In episode 7, Excess Animus, characters’ arcs continue to come full circle, just as Juliana and Joe’s did in episode 5. Kido delivers his brand of justice to the traitor Nakamura with extra zealousness, since he’d given the “hapa dog” a chance, despite his better judgement. But Kido also discovers that Tagomi hasn’t found him worthy of sharing important secrets, because of his ruthlessness and inability to see nuance.
Sabra faces more challenges to its seclusion, from bounty hunters looking for their friend who Layla killed and from Juliana, who hopes to recruit a few members to join her cause. Mark goes to Denver to take care of the bounty hunters, since he feels responsible for bringing that trouble to Sabra’s door.
Juliana has an unexpected reunion with her two oldest and dearest friends, Frank and Ed. It feels like they’ve each had a lifetime’s worth of experiences since the last time they saw each other. But everything has brought them back around to being on the same page again when they meet at Sabra, which is as tragic as it is wonderful. This reunion can’t last, and Juliana and Frank are both wanted fugitives. The odds of the three of them surviving until the end of whatever rebellion is coming are small.
John Smith, the everyman who’s done everything he could to keep his family safe in a world with no safe options, continues to descend into his own private h-ll as he watches the films sent by Mengele. He sees the life he could have had in a better world and he relives the horrible decisions he’s made, which are now taking away the very people he’s sacrificed his decency and morality for.
After months of friendship and business partnership with Ed, Childan returns to San Francisco broke and alone, only to discover that his shop has been taken over by a Japanese squatter. He quickly falls apart without the creature comforts he’s used to, and becomes Kido’s pawn. There probably shouldn’t be any shame in this, because Kido is very good at his job and is diabolical about taking advantage of vulnerable people. But sadly, Ed gave Robert just enough information to be dangerous.
So far, everyone pays the price for their actions but Kido. He might be distant from his family, or lose a friend to a Resistance uprising, but he himself is rarely truly affected. He can kill innocents and provoke rebellions, but he’ll be the last man standing when the smoke clears, like death’s emissary.
Excess Animus begins with the execution of Kido’s former assistant, the traitor Nakamura, who sold the secrets to Joe Blake that almost got Tagomi killed. Nakamura confesses that he didn’t sell state secrets for money. He somehow thought that his actions would earn Kido’s respect, and would make Kido see that Nakamura’s white side is as good as his Japanese side.
We aren’t given an explanation as to how this bizarre idea got into Nakamura’s head. I blame the Yakuza.
Nakamura is tied to a telephone pole, with a line of soldiers holding swords and facing him, the equivalent of a firing squad. Kido starts the festivities himself, borrowing a soldier’s blade to stab Nakamura in the abdomen with ritual gusto. The six soldiers follow the same pattern after Kido finishes.
After Edelweiss, we join Helen at therapy with Dr Ryan just as she’s telling him that she’s always tired. “In Jungian therapy, the goal is to bring the masculine and feminine energies in the unconscious into balance. Increase the anima.” He suggests that she has excess anima, which might be cured by resuming intimacies with her husband. Helen concedes that it would only be fair to John for them to have more sex. Dr Ryan sits next to Helen on the couch, and says that it’s her he’s thinking of. When Helen says that John loves her, Dr Ryan replies that she deserves to be adored. Then he passionately kisses her.
Then her daughters bring her back from her daydream and asked to be excused from the table.
It’s a very bad sign that Helen’s writing romance novels in her head that star someone other than her husband. Who’s a possibility in real life rather than a pure fantasy object. At the breakfast table. Himmler and Hoover won’t be happy about an affair.
Lila is called to Sabra St Theresa’s front gate to meet two men, Holt and Earle, who are looking for a missing friend, Griggs, who they think might have made his way to the community. Lila tells them that he hasn’t been seen, and refuses to let them look around because it’s not a good time for the community. Holt and Earle give her a knowing look, then leave, but the trouble definitely isn’t over.
