document_title: The Man in the High Castle (TV series)

question_text: the man in the high castle episode 1 season 1

text: The Man in the High Castle (TV series)

text: Synopsis[edit]

text: Season one[edit]

text: The central characters are Juliana Crain, Frank Frink, Joe Blake, John Smith, Nobusuke Tagomi, and Takeshi Kido. The series takes place in an alternate 1962.

text: Juliana Crain is a San Francisco woman who becomes entangled with the resistance when her half-sister Trudy is killed by the Kempeitai, just after giving Juliana a film reel that contains newsreel-style footage depicting an alternate history in which the Allies won World War II and Germany and Japan were defeated. The film is entitled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, and is part of a series of similar newsreels being collected by someone referred to as "The Man in the High Castle". Juliana believes the newsreel reflects some sort of alternate reality and that it is part of some kind of larger truth about how the world should be. Her boyfriend, Frank Frink (who keeps his Jewish roots hidden in order to avoid extradition and death at the hands of the Nazis), believes that the newsreel has no relation to real-life events. Juliana learns Trudy was carrying the film to Canon City, Colorado, in the Neutral Zone, where she was going to meet someone. Juliana decides to travel there in Trudy's place to find out what her half-sister's mission was. When she arrives in Canon City, she encounters Joe Blake.

text: Blake is a 27-year-old New Yorker who is a double agent working for the Nazis under Obergruppenführer John Smith, a former US Army officer who joined the Nazis and rose through the ranks to become a senior officer in the SS. Blake is pretending to be a member of the resistance while he searches for the resistance contact in Canon City, which is Juliana, substituting for Trudy.

text: Nobusuke Tagomi is a high-ranking Japanese official (the Trade Minister) in San Francisco. He meets in secret with Nazi official Rudolph Wegener, who is traveling incognito as Swedish businessman Victore Baynes. Tagomi and Wegener are concerned about the power vacuum that will exist when the Reich's Führer Adolf Hitler dies, or is forced to step down due to his worsening Parkinson's disease. Wegener explains that Hitler's successor will want to use the Reich's nuclear bombs against Japan to gain control of the rest of the former United States. Currently, however, Japan and the Third Reich are engaged in a cold war full of tension but no open warfare, with the Japanese lagging behind the Germans technologically.

text: Frank Frink ends up being arrested when the Japanese and the Nazis become suspicious of Juliana's activities. Not having the information they seek, he is unable to give the Japanese what they are looking for, and they kill Frink's sister and her two children in retaliation, using their Jewish heritage as an excuse for their executions. This leads Frink to plan to kill the visiting Japanese Crown Prince and Princess, but he ultimately decides against going through with his plan.

text: Season two[edit]

text: Season Two of the show broadly encompasses Frank Frink deciding to forgo his hesitancy and relative pacifism and choosing to become a committed member of the American Resistance to the Japanese Empire inside the Pacific States, eventually participating in a successful terrorist bombing of a central-command building of the Pacific States government in downtown San Francisco. The attack kills many members of the Japanese military and other top-level leadership.

text: Juliana Crain claims asylum in the Nazi Reich using their San Francisco Embassy so she can escape Japanese soldiers who hold her responsible for at least one murder. John Smith, seeing that her asylum claim is unlikely to succeed, steps in to the interrogation room and assumes command of her claim himself, ensuring it goes through, and he takes her to New York without Joe Blake's knowledge. Joe Blake himself discovers he was a product of the Lebensborn programme, and also that he is the sole biological son of a top-ranking Nazi official in Berlin, Martin Heusmann. Eventually Blake reconciles with Heusmann on the personal level and, in so doing, becomes second-in-command of the Chancellorship after Adolf Hitler dies and the Nazi leadership in Berlin grants Heusmann the Reich's Acting Chancellor title, which they do quickly and almost by default.

