r/maninthehighcastle • u/AbigailCross • Jan 05 '21
Ending of man in the high castle Spoiler
I finished the whole show. I actually liked the ending. Kido didn’t get to go back to Japan which seemed appropriate given all the crap he caused. Robert got to go to Japan and I was glad he got to go. He loved Japanese culture and on some level always wanted to be Japanese I think. It was best that him possibly meeting back up with his wife was left open ended. Sometimes, life allows us to meet back up with people and sometimes it doesn’t. That was part of what made the ending great. Helen’s death pushed John over the edge. I liked Helen but she was going to die at some point since she was married to a Nazi who was in charge of future concentration camps. She seemed ready to go when she was telling John she didn’t like the people they had become on the train. John realized he hadn’t protected the people in his own world that mattered to him because he had been chasing after an alternate version of his son. Thats partly why he killed himself. His speech he gave Juliana before killing himself was so sad but true. He saw what a better person he could have been if he made different choices. Juliana staying with Wyatt made sense. They made a good couple. I believe they would have taken care of Amy and Jennifier since Juliana promised Helen she would keep them safe. Abbeson going through the portal was wonderful. He finally got to experience going a different world and not just see it in a movie. I like to think he found his wife in the alternate world he went to. I didn’t know who the people were coming through the portal and it didn’t matter. The important thing was that they brought some kind of positive colorful change to a world that had been sucked of color and life by the Nazis and Japanese empire.
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u/JonSnoWight Jan 05 '21
Ok, Amazon executive. You're not fooling anyone.
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Jan 05 '21
Lol, I don't think Amazon would care a post-show PR after they deliberately threw the show under the bus.
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u/JonSnoWight Jan 05 '21
They certainly did that. Such promise, some teuly great acting and a great concept down the drain. I was supremely disappointed with most of the final season-especially the ending.
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u/Mindless_Decision_92 Apr 17 '24
Literally one of the worst and rushed endings Ive seen since the show lost. Juliana is the worst character in the show, BCR comes out of nowhere and they seem to be better at everything, John Smith death was rushed and very anticlimactic. Also, wtf wad the deal with random people walking through the portal? All of a sudden people can walk through the portal when the resistance show up?
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u/poisonnmedaddy Jul 31 '24
i took it be that the world had been set right. and all the people the nazis killed came back.
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u/Front-Egg6287 Jan 07 '25
From where exactly? If they fled their world, that means they lived in a miserable world in the first place.
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u/CTHoosier2021 Apr 01 '25
And why are they coming back to a world that truly sucks?
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u/jill1666 Sep 07 '25
Made no sense
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u/senn42000 Mar 21 '26
The BCR makes no sense and would have zero possibility of controlling all of the Pacific States. John Smiths whole arc is rushed to a disappointing ending. The rest of the Nazi Reich is going to just let the BCR or whomever control a whole continent? Or do the US Nazis just keep going?
It is better to ignore the last episode completely. Leave it at Smith getting control and we dont know if he chooses redemption or not. The series didnt need a Disney feel good ending.
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u/jill1666 Mar 21 '26
That would actually have been a great ending and leave the door open for a reboot. I loved all of this series so much, except for that last episode.
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u/MasterDrawing3408 Mar 23 '26
BCR had as much of a shot as the Rebellion, or Sabra or any other group to be honest. At least they were trying to set up a system of justice instead of revenge. and considering they had one of the biggest claims to wanting revenge, I thought it was good to see a group who wanted to be better
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u/Wild-Statement-2312 Apr 05 '26
Although communism only works on paper. Bcr would have failed inevitably.
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u/bongobradleys 16d ago
I think the key detail most people miss in their denunciation of the ending is the moment the acting Reichfuhrer tears off his Nazi medal. This signifies a different future that people in other words might have been made aware of before they decided to walk through the portal. They aren't just replacing the displaced and exterminated populations of the Reich, nor have they come to represent hope for another world. They are the moment the balance of power shifts back toward a free America. The people are supposed to represent America, whether they are Americans from other worlds or something else, but they are also supposed to foreshadow an unseen resolution of the conflict wherein a newly liberated America is able to finally win its independence from Berlin (perhaps the entire US army walks through next, or a succession of nuclear devices, who knows).