Hawthorne, Caroline, Lem, Juliana, and Wyatt watch The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, the film that started the series. Wyatt is the only one who hasn’t seen it before, and like most people, he assumes it’s a fake. Juliana tells Hawthorne about her acquired memories of the mine in Lackawanna and what she learned from Joe and his files. Wyatt slowly starts to take the conversation seriously.
Mengele explains to John Smith that soon the Reich will be able to use a machine to explore the Die Nebenwelt/ the multiverse. The technology still doesn’t work, but Mengele has confidence that it will soon. John points out Fatima Hassan was able to travel without a machine. She just closed her eyes and was gone.
Mengele says that, “Fatima Hassan experienced a rush of fear-based adrenaline, followed by a brief burst of deep alpha-wave meditation.” John summarizes: “She willed herself to travel… Couldn’t we train people to do the same?” Mengele tells him that it would take years.
The prototype for the machine is almost complete. They’ve already started testing it with “human volunteers”. Mengele chuckles when he refers to his torture victims. None of the captives have traveled yet. John tells Mengele to inform him when they do.
Juliana shows the group the blueprint for the reality jumping machine and tells them that she can feel that it’s being built. Hawthorne points out that if she’s going to stop the Nazi’s from reaching Die Nebenwelt, she’s going to have to return to the Reich and she’s going to need help. Juliana asks what he knows about Wyatt. Hawthorne tells her that Wyatt “has a reputation of playing both sides against the middle.”
A con man who’s loyal to her could be a good asset for Juliana in this endeavor. He’s been valuable so far, and hasn’t asked for much in return. That’s the issue to me. Is Wyatt helping because he’s missed and believes in the cause, or because he’s hoping to get something out of it?
Kido meets Nakamura’s Yakuza contact, Russell Sato, in his place, surprising Sato, who assumes he’s about to be arrested or worse. Kido informs Sato that Nakamura has met the same fate as the former Yakuza boss Taishi. Sato can stay alive by helping Kido acquire fake ID documents, then accompanying him on a trip to the Neutral Zone.
I could see those two working well together. Sato is savvy and disciplined. So far we haven’t seen him get too wrapped up in his own ego, which is essential for staying one step ahead of Kido.
Before Juliana says goodbye to Hawthorne and Caroline, they suggest that her first recruiting stop should be St Theresa’s/Sabra. Wyatt agrees to drop her off, then go into Denver to buy Juliana new fake papers so she can get into the Reich unnoticed.
Lem is actually almost positive about this plan, which makes me nervous.
Lila complements Mark on Frank’s Bar Mitzvah. Mark still doesn’t feel like a real rabbi, but Lila wants him to do all of their ceremonies. They discuss whether they need to worry about the two bounty hunters who came looking for Griggs. Mark decides to poke around Denver to see what he can find out about them. Lila tells him to be careful, but Mark says not to worry. She has enough to worry about already. Lila says, “You idiot. I won’t have a moment’s peace until you get back.”
Then she kisses him. Finally. And walks away, leaving him looking dumbstruck.
Thelma finds Nicole lost in thought, and asks what’s the matter. Nicole tells her that she lost someone who was important to her, someone she had a unique connection to. He was more than family. Then, to appease Thelma, who’s started to feel like maybe she should leave and let Nicole mourn the man who’s obviously an old boyfriend, Nicole tells Thelma that he was nothing like what Thelma is to her.
She’s mourning Joe Blake. I’m glad to see that Nicole does have some deep feelings about something. She always tries to give the impression that she’s velvet over steel, the perfect Aryan woman who won’t be affected by trivial things like love or depression. Since she’s self-controlled and favored by the Nazi establishment, there’s only so far to go with the character, unless they break her composure somehow.
Childan returns to his shop, only to find that the locks have been changed. He knocks on the door, which is eventually answered by a Japanese woman, who pretends that the shop has always been hers. She tells Robert that the shop is closed and no gaijin people are allowed in anyway. Robert is left standing outside with nowhere to go.
