‘The Man in the High Castle’ Recap: ‘Excess Animus’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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

​If there’s one thing that I’ve been pining for when it comes to The Man in the High Castle, it’s been revolution. I’ve been hungry over the past three years to see the people of this twisted and uncomfortable world rise up and fight against the awful Nazis and release the world from the disturbing grip of Fascism. But that, simply hasn’t come to fruition. After all, the Reich is everywhere, thanks to their superior firepower and the Japanese Pacific States have their own special hold on society as well, meaning that my desire to see the fight arrive may never come to fruition because of the enemy’s sheer strength.
 
But, it would seem, that revolution is slowly coming to light on this series and the next episode of the show, ‘Excess Animus’, seemingly gave us the beginning of rebellion since a fair chunk of this episode focused upon Juliana Crain and her reunion with Hawthrone Abernathy for one reason and one reason alone; she wanted the film that changed her life forever. Yes, the movie that showed her the Allies winning the war could be quite the powerful tool in the grand fight against the fascists, since it could influence imaginations everywhere and inspire people to rise up and fight at last. But winning over hearts and minds was merely the first part of a grand and important plan.
 
The plan in question involved destroying the dimensional gate that the Nazis were building in Pennsylvania in order to prevent the Reich from roaming the multiverse. But before she could get started on this particular mission, she needed the proper papers to return to the Greater Nazi Reich, meaning it was off to Sabra for her own safety while she waited for said papers to be completed and while there, she was finally able to reunite with Frank and Ed for that matter and it was quite nice to see the three of them hanging out again and see Frank and Juliana rekindle their romance after all this time since it provided us with a genuinely beautiful moment in a story mired in darkness.
 
However the relaxed nature of this story didn’t end there, since this episode also took the time to check in on a few other side characters to see how they are doing, like Childan and Inspector Kido, since these two crossed paths thanks to Childan’s utter breakdown since his dissatisfaction with the changes to his life, like losing his shop, eventually got him arrested and in front of the Inspector. And as for Kido, well, he was simply haunted in this episode by the betrayal he experienced under his watch and Tagomi’s knowledge of the matter, led to an important sit down between the two men since Kido was finally able to learn the truth about what the heck is going on from the Trade Minister.
 
When all is said and done however, I must admit that I rather enjoyed this little breather. Because the past two episodes were intense to say the least and it was just refreshing to see all the characters take a moment and conduct a little personal inventory for a change. Because I get the feeling that things are going to ramp up from here, especially now that we know that Mengele is preparing to do trial runs of his device, which means we can expect some serious action from Juliana in the episodes to come and man, I hope she is successful in her endeavors, for the thought of Nazis running rampant in the multiverse is disturbing to say the least and well, it’s time to see just how exactly she’s going to take the fight to them, once she’s done with the dimensional gate. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to watch another episode of this magnificent tale. Until next time. 

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