WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for the seventh episode of Watchmen, "An Almost Religious Awe," which premiered Sunday on HBO.
Lady Trieu has been an enigma since her introduction on HBO's Watchmen as an eccentric trillionaire who purchased Adrian Veidt's companies shortly before his disappearance and is now focused on completing the "First Wonder of the New World," the Millennium Clock Tower, outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
We don't yet know the clock's purpose is, but given the clues teased in this week's episode, "An Almost Religious Awe," we can't help but wonder whether Lady Trieu (Hong Chau) is might actually constructing an enormous time machine.
The Millennium Clock has been one of several threads running in the background of the television drama. We've heard details about the clock's construction, from its location to gargantuan production costs to its unveiling. However, we still don't know its function. Lady Trieu's "daughter," Bian (Jolie Hoang-Rappaport), joked that it's meant to tell time, but clearly something so massive and expensive is intended for more than that. It clearly has a larger purpose, especially when we consider it was built on the site where a mysterious object fell from the sky.
In "An Almost Religious Awe," Lady Trieu reveals she has a grand plan to save humanity. While she doesn't divulge what that plan entails, it's clearly somehow tied to the clock. However, a possible answer may be found in the speech she delivers in the episode. Addressing her multiple achievements, Lady Trieu hones in on her failure with the Nostalgia pills, which were designed to help people learn from the past and grow toward a better future. However, she explains that people instead used it to wallow in the despair of their mistakes.
Because there's such a strong emphasis on the failures of the past, it could be that Trieu wishes to change it. How better to allow people to let go of the past and move forward into a brighter future? With a name such as the Millennium Clock, the structure could surely be a device meant to manipulate the fabric of space and time. Coincidentally, the object that fell from the sky could be what is powering the device.
Even before the premiere of HBO's Watchmen, the promotional material used "tick tock" to illustrate the series was counting down to something. Could it be that, all this time, it's been counting down to the beginning of it all?
Developed by Damon Lindelof, HBO's Watchmen stars Jeremy Irons, Regina King, Don Johnson, Tim Blake Nelson, Jean Smart, Louis Gossett Jr., Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Tom Mison, James Wolk, Adelaide Clemens, Andrew Howard, Frances Fisher, Jacob Ming-Trent, Sara Vickers, Dylan Schombing, Lily Rose Smith and Adelynn Spoon. The series airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.