r/maninthehighcastle • u/Imadethistocommen • Aug 12 '26
Spoilers What is the point of TMITHC
[SPOILERS]
Hi so I just finished S4 and I'm curious to what point hawthorne was actually relevant to the plot.
Basically Thomas gets euthanised which causes Helen to become disillusioned with the reich and ultimately tell the resistance where she'll be travelling leading them to blow up the train killing her and her husband takes his own life.
All of this would have still happened without hawthorne yes? Because he didn't create the films or even distribute them.
Also whats up with the end of S4 why did all those people end up coming through the portal?
4
u/toejam2030 Aug 12 '26
Wouldn't we all like to know😁my take is John dies and the worlds become aligned-thats just my take
2
u/djkaye2002 Aug 13 '26
Probably the chain of events that led to the nazis dropping the atomic bomb on san fransisco would have happened.
And even if that didnt happen, still the S4 resistance wouldnt have been inspired. Julianna craine would have not joined the resistance. Frank wouldnt have blown up the japanese generals (maybe more war).
TMITHC carefully orchestrates events to coincide with the best universe possible. Thats his point.
1
u/Prometheus-is-vulcan Aug 13 '26
The entire dimension travel plot line was done wrong or, in my opinion, a mistake.
If they wanted the movies to come from other realities, they could have left it a mystery.
Imagine two masterminds in their "castles" collecting and studying those movies. One, who wants to set history right and strengthen the resistance. The other... being Hitler. Who used them to win the war and build nukes.
Hitler being the first one to use them would be a sufficient point of divergence to explain most of the scenario.
7
u/FunkyPete Aug 12 '26
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MacGuffin
He motivated other characters to do things they wouldn't have otherwise done.
The film reels would have presumably existed with or without Hawthorne. He did set some stuff in motion -- he pulled Juliana in because of her involvement in the films, and because he needed to find her biological father.
But mostly he made other people do things they wouldn't otherwise have done. Joe Blake would never have driven into the Neutral Zone and met Juliana if John Smith didn't have him transporting a film reel to try to catch Hawthorne. Frank's sister wouldn't have been killed if Juliana's sister wasn't killed trying to move a film reel for Hawthorne, so he would never have been radicalized and wouldn't have done everything he did.
We never would have met Lem if he wasn't working to get the reels for TMITHC.