[Spoiler warning] HBO’s Watchmen has wrapped up with the airing of Episode 9, “See How They Fly,” and the season finale’s ending resolved many of the questions that viewers have had. What was Lady Trieu up to? Would Doctor Manhattan allow the 7th Kavalry’s plan to succeed? Why was Veidt so lax on Europa? But it didn’t find the screentime to answer one particular and truly important question: Who the hell was Lube Man? The question has persisted since his brief appearance in Episode 4, when he creepily slipped into a sewer grate and out of our lives.
While we sadly may never get to see any characters’ reactions to it, we do have some positive news: We know who Lube Man is. HBO has been filling in details on the periphery with Peteypedia, a section of the Watchmen website consisting of FBI documents and files collected by Laurie’s chosen assistant, Dale Petey. And it’s in the most recent Peteypedia file (PDF link), a memo written by FBI deputy director Farragut, that we learn who Lube Man was: Petey himself.
A previous entry had suggested that Petey might be the one under the mask and oil, but the memo makes it far more certain. It states that Petey has been fired from the FBI, and in the process of his office being cleaned out, “a jug of what appears to be some kind of canola oil” was found. Quite subtly, the reference to canola oil links out to the image you see below–a wanted poster for our slippery friend.
Lube Man’s wanted poster
The memo goes on to state that Petey is now missing and presumed to be continuing his own investigation, despite the FBI closing the case. “It’s clear now from his memos that Petey (Hero Enthusiast-Obsessive/ Solipsist on the Werthem Spectrum) is at risk for vigilante behavior, and most likely, always was,” Farragut writes. “Perhaps sooner or later, this task force will be investigating him.”