Juliana convinces Lila to watch the film, then decide if she thinks it’s something the rest of Sabra should see. Lila also agrees to let Juliana stay for 1 night.
Lila says that Sabra has had too many visitors lately. She must be worried that too many people know its secret and where it is.
As their conversation ends, Juliana spots Frank walking nearby, with his burned side toward her. She watches him, trying to be sure it’s him. Lila watches her, to see what she’ll do. You can always count on Lila to be protective.
Juliana becomes sure it’s Frank and goes to him. When she gets close, she says his name and they hug, both of them in tears. Frank tells Juliana the story of how he came to be in Sabra. Mark was the one who snuck him out of San Francisco and brought him there to convalesce. Franks says that he feels safe there.
Juliana tells him that she would have felt it if he’d died. Frank thinks that’s true. She touches Frank’s scarred cheek, but he pulls away and says that he’s still getting used to the changes.
He changes the subject to his painting, and how much it’s helped him heal. He paints mostly sunrises. Juliana realizes that Frank is famous and his paintings are everywhere. Frank doesn’t want to be famous, but he does want to make people feel something with his work.
Franks asks why Juliana is there, so she tells him that she’s brought the film to show Sabra, to open their eyes. Frank thinks their eyes are already open. Juliana pulls back and says that she didn’t mean that Sabra is complacent.
She has a mission, and she’s recruiting. She needs people to believe things can change quickly, and to such a large degree, that a mission like hers is worth it.
Before she finishes saying all of that, Ed sees her and they’re joyfully reunited.
Tagomi gives Joe Blake’s files to Dr Hamahashi, a scientist, who is happy to have them. He’ll analyze the files and report back to Tagomi.
Once Lila sees The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, she doesn’t believe it could be real. Even if it could be real, and there are other realities, she doesn’t see what difference it makes to this reality. Juliana tries to convince her that the multiverse is real, and it means that the future isn’t predetermined.
Childan has found a room to stay in, and hired a prostitute, Carla. He’s spent all of the time he paid for dressing her like a Geisha in a kimono and applying her makeup. When he’s done, she assumes he’s ready for sex, but he wants the elaborate Japanese tea ceremony next.
They’ve gone over his prepaid time, so he owes more money. Except the money that he’s already paid for her was all the money he had, so she leaves. She tells him that someone will be by to pick up the tea service later. On her way out, she admires his work in the mirror, saying he always did have a nice touch. That suggests that playing dress up has been a routine activity for them.
I’m just going to go ahead and question his judgement here. This whole situation looks like a bad idea from beginning to end. Plus, it brings up my ongoing question about what the heck his sexuality actually is. Does he want to be the one wearing the fancy clothes and makeup? Is that the fantasy he’s suppressing so hard that he’s become rigid in every aspect of his life? Maybe he can start the Neutral Zone’s first drag club.
Smith unknowingly watches a film that shows Hawthorne and Caroline tending the garden in front of the farmhouse they currently live in. Helen knocks on the door to check on him, and to try to entice him to bed, but he’s not remotely open to her advances. It’s a deeply frustrating moment for both. He remains in his home office, where he appears to spend most nights, and she’s left standing alone in a big, fancy, empty apartment that she never wanted.
Thelma and Nicole fall apart in bed after intimacies, and Thelma says that she thinks she’s falling in love. Nicole kills the mood by saying, “Don’t be silly, darling.” She lectures Thelma not to lose her head. Thelma tells Nicole that she didn’t mean it. Nicole tries to soften the blow by inviting Thelma to the Double D Club for some fun.
Himmler calls Smith late at night to check on the investigation into Joe’s death. Smith realizes that Himmler is leaving him out of the loop on things, like the order to assassinate Tagomi.
Frank, Ed and Juliana spend the night talking and laughing. They share memories and catch up. Frank is finally at peace with himself.
Frank: “I spent a long time regretting the path I took. But it’s led me here. It’s led us all here, for a reason. Everything happens for a reason.”
