‘The Man in the High Castle’ gave us a look into the future after World War II, if Germany and Japan had been the victors. The show is based on a novel of the same name by Philip K Dick. It is not a complete adaptation of the book and only adapts the basic frame and plot of the book. It is set in America in the year 1962, with Hitler still alive and is the head of the Reich. America is partitioned into two parts, the Greater Nazi Reich and the Japanese Pacific States. It started out as an alternate history show, which turned into a sci-fi by the end of the first season. The third season of the show is still in production and is expected to arrive by the end of this year.

A woman starts a quest after she receives a film about a different, more hopeful world in the series premiere of a drama set in alternate version of life in the U.S. In the 1960s—a version in which Nazi Germany and Japan were the victors of World War II.

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• Images (1) 'Kindness' is the ninth episode of Season One of The Man in the High Castle, and the ninth episode of the series overall. This episode, along with the rest of the season, was made available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video on November 20th, 2015.

It is the most successful show produced by Amazon, since it started making original shows for its streaming service. The backgrounds and the sets of a dystopian 1962 are just amazing. The performance by cast members is great and every role has been cast perfectly and if you have read the book, you might have found the appearance of characters just as you might have imagined reading it. The show has been created by Frank Spotnitz and is available on Amazon Prime Video. So, if you haven’t watched it yet, go see it and then come back here, for now I am going to get into the explanation which will contain SPOILERS.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

Season 1

Juliana Crane, a San Francisco woman becomes entangled with the resistance after her half-sister, Trudy is murdered while trying to transport a film reel to Canon City, Colorado in the Neutral Zone and had given the film to Juliana just before being murdered. The film reel contained a newsreel-style footage, entitled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, depicting an alternate history in which the Allied Forces won World War II. It was part of a series of similar newsreels being collected by someone referred to as ‘The Man in the High Castle’. Juliana decides to travel to the Neutral Zone to complete the mission of her sister, leaving behind his boyfriend Frank Fink, who is a Jew and lives in the paranoia of being caught.

In Canon City, she encounters Joe Blake, a double agent working for the Nazis under Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith, a senior officer in the SS who previously served in the US Army. Joe is pretending to be a member of the resistance in order to find the resistance contact in Canon City, which happens to be Juliana.

The Man In The High Castle Season 1 Cast Members

Nobusuke Tagomi, a high-ranking Japanese official, the Trade Minister in San Francisco meets secretly with Nazi official Rudolph Wegner to discuss their concerns about the power vacuum that will be caused by either death or forced stepping down of Adolf Hitler. Wegner fears that Hitler’s successr will use the Reich’s nuclear bombs against Japan to gain control of the rest of America. The Japanese are lagging far behind the German technology.

When the Japanese and the Nazis become suspicious of Juliana’s activities, Frank is arrested and questioned by the authorities about the whereabouts of Juliana. They kill his sister and her two children, using their Jewish heritage as an excuse for their execution, after Frank is unable to provide them any information. Frank plans to kill the Japanese Crown Prince and Pricess but finally decides against it.

The season 1 ends with Tagomi standing confused in a different world where America is going through the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Season 2

Frank becomes a committed member of the resistance in the Pacific States and eventually succeeds in bombing of the central command building of the Pacific States government in San Francisco, that kills many members of the Japanese military and other top-level leadership.

Juliana claims asylum in the Nazi Reich by using its San Francisco Embassy so that she can escape Japanese soldiers who hold her responsible for at least one murder. John Smith helps her in getting asylum and takes her to New York without informing Joe, who discovers that he is the sole biological son of a top-ranking Nazi official in Berlin, Martin Heusmann. Joe reconciles with him and becomes second-in-command of the Chancellorship after Hitler dies and Heusmann becomes the Acting Chancellor.

