‘The Man in the High Castle’ Recap: ‘Kasumi (Through the Mists)’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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If there is one particular staple that makes The Man in the High Castle such a compelling story, it’s the outright darkness that permeates this tale as a whole. Much of that is of course accomplished by the sheer fact that the Nazis won the war and now rule most of America, but the fact of the matter is, the story sometimes goes above and beyond to allow for that darkness to grow by giving us moments that leave us squirming in our seats as we watch on with great discomfort and oddly enough, season three has been devoid of a lot of those particular moments.
 
And to make matters worse, we have in many ways, become immune to seeing goose stepping fools on this series since it is the norm for this show and this story. But thankfully, the Writer’s Room was fully cognizant of this unfortunate side effect that comes with watching this series and the next episode in this harrowing saga, ‘Kasumi (Through the Mists)’, brought back the age old tradition of making us supremely uncomfortable by way of disturbing moments, straight from the get go for that matter, since we were immediately privy to some of the work going on behind the scenes with Year Zero, as we watched the Liberty Bell be melted down and transformed into a visual nightmare as it was repurposed to become a massive metallic Swastika and the dark moments didn’t end there.
 
For just about every single character in this tale faced new kinds of adversity and trouble since the Reich continued its attack on the Trade Minister, going so far as to send an assassin to his home to bring him down, an attack that failed but it still demonstrates the Reich’s resolve to take control of everything and it added a new sense of danger to the story since these two countries may be on a path to war, regardless of their efforts for peace and speaking of the Reich, this episode saw all the hope we had for Helen disappear in the blink of an eye as well since she expressed her disdain for the Reich aloud, and she even made a move on her therapist and well, who knows what fate awaits her since John can only do so much to protect her.
 
But the true darkness and bleakness when it comes to the story arrived by way of Juliana’s journey. For her own hopes when it comes to inspiring others were dashed when everyone at Sabra in essence laughed at the film and stepped away from it, showing either their cowardice or disregard to all the possibilities and matters were only complicated further on her way to the Reich since she and Wyatt ran into trouble at a border checkpoint, and despite Wyatt’s best efforts to keep their noses clean, their trek toward Pennsylvania turned bloody when gunfire was exchanged and well, it’s only a matter of time now before the Reich realizes what Juliana is up to, making her attempt to stop the Nazis from interdimensional travel all the more difficult.
 
So, yeah. This was just a bleak story through and through, and the vibe that I received in this one is that everything is starting to slowly unravel right before our eyes, and considering the fact that Joe Blake is dead, I’m honestly wondering if anyone left standing is safe at this point, or if more death and carnage is about to head our way. But what matters most, is that this felt like a vintage episode of the series, where danger permeates every single thread of the storytelling and clearly, we are now building to something big in this tale since Juliana is close to the facility and war appears to be brewing and well, I simply have to know how this ends, which means it is time to settle in and watch another chapter in this chilling tale. Until next time.  

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