text: Hitler's death is abruptly pinned upon Japanese spies, and Heusmann suddenly announces on television that the Japanese agents whom he claims assassinated the Führer will be brought to justice by any means necessary, including war. John Smith is the only high-ranking Nazi official to be suspicious of the nature of Heusmann's sudden announcement. To gain insight in to why it has happened, he interrogates another high-ranking Nazi, Reinhard Heydrich, who reveals a far-reaching conspiracy led by Heusmann designed to result in a Nazi nuclear onslaught against the Japanese Empire that will kill tens of millions of Japanese, decimate their Empire, level Tokyo, kill their Emperor, and force the surviving Japanese to permanently absorb themselves in to a global Nazi Reich. John Smith undertakes carefully-calculated stealth actions to disrupt and dismantle the Heusmann conspiracy and, as a final act, travels to Berlin and informs Heinrich Himmler — the Nazi Reichsführer and not involved in the conspiracy — of the existence of the conspiracy. Audiotapes, together with physical and written evidence reaching too deep within the existing Reich's power structure to be dismissed as hearsay, are handed personally by John Smith over to the Reichsführer, who then angrily leads Smith and several of his closest Berlin subordinates in to the late Führer's office occupied by the Acting Chancellor. He arrests Heusmann for high treason and the murder of Adolf Hitler, detains Joe Blake along with Heusmann, and then addresses the Volkshalle packed with hundreds of thousands of Reich civilians and uniformed stormtroopers, nixing the war-declaration speech meant to have been delivered by Heusmann and instead informing the Reich of Heusmann's conspiracy and John Smith's exposing of it. Upon learning this, the entire Volkshalle erupts in to a celebratory mood marked by repeated mass Nazi salutes of Himmler's men in general and then John Smith in particular.

text: The second season ends with Himmler and John Smith implicitly assuming command of the Reich, and an implied new era of peace and tranquility between the Japanese Empire and the Greater Nazi Reich. Juliana Crain continues to live out her asylum claim inside New York Nazi territory, and the final few minutes of the final episode of the second season show Trudy (or an alternate-universe version of her) alive and well. In a basement somewhere, John Smith is given access to a room filled to bursting with reels of films watched by the late Führer.

text: Cast[edit]

text: Main[edit]

text:
Alexa Davalos as Juliana Crain, a young woman from San Francisco who is outwardly happy living under Japanese control; she has become an expert in aikido and is friendly with Japanese people living in San Francisco. Her mother harbors hatred of the Japanese, as they killed Juliana's father during the war.
Rupert Evans as Frank Frink, Juliana's boyfriend. He works in a factory, creating replicas of pre-war American pistols that are prized by the Japanese, while on his own time he creates original jewelry and sketches. When Juliana vanishes just after the police kill her sister, Frank is taken into custody, which is particularly dangerous since he had a Jewish grandfather and would face execution if this fact were exposed. His experience with the Japanese causes him to turn against the state.
Luke Kleintank as Joe Blake, a new recruit to the underground American resistance who is actually an agent working for the SS under Obergruppenführer John Smith. He transports a copy of a reel of the forbidden film The Grasshopper Lies Heavy to the neutral Rocky Mountain States as part of his mission to infiltrate the American resistance.
DJ Qualls as Ed McCarthy, Frank's co-worker and friend. He closely follows politics and cares very much about Juliana and Frank's well being.
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Nobusuke Tagomi, the Trade Minister of the Pacific States of America. His true loyalties are ambiguous throughout the first season.
Rufus Sewell as John Smith, an SS Obergruppenführer investigating the Resistance in New York. He is a natural-born American who previously served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps and lives a comfortable suburban life with a wife and three children. It is implied that he embraced Nazism because he grew up in poverty as a result of the Great Depression.
Joel de la Fuente as Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido, the ruthless head of the Kempeitai stationed in San Francisco.
Brennan Brown as Robert Childan, an antique store owner who makes secret deals with Frank. (recurring, season 1; main, season 2)
Callum Keith Rennie as Gary Connell, leader of the West Coast Resistance movement and enforcer for Abendsen. (season 2)[10]
Bella Heathcote as Nicole Becker, a young Berlin-born filmmaker who will cross paths with Joe. (season 2)[11]

text: Recurring[edit]

