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The origin ofWatchmen ’s Looking Glass bring out that he has mysterious tie to the graphical novel than suspected . Portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson , bet Glass is one ofTulsa , Oklahoma’smasked policeofficers and he has arguably the most visually hit hood in the series , which is made of a unambiguously shiny mirror - like material and is reminiscent of Rorschach ’s masquerade party . But Looking Glass is really Detective Wade Tillman and asWatchmenepisode 5 , " Little Fear of Lightning " , tells his backstory , await Glass turn out to be one of the show ’s most tragic characters .
Theorigin of Looking Glassis inextricably tied to the climactic events of theWatchmencomics : On 11/2/1985 , Adrian Veidt ( Jeremy Irons ) teleported agiant squidinto the heart of New York City . With a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union imminent , Veidt ’s victor plan saved the globe ; his squid attack hoax , which became make out as the Dimensional Incursion Event ( D.I.E. ) , end up hold back armageddon and ensue in the world ’s nations uniting against an extradimensional threat . However , Veidt always intended his hoax to mangle innocent and his jumbo squid vote down 3 - million the great unwashed thanks to a psychical undulation that circulate beyond NYC . Many more who did n’t die were left permanently traumatized by the effect . In the years that follow , a unexampled manufacture rotate around Dimensional Incursion Security reverberate up since squid rain became a veritable reminder of the so - called foe from another attribute .
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Watchmenepisode 5 revealed that a young Wade Tillman ( Phillip Wabes ) was a survivor of 11/2 . He was in Hoboken , New Jersey ( just across the Hudson River from NYC ) in the minutes before the midnight squid flack . Further , Wade was part of a spiritual group called Watchtower await to save souls before the domain ended . However , Wade ran into the Knot Tops street gang and a distaff member tricked him by coercing Tillman to strip down naked in a sign of the zodiac of mirror with the hope of sex before she run off with his wearing apparel . At that moment , Veidt teleported his calamary but Wade was relatively safe inside the funhouse as the psychic blast belt down everyone else around him . The incident left Wade traumatized for the next 34 years and , even though he became a scholar about the extra - dimensional squid , Looking Glass never got over the two-fold memories of the char humiliating him on top of the squid attack that left him the sole subsister in a carnival of corpses .
Wade ’s Looking Glass indistinguishability - or " Mirror Guy " , asLaurie Blake(Jean Smart ) calls him - is a direct result of his womb-to-tomb posttraumatic stress disorder . Tillman joined the Tulsa Police after the White Night out of a desire to see justice done and he created his masque out of Reflectitine , the silver , mirror - comparable textile that is promise to deflect psychic attacks . In fact , Wade is never without Reflectitine and even in his civilian identity , he describe his baseball caps with rag of it to keep his judgment safe - giving himself a literal tinfoil hat . Sadly , despite his insistency otherwise , Wade ca n’t sleep without Reflectitine cover his head , even when he ’s in the backyard bunker that he built for safety in guinea pig of another squid attempt . In fact , Tillman ’s seven - yr marriage to Cynthia ( Eileen Grubba ) ended because she could n’t convert him that she would n’t humiliate him as the Knot Top did back in 1985 .
InWatchmenepisode 5 , Wade is specifically target by a woman named Renee ( Paula Malcolmson ) , who is part of theSeventh Kavalry . The 7 K ’s secret leader , Senator Joe Keene ( James Wolk ) , knew Wade was look Glass and he lease him in onWatchmen ’s greatest secret that 11/2 was a hoax by Adrian Veidt , which lead inRobert Redford being elect President(as Ozymandias ' manus - beak pick ) . Keene dropped this hidden noesis because he wanted Wade to take Detective Angela Abar AKA Sister Night ( Regina King ) , the suspected orca of Chief Judd Crawford ( Don Johnson ) , off the card . But for Looking Glass , the realization that the squid he ’s fear for 34 years was an detailed hoax shattered everything he believed in ever since the life - change traumatic event face Glass bear in a house of mirrors inWatchmen ’s 1985 .
Of course , that ’s not whereWatchmenepisode 5 ends . The episode ’s final moment sees Looking Glass begin to question his new direction , bringing his EDT kit back deep down just as Seventh Kavalry member turn up to his house armed and ready to attack . This goes back on Keene ’s promise and leave Wade ’s fate in the symmetricalness . Whether or not he ’s alert will have to wait forWatchmenepisode 6 but , for now , it ’s readable there ’s many more puppetmasters at maneuver .
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Watchmenairs Sundays @ 9 pm on HBO .
