"The Man in the High Castle" Recap: "Revelations"

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

I think what I am enjoying most about The Man in the High Castle is that the show finds new ways every single week to captivate its audience and draw them deeper into this fascinating story and world. It pulls this feat off in the simplest of fashion, by wasting nothing story wise and by bringing up new questions and mysteries to keep our minds churning with possibilities.

I'm fairly certain this has been going on since I started watching the show, but it was never more evident than it was during the fourth episode since this particular portion of the story was filled to the brim with intrigue and mystery and thankfully a quick and satisfying resolution to that nasty little cliffhanger the last episode left us with, as Juliana was doing her best to escape the clutches of the Marshal.  In fact that's where we picked up, moments after episode three faded to black as Juliana works to stay one step ahead of the bounty hunter in the darkness of an abandoned building from the Marshal, only to find herself out of options and thankfully Joe swoops in to save her from the Marshal's ruthless clutches in the nick of time. 

There is of course more grand discussion about getting out of Canon City as quickly as possible before the crazed bounty hunter comes to, but Juliana is having none of it. She wants answers, and she knows that the only way to get them is to speak with her boss at the diner, Lem. Of course once she and Joe get to Lem's place he is less than happy to see them, drawing a shotgun on both of them but Juliana is quick to lay everything on the line, including the list of names with his on it and of course, mention of the fact she is carrying the film and that she knows he is working for the Resistance. It leads to her getting a big time meeting with the Man in the High Castle, that goes terribly wrong. For the all important MIHC doesn't show up at all at the meeting because Lem knows that Joe is a Nazi Agent and in a sign of good faith, Joe hands over his copy of the film after Juliana does and they are left on their own as Lem and a small group of rebels disappear with both films in hand. 

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To make matters worse they still have to deal with the Marshal, and after a calculated plan to escape his clutches Juliana still wants to stay in Canon City and get some answers...that is until a call home gets her on the first bus back to San Francisco, leaving Joe behind and with good reason...Frank's story is equally as harrowing a tale. Still filled to the brim with fury, Frank has decided it's high time to teach the Japanese forces a lesson and kill their esteemed prince during his speech. It leads him on a hunt to buy rare bullets, an act that should have put him back in a cell if it were not for a little sympathy and clever book keeping from the dealer that provides him with the ammo.

Heck even Ed tries to stack the deck against him once he discovers the plan and even manages to accidentally shoot Frank, but nothing will stop him it seems and he goes down to the Nazi Embassy to go through with the whole thing...but hesitation settles in and by surprise...someone else shoots the Prince. Foiling Trade Minister Tagomi's plan for Wegener to get the all important secret information to his contact and to top it all off, a few people saw Frank with the gun in hand, so no doubt there's a chance he will now be a marked man as the authorities begin their hunt for the gunman that brought down the prince. 

So as I said before, this is an episode filled with intrigue, specifically over a few key plot points. For one, what the hell is the resistance all about? The film is clearly important but the organization itself seems so mysterious and well, it's hard to know what kind of fight they are actually putting up against the Nazis since they keep everything so close to the chest. Second to that, who the heck killed the Prince? We know it wasn't Frank, but someone pulled the trigger and it's a big deal because it shows a sign of weakness in the Empire, something the Nazi regime will be happy to prey upon and last but certainly not least...what will happen to Joe now? He essentially failed in his mission since he learned nothing about the Resistance and it's clear now his loyalties seem to lie toward freedom and we learned in this episode, the Obergruppenführer is not a fan of failure. All those questions simply make the show all the more magical, since every plot line resolved brings forth something new and exciting and I have to know how this ends...until next time. 

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