Man in The High Castle, Season 3 ending. Possible spoilers?
I would like to publicly say that I fucking hate Nazis, and I am literally learning krav maga in case I ever come across any Nazi’s that need a reminding as to why they lost WWII.
Based on that, you can (hopefully) understand my concerns as to why John Smith is one of my favorite characters. I don’t like bad guys. Ever. They are never my favorite. And Smith is a bad guy, no doubt. He’s done god damn awful shit and I’d punch the fucker given the right chance. But the thing about TMITHC is that the show remind us that Nazis came from, and were, ordinary people. Before I get flamed (do the kids still say that???) for saying that, take for a moment and look back at WWII, and look around you right now. Yes, there are the fucks that you look at them and go “omg nazi, for sure, no doubt.” but then there were seemingly sane people with families, who went to church (not that that means you are a good person) and baked cookies for their neighborhood potlucks. THAT’S the scary part. That literally anybody, under the right (wrong?) conditions, could be a nazi. How “family men” looked the other way when their neighbors got carried away kicking and screaming in the middle of the night, how the youth never questioned “racial purity” how the wives helped their husband’s put on their SS uniforms.
Shits not as black and white as we’d like to believe.
Again, I reiterate, I hate nazis, but in order to defeat them, we have to understand why and how they happened. In Smith’s case (Spoilers?) we find out that he was an American soldier during WWII, and he and his wife Helen, then pregnant with their first child, watched Washington DC get destroyed by an A bomb by the Reich. It’s relatively easy to conclude that Smith made the hardest decision, join them, or he, his wife, and unborn son would be killed. Fast forward 15ish years later and Smith and his family are so fully engrossed in the Reich that you assume upon meeting him that he’s always been a fucking nazi.
I guess that’s why he’s a problematic favorite of mine. I hope he turns on the Reich (and the way season 3 ended, it feels like he’s in for double turncoat arch.) But even if he does turn and help destroy the Reich, he’s still got a LOT of baggage to carry after all the horrible shit he’s done, and based on that alone he’ll never be a “redeemed” bad guy.
...it also doesn’t help that actor Rufus Sewell is terrifyingly handsome. If I had a shrink I’m pretty sure we’d have a good long conversation about this problematic crush. Don’t @ me about that, unless you’re in the same boat.
