CAUTION: Major Watchmen spoilers follow below.
In last week’s episode of Watchmen, the HBO series threw a massive blue curveball at its audience with a decidedly Damon Lindelovian twist: Angela’s (Regina King) husband Cal (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is actually Dr. Manhattan in disguise, and the white supremacist group, the Seventh Kavalry, is after him. Actually, everyone is after him, and with only two episodes left to go, it seems the stakes for the hugely popular series are even higher than previously thought. But what the hell was that moment between Laurie Blake (Jean Smart), Jane Crawford (Frances Fisher), and the broken trap door?
Turns out, as Entertainment Weekly confirmed with HBO, that hilariously insane scene, which arrives about a third of the way through “An Almost Religious Awe,” was a thinly veiled tribute to a classic Saturday Night Live sketch.
Just in case you need a quick recap, here’s what happens during Blake’s rather intense moment with Crawford. The ex-masked vigilante turned FBI agent had just accused Crawford’s late husband of being involved in whatever the Seventh Kavalry is up to. In response, the widow basically confirms everything while reaching for a remote control of some kind, pointing it at Blake, and pressing one of its buttons. The text on the remote reads “WILSON,” but we’ll get back to that in a second.
When the first attempt doesn’t work, Jane keeps pushing the remote’s various buttons while a bewildered Laurie looks on.
Finally, after several failed attempts, the couch Laurie is sitting on nearly sinks into a pit hidden underneath a trap door, but stops short of its goal.
One final push later, Jane’s plan to entrap Laurie succeeds and the FBI agent, couch and all, falls with a loud crash into the hidden room below.
Just over 30 years prior, during its 13th season, SNL broadcast one of its many trademark fake commercials with the “Trap Door” sketch (which you can watch here). In it, Jon Lovitz played a businessman type whose office trap door repeatedly fails to do away with characters played by Phil Hartman, Dana Carvey, Kevin Nealon, and others. Finally, after consulting with the WILSON trap door company, Lovitz’s problems are fixed.
Whether this little SNL tribute was Lindelof’s idea or something concocted by episode writers Stacy Osei-Kuffour and Claire Kiechel, we just wanted to say it’s awesome.
(Via Entertainment Weekly)
