The Newest ‘Watchmen’ Mystery Is 'Lube Man'. We're Serious.
In HBO Watchmen’s third episode a mysterious spandex-clad character appears.
Angela Abar chases him after he sees her dump evidence into the trash.
The ‘Lube Man’ could be another character from the series.
“Tall, skinny, head-to toe spandex”–know any vigilantes like that? Regina King’s Watchmen character, Angela Abar, asks fellow detectives about an escaped assailant in the fourth episode. But apparently no one has seen or heard of this ‘Lube Man’ (as the Russian-accented Red Scare dubbed him), audiences included. He wasn’t in the show before. He’s not in the graphic novel. And he slid out of frame before Angela or audiences could get a good look. As if we wanted to.
After throwing a duffel bag containing some very awkward, white-hooded evidence about her dead police chief Judd Crawford, Angela noticed a man across the street watching her and looking like the guy you see on TV during every college basketball game ever—a full-bodied, how-can-he-even-see-or-breathe spandex suit. A chase ensues. The man, in hazmat silver full-body spandex, wearing ski goggles, a harness, and apparently no shame whatsoever, races through a junkyard. As Angela closes in, he pulls out two squeeze bottles from his belt, sprays down his body in some liquid, and then straight up luge slides into a sewer drain.
Now, Watchmen is a weird-ass show. Giant blue dildos. Squids falling from the sky. Zaniness is par for the course at this point. Still, Lube Man seems like an especially weird entry–and one more question in a show that keeps spinning mysteries and leaving us waiting for answers.
Lube Man’s physique closely resembles another character, Agent Petey. In no small act of potential foreshadowing, Petey even dons a mask on his way out to Tulsa. His Ph.D. in history and obsession with all things classic superhero also gives him a kind of leotard fanboy vibe (fly home, Buddy!).
Plus, Petey has reason to spy on Angela. His boss, Agent Laurie Blake, distrustful of masked vigilantes, seems to have her sights zeroed in on Angela. But if it were Petey in the spandex, it would seem this isn’t his first gutter slide.
The real question, though, is when are we gonna start answering all these questions? Hopefully, soon—because this is getting really weird.
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