The Giant Squid Finally Dropped on "Watchmen"

The most effed up thing in an ep that also saw a cloned puppy put in an incinerator.

A few weeks ago, we said you’d appreciate Watchmen more if you knew about the giant squid.

Well, guess who just fell into town?

HBO’s prestige adaptation of the 1980s comic book series has been keeping plenty of secrets close to its chest, and, for the first four episodes, seemed to hope its viewers were familiar with the source material to not be too baffled (or were at least sucked into the mystery enough to not care).

Although set in the year 2019, it shows us an alternate present to our own. As we learn in the series, that’s due to the introduction of hooded vigilantes and honest-to-goodness superbeings during the 1940s.

However, another event drastically altered the timeline of world history, and it was finally depicted in the first season’s fifth episode, titled "Little Fear of Lightning".

Spoilers ahoy.

As we learn from Looking Glass’ (Tim Blake Nelson) backstory, a giant transdimensional squid landed in New York City back in 1985, killing millions and injuring more with its brain-bursting psychic blast.

Readers of the comic already know that this was actually a hoax attack perpetrated by Ozymandias (Jeremy Irons), to unite a warring world against a common alien enemy. But that’s not known amongst the plebs in the world of Watchmen, who are still dealing with the aftershocks (like occasional squid rains) and post-traumatic squid stress disorder.

It’s nonetheless novel to finally see the big ol’ dead squid in filmed form, especially after director Zack Snyder, in his 2009 film adaptation, replaced it with a nuclear blast. Even better was seeing how the world moved on in its wake. That means AA-style "Friends of Nemo" support groups, special reflective headgear to keep from further psychic blasts (explaining Looking Glass’ mask) and even a promotional New York Tourism Board video where Michael Imperioli eats calamari to ease concerns.