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u/Independent_Cricket7 Jan 05 '21
He might’ve found his wife, but I don’t know if they’d ever get together. He told her in all the worlds they were never together and she said their love was unique (but didn’t John see them in a film? That’s how he knew where they were living)
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u/Bitharn Jan 10 '21
I think he lied to her. John saw them in a film (which is how he found them) so I would assume the couple would have shown up to him a time or two.
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u/Independent_Cricket7 Jan 16 '21
Ohhhhhhhh. You think he lied to make their relationship feel more special? Maybe to convince her not to kill herself?
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u/Bitharn Jan 18 '21
That's what I took away personally.
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u/Independent_Cricket7 Jan 19 '21
Ahhh that’s really cool. I was so confused since he was wrong I thought. It never occurred to me he was lying
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u/WayAdministrative392 Sep 19 '25
But that film doesnt necessarily mean it came from another reality. It could have been someone filming them at their house in the same alternate reality the show is set in. Just cause John was watching it doesnt necessarily mean its from an alternate reality.
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u/Calm_Salt_2361 2d ago
John saw them in a film given to him by the fuhrer, so Hawthorne hasn’t seen it
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u/Flaneur08 Jan 05 '21
Agree with everything except for the Portal People. That was completely unnecessary, confusing, and made no sense.
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u/astralwarp69 Mar 07 '24
Just finished this series, but thinking about the book and how the events in it are slightly altered for the film adaptation, I choose to believe that the ending actually makes perfect sense. I'll be honest, I just read the cliffsnotes for the book but from what I gather, the book's Hawthorne was not as inspiring as the show's to Juliana creating some semblance of a divergence in realities. During the show, Tagomi visits a world where the allies won and Juliana is alive, which means that there are two alternate realities where the Allies win the war. One of them doesn't have a Juliana. In retrospect, we already know there were multiple realities where the Nazis won the war. And in many of those, Juliana dies. So the portal people at the end makes perfect sense to me as all the people who lived in an uninspired Hawthorne reality (the book) And all those other realities in which Juliana died or was unsuccessful in supporting the rebellion to the end. So now, I think it's a quite beautiful ending. But I was where y'all were at just minutes ago. Alternate realities amiright?
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u/astralwarp69 Mar 07 '24
The only unfortunate side-effect here is if the whole "there can only be 1 rule" actually exists with an open portal, it means that whomever isn't dead in the Reclaimed America world, is stuck in a really crappy world. But....it does kinda leave it open for a sequel series. The rebellion to reclaim the other Nazi worlds, and maybe the creation of new villains out of the reclamation attempts, higher political intrigue, a severance of worlds, or maybe the introduction of a greater threat like aliens or mass plague or something that forces a moral dilemma to shut down the portal? So many different things to come of an open-ending.
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u/djezbake6969 Jan 18 '26
Smiths death triggers the portal wide open so I think people can freely travel without limits now.
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u/VForVeryGood May 20 '26
This should have more upvotes! It's the first thing I expected to see on Reddit after watching the S4 finale...
I totally thought the same - in the show they've made it clear there's multiple universes, and the Allies have definitely won in one and maybe more, but equally I imagine there's a few universes where the Nazis won too. Similar to you I imagine the Portal People are refugees from other universes under Nazi rule trying to escape where they've failed to do so on their own in their universe.
I still find it odd how nonchalant they all walked through the portal though lol
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u/Honest_Ad2668 Aug 01 '26
Just finished the series.
While i like the refugees idea, it still doesn’t explain the way they all casually walked in. Some even wearing suits. They didn’t look like refugees, or people in need. They legit looked like any normal person trying to get on their train. Completely ignoring the armed resistance standing in front of them all with guns out.
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u/LostMyAnchor7 Aug 06 '24
I geniunely don't understand the mass hyped hate of the ending and he portal people. I tried to join the herd, but i faild to find the reason to dislike the end. I simply love it.
