Welcome to the Man in the High Castle season 2 watchalong! The second season has made its premiere on Amazon Prime. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to run recap and reactions to the 10-episode season. If you haven’t started watching yet, read at your own risk. As a result, SPOILERS follow ahead.
Picking up where we left off
Unfortunately for Juliana, she always finds herself in a chase. Fortunately for her, she stumbles onto the right people along the way. She runs into a former army medic who takes her back to San Francisco. Curious as she is, Juliana questions who the mystery man is. Her mother tries to evade her questions but is forced to speak up. Surprise, surprise, he’s the father of Trudy, Juliana’s sister – the classic “your sibling is actually a half sibling” scenario. The man’s name is George Dixon, who currently resides in Brooklyn.
Meanwhile, Lem and Gary arrive at Juliana’s home, hoping to find her. When the army medic arrived and “left a message”, the two plan to intercept her trip to Sacramento. Being as smart as she is, she had set the two up. Once they realized they had been tricked, they head to the next possible location, her parents home. They arrive as Juliana makes her escape. While they are able to chase her down through a bomb shelter, Juliana makes it into the open crowd unharmed.
Frank and Childan are taken to the Yakuza. Turns out, Frank wanted their attention, probably hoping to use his forgery skills to earn them cash. Frank uses it as a bargaining tool to spare the life of him, Childan, and Ed. Frank and Childan are thrown in a small confined space. Due to seeing the footage, Frank briefly has a dream of himself digging out the bullet that was shot at the back of his head.
Kido’s story
In the midst of all this, Kido visits Ed after investigating Karen’s death. Despite his confession, Kido tells Ed that all his friends and family would be executed as well. Despite Ed presuming Kido is enjoying it, the latter denies it, claiming he didn’t want any of it.
Eventually, Kido pins the assassination attempt on the crown prince on Karen, setting Ed free and Frank bound to the Yakuza. And in a turn of events, Frank and Ed were given the opportunity to reunite.
Is it appropriate to say Joe Blake is your average Joe? He’s returning to his former life, consequently getting his old construction job back. He returns to the comfort of his child’s mother. While his child falls asleep, John Smith arrives at the doorsteps. Joe is told his father wishes to meet him in Berlin. After some thought, Joe leaves to meet his father. However, his significant other presumes he had an affair with the late resistance member, telling Joe not to come back. Guess he’s not your average Joe after all.
Tagomi continues his research into the alternate reality. He continues to confide to his aide, asking if he heard of Nelson Mandela or the Cuban Missile Crisis. Unfortunately, he is still unanswered. He eventually seeks out a restricted library. Later, Juliana asks him for help to get her a visa, but troubled as he is, refused to help.
Juliana writes a letter to Frank and leaves for the Nazi embassy, hoping to get answers on George Dixon. As she’s chased down by the Kempeitai for being wanted, Juliana hurries to the Nazi embassy, falling on her knees. Now safe from the Kempeitai as she’s in Nazi territory, she requests for asylum, revealing she knows Joe Blake.
Observations
- Joe may never live an average life again. He tries to get his life back on track but now he’s finally going to meet his father. Something tells me it won’t be a happy meetup.
- This alternate reality jumping by Tagomi is playing a big part of the series. Very curious to see the end result.
- Every character continues to become interesting. There are usually characters that many grow to hate or get bored of. Not on this show.