text:
Carsten Norgaard as Rudolph Wegener, a disillusioned high-ranking Nazi official who trades secrets with Tagomi.
Rick Worthy as Lemuel "Lem" Washington, owner of the Sunrise Diner in Canon City and member of the Resistance.
Camille Sullivan as Karen Vecchione, a leader of the Pacific States branch of the Resistance.
Lee Shorten as Sergeant Hiroyuki Yoshida, Inspector Kido's right-hand man.
Arnold Chun as Kotomichi, Tagomi's assistant.
Hank Harris as Randall Becker, a member of the Pacific States branch of the Resistance
Christine Chatelain as Laura Crothers, Frank's sister.
Allan Havey as the Origami Man, a Nazi spy sent to Canon City to eliminate members of the Resistance.
Burn Gorman as the Marshal, a bounty hunter searching for concentration camp escapees.
Shaun Ross as the Shoe Shine Boy, a young albino man living in Canon City.
Rob LaBelle as Carl, a bookstore clerk in Canon City who is revealed to be a concentration camp escapee named David P. Frees.
Geoffrey Blake as Jason Meyer, a Jewish member of the Resistance.
Michael Gaston as Mark Sampson, a Jew living in the Pacific States; he is Frank's friend
Louis Ozawa Changchien as Paul Kasoura, a wealthy lawyer who collects pre-war American memorabilia.
Tao Okamoto as Betty, Paul's wife.
Daisuke Tsui as the Crown Prince of Japan
Mayumi Yoshida as the Crown Princess of Japan
Amy Okuda as Christine Tanaka, an office worker in the Nippon building.
Hiro Kanagawa as Taishi Okamura, the leader of a Yakuza based in the Pacific States.
Stephen Root as Hawthorne Abendsen/The Man in the High Castle. (season 2)
Sebastian Roché as Reichsminister Martin Heusmann, Joe Blake's estranged father and high-ranking member of the Reich. (season 2)[12]
Cara Mitsuko as Sarah, a Japanese American Resistance member, confidante of Frank and survivor of the Manzanar concentration camp. (season 2)
Tate Donovan as George Dixon, a mysterious friend of the Crains (season 2).
Michael Hogan as Hagan, an ex-preacher and leader in the San Francisco resistance. (season 2)
Tzi Ma as General Hidehisa Onoda, a leading member of the Japanese military. (season 2)

text: John Smith's family[edit]

text:
Chelah Horsdal as Helen Smith, John's wife.
Quinn Lord as Thomas Smith, John and Helen's son and the eldest child. A member of the Hitler Youth, it is later revealed that he has inherited a form of muscular dystrophy from his father's side of the family.
Gracyn Shinyei as Amy Smith, John and Helen's daughter.
Genea Charpentier as Jennifer Smith, John and Helen's daughter.

text: Juliana Crain's family[edit]

text:
Daniel Roebuck as Arnold Walker, Juliana's stepfather and Trudy's father.
Macall Gordon as Anne Crain Walker, Juliana's mother who is still bitter about losing her husband in World War II.
Conor Leslie as Trudy Walker, Juliana's half sister who is shot dead by the Kempeitai. However, she is shown alive at the end of the second season.

text: Nobusuke Tagomi's family[edit]

text:
Yukari Komatsu as Michiko Tagomi, Nobusuke's wife. (season 2)
Eddie Shin as Noriaki Tagomi, Nobusuke and Michiko's son. (season 2)

text: Historical figures[edit]

text:
Wolf Muser as Adolf Hitler.
Ray Proscia as SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich.
Kenneth Tigar as SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler (season 2)
Peter Anderson as Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (season 2)
Lisa Paxton as Eva Braun, Hitler's wife (season 2)

text: Episodes[edit]

text: Season 1 (2015)[edit]

text: The pilot and the second episode were screened at a special Comic-Con event. The season premiered on November 20, 2015.[13][14]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original release date

1
1
"The New World"
David Semel
Frank Spotnitz
January 15, 2015 (2015-01-15)

