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HBO's The Watchmen episode 6: Who is the cyclops?

The show makes a big change to the comics.

Oscar Gonzalez Former staff reporter
Oscar Gonzalez is a Texas native who covered video games, conspiracy theories, misinformation and cryptocurrency.
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Oscar Gonzalez
5 min read
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Hooded Justice, still hooded.

HBO/Illustration by CNET

With each episode, Watchmen raises lots of questions. That's not surprising, considering that the original comic left readers with plenty of head-scratchers and that the writer and executive producer of the HBO series is Damon Lindelof, who also worked on Lost and The Leftovers

Through the end of the season, I'll look at the big questions from each episode and attempt to give answers based on the original comics, additional readings from Peteypedia or just my best guess. 

Sunday's episode was almost entirely flashback, a plot device Lindelof is known for. It's full of exposition, but there are some lingering questions. 

Episode 6: The Extraordinary Being

Once again, let's start with the answers we got from this episode. 

Will Reeves is the long-lost hero Hooded Justice, which some theorized from the beginning due to his outfit having similar colors to his costume vigilante days. He's also the one who killed Police Chief Judd Crawford, using some sort of mind control that involves a flashing light. 

All this is learned through the memories that Detective Angela Abar, aka Sister Night, lives through after taking a whole bottle of Nostalgia pills. In the newest Peteypedia entries, we learn the pills are a product of one of Lady Trieu's businesses. The pills, which let people re-experience memories, are a form of personalized medicine thought to aid people who are losing their memory or have experienced trauma. 

Watchmen

Angela is about to go on a hell of a trip. 

HBO

The episode also answered what happened to the baby who young Will Reeves saved after escaping the Tulsa riot. Her name was June. The two remained friends and eventually got married. Their son is presumably Angela's father. 

Now the questions:

Who is the cyclops? 

The term cyclops, or more specifically exalted cyclops, is an actual designation given to the leader of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter. The job of the cyclops is to increase membership and send reports to higher-ranking members. Crawford's family legacy with the Klan, which destroyed Will's family in Tulsa and New York, likely played a role in his death -- even though Judd wasn't part of the group (as far as we can tell).

In a memo written by FBI agent Laurie Blake posted on Peteypedia on Sunday, the Cyclops is seen as a spin-off group from  the Klan. The Cyclops also developed mind-control technology in the '40s and '50s. 

Watchmen

Laurie Blake knows about the Cyclops. 

HBO

Why does Angela wake up with Lady Trieu? 

The Nostalgia pills are part of a business owned by Lady Trieu. Angela didn't sign a waiver to have her stomach pumped after taking the pills -- which could cause her to slip into a coma -- so Trieu may have pulled some strings to help save the detective. 

When Angela wakes up, it doesn't look like a hospital, and she's not wearing patient garb. She has a device attached to her arm that's connected to a tube, neither of which seem like they're used to pump someone's stomach. There's also a quick shot of a window with what appears to be a fairly beautiful day outside. This could mean Trieu took Angela to her vivarium in the Millennium Clock.

Other questions:

Who are The Minutemen?

When Hooded Justice joins The Minutemen, there is a group of people lined up behind him that are out of focus. This group played a big role in the Watchmen comics , but here's a short description of the heroes in that scene. 

Silhouette --  A Jewish Australian immigrant who was kicked out of the group when they found out she was a lesbian. She and her lover were killed not long after. 

Mothman -- He used a special suit that allowed him to glide through the air. Mothman wasn't one of the key team members and eventually wounded up in a sanitarium. 

The Comedian -- Laurie Blake's father. He was a 16-year-old vigilante who enjoyed doling out punishment. He was one of the only members to continue his vigilantism by becoming an agent of the US government. 

Sally Jupiter -- Laurie Blake's mother. She was advised to adopt a costumed alter ego by her agent. Sally soon became more of a sex symbol for the group rather than a crime fighter. 

Dollar Bill -- A costumed hero that was part of a bank's marketing strategy. He tried to chase down some bank robbers only to get his cape stuck in the revolving door. That left him an easy target for a robber to gun down. 

Nite Owl -- Another NYPD cop who felt he was constrained by the uniform so decided to spend his nights fighting crime his own way. He eventually retired in the '60s and wrote a book about his adventures along with stories about the rest of The Minutemen. 

Who was Moloch the Magnificent? 

During The Minutemen press conference, Captain Metropolis cuts off Hooded Justice's speech about the racist cops' secret plan to talk about a criminal mastermind called Moloch the Magnificent. Edgar Jacobi was a boy with a physical deformity that caused him to have long goblin-like ears. He had a fascination with magic and began performing tricks to classmates as a way to stop them from bullying him. After some years, Edgar took on the name Moloch the Magnificent. 

He soon began a life of crime by robbing banks and became one of The Minutemen's regular villains. At one point, his gang stole a Solar Mirror weapon that concentrates sunlight and fires it. Moloch was eventually caught, found religion and was released from jail as an older man. In the Watchmen comics, The Comedian paid Moloch a visit late one night, seemingly having no one else to talk to and explained how he saw what Adrian Veidt was planning. This led Veidt to kill the two and frame Rorshach for Moloch's murder.

How did Will find out about Crawford's Klan robes? 

Angela found the Klan robe in Judd's closet after sneaking in and locating a hidden button that revealed a secret compartment. It's possible Will did something similar, but more likely that someone else told or showed him. This could be Lady Trieu or Sen. Joe Keene, who knew of the chief's legacy.