What I’m Watching: The Man in the High Castle

The Man in the High Castle: Season 3, Episode 4 “Sabra” (B-)

I had the return of a character thought by most to be dead spoiled by reading the opening lines of an article in the Jewish Journal discussing the increased focus on Judaism in this season. I’ve never been a fan of Frank Frink, and I thought that his being gone was actually a positive for the show. Instead, we find out that he’s the artist behind the rainbow resistance image, living in a community of secret Jews pretending to be Christians that nearly got compromised by the man who forced Mark to bring him back to his home. It’s difficult to watch that when there’s so much anti-Semitism roaring its ugly head in the real world, and here it’s state-sanctioned, which means that if they get caught, they’re all going to be killed and it won’t even be considered a crime. While Frank being alive may have been a surprise to audiences, the Kempeitai seems to be fully aware that he is likely out there. Before he and Robert were robbed of their bus and all their possessions by the biker gang, Ed got to experience true happiness in a surprisingly public way, one that was also indulged by the creator of propaganda herself, Nicole. I know how being a “gender traitor” is handled on “The Handmaid’s Tale,” but I can’t imagine it’s something that the Reich takes kindly to even if it’s not their most despised trait. As he tries to handle Helen, John is getting more and more disturbed by the films and the dreams about Thomas, and I wonder where it’s all going to lead. Joe may be wooing Juliana, but he’s sure killing a lot of people, the latest of which may be Tagomi.