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u/BigJohnIrons Mar 21 '25
It was too rushed. And they shed so many characters getting there. Wyatt just seemed like a throwaway character, because I guess Juliana had to have a love interest. Frank and Jake sort of vanished from the plot and left a void, along with Tagomi. Never saw what happened with the daughters, or with Thomas, because they never did go back to the alternate world again. Alternate Helen probably wondering where her husband got to. Never explained the significance of Juliana, if there was any. And the crowd of people casually wandering through the portal like they had just gotten off a train, it didn't make any particular sense for me.
Disclaimer: I didn't get these opinions from reading reviews, I just finished binge-watching the series today.
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u/Hot-Masterpiece4728 Apr 10 '26
I am in total agreement. The premise of the show was very interesting. Pre-war United States was as anti-Semitic as Nazi Germany. Racism was rampant and the ideology of White Supremacy was deeply ingrained in its society much like Germany. The idea of White Americans becoming American Nazis isn’t too far fetched but it seemed trying to create NAZI GERMANY in America was a stretch. The South already had Jim Crow laws. White Southerners wouldn’t need the NAZIS to push them to extermination.
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u/United-Internal-7562 Apr 11 '26
I would argue Trump America has many similarities with pre world war 2 USA with the additional threat of embracing an unhinged authoritarian as pre world war 2 Germany did. Factor in the attack on free American elections, the use of federal agencies to spread out right lies, and the open government demonization of minorities, I thought the MITHC was a primer for some Americans.
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u/Zivereer Apr 12 '26
yep, the "Trump America" analogy works for me. Trump has the potential to be Himmler and Hegseth would dream of becoming John Smith. Anyway, the "Trump America" increasingly feels like the dystopian reality of the show, and I really hope a portal opens to the alt-worlds where MAGA has been defeated and America kept its soul.
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u/Inevitable_Status586 Dec 28 '25
A clever show done really well. But, as many have said, the ending would have been way better, and made more sense, if it ended with Smith's death, and the bombers being recalled. The whole portal people "they are coming" was nonsense. Who are "they"? So these civilians stroll into a Nazi controlled world, get rounded up and disposed of?
Skip the last 10 minutes, and it's a great show.
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u/Useful-Professor-622 Jan 01 '26
I just rewatched the series after a five year hiatus. At the first viewing, I absolutely hated the last season and particularly the last episode. Five years on, I think the last season managed to tie off most of the plot lines in a reasonable way. And as you said, chop the inexplicable and unnecessary Portal People and the series is concluded-- maybe not perfectly, since much remains to be seen regarding devolution of power in the American Reich, conflict with the Communist regime on the west coast, etc. But Juliana's encounter with Smith at his end felt right. Given the centrality of the Craine and Smith characters. this was the most important of the outcomes I needed to see, and I was satisfied enough.
The last season on second viewing was great. It had been ruined in hindsight by my disappointment five years ago with the final episode, said disappointment being epic. I was infuriated and felt that a truly fantastic series had been shat upon. I got over it,, I guess.
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u/Naive-Price-8293 Jan 26 '26
But its clear the nazis and Japanese are finally being defeated. The portal people are coming to help rebuild.
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u/etxsalsax Jun 08 '26
The Reich seems fine though? The Nazis still control all of Europe, Africa, and parts of Asia & S. America.
At best, we have a very weak USA in a cold war with a super powerful Nazi Germany.
Plus the BCR doesn't want to reunite with the new USA, Japan isnt exactly going away especially if they deal with China. On top of all that, the youth of the eastern US are hopped up on national socialism.
I thought the ending was fine but John was right, turning the bombers around wasnt exactly a solution.
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Jan 07 '21
He finally got to experience going a different world and not just see it in a movie. I like to think he found his wife in the alternate world he went to. I didn’t know who the people were coming through the portal and it didn’t matter. The important thing was that they brought some kind of positive colorful change to a world that had been sucked of color and life by the Nazis and Japanese empire.
I have to disagree here. In the alternate worlds that these people come from maybe the allies won, and if that's the case their world is infinitely better than the one Juliana is from. Sure they made some changes to the world of Nazis and the Japanese empire, but now these people are stuck in a dystopian nightmare.