Ed and Frank tell Juliana about Frank’s Bar Mitzvah.
Frank: “I wish you’d been there… You were right, you know. About everything.”
Smith dozes off during the films, which trigger a memory that turns into a nightmare. John and Thomas are fishing on the dock of a lake. John tells Thomas that he just has to be patient. Then he turns and Thomas has disappeared, but John has caught a human corpse instead of a fish on his line. The lake is full of corpses that rise to the surface.
Mark meets up with a contact, Gino, in the Grand Palace Saloon to ask him to keep an eye out for the bounty hunters. While they’re meeting, Mark spots Wyatt meeting with a Nazi scam artist and assumes the worst. Gino reminds him that most people in the Neutral Zone have to do business with both the Nazis and the Yakuza.
Wyatt is ordering Juliana’s new Reich documentation. When he gives his contact Juliana’s photo, the man recognizes her as being on everyone’s most wanted list. Wyatt promises to pay the amount of the bounty as well as the price for the new papers. He threatens to kill the contact and his family if the man betrays them.
As the documentation contact leaves, the bounty hunters, Holt and Earle, enter the saloon and head straight for a patron they call Todd Schmidt. They show him his face on a bounty hunter’s deck of playing cards to prove he’s the Jewish fugitive they’re looking for, then shoot him in the head. Gino confirms with Mark that these are the droids guys he’s looking for.
A couple of Yakuza goons break into Childan’s room and demand payment for the tea ceremony that he didn’t do with the prostitute. When Childan tells them that, one of them beats him up, starting with several kicks to the abdomen.
Helen and Dr Ryan have a therapy session with some similarities to her daydream, except her gives her a prescription instead of making a pass at her. She makes up for it by making a subtle pass at him. He doesn’t look happy.
Plus, Man in the High Castle has firmly established that sleep deprivation leads to anxiety. In hindsight, maybe all of the Nazi’s issues could have been taken care of, if they’d just had better sleep hygiene. Or Prozac. 😜
Once he’s done being beaten, Childan crawls into a bottle and into the back foyer of his shop. When the Japanese squatter opens the door in the morning, he pushes past her to reclaim what he can of his belongings. The squatter, Mrs Yahuta, fusses at him to get out, then calls the Kempeitai.
Childan drunkenly roaming through his shop, half-dressed, yelling at Mrs Yahuta for mistreating his stock, is hilarious. “This is mine. This is handpainted!!”
Juliana and Frank have a quiet moment in the middle of the night to discuss the rebels’ biggest secrets.
Frank: “Alternate versions of ourselves can just travel here?”
Juliana: “That’s right. And Hawthorne says that the films are needed because the universe is out of balance. Our world is throwing things off.”
Frank: “But how?”
Juliana: “The death, the destruction, the millions upon millions of people murdered. But it doesn’t have to be this way.”
Frank: “We’ve been living under the Fascists for so long, people think it’s normal. They think it’s always been this way. But it hasn’t.”
Juliana pulls out the blueprint to explain to Frank about the Nazis’ machine and why it needs to be stopped. He asks how she knows what she knows, and she has to confess to her acquired memories. Frank believes in her, without question. He points to his painting, The Fascist Threat.
Juliana is excited that they’re so in tune and that he seems to be channeling some of the same intuitive knowledge. She wants him to bring the prints of his paintings and come with her. They can show the films, spread his prints and recruit people for the fight, “until people wake up.” Crossing the continent, together. It’s a romantic notion, that they both love.
But Frank can’t go. His scars and physical issues make him too recognizable, and it’s too dangerous for a Jewish person to recruit rebels in the Reich. The Kempeitai still have him at the top of their most wanted list in the JPS, with Kido on a personal vendetta.
After a moment, Juliana accepts that Frank’s path will continue to diverge from her own. But she asks for them to pretend that they’ll be together, just for one night. Frank kisses her and agrees.
There’s so much love and tenderness between them, with all of the arguments of the past forgotten and what’s important thrown into stark relief.
