Why the White Night Is a Chilling Turning Point in the 'Watchmen' Alt-History
When we first meet Angela Abar in Episode One of HBO’s Watchmen, she's giving a presentation about her bakery to her child's elementary school class. While the kids are munchin’ on mooncakes, Angela gives a little TMI when someone asks why she retired from the police force.
She says, “I was one of the cops who was attacked on the White Night,” explaining that before police officers in Tulsa started wearing masks, “the bad guys knew who I was and knew where I lived. And they came to my house and they shot me.” Abar starts going into the gruesome details of her injuries until the teacher cuts her off. With her small recap of what happened, you can fill in the blanks—there was a coordinated attack on Tulsa’s police force, which led to them adopting those creepy yellow masks. And it also led to Angela reentering the force as a masked vigilante.
In Episode Two, we learn a little more about the White Night, as well as what exactly Angela endured on that evening. Early into the episode, we see Angela and her husband, Cal, enjoying Christmas Eve. But as soon as then clock strikes midnight, two members of the Seventh Kalvary (they’re wearing Rorschach masks) burst into their home. Angela manages to stab one to death, but the other one shoots her in the torso at point-blank range.
A few moments later, in the next scene, we see Judd Crawford, wearing an arm sling, sitting next to Angela—who’s in a hospital bed. When Judd fills Angela in about the mass attack, we hear about what really happened that night. He says, “They came for everybody. Coordinated attack. Simultaneous hits, 40 houses. All police. Most of us asleep in our beds on Christmas Eve. The news is calling it the White Night.” Even worse, Judd tells Angela that the entire force is either dead, or resigning out of fear that they’ll be attacked in the future. Piecing together bits of information from the show, it appears that The White Night took place about three years before the events of the HBO show.
The White Night also explains the violent reaction that the Tulsa police had to Crawford's murder—the raid of the Nixonville trailer park where members of the Seventh Kalvary are believed to live.
But, shortly after learning about the details of The White Night, it's revealed that Crawford had a set of KKK robes in his closet. This begs the question: Was Crawford somehow involved in the White Night alongside the Seventh Kalvary? This show has made it clear that there is no obvious distinction between good guys and bad guys. But going forward, don’t be surprised if—in true Watchmen fashion—we still don’t know the full story of the White Night.
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