CHAPTER X:
TWO RIDERS WERE APPROACHING…
Thematic Overview:
The
title – “Two Riders Were Approaching…” – taken from the Bob Dylan song, “All
Along the Watchtower,” lays out the visual motif for Chapter X. This chapter is
replete with two riders approaching,
starting with Air Force 1 and Air Force 2 flying President Nixon and Vice
President Ford in to NORAD. It is here,
where they believe themselves safely fortified against the approaching nuclear
conflagration, that these two leaders of the free world will wait and see
exactly how far the conflict in Europe escalates.
From
this point, we see a number of variations on two riders approaching, from the horror of the Black Freighter scenes to the pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses that stop
at Bernie’s newsstand with a copy of the Watchtower. The most significant instance of the two riders motif in this chapter comes
from a comment by Rorschach on page 20
when he tells Nite Owl that the world is “on verge of apocalypse. Death and War already here. Other horsemen can’t be far behind.” This acknowledgement of the metaphorical
arrival of two of the four horsemen of the apocalypse heightens the sense of
urgency within this story. The end is
nigh, and nothing seems able to halt that.
This
metaphor also accentuates the reality that the finale of Watchmen is
fast approaching. As Moore & Gibbons
finally start weaving their myriad plot threads together, the pattern begins to
reveal itself. The riders are the
readers, marching toward the climax and the denouement that will give offer
answers, while also providing more questions about this world.
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