A young man, Joe Blake, volunteers to serve the resistance by driving a truck from Nazi New York to the neutral zone in the Rockies. In Japan-occupied San Francisco, Juliana Crain receives a package from her sister Trudy, only to see her get shot by the Japanese police. She returns home where her boyfriend Frank urges her to go to the police and tell them she had nothing to do with Trudy's treason. The package contains film of the Allies winning World War II, which Juliana watches. She boards a bus to the Neutral Zone to deliver the film in Trudy's place. A female agent on the bus attempts to steal the film but only escapes with decoys. While Joe befriends Juliana in Canon City, the Kempeitai, who want to know her destination, arrest Frank in San Francisco. Joe calls a Nazi commandant, Smith, revealing that he is working for them.

2
2
"Sunrise"
Daniel Percival
Frank Spotnitz
October 23, 2015 (2015-10-23)

In the Canon City diner, Juliana meets a man she assumes is her contact. Smith tells Joe that the contact is a Sicherheitsdienst (SD) agent trying to stop the resistance, and orders him not to intervene. However, when the SD agent tries to kill Juliana, Joe drives up, and she is able to throw the agent over the railing to his death. In New York, Smith is attacked by resistance fighters. In prison, Frank meets a resistance fighter who convinces him not to inform on Juliana. The Kempeitai kill Frank's sister and her children, but do not kill him when the woman who stole Juliana's bag is found with fake film reels.

3
3
"The Illustrated Woman"
Ken Olin
Thomas Schnauz and Evan Wright
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

Joe spots a Nazi bounty hunter in town, looking for the man Juliana killed. They go to dispose of his body and car, but find a map which leads them to a cave where they find a dead woman and list of names. They realize that Juliana's boss from the diner was her actual contact. Frank breaks the news of his sister and her children's deaths to his brother-in-law. Frank returns to work where he makes a real gun. The bounty hunter realizes Juliana's identity and tries to kill her.

4
4
"Revelations"
Michael Rymer
Thomas Schnauz and Jace Richdale
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

Joe quickly saves Juliana from the Marshal. Joe and Juliana confront Lemuel who leads them into the woods, where they are surrounded by resistance fighters, who force them to give them the films and leave. Joe and Juliana are attacked again by the Marshal, causing Joe to reveal to the Marshal that he is a Nazi agent. The Marshal pursues Juliana on the highway. When Juliana gets far enough, she burns her car and hides. When the Marshal reaches the car, he assumes that she has died. Back in the Reich, SS Captain Connolly is suspected by Smith for telling the resistance members who attacked him, which route he was taking to work. In the Pacific States, Frank heads to the Crown Prince's speech with a gun to assassinate him, but hesitates to do so. The Crown Prince is then shot by an unseen gunman.

5
5
"The New Normal"
Bryan Spicer
Rob Williams
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

The Crown Prince is rushed to the hospital after the attack, and the captain of the Imperial Guard is ordered to commit seppuku, for not protecting the Crown Prince. Kido then states that if he cannot find the gunman, he will do the same. Meanwhile, Juliana returns home to find an angry Frank, who alludes to his time in prison. Juliana visits her parents and learns the Japanese killed Frank's sister and children. When she later reports to the Japanese military, she is interrogated and asked about Trudy's partner Randall but is ultimately let go. She then visits Simone and meets an agent of the resistance who gives her a visitor's card to the government building. Joe returns to New York from the Neutral Zone and is kidnapped by Gestapo agents and brought to Smith's office. He is then forced to tell Smith what happened in Canon City. Smith tells Joe he has failed in his mission because the leader of the resistance escaped. Smith believes Joe is being truthful and invites him over for VA day (Victory in America day).

6
6
"Three Monkeys"
Nelson McCormick
Rob Williams
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

Joe celebrates VA day at Smith's house. Juliana accepts a job working for Tagomi as she continues her search for answers. Smith, who has received intelligence about Wegener's activities but also happens to be an old friend, intercepts him at the airport and invites him for dinner hoping to probe Wegener for answers. Smith has Wegener arrested. Smith catches Joe sneaking through his files.

