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Panel 2:  The reveal in this panel supports the boastfulness exhibited by Veidt on Page 9, panel 5, which foreshadowed this confrontation.

Panels 6-7:  Veidt’s dismissal of Dan Dreiberg (Nite Owl), and Dan’s rage at Veidt’s assault on Laurie, is yet another convention subverted by Moore & Gibbons in Watchmen – the righteous indignation of a character when their significant other is assaulted leading directly to a physical confrontation. 

Also, the remark by Veidt in panel 7 – “…do grow up…” – can also be seen as a bit of meta-commentary.  Not only does the grow up remark describe what Moore & Gibbons wished to achieve for the superhero genre through the creation of this book, but it can also be seen as a direct comment to the readership.

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Panel 3:  Note again, in the design of the serving bowl, the multiple occurrences of the letter V that runs around its circumference – yet another example of Veidt’s ego, which is what allows him to achieve his successes but is also his Achilles heel.

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Panel 1:  Ironically, Nite Owl turns out to be the one who goes “off the hook” rather than the unstable Rorschach.  Seeing such emotion from Dreiberg, who has remained relatively stable throughout this entire narrative, helps to show us just how much Hollis meant to him. 

Panel 3:  And the irony is heightened by the fact that Rorschach’s humanity seeps through again, as he stops his one friend from doing something he would regret.  Again, Moore has created well-rounded characters who will act “out of character” when the moment is right. 

Panel 9:  Rorschach’s comment that most people who die “travel steerage” transitions directly into

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Panel 4:  Blake’s remark – “Sally…I thought we’d settled all that a long time ago.” – is in reference to their subsequent romantic entanglement, which Sally was arguing about with then-husband Larry Schexnayder in the flashback on Page 7, panels 4-5.

Panel 7:  Moore & Gibbons once again end a flashback scene with the breaking of a vessel holding a liquid – in this case, that vessel is Laurie’s Mom – as Sally, a broken woman, spills her tears and her pain that she has held inside for so many years.  And these tears transition directly to

Panel 8: and the tumbling bottle of Nostalgia perfume.  And the dialogue in this panel’s caption box relates to both the perfume pouring out of the bottle in this image as well as the metaphorical pouring out of Sally’s experience with Edward Blake. 

Panel 9:  Note that this panel is laid out in the same fashion as panel 7 of this page, with Dr. Manhattan taking the place of Laurie’s mother, Sally, from the flashback.  This parallel imagery symbolizes how Laurie is confronting the dominating forces of her formative years through Dr. Manhattan, who is a stand-in for all of those similar figures in Laurie’s life.

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Panel 1:  This first panel takes up the top two-thirds of the page.  Again, the use of a regular, fixed 9-panel grid throughout this story makes these page layouts – where larger panels fill up the space usually reserved for multiple panels – stand out.  With this larger panel, readers are made aware of this scene’s importance, of its emotional crescendo, and its size almost forces readers to linger over the image, taking more time with it because it is so much bigger and atypical, which is at it should be with such a scene.

Panels 2-4:  Dan’s use of the screamers he mentions in panel 2 – and their devastating effect in panels 3 & 4 – transitions directly into

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Panel 1:  Where Dan’s dream-self is looking at a female figure – The Twilight Lady from the picture Laurie found earlier, reflected in his glasses – as his subconscious processes the evening’s events, particularly his inability to make love to Laurie.

Panels 1-17:  On this page, Dave Gibbons, masterfully modifies the 9-panel grid utilized throughout the story to evoke an emotional response from the readers.  Here, he doubles up the panels – until the final one – in order to bombard us with information, even as Dan is being bombarded in his dream.  We see him rush to the Twilight Lady, for whom Dan presumably had a strong affection.  They rip each other’s clothes off, so they are standing against each other, nude.  They then peel away each other’s skin (a metaphorical mask) to reveal Dan’s true self (Nite Owl) and the one he truly wishes to be with (Laurie in her Silk Spectre outfit).  As the two kiss, in their costumes, a mushroom cloud explodes behind them and washes over them, burning away their bodies so that they are nothing but skeletons embracing – a visual explanation of Dan’s overriding fears in the real world, that the mask killer is real and the events of the past days portend a devastating end for the human race.

The final panel brings us back to the present, and it is a standard size panel, which, when placed against the smaller panels that preceded it, makes us unconsciously linger on it a bit longer.  It gives us time to process the previous sixteen smaller panels, which, as an effect of their smaller size, would most likely be read quicker, meant to evoke a feeling of being overwhelmed by all that information in such a small amount of space (or a short amount of time, as the size of a comic panel is one way in which artists manipulate time for a reader)

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Panel 5:  Note, in the background, the edition of NOVA that included the exposé on Dr. Manhattan.

Panel 6:  Only three days into his sessions with Kovacs – as evidenced by the dates of Dr. Long’s journal in the caption boxes – we see he has finished at least one of his bottles of painkillers. 