Kido has Childan, who is stripped down to only his underwear, tied to a chair. Kido makes as much noise as possible, pretending he’s doing something useful, but actually just playing with his implements of torture.
When Childan wakes up, Kido lists some trumped up charges from the “break-in” at Mrs Yahuto’s shop. Then he carefully extracts Childan’s side of the story. He’s very interested in Childan’s trip to the NZ, and in his partner, Ed McCarthy, who just happens to be friends with Frank Fink.
Childan tells Kido about Ed’s boyfriend, Jack, who’s staying at the Grand Palace. He’s groggy and confused, so at first he doesn’t realize how this information could be used.
Later, Tagomi visits Kido. I believe Kido is still in his office, but I have a feeling that Kido lives there, with a cot in some back corner. Kido has been drinking and doing paperwork, which isn’t a good thing for anyone in North America.
Tagomi has come to inform Kido that he can’t arrest Juliana, despite the fact that they both know she kille Joe, and Kido wants her on multiple older charges. Tagomi says that Juliana “is of great value to the Empire in dealing with the Nazis.”
Kido seizes his moment. He asks Tagomi to sit down and do shots with him, and tell him the friggin’ truth for once. The first truth Kido wants is an explanation of the two Trudy Walkers. Tagomi insists again that the second Trudy was a different person, from another reality. He explains that he knows this is possible because he himself has travelled to another world. That’s where he got the film of the atomic bomb test, which the Japanese used to fool the Reich into thinking that they have the bomb. He tells Kido that the Allies won in this alternate world, and the Empire lost. The bomb is an Allied bomb.
What Kido takes from the news that there are alternate realities where the Empire loses the war is that the Japanese tricked the Nazis, thanks to Tagomi. Always a practical thinker. A great mystery of the universe revealed to him by one of the few people who’ve experienced it, and Kido just sees another mess that Tagomi’s made for him to clean up.
Kido asks how Juliana fits into this. Tagomi shares that Juliana is trying to stop the Nazis from invading and conquering the alternate realities, which is in the best interests of the Empire. Tagomi emphasizes again that Juliana is on their side, at least for now.
John Smith sits on a couch in his expensive living room and stares at the panoramic view from his floor to ceiling windows. Helen joins him, but sits on the other end of the couch, with a pillow between them. In the long shots, the fireplace and a support beam divide them further. Helen muses on all of the material success they have. Both agree that neither ever cared about it. They both still understand that it’s all been to keep the family safe.
Helen tells John that he always keeps the family safe. Whatever he’s struggling with, she continues to have faith in him. John says, with surprise, “You do?”
She kisses his hand and suggests that he join her in bed tonight, instead of sleeping in the office. She tells him not to stay up too late. “Sleep deprivation leads to anxiety.”
We’re given the basic mechanics of individual traveling between realities in this episode, by Mengele of all people:
“Fatima Hassan experienced a rush of fear-based adrenaline, followed by a brief burst of deep alpha-wave meditation.”
We know that traveling doesn’t have to be fear-based. In fact, the travelling we’ve seen usually isn’t. The adrenaline can be based on a build up of intent. So the deep, alpha-wave meditation is probably more important, combined with something that Mengele is still missing. Maybe some element of will or need, like John said.
The travelers, such as Tagomi, have each generally experienced terrible loss, and have a deep longing to see a better world. Kotomichi had lost everyone in his home reality and came to a world where he found a better reality for himself personally. Alt Trudy wanted to be with her sister again. Fatima Hassan undoubtedly was able to muster up a deep need to go back to a better place when she escaped the Nazis.
Juliana told Frank that travelers were bringing the films to this world because the levels of death and darkness in the Nazi prime reality are upsetting the balance of the multiverse. That negative effect would supply the motivation required for travelers to get to Nazi world, even though it’s a bad place.
Alpha Waves=
Brain waves are divided into five different bandwidths that are believed to create a spectrum of human consciousness. Our brain waves change throughout the day and are part of a feedback loop that is influenced by what we’re doing, thinking, and feeling emotionally at any given time—or while we sleep.
