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

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

As the end credits rolled on the seventh episode of The Man in the High Castle, my immediate first thought after I recovered from those horrifying final images was that the show had finally brought forth its first filler episode. At first glance it felt as though the plot wasn't progressed at all so I gave it another viewing right then and there because a little tickle in my brain told me I was wrong, and it turns out I was. 

This is a show that refuses to settle into television norms such as things like the filler and the progress that I sought was there all along, I just let myself get lost in the surprisingly gentle and heartbreaking moments in this particular tale and well, that's not a bad thing. This was quite an emotional episode to say the least, one that closed off a major storyline and brought forth new ones and I think the fact that the show allowed us to feel something other than fear for a change confused me. 

So let's get going by getting into Joe Clark's story, simply because that's where we pick up immediately after the last episode. With Joe exposed as a man too curious about the films and whose loyalty with the Reich is now in question. It puts him in the hot seat with John Smith and he is forced to head out San Francisco way to redeem himself. Seems there is talk of a new film and the Nazi's want it. This demand from Smith finally gets us a solid view into Joe's life for the first time ever on the show before he heads out. He has a girl, she has a kid, and it was strange to see him play the family man while desperately waiting to hear Juliana's voice once again.

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But the bulk of this story in this episode is set in San Francisco, as we rejoin Frank and Juliana as she settles into her new career with Minister Tagomi and Frank finally finds some peace in his life after being able to grieve and this is where the episode became so gentle, specifically when it comes to Juliana and the Trade Minister since he turns out to be so extremely kind to her, going so far as to give her information on where she can finally find her sister to get the same kind of closure Frank did, more on that in a moment. 

We also revisited our favorite shop owner Robert Childan as he appeared to land the client of a lifetime, since he is invited over to a prestigious dinner with a collector, only to discover there will be no discussion of sales, it is merely an opportunity to pick his brain on former American culture and well...make a mockery of him. It leads to another chance meeting between he and Frank, because Frank wants to make money to get the hell out of San Fran and the two men figure out a way to get it done by making a flawless fake artifact from America's past to sell to the collector for a high price. But as Frank gets to work on that, Juliana finally visits her sister's final resting place in what turns out to be one of the series' most powerful moments. Her body is merely lying in a shallow grave in the middle of nowhere, amongst other traitors and the silence of that scene, combined with the pain on Juliana's face, well it left my heart heavy and my eyes full of tears. 

Of course the episode couldn't just end there, instead we leave our two lead characters reunited in a way, with Joe following Juliana closely on the streets of San Francisco. So, like I mentioned before, this story felt like filler because so many things happened at once and it seemed like so much was going nowhere, but upon that second viewing all of this feels like a setup. While the Trudy story is now done in my mind, how will the transaction between Childan and his collector go when all is said and done? I don't see revenge against the affluent Japanese going well, so I'm curious to see how this turns out and of course...a new film possibly being out and Joe being in San Fran can't be a good thing, especially when Joe is doing exactly what he must because no doubt his life is on the line. Should be interesting to see where it goes, and I love the fact that the show slowed things down for a bit this go round, it made for some nice storytelling. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to press play on episode eight, so I can find out where this setup goes. Until next time.

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