Panel 7:  Note the clock in the background is at the familiar 5 to midnight position, and that Dr. Long and his wife, Gloria, are back to back forming a reversal of the “Hiroshima lovers” graffiti, as seen in the previous panel, which is also a Rorschach blot.  Dr. Long’s rather quick transition from taking his wife up on the offer of making love the first night after speaking to Kovacs to turning in early with no affection – as symbolized by their sleeping arrangement in this panel – is symbolic of Dr. Long’s metamorphosis into a person more like Rorschach, who has a strong distaste for women and sex, in general.

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Panel 2:  Again, the “V” and Adrian’s stance form another “X.”

Panel 4:  Veidt’s comment, “I want to know who’s behind this” is juxtaposed against the image of the large “V” behind him, which is the Veidt symbol and signifies the fact that he is behind it.

And we see the blood spatter on the flower once more.

Panels 6-8:  The reflecting surfaces of the pool and the floor again reinforce the theme of the chapter.

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Panel 1:  This panel segues directly from the final panel of the previous page, wherein Dr. Manhattan mentioned that “Eighteen months away, an electric limousine is pulling onto Dealey Plaza,” where JFK was shot.

Panel 3:  The painting that Dr. Manhattan is studying is “The Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali.  The melting pocket watches, in this context, symbolize the malleable nature of time with respect to Dr. Manhattan’s perceptions, while the title of the work itself is another way of looking at Dr. Manhattan’s quantum perception.  To him, all things happen at once, which is to say that he remembers everything about his life because he has already experienced it, thus he has a persistence of memory.

Janey’s comment that Dr. Manhattan knows how things work in the world except people and that his prediction that they will soon make love is wrong is ironic considering the fact that he does have terrible difficulty with his relationships and has no empathy for the human condition, and yet, for all of that, his declaration that they will make love is correct.

Panel 8:  Note the earrings are a reproduction of the hydrogen atom – Dr. Manhattan’s symbol.  We have seen these before, or ones just like these, on Laurie in the previous issue.  That scene will be “replayed” on the following page.

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Panels 1-2:  In this instance, Dr. Manhattan’s dialogue in panel 1, “. . . leave me alone” is a commentary on panel 2 where Laurie is hurriedly making her exit, telling Dan she needs to go find a hotel for the night.  And her dialogue leads into

Panel 3:  as it carries over and she says she always feels “sorta empty” after a fight, laid over the scene of a solitary Dr. Manhattan standing in the middle of an empty television studio.

Panels 4-5:  Now the interplay of words and pictures is reversed as Laurie’s conversation with Dan carries from panel 4 into panel 5 where her dialogue is in a caption box reading, “[I’m going to] see if I can come up with one good reason to stick around.”  This reflects directly on the scene in panel 5 as Dr. Manhattan has blinked out of the studio, having no good reason to “stick around.”

Laurie’s comment, “. . . it feels so much better now it’s out in the open” refers not only to the dissolution of her relationship with Dr. Manhattan but also to the fact that there seems to be a connection between Dr. Manhattan and the cancers of his friends and acquaintances.  And, it is also a comment on Dr. Manhattan’s displeasure with all things human as evoked by the poor turn the interview took.  This has set Dr. Manhattan free just as Laurie leaving Dr. Manhattan and talking things over with Dan has set her free.

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Panel 1:  “Earth to Earth . . .” over Veidt’s head could symbolize his wish to save the “earth.”

Panel 2:  “Ashes to ashes . . .” over Dr. Manhattan’s head could symbolize his genesis, as his body was disintegrated into “ash.”

Panel 3:  “Dust to dust . . .” over Dreiberg’s head could symbolize the layers of dust on his Owl ship and accessories, and further symbolize the dust that has settled on his life since he gave up being a masked adventurer.

This homily running across panels 1-3 is also symbolic of the death of the costumed adventurer – which starts in the next panel during the police strike of 1977 and the subsequent passing of the Keene Act, which outlawed masked vigilantes.

Panel 4:  We transition into Dan Dreiberg’s flashback with the Comedian, taking place during the riots of ’77.  This scene occurs in the same intersection where a majority of the action in Watchmen happens, as we can see the Treasure Island comic store on the left and the ad for Nostalgia perfume on our right.  Below the Treasure Island sign we can see somebody spray painting the graffiti:  “Who Watches the Watchmen?” – which is never seen in its entirety throughout this series.

We also see the Comedian in his full mask for the first time.

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Panel 3: Rorschach, with very little movement, breaks this man’s finger. The nonchalant manner in which he does this, delineated precisely by Dave Gibbons’s articulate linework, makes this violent act a more disturbing reading experience than the typical planetary battles commonly seen in mainstream comics. This is another sign that Watchmen is not a typical superhero comic. It is more real.

Panel 8: From Rorschach’s journal: “First visit of evening fruitless. Nobody knew anything. Feel slightly depressed.”

The emphasis in the above quote is mine, and is used to highlight Rorschach’s personality. He is someone who does not only see violence as a means to an end, but passes it off as just a part of the job. He is depressed because he found nothing out, but couldn’t care less about the man with the two broken fingers.

Panel 9: “Never surrender,” is what Rorschach is all about, and foreshadows his ultimate fate in Watchmen.

“I have business elsewhere with a better class of person,” indicates the next member of the Watchmen we are to meet, Adrian Veidt – Ozymandias.