'The Man in the High Castle' Recap: 'Duck and Cover'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

The mark of a great story, is that it understands the need for balance. It knows that the only way to truly entertain the audience is to take us on one hell of a ride where we experience a healthy share of thrills followed by lulls and I'm quickly coming to realize that The Man in the High Castle is a show that has completely and utterly mastered this. 

If you need proof, look no further than the first half of season two, which hit the ground running with some stunning and heart pounding stories, before slowing it down and giving all of us a chance to breathe. Which means that after a tiny break, the time has come once again for the series to kick the story back into overdrive and that's precisely what 'Duck and Cover' delivered, another edge of your seat story filled to the brim with stunning revelations and fascinating twists and turns.  

The first big revelation this episode decided to throw our way, came by way of Joe Blake who once again found himself being badgered by his father, but this time around Martin promised his son something worthy of his time...some truth regarding Joe's past. So dear old dad took his son to a decrepit building, one that was used during the war for the sole purpose of perfecting the master race through a specific breeding process, and it turns out that Joe was part of this experiment and was born in this facility. It takes Joe quite some time to come to terms with the fact that he was lied to by his mother, but eventually he seems to find peace with this, and with potentially staying in Berlin and when all is said and done, it was pretty incredible to see the series resurrect the lore of the Lebensborn and apply it to this already rich story.

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But the surprises didn't end there, because in New York, Juliana finally came face to face with George Dixon and while the films certainly imply that Dixon's death will save San Francisco from nuclear annihilation, Juliana made the choice to bide her time and get to know this man and clearly Juliana is beginning to the learn the lesson that not everything is ever quite what it seems and she's applying that to her everyday dealings and one can only hope that her gambit pays off because if she's wrong in taking the gentle approach...millions will perish.  

Plus, one has to wonder exactly how much time she actually will have when it comes to making a decision about Dixon because the Kempaitai are hot on her tail, with Inspector Kido going so far as to fly to New York with a signed extradition request (one obtained from a drunken General Onada) to personally ask John Smith to send her back to the Japanese Pacific States. The two men have quite the interesting conversation to say the least...one so important and laden with critical information/truth that not even the audience is privy to the exact details for the moment but it's clear Kido dropped some kind of bombshell since Smith asked for his visit to be stricken from the official record.  

If anything, this episode was a deceptive one, in a good way simply because of the fact that it continues to slowly build up important plotlines that are clearly going to converge at some point in explosive fashion, and another fine example of this is Tagomi's story this go round, since he spent a lot of time in what one can assume to be our world, where he learned how the Japanese lost the war and that his alter ego in this world is a drunken jerk. It's little tibits like that, that suck you in and leave you dying to know how this intriciate web they're weaving is going to come together and kudos are in order when it comes to this show for being able to make a transitional episode such as this as thrilling as can be. Either way, it's on to the next episode to get my High Castle ​fix. Until next time.

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