7
7
"Truth"
Brad Anderson
Emma Frost
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

Juliana makes a startling discovery about her sister's death. Frank reflects on recent events and makes an important decision about his future, and Tagomi gains greater insight into Juliana's past. Smith catches Joe in his home office and interrogates him about Juliana and Canon City.

8
8
"End of the World"
Karyn Kusama
Walon Green
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

Juliana and Frank make plans to escape the Pacific States, only to be dragged back into danger by Joe as he tries to retrieve a new film, and walks directly into the Kempeitai's ambush. Meanwhile, Smith's loyalty is put to the ultimate test when confronted with a startling family discovery. The episode is named after the song of the same name, which is performed by Lini Evans during the episode with Japanese lyrics she co-wrote.

9
9
"Kindness"
Michael Slovis
Jace Richdale
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

With time running out, a desperate Frank is forced to put his life on the line to help Joe. The pieces finally fall into place for Smith as he uncovers who was behind the assassination attempt. Tagomi is devastated when he is confronted with the consequences of his scheming, and Kido's investigation takes a dramatic turn when he makes an important discovery. Meanwhile, Frank and Juliana, after taking possession of the new film, decide to watch it, but they are shocked to find out that the film describes, apparently in the near future, a nuclear-bombed San Francisco where the SS are rounding up and executing survivors; Frank is shown being executed by Joe, who is wearing an SS uniform.

10
10
"A Way Out"
Daniel Percival
Rob Williams
November 20, 2015 (2015-11-20)

Frank and Juliana angrily confront Joe as a Nazi agent. He goes to the Nazi embassy with the film. Joe learns that Heydrich is preparing a trap. Kido acts on the information from the Yakuza and kills the Nazi sniper that shot the Crown Prince. Ed is caught with Frank's gun and is used as a scapegoat for the attempted assassination of the Crown Prince, averting the need for Kido to commit seppuku. Heydrich demands Smith's loyalty ahead of Wegener assassinating Hitler. Wegener says goodbye to his family and travels to Hitler's alpine castle (filmed at Hohenwerfen Castle), but after confronting Hitler (who is watching the alternate newsreels in his huge film vault saying that he learns something every time he watches), kills himself instead. Smith captures the traitor Heydrich and reports such to Hitler. Joe evades Lem's ambush and boards a boat to Mexico in Juliana's place. Frank finds out that Ed has been arrested and returns to the Kempeitai headquarters to find him being detained. Tagomi goes to Union Square to meditate with Juliana's charm and opens his eyes to find himself in an alternate 1962 where the Allies won World War II and America is in the midst of the Cuban Missile Crisis.

text: Season 2 (2016)[edit]

text: The second season was released on December 16, 2016.[15]

text:
No.
overall
No. in
season
Title
Directed by
Written by
Original release date

11
1
"The Tiger's Cave"
Daniel Percival
Frank Spotnitz
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Joe returns to New York to hand over the film to Smith and request for his resignation, but Smith denies his request before delivering the film to Hitler. Karen and Lem confront Juliana for not shooting Joe before she is tranquilized. She wakes up in the home of Hawthorne Abendsen, The Man in the High Castle, and his vast film collection. Meanwhile, General Onoda reveals to Tagomi and his staff that the capsule Science Minister Shimada found in his pocket contains the plans for a nuclear weapon that the Empire intends to use to crush the Nazis, much to Tagomi's dismay. Frank confronts Arnold about spying over his own family. Desperate to clear Ed's name, Frank goes to Childan and asks for his help. Juliana attempts to get answers from an evasive Abendsen and receives a clue which may help to avert nuclear war. Gary Connell, leader of the West Coast Resistance, goes against orders and tries to kill Juliana, but she escapes at a Kempeitai checkpoint. A gunfight ensues between the Resistance members and the Japanese soldiers. Karen is killed in the crossfire.