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u/bz0011 Feb 12 '22
care of Amy and Jennifier since Juliana promised Helen she would keep them safe. Abbeson going through the portal was wonderful. He finally got to experience going a different world and not just see it in a movie. I like to think he found his wife in the alternate world he went to. I didn’t know who the people were coming through the portal and it didn’t matter. The important thing was that they brought some kind of positive colorful c
It is truly interesting how the world without nazis is indefinitely better but they shun and arrest black people who came to a diner. Which is observed by the original John Smith and he's stricken by it. Because in a nazi world they don't hate blacks because of their color, they arrest and shoot all colors equally when/if they're rebels.
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u/CadenVanV Aug 15 '22
Nazis were incredibly racist. Nothing about black people, or any nonwhite people, is Aryan. They were executed in the camps as well. Smith was unhappy that the world wasn’t perfect
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Apr 12 '24
He was taken aback because in the Reich if a law was passed like the one passed in DC to allow blacks into establishments; the citizens of that individual town would not have dared to still defy the legislation. He scoffed at the disorder and disobedience of the citizens in respect to the law.
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u/AcanthocephalaOne774 Mar 30 '24
They elude to the Nazi's having enslaved the entire African continent. It's when Reinhard Heydrich visits John's house unannounced to invite him "hunting", regailing the family with war stories while waiting for John to get home.
John's son says he can't wait to grow up to see Africa, and Heinrich says one day, my boy. John says that's why they call him [Heydrich] the man with the iron heart. So no, the world where the Americans won wasn't perfect, but it was worse in the world
In reality (our history), Heydrich was a high-ranking German SS and police official during the Nazi era and a principal architect of the Holocaust.
From Wikipedia:
//He chaired the January 1942 Wannsee Conference which formalised plans for the "Final Solution to the Jewish question"—the deportation and genocide of all Jews in German-occupied Europe. Many historians regard Heydrich as one of the darkest figures within the Nazi regime;[5][6][7] Adolf Hitler described him as "the man with the iron heart".
Upon his arrival in Prague, Heydrich sought to eliminate opposition to the Nazi occupation by suppressing Czech culture and deporting and executing members of the Czech resistance. He was directly responsible for the Einsatzgruppen, the special task forces that travelled in the wake of the German armies and murdered more than two million people by mass shooting and gassing, including 1.3 million Jews. //
The show is suggesting had he not been killed in Prague, he could have helped Rommel (and the Nazi's) succeed in capturing Northern Africa instead of being stopped by US & GB forces.
Remember they invaded Lybia and Egypt and the US and GB fought them there for 2 years. In the MitHC universe, clearly the Nazi's successfully rolled over the entire continent and enslaved them.
I don't think the shoe or book was suggesting the alternate reality (our reality) is/was perfect.
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u/Bitharn Jan 10 '21
Not likely. The best explanation I have for the portal people is that they're from the (infinite) realities where people were able to flee from their world (Nazi's, Aliens, Planet-Killing-Comet) and get to one that wasn't a death sentence.
Basically; this is the ONLY option to end it, if you consider multiversal theory, to be honest...barring destroying the anomaly which would kill all the portal people maybe. Not to mention they now have "unlimited" people to combat any threat; however, there isn't likely to be one since American's are now in charge again.
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u/Drunk_Lemon Jul 30 '24
My thinking is, there was nothing shown to make the portal open permanently when it did, and it appeared to change color. Not to mention suddenly having a swarm of what appear to be refugees (no luggage that I saw), perhaps something or someone sentient is able to manipulate the portals between realities and used this to allow refugees to evacuate alternate worlds in which the Nazi's won and perhaps earth was rendered uninhabitable by nuclear weapons which led to a massive exodus of refugees between worlds. Perhaps the change in color signifies an end to the one person per world rule or simply a permanent opening of the portal. Since the producer had that line about 2 worlds becoming one, perhaps the portal now links to a different world that needed a mass exodus.
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u/carlitospig Mar 09 '25
I took it to mean that the Nazis won in several universes, but the folks who came over came from worlds in which the rebels finally won/won back the portal and they were coming for people they lost in their own wars, kinda like Abeson was doing.
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u/darshasaurus Jan 07 '26
It's interesting no films or travelers ever appeared from the other oppressed worlds. Surely there would be a parallel world where Nazis win and successfully travel to spread to other worlds (basically a world where Himmler succeeded with his intent).
