Easter Egg / Watchmen (2019)

• There are a lot of references/parallels to Superman.
  • In the first episode, Will’s parents sending him away from the massacre is similar to Superman’s parents doing the same to him when Krypton was exploding. The track that plays during this scene is called "ORPHANS OF KRYPTON".
  • In the fourth episode, Lady Trieu gives a clone baby to a farmer couple whose name is Clark. The Clarks couldn’t have kids. Clark is, of course, Superman’s first name which is also his mother Martha’s maiden name. He was also raised on a farm by parents who couldn’t biologically have kids of their own. And then a spacecraft carrying a living person crashed into their field.
  • Angela's husband is named Cal which is a different spelling of his Kryptonian first name, Kal. Which, considering that he's somehow an amnesiac Doctor Manhattan, could be a deliberate allusion to Superman. This can also be considered a reference to Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, another Moore work, where Superman is revealed to have given up his powers in exchange for a new life with Lois.
  • The homage is made more explicit in Episode 6 when Will meets someone reading the first issue of Action Comics and the guy tells him about their similar backgrounds.
  • Will's wife is a journalist like Superman’s wife, Lois Lane, is.
  • Will Reeves' last name is, aside from an allusion to Bass Reeves of The Lone Ranger fame, likely a reference to Christopher Reeve, the most famous actor to have played Superman on film.
  • Tangentially related, Angela's last name is Abar, which Cal took when they married. This is in direct reference to the 1977 superhero Blaxploitation film Abar, the First Black Superman.
• To the original comic:
  • Bass Reeves looks very similar to Hooded Justice. There's a very good reason for this.
  • When Angela is doing career day for her son's class, the egg she cracks has a spot in the yolk that looks like the bloody smiley face.
  • Angela’s code to get into her secret room is "1985" which is the year in which the comic takes place.
  • Robert Redford being president is from a joke from the comic, in reference to a certain other actor with an "RR" name who was president during the publication of the comic.
  • The Tulsa PD’s Pretentious Latin Motto translates to "Who watches the watchmen?"
  • Pirate Jenny’s name presumably comes from the In-Universe comic which itself is a reference to The Threepenny Opera.
  • The newspaper The New Frontiersman, which can be seen several times, is the right-wing news organization from the comic.
  • The clock in the Abars’ house looks like Dr. Manhattan’s symbol.
  • In Episode 4, Katy Clark can be seen reading a book called Fogdancing written by Max Shea who wrote the pirate comics in the comic.
  • Topher has a stuffed animal of Veidt’s lynx Bubastis in his room.
  • Veidt spelling out a call for help out of the corpses of his servants on Europa is likely an allusion to the Tales of the Black Freighter side-comic within the original source material, wherein the titular Black Freighter managed to sail home after being shipwrecked on a deserted island with a raft made out of the corpses of his fellow crewmen.
  • At one point in Episode 8, Jon says to Angela, "I leave it entirely in your hands", which is the famous last line of the original comic book, though used in a completely different context here.
    • The way Jon kills the Seventh Kavalry members looks the same as how he killed Rorschach in the comic. The connection between the two scenes is emphasized by the Kavalry members wearing imitations of Rorshach's mask.
    • When Jon asks Veidt if he can build him the device to erase his memory, Adrian chuckles and responds "I did it thirty years ago", calling to mind his wording when revealing Nite Owl, Rorschach, and Silk Spectre II were too late to stop him ("I did it thirty-five minutes ago").
  • As Angela, her children, and Will all walk away from the Dreamland Theater at the end of Episode 9 the letters on the marquee have all burned out except "DR M" as a reference to Doctor Manhattan.
  • Just like the original comic, the miniseries ends on a massively Ambiguous Ending that leaves the future of the world completely up in the air — the comic ends with Rorschach's Journal about to be published by The New Frontiersman, and the miniseries ends with Angela about to test out and see if she can walk on water (meaning that she had inherited her husband's powers).
• After surviving the destruction of Black Wall Street, Will assumes the last name of Reeves — after Bass Reeves, his childhood hero.
• Episode titles:
  • Episode 1: "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice" is a line from the song "Poor Jud Is Daid" from Oklahoma!; an all-black production of the play is seen early into the episode.
  • Episode 2: "Martial Feats Of Comanche Horsemanship" is a tweaked title of a George Catlin painting from 1834 called Comanche Feats of Horsemanship. Said painting can be found in the Crawfords' house. The fact that Catlin's work has often been read as intrusive of Native American culture and to be carrying a colonialist tone with it can be considered Foreshadowing towards The Reveal of the KKK outfit in Judd's closet.
  • Episode 3: "She Was Killed by Space Junk" is a line from a Devo song. Laurie was a fan in the comic and asks her home assistant device to play them when she gets home.
  • Episode 4: "If You Don't Like My Story, Write Your Own" comes from Things Fall Apart. Cal is reading the book when Angela gets home from work.
  • Episode 5: "Little Fear of Lightning" is a reference to a line from Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. When Renee walks into Wade's squid attack support group he asks her "Friend of Nemo's?" referencing Captain Nemo's fight with a giant squid in the story.
  • Episode 6: "This Extraordinary Being" is a quote from Watchmen itself, pulled from the text of Hollis Mason's autobiography Under the Hood. Fittingly, it refers to the debut of Hooded Justice.
  • Episode 7: "An Almost Religious Awe" is also from the comic, specifically from where Manhattan is describing how the citizens of Vietnam came to see him as a god.
  • Episode 8: "A God Walks Into Abar" ...isn't named after anything and is just a Pun-Based Title.
  • Episode 9: "See How They Fly" is from "I am the Walrus" by The Beatles.
• A quick shot in the third episode reveals that lawyer/novelist John Grisham is about to retire from the Supreme Court. The Peteypedia all but explicitly states his replacement will be Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, with The New Frontiersman’s insults against the new nominee and description of her being identical to the same ones given in the real world by real world publications with their same politics.
• Mr. Shadows is a pretty obvious Take That! to the Nolanverse Batman, though it’s important to note that Lindelof is actually a fan of the trilogy.
• Lady Trieu‘s name comes from a 3rd Century Vietnamese queen who fought back against a Chinese invasion.
• The logo of Trieu’s company is very similar to Tesla’s logo.
• The Peteypedia has an offhand mention from 2019 of Howard Hughes as a "life extension" expert while referring to him in the present tense. It seems that, having presumably never made The Conqueror, he never became a crazy recluse who eventually died in the second half of The '70s. Howard Hughes in a Schizo Tech future threatened both by hyper-advanced science and nuclear war trying to make himself immortal? One must wonder if he lives in a casino.
• When Manhattan meets with Veidt in the eighth episode, one of the monitors in Veidt's sanctuary is cracked in an allusion to Zack Snyder's Watchmen.

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