12
2
"The Road Less Traveled"
Colin Bucksey
Rob Williams
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Kido investigates the shootout at the checkpoint and suspects Juliana is involved. Frank decides to get Paul Kasoura, who is a defense lawyer, to help Ed. In desperation, he reveals to Kasoura that the antique goods he and Childan sold him are fake, leading the pair to be imprisoned by the Yakuza, to whom Kasoura has a connection. Frank is almost killed by Okamura, the Yakuza leader, in the previous incident with Joe. However, he manages to convince Okamura to allow him to repay his debt for the forgery, with a condition that Ed is to work with him as his assistant. Kido is forced by Okamura to release Ed. He later pins the assassination of the Crown Prince on the deceased Karen. Joe is ordered by Smith to visit his father, a Reichminister named Heusmann, in Berlin. Smith tells Joe that Juliana is possibly dead. Meanwhile, Juliana evades Gary and Lem and tries to convince her parents to leave San Francisco, to no avail. Using the clue on a mysterious man that Abendsen is fixated on, Juliana discovers the man is a family friend named George Dixon, who is Trudy's real father. Learning he may be in Brooklyn, Juliana risks her life to reach the Nazi embassy and request asylum, while leaving a letter to Frank.

13
3
"Travelers"
Daniel Sackheim
Erik Oleson
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Smith is warned by Dr. Adler, the family physician, to end his son Thomas's life, as the boy's incurable illness prevents him from being accepted in the Reich. Juliana makes it to New York and is questioned by Smith, who is notified of her arrival and arranges her stay. He keeps this a secret from Joe. Frank learns of Juliana's defection to the Nazi states, though he does not believe Gary on her betrayal. While he works with Ed and Childan to create forgeries for the Yakuza to repay his debt, Frank is convinced by the Resistance to help them liberate innocent citizens from the Kempeitai in retaliation for the checkpoint murders. While saving a Resistance member named Sarah, Frank commits his first kill against the Japanese. Juliana looks for Joe but is told by his ex-lover that he has rejoined the Nazis, leading her to think he may have betrayed her. Joe travels to Berlin and meets with his father but is distant due to the latter's treatment of his mother. He crosses paths with Nicole Becker, a filmmaker. Smith is unable to kill his son when given the chance to do so. He meets with Dr. Adler and kills him to ensure his silence.

14
4
"Escalation"
David Petrarca
Wesley Strick
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Juliana adjusts to life in the Reich under the tutelage of Smith's wife Helen and Thomas. While looking for George Dixon at his old apartment, she is pursued by two unknown agents and almost killed. General Onoda has the Kempeitai execute numerous citizens for the murder of the Japanese soldiers during the Resistance rescue. Enraged, Frank starts to neglect his debt with the Yakuza and accepts a risky assignment to siphon materials from an unexploded Japanese bomb for a Resistance mission, much to Ed's dismay. Frank begins to get close with Sarah during the assignment. Smith reveals to a suspecting Helen that he killed Dr. Adler to keep their son's illness a secret. Kido gets Onoda drunk and tricks him into approving an unknown order. After escaping from her pursuers, Juliana is approached by Dixon. Tagomi travels to the alternate timeline once again and sees his still-living wife Michiko, who is deceased in his own timeline.

15
5
"Duck and Cover"
John Fawcett
Erik Oleson & Rick Cleveland
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Dixon is revealed to be a Resistance leader and meets up with Juliana after she tells him that the Man in the High Castle sent her. Juliana tells him he may be somehow involved in the possible San Francisco bombing as he has appeared several times in the films. Dixon forces Juliana to spy on Smith and his family to redeem her betrayal when she allowed Joe to escape with the film. Joe is upset when his father brings him to his place of birth and reveals he is one of the Lebensborn, an experiment to perfect racial purity. Despite this, he takes up his father's offer to remain in Berlin for a few more days. Kido attempts to use Onoda's approval to extradite Juliana from the Nazi states, though he fails and reveals his motive for visiting Smith for an unknown reason. Frank becomes further involved with the Resistance while Ed is revealed to be under the control of the Kempeitai to report on the Yakuza's counterfeiting activities in exchange for his and Frank's lives. Lem assists Abendsen in moving to a new location under the possibility the location of the High Castle is compromised and Abendsen destroys most of the films before leaving. Tagomi reveals himself to the alternate Michiko and his son Noriyuke, but discovers the alternate Tagomi's relationship with them is estranged. He is shocked to see Noriyuke married to an alternate Juliana with their son.

