“Man in the High Castle” Season 2 dropped on Amazon Friday (Dec. 16) and at the mid-point of the season, there’s a lot we are very invested in in this sophomore outing. But there’s one rather conspicuous anomaly and we wish the show would decide what it wants to do with Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank).
Warning: Spoilers if you haven’t watched through Season 2, episode 5, “Duck and Cover.”
So far in Season 2, there are three really interesting storylines playing out completely separate from one another.
In San Francisco, Frank (Rupert Evans) is becoming quite the fighter for the Resistance — and the bravado and daring looks good on him. Season 1 Frank was a little boring, especially early on, but Season 2 Frank, seemingly spurred on by footage of his execution to live life without really caring what happens to himself, has gone all in on fighting the Japanese.
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It has not only made Frank more compelling but has introduced a whole host of supporting characters — well, we knew Washington (Rick Worthy) last year, but he’s a much bigger player now — who are equally as interesting. Plus, the more “Battlestar Galactica” alums the better, we always say.
Also in the city by the bay, Tagomi’s (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) visits to alternate 1962 are getting better and better, culminating in the episode-ending bombshell that in the “real” 1962, Juliana (Alexa Davalos) is his daughter-in-law. That goes a long way in explaining why Tagomi was inexplicably drawn to her in Season 1 — great payoff.
What we’re also very interested to see as the season goes on is what executive producer Dan Percival says in the episode 5 featurette (one accompanies every episode on Amazon).
“Once you start to travel between these dimensions, as Tagomi is doing, you can see how events playing out in one dimension are beginning to have a ripple effect into the dimension you’ve come from. How this drives our drama, our narrative and the evolution of the story is going to be shown across the season,” says Percival.
So, just what does that mean? Does that mean Juliana being Tagomi’s daughter-in-law in the “real” 1962 will someone affect the alternate 1962? Or just that Tagomi having this knowledge will affect his choices when he returns to his world?
Finally, the real Juliana — though “real” being the operative term — has fled the Japan-controlled western U.S. for the Reich, which has let her share screen time with several new characters in a twist we really enjoy.
The little dance she’s doing with John (Rufus Sewell) and Helen Smith (Chelah Horsdal) is intense — Sewell and Davalos in particular have excellent on-screen chemistry. Not romantic, of course, but just an energy together that makes their scenes really sing. We can’t wait to find out just what John and Chief Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente) spoke about off screen in regards to Juliana. Because obviously it is nothing good.
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But there’s also a new character for Juliana in George Dixon (Tate Donovan), who turns out to not only be Trudy’s (Conor Leslie) biological father but also a Resistance fighter. So finding out how he ends up dead in a Nazi uniform should be some good storytelling for the back half of the season.
These three storylines have been intriguing to watch and while we hope maybe they end up diverging by season’s end, even if they don’t we’ll be satisfied because of the unique stories being told.
However, the one that absolutely isn’t working is Joe off in Berlin. For all the talk about Joe’s father in Season 1 and the fact that the wonderful Sebastian Roche was cast to play him, the payoff has been kind of a let down.
Joe is so wishy washy about what he believes or what he wants to be loyal to, and the scenes with his father and the random Berliner Nicole (Bella Heathcote) have fallen really flat, so we find ourselves eagerly waiting for Joe’s scenes to end so we can get back to the good stuff — especially since Stephen Root’s titular man in the high castle has appeared far too infrequently for our liking.
So, let’s hope the last five episodes can find something better for Joe to do and hopefully some (if not all) of the characters are on a collision course before Season 2 comes to a close.
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