The Man in the High Castle: Best Episodes, Ranked

The alternate history show explores what happens if a huge point in history is different. Here are the dystopian show's best episodes.

First airing in 2015, The Man in the High Castle is based on a 1962 novel with the same title written by Philip K. Dick. The show explores a dystopian alternate world where Nazi Germany and Japan won World War II. Thanks to their victory, Germany and Japan divided the United States and Canada into three parts: the Nazi state named Nazi America with New York City as its capital, the Japanese state named the Japanese Pacific States with San Francisco as its capital, and a neutral zone between them that encompasses the Rocky Mountains.

The story follows Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) and Rufus Sewell (John Smith), with a handful of others who get entangled in political struggles between Germany and Japan. Along the way, they discover several newsreels and films showing the opposite of their reality — that Germany and Japan lost the war. This discovery changes everything, as it affects the great powers that rule their world altogether.

The intense and gloomy dystopian world is explored through the show’s four seasons, with a total of 40 episodes, all available to watch on Prime Video. Despite ending in an ambiguous fashion, the show ends its story with its fourth season, so there will be no Season 5 of The Man in the High Castle.

Being the ruthless man that he is, John Smith is faced with the consequences of his choices. He goes to the parallel world and discovers that he has a happier life; his wife Helen still loves him, and his eldest son Thomas is still alive. Despite that, their relationship is not the most amicable.

The BCR (Black Communist Rebellion) is meeting with Admiral Inokuchi, where the BCR, led by Equiano Hampton, expresses that they want a free state. Before going any further, they are ambushed by the Kempeitai, the secret police branch of the Japanese army.

Juliana and Wyatt continue their mission and get closer to the entry point of a top-secret Nazi project base. Their presence is known after they kill the guards, alerting Smith. They then manage to continue and reach Chicago, where they show the film to several Resistance officers and inform them of the Nebenwelt device that the Nazis have.

In a desperate attempt to fix the relationship between Nazi America and the Japanese Pacific State, Tagomi reaches out to Smith, and they decide to meet in the neutral zone. Tagomi asks Smith for his help to keep the existing peace, but Smith seems to have his own way of doing things.

Frank has to put his life on the line to help Joe. With the new films on hand, Frank and Juliana discover that in the near future, a nuclear bomb will go off in San Francisco, and the survivors will all be executed. Frank is surprised when he sees that in the alternate universe, he will be executed by Joe in the SS uniform.

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Smith has figured out that Heydrich is the one to assassinate him. Heydrich then tries to continue his plan to assassinate Hitler. He brings Wegener into the plan by threatening him and his family’s safety.

As the situation gets more complicated, Juliana finds herself in a more dangerous situation, one she barely manages to escape from. Provocations happen between the Nazi America and the Japanese Pacific States, nearing both to really start a war. In her endeavors, Juliana discovers a massive storage filled with Nazi secrets.

Political ties mean disagreements about what happens to Smith and his political adversary. The Nazi America continues to prepare for “Year Zero” amidst the threats of assassinations and kidnappings. Traitors are also found among the Nazis, never backing down from stating that they would take control of all parallel worlds one day.

A lot of new information at hand causes confusion for those involved. The freedom fighters, or called Resistance, are figuring out their next step, as Juliana finds information that could trigger World War III. Things get heated when the group is divided, and Smith joins the party by paying Juliana a visit to her apartment.

Instead of trying to prevent a great catastrophe, Juliana and the Resistance may have started it by staging an uprising. Indeed, many parties are not happy with the decision, yet they stand their ground and continue the uprising. Using this information to his benefit, Smith manages to coax information out of Heydrich that there already is a conspiracy to rush the war with the Japanese among the Nazi ranks.

The characters’ journey in the first season reaches its peak at this season finale. Betrayal, disagreement, and fear lead to harsh decisions being made, especially when it comes to many people’s lives. With both sides ransacked and intertwined, no easy choice can be made on whether to protect the leader of Nazi America or the Japanese Pacific State.

Both sides have their own high stakes, and those with the knowledge of the films are pushed to make decisions. Among them, Juliana confronts Joe as a Nazi agent, and he brings the film to the Nazi embassy. Traps and attempts of assassinations are in place, and it is only a matter of time to see who goes down.

After spending time with his loving family in his parallel world, Tagomi is in a predicament, whether to return to his world or stay in this one. With the curse of knowledge about the recent test detonation of a hydrogen bomb, Tagomi must stop it and therefore stop the war between Japan and the Nazis. Juliana is also in a predicament. Fueled by her strong desire to escape Nazi America, she strikes a deal with the Resistance — even if it costs her safety.

Taking everything up a notch, Heusmann stands in the eyes of the public and states that the Japanese killed Hitler by poisoning him. Heusmann also says there will be retaliation, sending everyone to horror, including Joe. In an attempt to eliminate Onoda, everything goes wrong, and many people have to bear the consequences.

In their attempt to stop the Nazis, Juliana gets captured as she and the others try to enter the Lackawanna mine. Four of those captured are sent by Himmler through the portal opened by the Nebenwelt device, putting them in the anomaly where three die and one vanishes.

The success leads Himmler and Smith to announce year zero, or Jahr Null, by destroying the Statue of Liberty. The people go crazy on both sides and go down to fill the streets. The situation is heating up as Himmler is shot by a sniper after he suggests a purge to handle the madness on the streets.

Meanwhile, as the research on the Nebenwelt continues, new information states that someone can only travel through a parallel world if their other version is dead on the other side. Made aware of this information, Smith rushes to Juliana, only to see her going to another world right in front of him.

The political war goes on. The Nazi America plane flies over the Japanese Pacific States and drops its propaganda flyers. It is one of many of Nazi America’s ways to invade the Japanese Pacific States. Juliana sees something big happening at the Nebenwelt portal, where they research how people can travel between alternate universes, possibly changing history as they know it.

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Smith operates under the pressure that the invasion is being planned. He kills a powerful man in Nazi America, Himmler, eliminating the inner circle that always urges Nazi America to lead the invasion of the Japanese Pacific States. This event lands him a position as the Reichsführer for the North American Reich, and his helper in the act, Goertzmann, becomes the Reichsführer for everywhere else outside North America.

The show’s Season 2 finale shows the intense aftermath of the recent bombing in the Kempeitai headquarters. Both Tagomi and Kido survive, and they have to deal with the destruction and everything that comes with it. Kido goes to New York to show proof that the Japanese have a bomb by playing one of the films from the alternate Earth to Smith.

Along with that, many other issues and anger arose from the devastating bombing. Revenge, killing, and political tension are all captured in the many aftermaths of the bombing. With the traitor arrested, the rest of the story sorts itself out, including having the film saved by Tagomi. The characters deal with the repercussions and keep the tension up as they reach their conclusion. Although still bearing questions, season two’s finale nicely puts a ribbon on top of the very deliberate story.

The Man in the High Castle explores the dark world and dystopian reality where the Nazis and the Japanese won World War II. With constant threats over at each other, no one is safe, especially with the presence of the films from the parallel universe. Throughout its four seasons, the world is nicely explored in a very detailed way, giving a clear glimpse of such an alternate history world.