16
6
"Kintsugi"
Paul Holahan
Francesca Gardiner
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Juliana starts to socialize with the Ladies Committee as planned and gains the support of one of the members, Lucy. Helen discovers Thomas has been selected by the Hitler Youth group to go for an expedition in South America. She forbids her son to go until she finds out that Smith arranged to have their son disappear from society by staging a fake abduction and live a life of anonymity. Joe starts to get closer to Nicole, who reveals herself as one of the Lebensborn and brings him to meet with some of the others. After spending the night with Nicole, Joe begins to embrace his real heritage. Tagomi attempts to mend his alternate self's relationship with his family, and is dismayed by the alternate Noriyuke's foregoing of the Japanese culture. Kido is informed by his right hand man, Yoshida, that they have found Abendsen's burnt hideout and learns the Yakuza is also looking for the films.

17
7
"Land O' Smiles"
Karyn Kusama
Rob Williams
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Ed and Childan go to Okamura to repay their debt with the sale from Frank's forgery but are locked up in a storage room when Kido and his men pay a visit. Kido kills Okamura and the Yakuza members present for treason as he has deduced the Yakuza are working with the Nazis. Yoshida discovers Ed and Childan but lets them go. Frank is tasked to plant a bomb at the harbor where General Onoda is visiting. However, Frank aborts the mission when he discovers that the Japanese are secretly building an atomic bomb there and alerts the Resistance of this information. While at Adler's funeral, Smith is dismayed when Adler's wife Alice raises her suspicion on her husband's sudden death and plans to have an autopsy performed. Juliana also attends the funeral and while talking to Thomas, she notices he has a seizure and covers for him. Later, she promises Helen that she will not reveal Thomas's condition. Smith has further troubles when Heinrich Himmler informs him that Hitler has suffered a collapse.

18
8
"Loose Lips"
Alex Zakrzewski
Rick Cleveland
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Smith questions Juliana about Joe's film and learns of San Francisco's impending destruction. Lucy tells Juliana she knows that supposedly live footage of Hitler is actually archival because her husband manages the TV broadcast. Juliana shares with Dixon her belief that Hitler may be dead. The Resistance decide it is time to stage an uprising, leaving Juliana concerned that she may have caused the nuclear catastrophe she is trying to prevent. Heusmann is made Acting Chancellor while Joe decides to support his father. Frank learns from Arnold that Juliana has warned them to leave San Francisco and has not betrayed him. Enraged, he confronts Gary but the Resistance is determined to go ahead with the uprising. Armed with the knowledge from Juliana and Kido, Smith misleads a secretly imprisoned Heydrich into thinking Germany and Japan are already at war, leading Heydrich to confirm what Smith has suspected: a conspiracy to create a pretext for war with the Japanese exists among the Nazi ranks. Smith executes Heydrich, but not before learning he is not the mastermind behind the rush to war. Hitler passes away, leaving Heusmann in charge, and the new Chancellor is revealed to have orchestrated the looming conflict.

19
9
"Detonation"
Chris Long
Wesley Strick
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Tagomi watches a film with his alternate family showing the recent test detonation of a hydrogen bomb at Bikini Atoll. Finally resolved to stop war between Japan and the Nazis, Tagomi takes the film and returns to his reality. Thomas confides to Juliana about his condition, unaware that their conversation is being recorded. Smith later learns of the tape and takes it to protect Thomas' secret. In a televised address, Heusmann frames the Japanese for Hitler's death by poison and promises retaliation much to Joe's horror. Frank decides to assist the Resistance in assassinating Onoda using their homemade bombs. Before the operation, he convinces Ed and Childan to leave San Francisco. Frank and Sarah smuggle a car bomb into the Kempeitai HQ underground parking garage. They set the bomb timer and attempt to leave the building, but are spotted by Kido, which starts a gunfight in the lobby. Just as Tagomi arrives, the bomb detonates, killing General Onoda and his staff and collapsing most of the building. Frank and Sarah's fate is not shown.

