Fans of Man in the High Castle got to see the season 3 premiere at the NYCC panel as well as get more questions answered in a Q&A, and we’ve got all the details in our panel recap.
Introduces the cast, David Zucker (Executive Producer), Isa Dick Hackett (Executive Producer), Alexa Davalos (Juliana Crain), Rufus Sewell (John Smith), Chelah Horsdal (Helen Smith), and Joel de la Fuente (Inspector Kido).
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A recap of season 2 is played, showing how the alternate universe with the allies winning is discovered.
Nazis are searching the forest and finding a running truck. As they close in they are all shot by a rebel group. They move further into the forest and then the intro rolls.
Berlin, Fall 1962 flashes across screen and water is unleashed on a prisoner. They brace and it is revealed to be Joe, who is being tortured in a number of ways. Things segue over to the Pacific States as a group of generals watches the deployment of their Hydrogen bomb. He says the world is once more in balance, but Tagomi doesn’t seem convinced, saying it is foolish to think they are now equal with the Nazis, as it will bankrupt them. It seems they have no choice though.
Tagomi is then is asked about what happens if the Nazis find out they have been deceived. Things move to the Neutral Zone in Denver Colorado and Juliana, who has received a note from Judy. She is told to find Wyatt Price and how to get in contact with him. They meet so she can get a mailing address for someone in Santa Fe (Judy Pritchard).
He tells her to come back tomorrow and she departs.
The scene moves to the house, showing Juliana with her sister Trudy, and Trudy seems incredibly anxious.
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Welcome Home
Now to American Reich and John Smith, who has been promoted to a top spot in the Reich and is the first American to do so.
Juliana is shown talking to Trudy and telling her about times they shared in this universe.
Juliana is talking to Caroline and is struggling with her sister’s state. Caroline tells her it’s understandable, as they each died in the other one’s world. It’s a lot to process.
Over to Jon Smith’s house as he has dinner with his kids. His wife Helen comes home and they seem very off. She asks how his trip was and he says it is good to be back. She tells him she took the train to their old house and she says there is a family living there now. She waved to them. He asks how she got back, and she tells him the people that live there now gave her a ride.
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Confessions
Things move over to the prisoner as a doctor tells him “progress” after he stands at attention when he enters. He is dragged in chains to another cell, where he is greeted by his father who says “Joseph, how good it is to see you again. How have they treating you” he asks. He makes Joseph promise he will listen and says they have a bond of blood before the soldiers move Joe out of the cell and shut the door.
Things shift to Joe Blake and his confession, as he says he transgressed against the Fuerher. He is blindfolded and handcuffed and taken to another facility. Once there they take off his blindfold and he sees his father blindfolded in front of him. A man loads a pistol and gives it to Blake, telling him “you know what you must do”.
They remove the blindfold from his father and he sees his son holding the pistol and says “Do what you must do my son. Save your skin, my son. A heart of steel.” He repeats a heart of steel over and over until Blake shoots him in the head.
The general then taps his face and puts a small medal on his lapel.
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A Close Call
Things switch over to footage from the other world, with Hitler on the Run and England taking down Nazi flags.
Hawthorne discusses the footage with Juliana, as it shows how America drops bombs over Nazi camps and over Japan, showing that freedom was won after all. She asks him to rewind the film that shows them celebrating in the streets, hovering over a little girl standing there on the side. She points out it is her when she was young. Caroline tells Hawthorne it proves it, and when Juliana asks what that means Hawthorne says it is time for someone else to take over the resistance. They are closing in and he is tired. Juliana fights back and doesn’t believe he didn’t plant that there, but he is adamant. It is also revealed he didn’t burn all the films.
Back at the house, she is awakened by something downstairs. She heads down with a gun in her hand and hears noises and grunts from the other room. She opens the door and discovers Hawthorne and his wife tied up and gagged with two soldiers hovering over them, so she shoots and kills them. Someone else creeps out of the shadows and they are shot by Trudy. They discover a symbol on the assassin’s lapel but don’t recognize it.
Things flash to the next day with all four in a car. Hawthorne pulls over in the car and they split up, as it is safer that way. He will get in touch when it is safe and tells her he sent the films he didn’t burn to Tagomi and tells her if she wants to know how it ends she needs to get Tagomi to show them to her.
Things flash over to Tagomi, who takes out the box of films from Hawthorne.
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A New Day
Over at the Pacific States headquarters bodies are loaded onto a truck as Inspector Kido is let out. He walks by several people getting killed by a firing squad. Things then segue over to him interviewing Nakamura. He tells Nakamura about a tip he has received about one of the last rebel leaders that is around, but he also tells him he can’t interview a corpse.
Over to Blake who now wears the Nazi insignia on his arm and is staring out the window. Jon Smith walks in and tells him they are sending him to their station in San Francisco. They’ll get him a passport and the necessary credentials in the next few days. Smith gives him some walking around money too and tells him he is sorry about his father, and Blake says he is sorry too.
Smith tells Raeder he wants this taken care of personally and discreetly.
Things move over to Nicole Dormer, who is in Billy Turner’s office and confronts him about his attitude. He says there are some wires crossed on this renaming ceremony. She tells him the new campaign sounds quite familiar and not new at all. He likes her idea but then says they have their top people working on it and don’t need her. She hands him papers that her Uncle wants a fresh face in charge of the campaign and then says see you at the premier as she walks out.