Hitler’s death is pinned on Japanese spies and Heusmann annoounces that they will be brought to justice by any means necessary, including war. Suspecting the nature of the announcement, John Smith interrogates a high-ranking Nazi, who reveals the plans of Heusmann to gain control of Japan by bombing it and giving Japan no other option. John travels to Berlin to inform about the conspiracy to Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi Reichsfuhrer, who is not involved. He provides solid evidence, that what he is claiming is true. Himmler then leads Smith and several of his closest Berlin subordinates, in to the Fuhrer’s office to arrest Heusmann for treason and murder of Hitler, and then addresses Reich civilians and stormtroopers about the conspiracy and of Smith’s exposure.

The season 2 ends with Himmler and Smith assuming command of the Reich and a new era of peace begins. In the final minutes of the season, we see Trudy is alive and well. In a basement somewhere, Smith is given access to a room filled to bursting with reels of films that were watched by the late Fuhrer.

Existence of Alternate Worlds

By the end of the first season, it is clear that the film reels are not a propaganda but are realities from alternate worlds. It is also clear that there are more than one alternate worlds. The one in a film reel which has video of San Francisco being bombed by a nuclear bomb is different from the one to which Tagomi travels to at the end of the first season as he arrives in a world where Allied forces have won the war. The alternate worlds are also parallel as Juliana discovers through a film that Joe is a Nazi. But Tagomi is the only character who has been shown till now, who can travel between worlds, and in season 2 he even goes to meet his family and finds out that his son is married to Juliana in that reality.

There are many characters in the show which appear to be from an alternate world. Tagomi’s assistant is one such character, he is from Nagasaki and has an unexplained burn on his hand which seems to be due to the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in an alternate world. In the second season, Tagomi tells Kotomichi that he knows that he is from an alternate reality, after which Kotomichi tells Tagomi that the bombing left him in this world where his family was alive. The appearance of Trudy at the end of the second season, after being killed in front of Juliana in the pilot makes it clear that this Trudy is from an alternate world or that Trudy may be from another world.

But the films are not only from the past but also from the future, as can be seen in the films that Hitler is seeing, and him knowing that Rudolf is there to kill him and that he won’t be able to do it. We also see in the show that in 1962 Germany is very advanced technologically which is made evident by the existence of commercial jets and maglev trains in Germany. It is also mentioned that Germany dropped the a-bomb on Washington DC first. So, the films are definitely from many realities and timelines.

Heisenberg Device

Throughout the first season, Colonel Rudolf Wegner is trying to give the Japanese Science Minister the plans to the Heisenberg device which is understood to be an atomic bomb, but that may not be the case. Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist credited with the founding of quantum mechanics, which deals with the physics of sub-atomic particles. A theory relevant to the show that originated from quantum physics is the many-worlds interpretation. Similar to Heisenberg’s Copenhagen interpretation, MWI is a theory that parallel universes might exist alongside our own, these universes might have different histories, laws of physics, people and so on.

It is well-known that Hitler was fascinated by science, so it might be a possibility that Heisenberg created a device that made travel between worlds possible and the device was used by Hitler to learn from his mistakes in the other worlds in order to win the war in this one. But we are yet to see Heisenberg in the show, but he might play a crucial role in the third season.

Juliana’s Necklace

There is surely more than what meets the eye about the necklace. When Tagomi travels to the alternate world for the first time he has the necklace in his hand. There are many significant scenes in the show, depicting Tagomi with the necklace in slow motion .The necklace might be a bond between alternate worlds or may even represent some sort of shared destiny between Tagomi and Juliana.

Travelling Between Worlds

There is nothing known about the ways that you may use to travel to an alternate world, except through meditation which is used by Tagomi to travel to an alternate world. Meditation may be a way used by other travellers as well, which is hinted in the finale of the first season, when Kotomichi who is from an alternate world tells Tagomi that he is a good man perhaps too good for THIS world and not to give up on meditation. This means that Kotomichi may have travelled to this world through meditation and is aware of its power. Heisenberg device may also be a device being used to travel between worlds, but it has not been confirmed yet. There may also be other ways to travel between worlds but are not known to us at this time.

