Watchmen Theory: Doctor Manhattan Has Already Given Away His Powers

Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Watchmen episode 8.

In Watchmen episode 8, Doctor Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) may have given away his powers – to his adopted son Topher (Dylan Schombing). The penultimate episode of Damon Lindelof’s ambitious “remix” of the classic graphic novel revealed Doctor Manhattan’s prominent role in the story, although his presence was hidden in plain sight for much of the series. Yet throughout Watchmen, Doctor Manhattan’s true whereabouts and the extent of his awesome abilities turn out to be at the very heart of the war against the white supremacist group called the Seventh Kavalry – and this could now involve young Topher Abar.

Doctor Manhattan is the only superhuman being in Watchmen, and for millions of people,he’s still considered a world savior, even if he has been an absentee god. Adrian Veidt’s play “The Watchmaker’s Son” reenacted Doctor Manhattan’s origin: in 1959, physicist Dr. Jon Osterman was trapped in an Intrinsic Field Generator and was transformed into the blue demigod with absolute control over matter. Not only is Doctor Manhattan invulnerable and able to alter his size and mass, as Watchmen proved, he can also assume the form of a human. Osterman took the form of a deceased man named Calvin Jelani and lived as the husband of Detective Angela Abar AKA Sister Night (Regina King) for ten years. Doctor Manhattan’s disguise as Cal was completed by a device invented by Ozymandias that gave him total amnesia so that no one ever suspected Angela’s kind and unassuming husband was really the omnipotent blue god.

But somehow, the Seventh Kavalry found out that Doctor Manhattan was living among the people of Tulsa, perhaps during the White Night when the Rorschach-mask-wearing terrorists attacked Angela and Cal on Christmas 2016. Under the leadership of Senator Joe Keene (James Wolk), the 7K – which is the modern incarnation of the Ku Klux Klan splinter group called the Cyclops – concocted their master plan to steal Doctor Manhattan’s powers for themselves, giving the white supremacists the powers of a god. This is possible because Watchmen revealed that just as Doctor Manhattan has the power to create life, he also has the ability to imbue his powers onto others. In Watchmen episode 8, “A God Walks Into Abar”, the 7K seemingly killed Doctor Manhattan with a tachyonic cannon, despite Angela’s efforts to save him.

However, Doctor Manhattan’s unique relationship to time and his ability to experience his past, present, and future simultaneously could have enabled the demigod to prepare for the eventuality of his being ‘killed’ by the Seventh Kavalry. Which brings us to young Topher, whom Doctor Manhattan teleported to safety along with his sisters before the 7K attacked. It’s possible Topher is Doctor Manhattan’s contingency plan and that he was preparing the boy all along for a greater destiny – maybe even to become the next Doctor Manhattan.

Who Is Topher Abar?

Christopher “Topher” Abar is Angela and Cal’s 12-year-old adopted son. Along with his younger sisters Emma and Rosie, Topher came to live with the Abars after their parents Doyle and Ginny were killed during the White Night. When Watchmen begins, the Abars appear to be a happy nuclear family. The first time fans meet Angela’s son, it’s at his school where Topher punches out his classmate for making a racist comment about his adoptive mom – which shows the child is open-minded, progressive, and loving towards his new parents.

But just as Cal’s genial blandness turned out to be a disguise, there seems to also be something curiously ‘different’ about Topher. The 12-year-old seems to have a complex internal life that he doesn’t vocalize; this wouldn’t be surprising since he is, after all, an orphan who lost both parents to gun violence. As the son of a lawman, he’s old enough to possess an innate understanding of the realities of his late parents being cops. And yet, just as Cal turned out to be much more than he seemed, Topher stands out as a major character in Watchmen who might still have a bigger, heretofore unrevealed role in the story.

The Evidence That There’s Something Special About Topher

Angela clearly has a special relationship with Topher; she obviously loves him, but Angela’s 12-year-old son is also an almost unusually close confidant. When Angela returns home from her secret exploits as Sister Night, she usually checks in on Topher, and even sleeps on the bottom of his bunk bed after a difficult night, gratefully accepting Topher’s stuffed Bubastis toy to cuddle with. Rosie and Emma are very young and spend more time with Cal, but Angela has taken Topher under her wing and treats him with higher regard. It could be because Topher is a thoughtful boy whom Angela is specially nurturing, but Sister Night keeps myriad secrets (such as Cal’s true identity) and there could be a big one about her son that she’s harboring.