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A Letter Of Destiny
The sisters share a cigarette and Juliana tells Trudy about the differences between their worlds. In this world, her father dedicated his life to the resistance and she had to kill him. Her sister adds to stop something awful from happening to that description of events. She says she has nothing to feel bad about, and that the Nazi’s killed her father, not Juliana. She would also kill for a little music, so they go to a bar.
They put away some beer and shots as others dance when Wyatt walks up to the bar with the mailing address Juliana requested. When she asks what she owes he offers to settle it with a drink. He offers to drive them to Santa Fe (where the mailing address turned out to be from) since it would be faster than sending a letter, but they decide not to and just put it in the mail. Since they won’t go with him he asks instead for a dance.
Juliana and Wyatt start to dance and he asks for her name. She says no you don’t. He brings her a drink as gunshots ring out and someone runs off. They continue to drink and talk. She asks what his hustle is and he says a little bit of everything. No offense, but I don’t know you well enough. She says fair enough. He asks what her hustle is and she says the same thing. They kiss and start to make out and then separate when he asks if he will see her tomorrow. She says he might and gives him her name. When Juliana comes home her sister is in the bathtub and has some sort of seizure, and Juliana sees images and remembers her conversation in the other world.
They need to move, so the next morning they board a bus but she leaves a letter for Wyatt before they leave.
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Unfortunate Memories
Things move over to Blake. He gets a knock on the door and finishes his drink. When he opens it Dormer walks in and he looks around before shutting the door. She tells him she’s sorry. He offers a light for her cigarette and then she asks him if he’s coming to the ceremony. He says he wasn’t invited. She fills him in on what she’s doing now, and he offers her a drink. She wants to film him, make a film about him, since he’s one of us. He grabs her hand and after looking at him for a bit she asks “what did they do to you?” She tells him it’s okay and that he’s here now with her, and they hold each other. She takes off her shirt and starts to kiss him, telling him it’s okay, and they spend the night together.
Back over at Smith’s house, John tells them they are celebrating their brother, Tom, and the choice he made, with Helen adding “no matter how they feel.” When he’s asked how we feel by his daughters, he says “oh honey, I wake up in the morning and I remember he’s not here, and then I have to remind myself that because of what he did, the message that he sent, he’s not really ours anymore.”
The wife is clearly bothered by what happened and looks upon her jewelry. He sits down next to her but she gets up and leaves.
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A Disturbing Ceremony
The motorcade arrives at the ceremony, and General Rockwell is saluted. He walks in and gets John, saying today is a day for remembrance and celebration. They take photos together. Edgar Hoover tells Helen her son is a hero, Thomas, and will be remembered for the next 100 years. She is fading in and out though when people are asking her questions, and they move her out of the public light.
Edgar and the Rockwell are talking, where Edgar reveals he has dirt on all of the Smiths that he is saving for a rainy day.
Edgar tells the reporter that he might have a juicy tidbit for her column.
George Lincoln Rockwell comes to the stage to speak, Dormer has the camera switch to the family, specifically the mom, and as the flag is raised over the portrait of her son the daughters get up to salute, followed by all the kids in the room who salute Thomas. The camera catches it all, and then the adults follow suit. The Helen and John get up last and hold each other’s hand.
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Endings
Things switch to Tagomi who is watching some of the films Hawthorne game him. He sees Juliana in one of the trucks being taken somewhere. All of them are moved out of the truck and into the camp as the camera follows. They are led underground and approached by the Nazi doctor.
Someone knocks at Tagomi’s door and it is Juliana and Trudy, who bow when they greet him.
Raeder goes to Blake’s door and he isn’t there, but someone says he went down the back stairs. Raeder finds him behind the building in the alley and tells Blake he has his new passport ready. As he looks over the documents Raeder asks if he has everything he needs. Blake says yeah and that this time last year this wasn’t his world. Blake keeps talking but then says it was all so simple, those bricks, this shovel, and then slams Raeder in the head. He takes another swing and then leaves as two men come in with their own shovels and start to bury him.
The episode ends.
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What Does Season 3 Hold?
David Zucker (Executive Producer), Isa Dick Hackett (Executive Producer), Alexa Davalos (Juliana Crain), Rufus Sewell (John Smith), Chelah Horsdal (Helen Smith), and Joel de la Fuente (Inspector Kido) come to the stage.
How will fans react to the season and what is the hook of this episode.
Alexa: “It sets up so many aspects of what’s to come, these films, and how they affect us independently. It’s a real wild ride. and Juliana starts to have all these connections to these films and it really propels us into a really different realm I think.”
Helen: “I love where we’re starting, so desperately far apart, and hopefully you’ll get to see us journey together as soon as possible.”
Rufus: “The beast that we kind of hailed ourselves too is starting to ask for repayment. As our family ascends in their career the opposite is happening to our family.”
Joel: “It’s great to see the neutral zone this way. The design and depth of it. We are going to spend a lot more time in Denver this year and I think that’s exciting. And also the disarray the Pacific finds itself in.”
Isa: ‘We’ll also see much more of the resistance. We haven’t gotten away from the spirit of it of course. We actually this season took three chapters that he was writing for a sequel to the novel and we took two chapters of that, so you’ll see elements of those.”
David: “That’s what this season embraces, especially with the rise of the resistance.”
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The Future Is Bright
It is revealed that season 4 is already shooting now.
A message plays from three parts of the cast. Wyatt (Jason Mara), Francis Turner (Belle) and Clay Bennet (Elijah), who are critical parts of a rebel army who is rising up against the Japanese empire. They are under attack from several areas, including the Chinese, who are now back in the rebellion army. Resistance becomes Rebellion.
What did you think of the panel? Let us know in the comments!
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