‘The Man in the High Castle’ Recap: ‘History Ends’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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​If there’s one particular constant in this universe, it’s that there are consequences for our actions. Some are good, many are bad, but risk is part of the game called life and we often hope that when we roll the proverbial hard six and make the tough call…that good things will come our way and consequences are on my mind today, because of the sixth episode of season three of The Man in the High Castle, since that’s precisely what ‘History Ends’ focused upon, those unnerving consequences and with good reason, since we needed to see what kind of fallout was going to come about from Juliana Crain and John Smith’s bold decisions in the last episode.
 
As it turns out, little good came their way in this tale, with Juliana perhaps suffering the most for her decision. Because killing Joe, and taking all of the intel that he gathered during his time in the Pacific States, would make her public enemy number one and it wouldn’t take long before the Reich or the Kempaitai would come looking for her and once again, she found herself on the run and headed toward the Neutral Zone in the hopes of running into Hawthorne to figure out what her next move needed to be since she had the Nazi’s plans to cross over into other dimensions at her fingertips and well, it was tough to see her broken and on the move once again and it’s clear now that Joe’s death is going to haunt her in the days ahead. 
 
However, while Juliana dealt with her respective problems, John Smith once more faced fresh ones of his own. After all, Reichsführer Himmler expected the best possible performance from his Reichsmarshall-to-be, putting John under a lot of undue stress, stress that was only compounded by the fact that it was up to John to keep the peace with the Pacific States in regard to this whole mess with Joe, prompting him to send Hoover out there to get answers and smooth things over and set up the manhunt for Juliana since Himmler wanted the head of whomever brought down his precious Lebensborn and John had to juggle all of this, alongside keeping the peace at home since this episode confirmed that Himmler had Erich killed to keep John in line, meaning that Helen was in trouble if she continued to falter.
 
But thankfully, the episode wasn’t all gloom and doom since we came to learn that Helen is starting to heal, thanks to her therapy sessions, and as an added bonus, Ed came to discover that his longtime friend Frank was alive and well at the compound in the mountains and the two of them had a little reunion, a positive one at that since good friendship knows no bounds and Ed even stuck around for a little bit to see Frank celebrate his Bar Mitzvah. But while these good people celebrated Frank and his completion of the ceremony, a dark cloud hangs over their future and the future of so many. For John Smith was indeed made the Reichsmarshall of America, and Himmler promised everyone the end of America’s past and a new beginning for the Reich at John’s swearing in ceremony.
 
If anything, it was jarring and powerful to watch a Bar Mitzvah happening while the murderous Nazis celebrated the beginning of Year Zero for America, and I tip my cap to the Writer’s Room for giving us such a bold contrast of scenes and well, it made me hope that the look in John’s eye, the one filled with conflict and confusion over his ascension to one of the Reich’s elite, will cause something to snap in him and allow for him to rise up against Himmler and the Reich’s disgusting ideals, giving Freedom a fighting chance one more time. Time will tell of course, and some would say that I’m being far too optimistic for this twisted world. But the foundation for freedom is there, and there is hope and joy happening away from the Reich’s watchful eye and all a true revolution needs right now is the proper spark, and hopefully one of these characters, will ignite the fire. Until next time. 

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