The fifth episode is a little early for a reboot, but the show feels like it's starting over. The first four episodes formed a neo-Western mini-arc that had run its course, but as the title of this episode indicates, Joe and Juliana are back in their own world. The theme hammered home over and over is that these worlds will never be the same. For all the possibilities the show's premise still holds, The Man in the High Castle so far is generally content with standard-issue intrigue. The Tagomi/Wegener arc is a case in point: it's full of generic, boring spy tropes that could play out the exact same way in any context. The most intriguing elements of the pilot (the Grasshopper films and the titular character) have receded into the background. New threads with potential to up the intrigue are presented toward the end of the episode. Here's hoping that a chance encounter between two characters in this episode is the spark that ignites the second half of the season, because that's exactly what the show needs right now.
Review of The New Normal