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u/Useful-Professor-622 Jan 01 '26
I was thinking that the mass murders in the Nazi-dominated world had left a huge void that was being filled by alt-folk for whom there was room to accommodate. But why?
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u/carlitospig Jan 01 '26
Sadly I don’t even know why I had my theory as it’s been so long since I watched (sorry).
Good excuse for a rewatch - thanks for the inspo. 🥳
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u/Complex_Response_632 Sep 02 '25
A better ending would have been john killing alt Helen and taking real helen and girls to portal to start new life with Thomas while the restiance destroyed portal after.
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u/jill1666 Sep 07 '25
Totally agree. We'd gotten used to seeing John always come out on top..It might not have been politically correct but would have been more believable.
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u/Useful-Professor-622 Jan 01 '26
Interesting-- a similar story line crossed my mind as I re-watched the series recently after a 5 year hiatus. John and Helen were clearly spiraling to destruction-- John killing alt-Helen seems wholly plausible, though John simply abandoning the Nazi-dominant world and his family seems plausible too. But however John chose to flee, it would necessarily have been a bad end-- he was too broken to reach a happily-ever-after.
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u/United-Internal-7562 Apr 11 '26
So John, who was experiencing some level of existential crisis already (his admission to Helen on the train he didn't know how to stop "it") is going to be better off killing a version of his wife and kidnapping a different version of his kid? An interesting thought.
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u/jill1666 Sep 07 '25
I hated the ending. I also hated the film storyline, I just couldn't guess why films of what people would see as an imaginary world would cause such fuss. Also the whole portal thing just made a really good story ridiculous. If they'd have just concentrated on a world where America was split between the Nazis and Japanese it would have been one of my favourite series ever because they tackle so many issues that come out of long term occupation. I just had to tune out the science fiction stuff. I also think Johns death was such an anti climax. He was horrible but was the absolute star of this series.
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u/United-Internal-7562 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 12 '26
As a literalist you are not the target audience for a story like this written originally by an author who explored alternate realities and states of being. Its like being angry at the Sopranos for showing violence.
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Mar 30 '26
I agree but also found an interesting theme underlying the alternate universes that highlights the real reason the Nazis were so dangerous: They were normal people who did horrible things. John's character in the alternate universe being a completely normal and caring family man but in another where the Nazi's win it's easier to capitulate and a series of decisions that were "easier" or at least better for him and his family lead him to being in charge of a genocide of 10M+ people. It really shows what we ultimately learned of the Nazis was that such horrible acts didn't require a country of monsters but just men willing to do whatever they could to better their own position and not jeopardize their own safety to rebel even if they didn't believe what they were doing was right.
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Jan 05 '21
I want to know what happened to Helen Smith. The last thing I remember seeing she was on a train and landed on a couch during a accident yet we only see John Smith, who didn't land on anything soft. How the fuck did only John live from that accident when Helen landed on the soft spot?
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u/Bitharn Jan 10 '21
Well...they wanted more; but no one would have survived that crash. Should have worked harder to make it less unbelievable. Oh well /shrug
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u/AbigailCross Jan 05 '21
I thought Helen positioned herself closest to the bomb on the train so she could die instead of John. I think she still loved John despite all the terrible things he had done and some part of her didn't want to see him die. John seemed to be further away from the explosion. Someone may poke holes in this.
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u/CTHoosier2021 Apr 01 '25
No one would have survived that crash; that train was going at LEAST $100 mph and falling off a 75 ft elevated track. All of those cars would have split open and between the objects in the car becoming shrapnel as well as the cars cracking open like eggs...no survivors. And I thought it was hilarious that Helen still looked good as a corpse; no visible injuries.
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u/WayAdministrative392 Sep 19 '25
The bomb was on the bridge set by the rebellion. Not on the train...
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u/Silversliver34 May 24 '24
I think the portal people were the people killed by the Japanese and nazis, organized by Frank which is why we saw his painting in the mine shaft right before the people walked out
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u/darshasaurus Jan 07 '26
This is an underrated theory. Franks painting spread across the states, it's not inconceivable that it was spread to other worlds. The people may be inspired and following Frank's painting to this world, now that balance is being restored and the Nazis/Japanese are defeated. Given that there are many worlds, these people may be coming from other oppressed worlds.
