‘The Man in the High Castle’ Recap: ‘Sensô Kôi’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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

​It never ceases to amaze me, just how The Man in the High Castle manages to find new ways to surprise me. Because as I settled in to watch the third episode of season three, ‘Sensô Kôi’, I truly expected more of what this new year of storytelling has had to offer; the slow burn style of storytelling. But as it turns out, this particular tale is one that ended up becoming a hybrid of sorts. Sure, the story took its sweet time and focused heavily on character development, but it also found ways to advance the plot and drop some bombshells in our laps, like for example what we learned about Joe Blake in this tale.
 
Because in this story, we came to learn that Joe has gone down one incredibly dark path and killing his father wasn’t merely about redemption but completing his training as an assassin for the Reich. Because we saw him take out a target with impunity in this tale and what’s equally as terrifying is that he now has his sights set on Tagomi and one has to wonder if the only thing that will save the Trade Minister’s life is Juliana since she and Joe still have feelings for one another. But Joe’s tirade about how the Reich is the future and the answer makes me nervous and it is obvious that little speech of his serves as quite the set up for a storyline that will either end in heartbreak or with Joe’s outright redemption.
 
However, while Juliana and Joe played a little cat and mouse game in San Francisco, another important plot point was being set up in New York, since John Smith was placed in charge of Adolf Hitler’s private film collection. Because the Reich has renewed interest in the films since they’ve come to learn that people can travel through the multiverse and Smith’s work on the films will help in the Reich’s research when it comes to other worlds and possibly having Nazi forces traverse them, which is a chilling thought in its own right and the future of that plot point was hammered home by the fact that Juliana can now dip into memories forged by her other selves and she may have an idea as to where exactly the Reich is building a device designed to traverse the multiverse.
 
Yet, while all of these little plot points were magnificent in their own right, the story did need to deal with the whole matter regarding Helen’s moment of involuntary manslaughter and well, it was John to the rescue there, since he personally took the time to stage a robbery crime scene and had others take the fall for it and this part of the story was just a fine reinforcement of the fact that John is on precarious ground right now. Because despite ‘clearing’ Helen’s name, the whole Reich is watching their new hero, and any mistake may bring about his downfall and it cannot be a good thing that Reichsführer Himmel is taking reports from Hoover about John Smith, directly…
 
When all is said and done however, it was nice to see the grand setup for future plot points come together in this one and I am supremely curious now about the Reich’s plans for the multiverse and can we take a moment and talk about how chilling it was to meet Josef Mengele in this episode? Because that dude, was outright human garbage and it was the first time all season that I felt a chill run down my spine from seeing one of history’s greatest monsters come to life again and well, his arrival in the story, and his pride over what he does, has me hoping that someone puts him down without giving it a second thought. Either way, this was another fine episode, I really am enjoying the melodrama and I really do get the feeling the bigger plot points are just going to explode right before our eyes as the season rolls on and well, I need more. Because I am very curious about Joe’s fate and the mess surrounding John, so if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to watch another episode. Until next time. 

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