Alpha waves (8 to 12 Hz) are present when your brain is in an idling default-state typically created when you’re daydreaming or consciously practicing mindfulness or meditation. Alpha waves can also be created by doing aerobic exercise… Alpha waves took center stage in the early 1960s and 1970s with the creation of biofeedback, which is a technique used to consciously alter brain waves using direct feedback provided by an EEG type of device. Biofeedback is a type of neurofeedback typically used to teach practitioners how to create alpha brain waves.
When alpha oscillations are prominent, your sensory inputs tend to be minimized and your mind is generally clear of unwanted thoughts. When your brain shifts gears to focus on a specific thought—in either a positive or negative way—alpha oscillations tend to disappear and higher frequency oscillations begin running the show.
Alpha wave biofeedback has been shown to be a useful tool for treating anxiety and depression.
— From Alpha Brain Waves Boost Creativity and Reduce Depression, Psychology Today
John’s nightmare appears to be a reference to the extermination camp that he ran in Ohio, which he dreamed about earlier in the season. The bodies, or whatever was left of the remains, could have been dumped in nearby waters, as humans tend to do with their waste.
But it could also be a broader reference, to the guilt John feels over every death he’s ever participated in. Since the end of the war, John has been confident that by collaborating with the Nazis, he did what he had to do to keep his family safe, and that there were no better alternatives.
Now he’s watching multiple films that show real alternatives from other worlds. He’s seen himself and his family living other, better lives. He can’t hide behind that excuse any more, and he has to deal with the question that he’s never asked himself: What would have happened if he’d helped the Resistance?
Would they have won? Would Thomas be alive? John was a rising star in the Nazi party. If he’d fed Nazi secrets to the Resistance from the beginning, and been less effective at wiping them out, could they have stayed motivated and organized? Could they have smuggled Thomas to safety, even if they hadn’t won yet?
Imagine trying to look Helen in the eye with those thoughts swirling in your head. No wonder he’s hiding in his office. He’s fantasizing about traveling to one of the other worlds, as well, or bringing an Alt Thomas to his world, but his mind won’t let him escape his guilt.
His final line of the episode, “You do?” is very telling. He’s lost faith in himself. He no longer trusts himself to keep his family safe or to outmaneuver the Nazis the way he always has. He’s given everything but his family to protect his family, and it turns out that he hasn’t even bought his own survival with his sacrifices, never mind theirs.
Smith is quietly planning many potential plots and contingency plans, as that is his gift. He doesn’t want to be caught off guard again, the way he was with Thomas. But he’s also so obsessed with the films that he’s drifting in and out of reality.
Helen, instead of being open and comforting with John the way she would have been in the past, is playing the role of supportive Nazi wife, the way that Dr Ryan is teaching her to play it. It’s the exact opposite of what John needs right now. He doesn’t need her to be confident in his strength as a good provider and protector. He needs her to be an equal partner who he can trust with his secrets and vulnerabilities.
But she’s been such a mess all season that he doesn’t want to put her in jeopardy by confiding in her. If she were to accidentally reveal something while she was drunk or on pills, he’d never forgive himself for putting her in that position. Helen is through being that vulnerable, but she’s still searching for an outlet for her feelings. John seems to be using the films as his outlet. Helen seems to be developing an unhealthy fantasy life around Dr Ryan (who didn’t appear receptive). The distance between Helen and John keeps growing.
This episode is one of Brennan Brown’s best as Robert Childan. He got to show a range the character is usually denied, from drunken despair in his shop, to fearful humiliation with Kido, to uncertain longing with the prostitute. The usual stand-offish pride that he wears like armour with his fellow gaijin and the obsequious deference that he automatically grants the Japanese were nowhere in sight.
He also showed his range as a physical actor, using a delicate touch to put the finishing touches on the prostitute’s makeup and moving tentatively when she told him his time was up, then becoming a sloppy, drunken thief. The most amazing thing to me though, was seeing Robert Childan, who always takes care with his personal appearance, his image, and the implications of everything he does, throwing that all away.
