Watchmen could have one more big twist up its sleeve: it’s quite possible Adrian Veidt AKA Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons) may have been on Earth all along during the HBO series’ main storyline. As Damon Lindelof’s ambitious and provocative sequel and “remix” of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ classic graphic novel heads to its season 1 finale, Watchmen could be playing one final trick on audiences with the true whereabouts of Ozymandias.
Adrian Veidt’s storyline has been the most bizarre aspect of Watchmen; far removed from the main action set in 2019 Tulsa, Oklahoma, Ozymandias’ unique predicament was gradually revealed: Veidt is a prisoner on Europa, the moon of Jupiter, where he was sent by Doctor Manhattan (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) in 2009. Distraught at how his giant squid hoax that saved the world on 11/2/1985 didn’t usher in the golden utopia he envisioned, Ozymandias retreated to Karnak, his Antarctic fortress, where Manhattan visited him. In exchange for Veidt giving the superhuman being a device he built to rob him of his memories and essentially make him a mere human named Cal Abar, Manhattan instantaneously teleported Adrian to Europa, where he had built an idyllic paradise populated by clones the Doctor built to serve whomever their master is.
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Ozymandias relished being Lord of a country manor and ruling a perfect world on Europa – for a while. But after a couple of years, Veidt grew bored and plotted to escape and return to Earth – violating the one rule of Europa set up by the Game Warden (Tom Mison), the original clone built by Doctor Manhattan, which is “thou shall not leave” Europa. After his escape attempt, Veidt was captured, endured a farcical trial, and was imprisoned.
However, one of the clones gave Veidt the means to break free from his confines in Watchmen episode 8’s end-credits scene, which indicates that Ozymandias did escape and somehow made the 390-million mile journey back to Earth. And here is where it gets interesting because there are many clues that indicate Adrian Veidt successfully returned home. And, similar to how Doctor Manhattan was hiding in plain sight as Cal, the husband of Detective Angela Abar AKA Sister Night (Regina King), it’s possible Ozymandias has also been in Tulsa and seen by viewers all along.
Ozymandias Went To Europa In 2009… And He’s Only Been There 7 Years
The main thing that’s important to understand about Ozymandias’ plight on Europa is that all of it happened in Watchmen‘s past. Adrian Veidt was officially declared “dead” in 2019 and as far as the public knows, he vanished in 2012. But that was only when Ozymandias was reported missing; as fans saw in Watchmen episode 8, “A God Walks Into Abar”, Doctor Manhattan zapped Veidt to Jupiter’s moon in 2009. In fact, the first time Veidt is seen in Watchmen‘s pilot episode when his servants Mr. Phillips and Ms. Crookshanks (Sara Vickers) presented him with an anniversary cake with a single candle, marked one year of Ozymandias as Europa’s master.
It may not have been bluntly stated during the course of Watchmen but each appearance by Adrian Veidt in subsequent episodes happened one year after the last. In year two, Ozymandias staged his play, the tragedy in five acts titled “The Watchmaker’s Son” about Doctor Manhattan’s origin, and in year three, Veidt slaughtered all of his clone servants, grew a new pair of Phillips and Crookshanks, and then began testing out his catapult. By the time Veidt is imprisoned and mounts a new escape at the very end of Watchmen episode 8, he had spent 7 years on Europa because there were 7 candles on his anniversary cake. Since Adrian was sent to Europa in 2009, this means the end-credits scene happened in 2016. If Ozymandias escaped Jupiter’s moon, he would then require the necessary time to make the 390-million mile journey back to Earth.
Something Crashed Into Lady Trieu’s New Land In 2017
Lady Trieu (Hong Chau), the trillionaire genius behind Trieu Industries, was introduced at the beginning of Watchmen episode 4, “If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own”. Trieu makes a childless couple an offer they can’t refuse: a baby cloned from their genetic material and a huge cash payout in exchange for their acres of land in Tulsa, where Trieu ultimately built her sprawling facility and her mysterious Millennium Tower.
However, this scene was a flashback set in 2017 and it ended when a flaming object came from outer space and crashed on Lady Trieu’s newly-acquired land. Watchmen has yet to address what this unidentified object from space was but it’s possible that this could be Adrian Veidt, in whatever transport he was using, arriving back on terra firma. If it was Veidt who crashed, this means that as soon has Ozymandias returned to Earth, his arrival was met by Lady Trieu. This would be fitting since it was Lady Trieu who purchased Veidt Industries after Adrian vanished from the planet, essentially replacing Ozymandias as both the World’s Smartest Woman and as the next self-appointed savior of humanity.
Lady Trieu Captured Ozymandias… And He’s In The Statue
If Veidt indeed returned to Earth and his arrival was intercepted by Lady Trieu, where is the World’s Smartest Man now and where has he been all along? It’s quite possible that Ozymandias is imprisoned in the statue that stands in Lady Trieu’s vivarium. The fact that the Vietnamese trillionaire even has a vivarium is a luxury borrowed from Adrian Veidt himself and it would be ironically fitting if Lady Trieu displayed him in her version of his private oasis.
It’s possible that Lady Trieu was referring to Adrian Veidt as her father, whom she could free from the statue when she activates the Millennium Clock. While some fans hold to the theory that Edward Blake AKA The Comedian is Lady Trieu’s biological father, which is implied in Watchmen‘s tie-in website Peteypedia, Trieu might also consider Ozymandias to be her ‘father’ in the sense that all of her life’s work and genius is modeled after his and she is following in his footsteps.
However, another possibility that must be considered is that Trieu’s Ozymandias statue is just a statue, which would then beg the question of where in Tulsa Adrian Veidt actually is. In this scenario, there’s a chance that Ozymandias is working for the Seventh Kavalry. After all, it has yet to be explained exactly how a group of Midwestern white supremacists could have access to the technology they possess, like a transdimensional teleporter and a tachyonic cannon – all inventions of Adrian Veidt. Perhaps Ozymandias supplied the 7K with this tech, whether voluntarily or not. Whatever the answers about Ozymandias’ true whereabouts in 2019 are, all will be revealed in Watchmen‘s season 1 finale.
Watchmen‘s season 1 finale airs Sunday, December 15 @ 9pm on HBO.