Heusmann’s Conspiracy

Heusmann makes Hitler look like a good man. He plots the assassination of Hitler and then pins the assassination on Japanese spies, giving him reason to declare war on Japan. He becomes the Acting Chancellor and almost succeeds in starting war with Japan and dropping a nuclear bomb on it to gain control of the Pacific States. But the conspiracy is uncovered by John Smith which leads to Heusmann’s arrest. Heusmann initially seems to be a nice man as he tries to reconcile with his son, Joe. But soon he turns into an evil greater than Hitler as he influences his son to stay in Berlin through Nicole and tries to become the Fuhrer and take control of the pacific states.

The Man in the High Castle

After the first season, speculations were running wild that Hitler might be the man in the high castle, as he was in possession of many reels and lived in a castle in the mountains. But the speculations were put to rest in the second season which introduced the man in the high castle in person. The show remained close to the book, by introducing Hawthorne Abendsen as ‘The Man in the High Castle’. He can travel between worlds and can also bring objects with him to this world, like the film reels that he brings back from various alternate worlds. He watches the films and tries to use his knowledge to shape events in a slightly less catastrophic direction. He is trying hard to stop the nuclear devastation of the world.

Juliana, The Constant

Abendsen tells Juliana that she is in all the films that he has watched somewhere in a frame and that she is always the same. Her behaviour and motivations are always the same and she is always fighting for a cause and will help anyone who is need of it. The people around her are also the same people, but their behaviour and characters are different. They may be good in one and bad in another world but she is always good. He thinks that she is the key to all this as she is always there and is the same as any other world. He also tells her that her sister Trudy is alive and the murder was staged to get Juliana involved with the resistance.

This proves that Juliana is the only character that matters and she is the only one who can solve this mess. She even tries to save the son of John Smith, Thomas, who will grow up to be a Nazi and in doing so commits murder of George Dixon, who is threatening to release the tape of her conversation with Thomas, in which he mentions about his illness.

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There’s a lot to be excited for in the next season of The Man in the High Castle. The show, based on the Philip K. Dick novel, might be a bit more daunting this time around, given the 2016 election results and the ensuing emboldenment of white supremacists, but that makes it even more of a powerful cautionary tale than before.

The Man in the High Castle is all about what happens when groups of people rebel against a dictator and his regime in hopes of a better world — in this case, a better world revealed through hints of an alternate universe through film reels. The first season established and grew the main characters into heroes of the rebellion, while others faced the consequences of complacency for the sake of personal and professional safety. This season, our heroes are faced with even more obstacles than before in pursuit of the truth, and the villains continue to face their own inner demons. Here are just a few things to remember from Season 1, before heading into what will surely be a fascinating, if terrifyingly close to home, Season 2.

1. Juliana’s sister, Trudy, set the whole thing in motion with her death.

At the beginning of the series, Juliana and Frank were living in San Francisco under Japanese rule. They were subjugated, but trying to make the best of a bad situation. Then, everything changed after Juliana’s sister Trudy handed her a film and told her to get it to the Man in the High Castle. Trudy was later killed by the Japanese for her part in the Resistance, something Juliana confirmed several episodes later.

2. The films aren’t limited to our reality.

The first film Juliana saw was historical reality for the audience, in which the Allied forces won WWII. Frank dismissed the video as some sort of propaganda device to combat the Nazi and Japanese invasion, but Juliana believed it was real. Turns out, it was…in a sense. There are tons of other videos, but they aren’t just of our reality. They’re of many, possibly all, realities. Later on, Juliana and Frank came across another reel that showed Frank being murdered by Joe Blake, as a Nazi. Was it the future in their reality, or an alternate world in which Joe has never questioned his place in the Third Reich? So many questions to answer next season.

3. Juliana killed a man.

Juliana is not the smartest rebel — probably because she’s never been one before. After arriving in the Neutral Zone, she immediately fell for the ruse of the Origami Man, a secret Nazi operative who pretended to be her inside contact. When Juliana met him on the bridge, he took the film and tried to murder her, only she pushed him off the bridge, killing him. While it was in self defense, this affected Juliana throughout the rest of the season. She was more careful not to trust people, while also recognizing that she was responsible for ending another person’s life.

