And so we close the final chapter on a great web series that will be greatly missed. I enjoyed all 4 seasons of this phenomenal alternate history sci fi web series. It will be a while before we get another show of it’s like. With that being said, here’s my review for The Man in the high castle season 4.
Synopsis: The Man in the high castle takes place in an alternate 1960s, a parallel world where the axis powers won WWII and conquered the world. The story is portrayed from an unbiased perspective as we see how individuals from both the defeated former USA and triumphant axis powers go on with their daily business. There is a sci fi twist to the story in the sense that it takes place in a multiverse. Some characters have the ability to traverse the multiverse via meditation, while the rest need to use an inter dimensional portal to visit alternate realities. No two versions of the same person can exist in one universe and so the characters can only venture to universes where their counterpart is dead or doesn’t exist. This sci fi twist plays a major role in series.
Warning major spoilers ahead
This season was filled with action, feels, tension, new factions, new characters, inter dimensional exploits, revelations and a confusing ending that’s open to interpretation. All of this made this season the most intense out of the 4 seasons.
This season featured strong character development: Wyatt price and Juliana Crain forming a romantic relationship, John Smith the leader of the American Reich experiencing the heavy blow of guilt, Robert Childran an American salesman who develops feelings for someone. But the biggest character development was specifically for one of my favorite characters named Takeshi Kido. He went from being a very cold and brutal jackbooted watchdog to having a change of heart and a desire for redemption as his own son struggles with a guilty conscience of his own.
This season also featured the deaths of three fan favorite characters John Smith, Helen Smith and Nobuske Tagomi. It was inevitable for some of the central characters to get killed off in this series finale. But on the bright side, since this show takes place in a multiverse, technically nobody really dies since many alternate versions of each character are alive in other universes. With that being said, the deaths of these three characters did feel a bit rushed.
Perhaps one of the strongest points of this season was the introduction of endless possibilities due to it’s multiverse story continuing to unfold. We see inter-dimensional Nazi spies(yes you read that right) venturing to other universes to steal weapons and technology from the superpowers of those other universes and to also sabotage their defenses to pave way for a Nazi conquest of the multiverse. Which is the main conflict of this season.
A new faction was introduced, it is a fictionalized version of the black Panthers called the “Black communist Resistance” or BCR. This faction is only active in the West coast where the Empire of Japan doesn’t have eugenic race laws. Initially I was concerned that there was going to be a romanticization and sugar coating of communism, another ideology that brought suffering to millions around the world. But fortunately this faction turned out to be more of a militant civil rights movement rather than a bunch of Marxist-Leninist zealots. The “BCR” also turned out to be merciful, just, respectful towards culture and even religious. There are even subtle implications that they aren’t even communists.
This season had some very strong moments along the way that make us the viewers empathize with the characters involved. We have a scene where members of the BCR list loved ones they lost to the Nazi regime, a scene where Takeshi Kido experiences guilt over his past deeds, John Smith meeting alternate versions of his dead son and friend and many powerful scenes. These moments were definitely the highlights of this season.
This season also continues to be unbiased with it’s story telling as in it doesn’t shy away from showing the darker side of American culture. We see that even under occupation many Americans still hold onto racist mindsets against Asians and Blacks. Even the American resistance has it’s issues, making it hard to empathize with them. The only 3 American resistance characters that I could empathize with are Juliana Crain, Wyatt Price and Lemuel Washington. In the final episodes of this season we are introduced to several “vigilantes” who give off “antifa” vibes and go around targeting innocent Japanese civilians, further showing the prejudiced nature of some Americans. It was rather satisfying to watch Takeshi Kido beat up one of these “vigilantes”.
Throughout the series we’ve seen conflicts among high ranking officials within the axis powers but in this season the division ends up having drastic effects for the former US. The Japanese empire withdraws from it’s West coast colonies of the US, allowing the BCR to form a sovereign country composed of the states on the west coast. while the rest of the US negotiates to break away from the Greater Germanic Reich to form the “American Reich”. This was an unexpected twist that I really liked, it’s far more realistic than the cliché overthrowing of a regime and restoring former glory. It’s at this moment that we the viewers realize that the US in this fictional world will never be the same again. So in a sense, while the empire of Japan and Nazi Germany are still super powers by the end of the season, two new nations rise out of the former US.
I was also very impressed with the fact that this show continued to be politically neutral. No radical progressive political correctness was included in this season either. It doesn’t matter what your political views are, this show will most likely have some component that caters towards you. Whether it be a specific character, a scene, a line, a group etc. I’m certain that most viewers regardless of political ideology can agree with the anti totalitarian message of this show.
Even though I was impressed with this season does not mean that there weren’t a few things I would have done differently had I had a say in the season’s story.