Childan gave up in this episode. He stopped caring what the Japanese think of him. Since we met him in season 1, he’s been all about social-climbing in Japanese society. At the core of his being, he’s been disdainful of anyone who didn’t share the same goal or ability to cater to the “Pons” whims.
It was a pointless goal, because they’d never accept him, but he couldn’t see that. His experiences since he returned to San Francisco have finally driven that point home. We haven’t been shown it, but it’s clear that none of his carefully developed high level Japanese contacts will help him now that he’s in trouble and needs them, and that the Kempeitai don’t care that his business was stolen, even though he’s been a respectable business owner for years.
Like John Smith, Childan has been surfing above the worst of what this world does to people, convincing himself that he’s better and smarter than the others, so it will never happen to him. For both men, reality has come crashing down, in the form of the loss of the thing they hold most dear, leaving them both powerless to stop it.
They’re having to face that they aren’t different or better. Until now, they were just lucky. Childan gets drunk and gives up, for the moment, when he realizes this truth. Smith disappears into the fantasy world of the films. Neither are the type to give up forever, but they need a break to readjust and process this new world order that they’ve just discovered. These realizations come with guilt, shame and a sense of wasted time.
But what’s next for Childan, after he inadvertently makes things worse for Frank, Ed and Jack? Does he go back into denial and resume his former life? Does he help Juliana and the Resistance? Does he pack up and go back to the Neutral Zone?
Childan was torn wide open in this episode. He’s more interesting as a character now than he’s ever been.
Frank, on the other hand, has come to terms with who he is and what he’s done to get here. He accepts his limitations and accepts other people as they are. He’s found his calling, his part in inspiring the rebellion, with his paintings. Like Juliana, he’s on his way to becoming a mystic, who can rise above everyday circumstances to see the larger truths at work in the world.
Kido is the exact opposite, a man who can never see beyond the practical concerns of his job and immediate surroundings, moving successively outward in concentric circles that end with the Empire. The big picture and the ramifications of the law are not up to him. His job is to investigate and to enforce the law. He’s good at it, as long as black and white thinking is required. He understands where the law has traditionally been bent, as with the Yakuza, and will continue with tradition. But he will never be the man to rise above a situation, or to find an unforeseen solution. At most, he will stretch his parameters in ways that prove he is the same person he’s always been.
I love that they’ve brought the original trio of Frank, Ed, and Juliana back together, however briefly, to touch base before they set off on the next phase of their adventures. After everything that happened in season 2, it’s been necessary to ground all of the characters again by bringing them back to their original scene partners. The only characters missing have been Juliana’s parents and Ed’s grandfather. I miss Juliana’s mom.
And Karen and Sarah. I really wish they hadn’t been fridged. Lem “Voice of Doom” Washington will live forever, because he’s too ornery to die, while the rest of the old Resistance crumbles around him. 😉
Excess Animus= Nope. Not going there. I tried. I read several different pages of modern and classical Jungian interpretations of anima and animus. What I learned is that I’m not a Jungian and I think Jungian psychology is misogynist no matter how hard you try to sugarcoat it. There’s a reason they thought the Nazis would adopt this philosophy.
All I’m going to say is, despite what Dr Ryan told Helen, what it really means is that the women are thinking for themselves too much, and that’s going to get them in trouble. Dr Ryan wants Helen to have more sex because he thinks that will wake up her emotional hormones again and turn her into a docile housewife.
You can apply that basic idea, of needing to rein in the rational, determined side by increasing the motherly or emotional instincts, to Lila, Juliana, Thelma, Nicole, Mrs Yahuta. Even Caroline has opinions.
Ever notice the lack of Japanese women on this show? I do. All the time. There is one. Who hardly appears. The Japanese should be discussing their imminent extinction due to a lack of women to bear children.
Images courtesy of Amazon Prime.
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