“Man in the High Castle” Post-Review Spoiler Discussions

That’s right, you knew I’d come back. There’s just so much to talk about on a show about Nazis in the 1960s. I know talking about spoilers is a rarity on my blog. Example, Pitch Perfect 2; didn’t care to. But, sure let’s talk about alternate history. In case the title wasn’t already obvious, MAJOR SPOILERS LIE AHEAD. So if you aren’t through watching the first season of Amazon’s Man in the Castle, don’t read this unless you really don’t care. In which case, you should care, because this is a great show. So the surprise with Joe Blake’s character I wasn’t expecting was he was actually a Nazi spy for John Smith, who is coping from an assassination attempt and his son’s predicaments on fascism. Over the course of his mission, he grows strong feelings for Juliana, who is trying to carry on her deceased sister’s duty of delivering the film to the Man in the High Castle. Meanwhile, back in the Pacific States, three interconnected story arcs occur simultaneously. Frank Frink is a factory worker for fake antiques who gets accused of practicing Judaism, as his grandfather was a Jew. Though he is freed, his sister, nephew, and niece are all killed by gassing before the truth was discovered. Wrought with grief, he crafts a real gun to take his revenge on the Japanese, to his friend’s objections. This leads into the second arc, where he changes his mind on revenge just when the Crowned Prince of Japan is mortally shot. The Chief Inspector works tirelessly to find the culprit, even going so far as to take support from the Yakuza. Though he and his right-hand man find the shooter to be a German Nazi and kill him, they realize they can’t reveal the truth to the public in order to keep civility between nations. This burden almost drives him to commit sepuku, but relieves when Frank’s friend, Ed, is caught with a gun matching an eye witness’s description of a drawn weapon from the shooting. Frank arrives at the last minute to save his friend. Finally, the Trade Minister is secretly meeting with a high-ranking Nazi official named Rudolph Wegener, who poses as a representative from Switzerland. They’re trading secrets from each other’s governments in order to maintain peace, as a German party from the Nazi Reich wants to use the Americas as a guise to launch a war against Japan and rule over all the world. Feeling guilty for his treachery and sadness over his wife’s death, contemplates suicide a couple times. Now we’re just going to skip to the finale of this season. The show itself wasn’t completely realistic to begin with, but then the last episode absolutely blows the mind to pieces. So Juliana and Frank realize that Joe is actually a Nazi, and intend to kill him with the help of Resistance members. But Frank turns himself into the police to save his friend while Juliana let’s Joe take a ship ride to Mexico for safety. Meanwhile, SS Officer Heydrich reveals his plans to John Smith, whom he is holding captive and tries to convince to join his cause. He has sent the German Nazi official on a mission to Germany to kill the Fuhrer and ignite a war against Japan. But Hitler convinces his old friend to kill himself to spare his children shame, and Smith captures Heydrich as a traitor. But when we finally see Hitler for the first time, he’s in a room with various films, and the one he’s watching bears striking similarity to the ones that were being carried around the country the majority of the season. Plus the fact that his headquarters are situated in a castle in the tall mountains, I have devised the theory that Hitler is the Man in the High Castle, and he’s just feeding the Resistance false hope. In the last scene, the Trade Minister is sitting on a bench with Juliana’s necklace, closes his eyes, and then wakes up in an alternate 1962 where San Francisco is as it would be in our timeline. It’s not like this is a dream sequence, apparently it seems the necklace is capable of traveling across time/space. Yeah this is weird. I’m worried that this will turn out to be another case of Lost. Despite that confusing finale, Man in the High Castle is undoubtedly one of the strongest shows in 2015. I don’t care if you already have Amazon Prime or are a die hard Netflix loyalist, but this show is worth it. You won’t regret it.