1.) I was actually surprised they killed the alternate world John Smith early on, I expected him to have a bigger role in the season but oh well, I still had hopes that we would be introduced to another alternate world John Smith towards the end. But unfortunately that never happened.
2.) Reichsmarschall John Smith seemed to have have a guilty conscience for what he has become, it seemed that we were going to see John Smith become a tragic hero and probably make an ultimate sacrifice of some sort in the season’s climax but instead he only became more cold and pretty much became an American Nazi dictator for which his demise would symbolically resemble Hitler’s official demise in 1945.
3.) The biggest issue was the obvious rushing that was put in the development of this season. It was kind of obvious that they crammed as much as they could in only 10 episodes. Which is why a season 5 should have been planned, in order to allow some of the aspects of season 4 to go into season 5.
Now let’s talk about the ending which has many viewers including myself scratching our heads. The last few minutes of the Show, we see Juliana Crain, Wyatt Price and the resistance laying a well planned trap after being tipped off by a guilt ridden Helen Smith that eventually leads to the death of the now Reichsführer of America John Smith. We then see Juliana, Wyatt Price and the resistance storm the secret facility housing the inter dimensional portal, all while the American Luftwaffe(airforce) and fallschirmjäger(Paratroopers) under orders of the now deceased John Smith invade the West Coast to crush the Black communist resistance(BCR) and unite the US under the “swastika spangled banner” of the American Reich. But John Smith’s death is brought to the attention of Bill Whitcroft who assumes power, removes his Nazi insignia and calls off the invasion of the West Coast. Saving the BCR from imminent destruction. Juliana and the resistance along with Abendsen(title character) now in control of the facility stare into the portal as a wave of confused common civilians make their way out of the portal. All while Juliana, Wyatt and the resistance rejoice in hope as the credits start rolling.
There are so many questions left unanswered and so much speculation of what actually ended up happening after the credits started rolling.
Note: The following paragraph is purely my interpretation/speculation of what ended up happening offscreen after the credits starting rolling.
The way I see it, the former US stayed divided. It was made perfectly clear that the BCR wanted a country for themselves which would serve as a safe haven for African Americans. They ended up getting their wish after the Empire of Japan literally gave them control over the entire West Coast of the former US. The American Reich acquired a change in leadership after the more benevolent Bill Whitcroft succeeded John Smith and seemingly respected the BCR’s sovereignty when he called off the invasion. While the new American Reich won’t lose it’s nazi ties very easily, it’s very likely that Whitcroft ended up turning the American Reich into a less totalitarian country similar to how Krushev turned the Soviet Union less totalitarian. While there would probably be some “Heil Whitcroft” going on, it’s most likely no longer a Nazi country considering that Whitcroft subtly foreshadowed in earlier episodes that he would regain America’s sovereignty and identity when he sees an opportunity. As for all the people who came through the inter dimensional portal, we the viewers weren’t given any explanation. There are several explanations ranging from resurrected victims of the two regimes to a mass exodus from other dystopian or destroyed worlds and so on. But most probable they are alternate versions of all the people killed by the Nazis and the empire of Japan. As those replacement refugees assimilate into the axis dominated world, the two axis superpowers would most likely experience bewilderment, disillusionment and more division causing both axis superpowers to slowly collapse on their own similar to how the Soviet Union collapsed on it’s own in 1991. Long story short, the ultimate outcome would be a reformed Japan, reformed Germany and a reunited America as the world’s 3 superpowers while the rest of the world would regain their sovereignty in the process. The events leading to such an outcome would have made an excellent season 5 in my opinion.
Conclusion: I am pleased with this season, I am happy with the many twists and turns that this season brought. I am also glad that at least one of my favorite characters(Takeshi Kido) survived. But I did feel the season was rushed. It was evident that they tried to rush and cram a lot into this season, which is why perhaps one more season afterwards would have been ideal. Furthermore, while I do feel the ending was a somewhat satisfying conclusion to the series, I was still kind of disappointed that the ending wasn’t as epic as it was teased to be. It’s not a bad ending per se but in my opinion this ending didn’t feel like a series finale ending but rather just a wrap up of a season meant to be picked up in a future season. As I mentioned above I would have liked a season 5 where we got to see a Cold War style conflict between Imperial Japan, the greater Nazi Reich, the American Reich and the BCR. Ultimately ending with a politically reformed Japan, politically reformed Germany and a reunited America as the world’s three superpowers while the rest of the world regained their sovereignty in the process. In regards to season 4, I rate it 8.7/10. Rufus Sewell and Joel De la Fuente both stole the show with their exceptional performances. I’m very glad that this series was overall successful albeit greatly underrated.
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