacts: action figures!
In a cute wink to the Watchmen maxi-series, it seems that the World’s Smartest Man still surrounds himself with merchandise created in his own image, long after he’s faded from public view. It’s a commendable instance of mise-en-scène that helps reinforce our appreciation of Ozymandias’ bottomless ego – after all, what kind of man keeps miniature idols of himself lying around?
2 An Unforgettable Music Cue
Not every easter egg in HBO’s Watchmen is a visual reference. On the contrary, some of the most subtle allusions to the comics are audio cues – like the music playing during the dinner party in “It’s Summer and We’re Running Out of Ice”.
The track in question is “Unforgettable”, the same song used to advertise Veidt Enterprises’ Nostalgia perfume line in the comics. Incidentally, this carried over to Zack Snyder’s 2009 adaptation of the maxi-series too, where the classic tune was used to good effect during the Comedian’s brutal demise, a rare instance of creative synergy between the show and movie.
1 A Literal Doctor Manhattan Puppet
Early on in “An Almost Religious Awe”, we’re treated to the sight of a puppet show dominated by an oversized Doctor Manhattan marionette. This might not seem important, but it’s actually an indirect callback to Doctor Manhattan’s appraisal of himself as “a puppet who can see the strings” in Chapter IX of Watchmen, neatly foreshadowing his fate in Episode 9.
For an equally deft nod to the source material, consider Ozymandias’ S.O.S. message composed with clone corpses, which recalls the life raft constructed from bodies shown in Tales of the Black Freighter. And speaking of Black Freighter, minor character Pirate Jenny is obviously a tip of the hat to Watchmen’s celebrated nested narrative, too!