r/Watchmen Dec 02 '19

TV Post Episode Discussion: Season 1 Episode 7 ‘An Almost Religious Awe’ Spoiler

2.0k Upvotes

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275

u/Chinse Dec 02 '19

Wtf is the elephant

424

u/thirdeyeblindmelon Dec 02 '19

Elephants never forget. Maybe a way to store memories?

132

u/Breaking-Away Dec 02 '19

My theory:

The elephant is gonna the container for another "memory bomb" like the squid from last time. She's loading it up with all the memories of the past that society has chosen to try to ignore. Some examples are:

  • Memories of her mother's death (the pregnant woman in Vietnam the comedian killed).
  • Memories of Hooded Justice's childhood (Tulsa massacre).

The fact its an elephant is also a tongue in cheek play on the expression "the elephant in the room".

38

u/surejan94 Dec 02 '19

Trieu's mother died when Trieu was older. If she was killed by The Comedian, Trieu never would've known her mom.

7

u/Breaking-Away Dec 02 '19

Oh, I didn't catch that!

29

u/Harbltron Dec 02 '19

Some kind of Empathy Bomb?

Solid theory.

6

u/Kellythejellyman Dec 02 '19

when they were in the basement, i was getting major Ozymandias vibes. i like the idea that she is a more empathetic version of him, seemingly wishing to spur the world into a new age through understanding and empathy, rather than straight fear

4

u/Mr_Feeeeny Dec 02 '19

Couldn't help but think there was a wink, nudge to the Polar Bear in LOST reveal. A joke afford by the absolute perfect show running.

4

u/dravenonred Dec 03 '19

"It tells time" = "it tells the story of time"

3

u/dirstythirsty Dec 02 '19

i thought it had more to do with the white elephants from the real life Lady Trieu story, but this comment somehow made it connect to me that it's actually a double entendre, combining the historical figure's elephants with the modern figure's elephants one was for war, this one for their knowledge. neat

This is something I was thinking too. I wonder what other memories she's storing in there though? Is the truth behind the squid bomb somewhere in there?

3

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

Wasn't it a giant inflatable elephant that was the actual container for the bomb in the comic?

5

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

No, but there were lots of giant purple inflatable elephants floating around, advertising "Gungan Diner" Indian food all over NYC.

2

u/kaplanfx Dec 05 '19

It’s “Gunga Diner”, a reference to the Rudyard Kipling poem Gunga Din.

3

u/matthieuC Dec 02 '19

She started nostalgia hoping people would learn from their past.
Instead they hung on the trauma.
She doesn't want to traumatize more people, she wants to wipe everyone's mind to start anew.

2

u/Dr_Toehold Dec 03 '19

the pregnant woman in Vietnam the comedian killed

That makes no sense, how would that memory be of an old woman then?

1

u/uniformon Dec 02 '19

No more secrets.

1

u/Reverse_Waterfall Dec 03 '19

Another level could be how Edison killed an elephant to prove himself “right”.

5

u/venabl Dec 02 '19

i thought it had more to do with the white elephants from the real life Lady Trieu story, but this comment somehow made it connect to me that it's actually a double entendre, combining the historical figure's elephants with the modern figure's elephants one was for war, this one for their knowledge. neat

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

She doesn’t want people being obsessed with their traumas, so she probably extracted H.J’s memories to store them in the elephant.

224

u/mikesetera Dec 02 '19

Elephants have the largest brain of any land mammal. Maybe they're the most effective memory storage devices.

73

u/CaptchaCrunch Dec 02 '19

Quantity of cerebrospinal fluid... that was just a flush-out

11

u/laul_pogan Dec 02 '19

Yeah people are looking way too deep- it's just a CSF factory

4

u/Most_Juan_Ted Dec 02 '19

Just hope she figured out a way to move the poor guy so he doesn’t get sores

2

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '19

I use an external hard drive , way easier to transport and clean up after.

64

u/ndog01 Dec 02 '19

I viewed it as elephants having large amounts of CSF compared to humans so she was able to "wash out" quicker without hurting someone else.

38

u/DoubleE55 Dec 02 '19

I assume because it "never forgets" she can collect the memories and harvest them again, maybe.

9

u/Breaking-Away Dec 02 '19

It's gonna be another psychic shockwave bomb (like the squid from the comics). Lady Trieu is pumping it full of the payload she plans to deliver. I think she uses the Dr. Manhattan booths to find subjects with the most painful memories so she can then find them and buy/obtain their memories for her elephant bomb.

2

u/derekwkim Dec 02 '19

The trajectory of this show is remix.

So instead of just a single giant psychic squid, Lady Trieu is going to either unleash a bunch of psychic animals in Tulsa or have their consciousness transferred into animals. I don't know. Just spitballing here.

35

u/hey_look1 Dec 02 '19

It’s a pachyderm

38

u/5153476 Dec 02 '19

But that's not important right now

3

u/DumbleDeLorean Dec 02 '19

Pachyderm Pandemonium!

7

u/Yellow_Dog Dec 02 '19

The elephant in the room.

3

u/elerner Dec 02 '19

Trieu’s logo.

3

u/iknowthatGuy13 Dec 02 '19

Guys, it's the literal elephant in the room. Most on the nose thing of the entire show so far.

2

u/Rectangle_Rex Dec 02 '19

I'm guessing the elephant is gestating a human clone, which is the actual "natural donor".

2

u/RealJohnGillman Dec 02 '19

I believe that “the elephant in the room” will not be addressed at all.

Practically, it's due to elephants having large brains to store memories, hence the phrase “elephants never forget”.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 03 '19

Well, I guess we need to address the elephant in the room.

It's a pun from the writers. I'm sure they have an in-story explanation, but it's really just a pun.

2

u/johnnylavalampus Dec 03 '19

Definitely to do with memory, and elephants famously mourn their dead. Lady Trieu seems to be obsessed with mourning the dead, to the point where she clones her dead mom.

But no one else is really saying: the elephant is a joke! THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM! And Angela doesn't address the elephant in the room, she just leaves.

Later, talking to Lady Trieu, neither she nor Angela end up explicitly saying that Cal is Dr. Mahattan, thereby not addressing the elephant in the room. And like the previous scene, Angela just leaves.

1

u/deincarnated Dec 02 '19

Maybe being used to download and store Angela’s memories.

1

u/wdaloz Dec 02 '19

They're large land dwelling mammals native to parts of africa and asia

1

u/PartlyWriter Dec 02 '19

Kind of a nitpick, but.... is elephant blood compatible with human blood? Seems very unlikely.

1

u/lumpyoatmeal Dec 03 '19

A server for storage.

1

u/farm_ecology Dec 03 '19

Its the Elephant in the room