The Man in the High Castle — Series 2 — Episodes 9 and 10: Detonation and Fallout

30th March, 2018.

Yes … 

I think ‘satisfying’ is possibly the word, here.

Can I make a slight confession?

I’m — at the moment — off ill.

A case of Bell’s Palsy: a — temporary, I’m told — trapped facial nerve which makes me look and sound slightly odd.

Which you’s possibly worked out.   Especially if you’ve seen the intro video for this morning’s Daily Teaser, and started wondering if I look like J. W. Pepper … !

At ANY rate: I’m trying to say I’ve had time off.

And time to catch up with both Teaser videos: AND a box set.

As you may also have worked out?

Is that the box set of the month is season two of The Man in the High Castle.

Yes: I think satisfying is the word … 

~≈§≈~

Episode 9 — Detonation sees Frank (Rupert Evans) volunteering to aid the Resistance, by assassinating a senior Japanese general.

But convincing Ed (DJ Qualls) and Childan (Brennan Brown) to leave San Francisco.

In the meantime?   Trade Minister Tagomi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) decides to return back to his native world: bringing home footage he feels will be important: a test triggering of an H-bomb: in apparent Japanese territory.

~≈§≈~

Episode 10 — Fallout shows us that Frank has succeeded only too well in bombing the Kempeitai ’Cisco HQ.

However?   Both Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente) and Trade Minister Tagomi come up with a desperate plan to ensure the empire is safe.

By handing the test bombing footage over to Obergruppenführer John Smith (Rufus Sewell).



Smith … ?



Has his own reasons for wanting to prevent war.

Not least, his son, Thomas … 

~≈§≈~



Now … 

Satisfying … ?



Yes …



The series has drifted, somewhat, from the book.   I don’t recall major characters being able — as the Trade Minister does — to travel between alternative worlds.

But Tagomi’s ability to do so does provides us with a satisfying motive for his actions: he takes the film because he sees how life could have gone for him, and others: and wants that in his world.   (The Minister’s Chief Aide, Kotomichi, is another such travelling: having survived Nagasaki.)

Yes: I seem to recall Juliana Craine’s life as not as intimately linked to Thomas’s, Abendsen’s or Ed’s … 

But some how?   These make her decisions seem more rounded: at least to me.

And then there’s the Obergruppenführer himself.

He’s shown us his past — a flashback in Episode 10 shows us he and Helen’s new home in December 1945, just as Washington is bombed — and his present, gaining a LOT of esteem for saving the Reich … 

We‘re shown his future.

And we find out the Thomas has handed himself in to the various authorities … on the assumption his father’s new power will only mean his death, anyway.

That … ?



I must admit, that was a shocking thing to see.

Lest we forget, Good Friday marks a death.   Thomas’s?   Does NOT have a chance of resurrection, EXCEPT in a alternative universe.

Yes: I realise The Man In The High Castle is fictional.

But to see a youngster sacrifice themselves for a perceived greater good, especially today — Good Friday, 2018 — is both shocking … 

And somehow satisfying.

Frankly?



The show’s creators have left it season two in a good place.

If this is the last of the series?

The Man In The High Castle goes out on a high.

If it’s recommissioned?

I’d like to see that … !