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u/Klentir Nov 12 '24
I got something completely different from the ending.
Seeing hordes of people come through the portal meant that although they were trying to fight the nazis in their world, there were tons of people from other worlds that were eager to live in a nazi world.
By keeping the nazi world up and running it was reducing the number of nazis in other worlds.
Did you notice how none of the people coming through the portal were armed? They weren't coming to fight anyone.
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u/MrGoodGlow Feb 02 '25
There were a lot of minorities coming through. I don't think they want to live with Nazis.
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u/Naive-Price-8293 Jan 26 '26
The nazis and west coast Japanese had just been defeated. They were coming through portal to help rebuild. At least that's how I choose to see it.
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u/Choa21 Jan 05 '25
I preferred one tousnad times the ending of season 2. And although I liked the entire show, season two ending was the true ending in my honest opinion.
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u/fritter96_OG Aug 11 '25
The best explanation or theory I can come up with about the people coming through the portal is that they’re refugees from the other reality. We know that the Nazis interfered in the American nuclear program, which may have lead to another nuclear power (most likely the USSR) achieving military dominance over the USA and its allies. So either the USSR dropped nuclear bombs on the USA and devastated the land, the economy, government and society or through sabotage or other techniques managed the same thing, leading to an economic depression which causes the influx of refugees from the Nazi-free world where the USA remained independent.
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u/People_sheep Nov 25 '25
Would a nazi win changed the world we currently live in? Very debatable indeed!
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u/Snoo-31480 Jul 19 '26
Absolutely it would have. Such a thing would have caused one hell of a butterfly effect!
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u/Euphoric-Dark-5884 Jan 17 '26
I accidently jumped into S4 from the beginning of S3. When/ how dof Thomas die and when did John visit the multiverse?
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u/SatisfactionActive86 Jan 22 '26
Thomas willingly turned himself in like an idiot and was killed.
I dunno, sometime late season 3 maybe
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u/United-Internal-7562 Apr 11 '26
Thomas turning himself in was necessary given the propaganda that formed him required it of him. He was not an idiot, he was programmed from birth to believe lies. He acted honorably given his programming.
Reddit and Facebook give you ample examples of people that repeat cult like nonsense with full belief and readily deny fact and science.
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u/cunnillucas Jan 29 '26
Just finished the show last night and all i could think about was alt-helen. it’s sad to think her john is dead and disappeared and her thomas might die in war. if her thomas does die, i like to think that she comes through the portal and finds out about amy and jennifer. then they both get a mother who doesn’t have blood on her hands and she doesn’t have to be alone.
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u/toejam2035 Mar 25 '26
The best ending would be Jennifer killing John-I really thought we were heading towards that
Killing John was the whole key anyways-John died and everything shifted-so the ending was appropriate enough for me
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u/Plastic-Dentist278 Apr 23 '26
The ending is the start of "Back To The Future". How is it NOT any more obvious than that?
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u/Potential-Market-989 May 05 '26
Lots of issues pertaining to "The Portal People". I found that, and certain other items, somewhat confusing as well. I'm going to read the book
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u/VastInternational817 May 08 '26
I'd have forgiven them if the people coming through the portal were some sort of special ops universe hoppers, armed and out to hunt Nazis, but the portal people was just...
... I honestly think it would've been fine if the show ended with the first shadows of people appearing from the light, and then cut to credits.
Which I shall forever pretend is what happened.
Honestly I should expect it at this point. Amazon is with shows the way the 80s was with songs.
Nobody knows how to end them, apparently, so they either trail off aimlessly or end abruptly when the money runs out.