The most tell-tale moment that something is ‘up’ with Topher is in Watchmen episode 2, when Angela returns home to specifically tell him that his uncle Judd Crawford (Don Johnson) is dead. Topher is in his bedroom playing with his Manhattan Blocks, which are levitating – something Angela seems to regard as normal. Is this part of the toy’s design, or was Topher controlling it with his mind? Even more curiously, Topher constructed a replica of the country manor built by Doctor Manhattan on Jupiter’s moon Europa, where Adrian Veidt (Jeremy Irons) lived for years. How could Topher know what that particular building looks like? Topher also quickly accepted the news that Judd was dead before he suddenly lashed out and smashed his toy all over his floor, an outburst Angela was nonplussed by.

Then, in Watchmen episode 4, after Topher watched Angela save everyone at Judd’s funeral from a Seventh Kavalry suicide bomber, Angela entered Topher’s bedroom, which was lit up in Doctor Manhattan-like blue light with stars and constellations on his walls and ceiling. Is there a secret link between Topher and Cal/Doctor Manhattan that has been hiding in plain sight all along? Did Cal somehow teach Topher about the country manor house on Europa, although perhaps unwittingly since his amnesia prevented him from knowing he was Doctor Manhattan? And, if so, does Topher have a part to play in Doctor Manhattan’s destiny?

How Topher Getting Doctor Manhattan’s Powers Could Set Up Watchmen Season 2

Topher might have a huge role to play in Watchmen season 1’s endgame and further into season 2 if Doctor Manhattan transferred his powers to his son before the Seventh Kavalry ‘destroyed’ him. Topher, Rosie, and Emma found out the truth about Cal when they saw Doctor Manhattan walking on the water of their swimming pool; Manhattan then immediately teleported them away. However, Manhattan sent the kids to Angela’s grandfather Will Reeves AKA Hooded Justice (Louis Gossett, Jr.) as part of a plan the two of them concocted 10 years prior, when Doctor Manhattan saw what would happen in his future. In fact, Manhattan also knew there would be a ten-year gap where he would be ‘blind’ and, fully aware that he would be attacked by the 7K in 2019, the blue superhuman could have made preparations involving Topher, whom he knew would be his adopted son by 2019.

If this theory holds, it’s possible that Cal (with or without Angela’s help) has somehow been influencing or teaching Topher so that he could one day bear the powers of Doctor Manhattan. It’s also important to note that such possible preparations on Manhattan’s part would include the help of outside accomplices; Will Reeves has been in on this plot for a decade and the old man was the one who recruited the help of Lady Trieu (Hong Chau). Further, the trillionaire genius mysteriously relocated her operations to Tulsa, Oklahoma where she built a Millennium Clock, which she intends to use to “save humanity” – which we now know means saving everyone from a horde of Doctor Manhattan-powered white supremacists. While we don’t yet know what the Millennium Clock is actually meant to do, it’s possible that its function will be to keep Doctor Manhattan’s powers away from the 7K and even imbue them to Topher – especially if Doctor Manhattan has indeed been destroyed.

As such, Doctor Manhattan’s story may actually come to its conclusion (“the watchmaker’s son’s time is finally up“) in Watchmen season 1 and season 2 could see the rise of a new Doctor Manhattan: Topher Abar. Now, HBO has yet to renew Watchmen for season 2 but given the series is a ratings hit and a social media sensation, a second season seems likely. And while Topher becoming the next Doctor Manhattan may seem like a wild leap – and it could well be – Watchmen has been truly fascinating in how intricately Damon Lindelof has designed his story. In Watchmen, all of the pieces matter, like a perfectly-aligned clock, and, going into Watchmen’s season 1 finale, Topher remains a big question mark who could matter much more than fans ever realized.

Watchmen‘s season 1 finale airs Sunday, December 15 @ 9pm on HBO.

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