4. Frank’s got a lot of reasons to hate the Japanese.

After Juliana left to try and follow her sister Trudy’s path to the Neutral Zone, Frank was left to take the blow. He was apprehended by the Japanese and tortured for information on her whereabouts. They went as far as killing his sister and her children, even though in the end it didn’t matter because they let him go. Frank carried a lot of resentment toward the Japanese government after this, which motivated his actions throughout the rest of the season.

5. Frank is hiding his Jewish ancestry.

Everyone has secrets in this show, and one of Frank’s is that he is Jewish. We saw Frank secretly meet with a man and his family after the stranger murmured the phrase “to life,” which is the English translation of the Jewish celebration toast “l’chaim.” In one of the most touching moments of the season, Frank broke down while participating in a prayer for his murdered sister and her children. It was a rare moment of vulnerability for a character who spent most of the season shutting people out.

6. The Nazis tried to kill the Crown Prince of Japan.

Throughout the first season, Frank was trying to find a way to murder the Crown Prince of Japan. He manufactured a real gun at his replica weaponry factory, then went to an antiques dealer to procure bullets, which are forbidden for non-Japanese people to own. However, when faced with the opportunity to kill the prince, he didn’t go through with it. But the prince was still shot. Turns out, Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich orchestrated the assassination attempt, because that would be considered an act of war. In the end, a Japanese officer secretly killed the Nazi assassin instead of bringing him into custody, so they could avoid going to war with Germany.

7. War is on the horizon.

In case the assassination attempt wasn’t enough of a sign, Nazi Germany wants to go to war with Japan. Over the course of the season, Nazi officials expressed displeasure that they had to share the American territory with the Japanese, and they didn’t have any interest in sharing world dominance anymore. This is something we’re really going to see continue into next season, as threats of a third world war loom. Speaking of which…

8. The Nazis have a nuclear bomb.

Japanese official Tagomi and Nazi insider Rudolph Wegener tried to get covert data into the hands of Japanese leaders during the Crown Prince’s speech in San Francisco. It looked like the insider was trying to share plans for a bomb capable of massive destruction, most likely a nuclear bomb, which explains why next season will have a cold war brewing between the two countries. Juliana also saw some footage of the nuclear bomb on one of the reels, so it isn’t a technology that’s been removed or made obsolete in this alternate reality.

9. Hitler is dying.

The biggest threat to the Nazi balance of power is Adolf Hitler’s health. The German leader was rumored to be dying, and spent most of his time in his castle watching reels that his forces had accumulated (hence early suspicion that he was the titular Man in the High Castle, which he is not). There was even an attempt to speed up the process, as Heydrich sent the apprehended Wegener to Germany with the sole mission to assassinate the leader of Nazi Germany. He ended up shooting himself instead.

10. There’s Nazi infighting for power.

The assassination attempt on Hitler’s life was one of the many moments of infighting that went on during this season. A lot of it could be traced back to Heydrich, who was trying to take over as the next leader of Nazi Germany. Heydrich organized an assassination attempt on John Smith, under the guise that it was members of the Rebellion. Once John Smith discovered this, he killed the Nazi who led the attack and made it look like a suicide. Then, at the end of the season, Heydrich tried to get John Smith to join his side, only to find out his attempt to kill Hitler failed, and he was arrested as a traitor. Still, that’s surely not going to be the only case of infighting on the series, as power continues to change hands.

The Man In The High Castle Season 1 Free

11. The Japanese are surveilling everybody.

Both Germany and Japan are going to extreme lengths to keep control on the American population, and it looks like one of Japan’s biggest weapons is its surveillance system. While working covertly inside the Japanese government, Julianna came across a massive surveillance room where people keep records of just about everything locals say, write and share. It turns out the surveillance program was being led by Julianna’s stepfather, who did it so he could protect the family.

12. Ed is a major sucker.

The moment Ed came on screen, it was obvious he was going to either be killed or captured. His loyalty to Frank was rarely called into question, even when it made absolutely no sense for Ed to be helping him. The only time he doubted Frank was when he held him at gunpoint to prevent him from killing the Crown Prince, but he screwed it up by firing the gun. Sure, they were friends, but he seemed more like a dumbass than a willing participant in Frank’s shenanigans. The final straw was when Ed tried to melt Frank’s real gun after saying he was done helping him and Juliana. That’s what led to his arrest at the hands of the Japanese, and really, everyone saw it coming.