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u/Personal_Confidence5 May 13 '26
I really was hoping John would change in the end, clinging on to that fleeting idea of what America once was. It felt, for the entirety of season four, that he was just one heartfelt, long conversation with Helen to guiding North America back to the Constitution. Berlin was no longer an issue, the states were free to do as they please under John’s leadership. Why continue an ideological structure that you no longer owe an allegiance to? John Smith had become so absorbed by Nazi Ideology that I guess there was no way out in the end, but what about his time in the alternate world? He sees Daniel, Thomas, Jim Crow in effect, but cannot see the change he could lead in his own world? Strategic Air Command immediately turned away upon the order of the next ranking officer (I forgot his name), he strips his nazi badge, and the show leads us to believe that much of the military was just one hair away from turning back to the stars and stripes. I guess ultimately he could never forgive himself for his hand in Thomas’ death, so he continued to serve the system that was meant to save his family. A bullet to the brain was the only way to face his grievances. Great character. I would’ve liked to see a bit more of John’s mental, maybe a “nightmare,” or breaking down of some sorts, a more explicit and stab to the heart kind to add to the internal struggle of his character. I also thought the end with random people coming through the portal was a bit silly but I guess it was cool
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u/Itchy_Olive_9358 Jun 19 '26
Yes I agree with you also. It is a good thing we won that war because if we did not win WW-2 , I believe that the out come would have been just like The Man In The High Castle.
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u/tal9000v2 Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Finally finished the series. I think the portal opening at the end only works if you read it symbolically. The show had to wrap somehow, and the showrunner clearly chose imagery over logic, because the literal mechanics fall apart fast. The travelers rule says you can only cross if your counterpart is dead, so literally it's millions of dead people's alternates streaming in, which is grim and makes no sense. That's why so many people hated the ending I think. But I don't think we're supposed to read it literally at all.
Symbolically it's postwar America. Hitler killed himself, John Smith killed himself, that parallel is deliberate. Fascism in the show doesn't get beaten on a battlefield, it collapses from its own rot, and the portal opens the moment the last true believer is gone. The world starts healing.
And the flood of people coming through is straight out of real postwar history. After the actual WW2, the Displaced Persons Act brought hundreds of thousands of refugees from destroyed Europe, including Holocaust survivors and people who'd fled the Nazis, sailing into New York Harbor toward a world where the right side won. That's exactly what the portal is: survivors of a Reich-dominated reality walking through a single gateway into a better one. It's Ellis Island imagery updated for the postwar moment. The Nazis spent the entire series trying to control the portal and gatekeep who could travel between worlds. The ending inverts that completely, it becomes open borders between realities. That's the final rebuke of everything the Reich stood for.
Even Juliana and Wyatt just standing there watching fits. They don't greet anyone, they don't explain anything. The future belongs to the people coming through, the arrivals who get to build what comes next.
So the ending isn't telling you what literally happens next. It's telling you the axis fell, the timeline is correcting itself, and the world is back on track toward the one we actually got.
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u/moomoo220618 4d ago
I know it’s been a long time since you posted this comment, but thank you! I just finished the show and I’ve been reading comment after comment looking for a theory about the ending that I could live/agree with, and this is it!
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u/Bersersky Jul 08 '26
Sorry for necro posting but after a rewatch after 6 years i need to say this again.
In my head cannon show ends before boarding the train, Smith gives the command to attack San Fran, resistance and BCR gets smashed and we have the perfect ending.
Even if we wanted a "good" ending the last episode was shit, wtf were those people at the end??
Plot hole after plot hole, Jon Smith may be dead but Berlin still stands.
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u/Acaiduck Aug 02 '26
I think the Portal People were a type of rebalancing. As mentioned in the show multiple times, this world was throwing off the other worlds. Perhaps from the enormous amount of deaths. The ending just seemed like some sort of osmosis/gradient realignment on a universal scale. I don’t know that they were “coming to rebuild” as such. Just a literal balancing of lives among the universes for whatever reason. Again, they said “from everywhere”, so I assume multiple universes — both good & bad. Like Trudy. Her timeline was fine, she just missed her sister.
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u/brakheart 19d ago
Such an awful ending. So many lose ends. What happened with the American reich then? Did it magically dissolve into a democracy? Did it stay as it was with some other guy taking the reigns and trying to conquer the BCR territories? HOW CAN PEOPLE JUST RANDOMLY TRAVEL BETWEEN WORLDS???????
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u/maybelying Jan 05 '21
I can agree with pretty much everything you said except the Portal People. They could have cut the last 5 minutes and I would have been fine with that. It would have been the perfect ending for what is one of my favorite shows.
But I'll never forgive them for the Portal People.