13. The Resistance is kind of mean.

The Resistance had its reasons to be skeptical of outsiders, but for everything Julianna sacrificed, they took advantage of her quite a bit. When she agreed to hand over the film to the Man in the High Castle directly, the rebels tricked her and stole the film so she couldn’t meet The Man himself. They also coaxed her into applying for a job with the Japanese government that would involve her being sexually abused, without letting her know that was something she would likely have to do. True, rebellions have to cover their tracks, but Julianna sacrificed her entire life and future for them, and they didn’t exactly give her a warm welcome. Then again…

14. Juliana betrayed the Resistance for Joe.

When push came to shove, Juliana chose Joe over the Resistance. Rebel leaders tasked her with killing Joe to retrieve the film, because they knew he was a Nazi agent. But after saving Joe from being murdered by Heydrich’s forces, she sacrificed her chances at freedom and put Joe on the boat meant for her and Frank. It’s not clear whether he has the film on him, but it’s more than likely that he does, meaning she just let a Nazi get away with one of the reels.

15. No one knows Joe’s real motivation.

It’s not clear even Joe knows what the hell he’s doing. Throughout the season, Joe teetered back and forth between Nazi loyalty and rebel inquisitiveness. He kept John Smith informed of his whereabouts, even telling him that he could have the chance to meet the Man in the High Castle himself. But then later on, he snuck into John Smith’s office to try and find a classified report about the reels. A lot of his actions were dictated by his feelings for Juliana, but it’s later revealed that he might have a wife and child, so even that’s muddled by his constant lies.

16. Joe’s father is a big deal.

All throughout the first season of The Man in the High Castle, Joe’s father was a constant presence in his life, even if he was never on screen. According to those around him, Joe’s father was a “high-ranking officer,” and that awarded Joe a lot of advantages in life. Of course, that meant speculation that Joe was the bastard son of Hitler, but (again) that’s not true. As we’ll find out next season, Joe’s father is a man named Martin Hausmann, played by Sebastian Roché.

17. John Smith’s son has a disease.

John Smith was one of the most fascinating characters of the first season. He was a ruthless Nazi officer, but he was also a doting husband and father who had barbecues with the neighbors. One of his most telling moments was when he was informed that his son, Thomas Smith, has a degenerative disease that would render him paralyzed in a few months. In this alternate reality, anyone with a mental or physical disability was immediately killed, but John Smith ordered the doctor to keep it a secret. This goes against everything John Smith values, and it could lead to ramifications next season, especially since it looks like audiences will be seeing more of Thomas’s school and home life next season.

18. That final Tagomi scene.

There is so much to unpack in that moment. At the end of the first season, Tagomi meditated until he found himself in an alternate 1960s, a world in which the United States won WWII. While some believed he was merely having a dream, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, the actor who plays Tagomi, said he did travel to our reality, and that’s going to profoundly affect his character development next season. What does someone do with that kind of information, knowing a separate world exists that changes the entire world he knows? It’s a lot to unpack, and it will surely take several episodes to do.

19. Tagomi still has Juliana’s locket.

The locket is more than just something Tagomi found on the ground after Frank dropped it at the Crown Prince’s gathering. Tagomi held onto it for the rest of the season, and it’s connected to a lot of the decisions he makes. He ran into Juliana after she fled with her job application, necklace in hand. Afterward, Tagomi hired her. Also, Tagomi was holding the necklace when he traveled to the alternate reality. Juliana herself was wearing the necklace when she saw the first reel. The two of them are now connected, and that’s partially through the necklace.

20. The Marshal is the worst character ever.

Can everyone just agree that The Marshal pretty much ruined several episodes of the season? The so-called bounty hunter completely killed the pace of the show, and by the end there was no dramatic climax to justify it. He was there, and then he wasn’t, and the show was much better off after he was gone.

The Man in the High Castle returns for Season 2 on December 16, with 10 new episodes.