20
10
"Fallout"
Daniel Percival
Erik Oleson
December 16, 2016 (2016-12-16)

Tagomi and Kido, who survived the bombing, deal with the aftermath of the destruction of the Kempeitai HQ. Afterwards, Kido travels to New York and plays the film for Smith appearing to provide evidence that the Japanese possess a hydrogen bomb. The resistance attempts to avenge Karen's death by killing Juliana, but she escapes and kills Susan in the process. She then confronts and kills Dixon, who was threatening to expose Smith by broadcasting the tape of her conversation with Thomas. Smith travels to Berlin with the film to convince the Nazi higher-ups not to attack Japan out of fear of nuclear retaliation and meets privately with Himmler, exposing Heusmann as the traitor. After arresting Heusmann and Joe, Himmler addresses the worldwide public from the Volkshalle, possibly assuming control of the Reich, and rewards Smith for his service. The recognition Smith receives inspires Thomas to turn himself over to the Public Health Department to be euthanized. After traveling to the Neutral Zone, a bereft Juliana learns from Abendsen that hope remains and that her sister is alive. Finally, Lem hands over Abendsen's remaining films to Tagomi.

text: Production[edit]

text: In 2010, it was announced that the BBC would co-produce a four-part TV adaptation of The Man in the High Castle for BBC One together with Headline Pictures, FremantleMedia Enterprises and Scott Free Films. Director Ridley Scott was to act as executive producer of the adaptation by Howard Brenton.[16]

text: On February 11, 2013, Variety reported that Syfy was adapting the book as a four-part miniseries, with Ridley Scott and Frank Spotnitz as executive producers, co-produced with Scott Free Prods., Headline Pictures and Electric Shepherd Prods.[17]

text: On October 1, 2014, Amazon.com began filming the pilot episode in Roslyn, Washington,[18] for a new television drama to be aired on their Prime web video streaming service.[19] This has been adapted by Frank Spotnitz and is being produced for Amazon by Ridley Scott, David Zucker and Jordan Sheehan for Scott Free, Stewart Mackinnon and Christian Baute for Headline Pictures, Isa Hackett and Kalen Egan for Electric Shepherd and Spotnitz's Big Light Productions.[1] The pilot episode was released by Amazon Studios on January 15, 2015.[20] Amazon Studios' production process is somewhat different from those of other conventional television channels. They produce pilot episodes of a number of different prospective programs, then release them and gather data on their success. The most promising shows are then picked up as regular series. On February 18, 2015, Amazon.com announced that The Man in the High Castle was given the green-light along with four other series, and a full season would be produced.[21]

text: Production for the pilot episode began in October 2014. Principal filming took place in Seattle, with the city standing in for San Francisco and locations in New York City, as well as Roslyn, Washington, which was the long-time shooting location for Northern Exposure. Sites used in Seattle include the Seattle Center Monorail, the Paramount Theatre, a newspaper office in the Pike Place Market area, as well as various buildings in the city's Capitol Hill, International District, and Georgetown neighborhoods. In Roslyn, the production used external shots of the Roslyn Cafe which featured prominently in Northern Exposure along with several local businesses and scenery.[18][22]

text: In April 2015, filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the downtown area of West Georgia Street, along the promenade of the Coast Capital Savings building.[23] In May and June 2015 filming also took place at the University of British Columbia.[24] Exterior shots of Hohenwerfen Castle in Werfen, Austria, were filmed in September 2015 for the tenth episode of the first season.[25]

text: Amazon announced that they were bringing on new executive producer and showrunner Eric Overmyer for season three to replace Frank Spotnitz after his sudden departure from the show during the middle of season two.[26]

text: Reception[edit]

text: The first season of The Man in the High Castle received acclaim from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives season 1 an approval rating of 95% based on reviews from 58 critics, with an average rating of 7.54 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states, "By executive producer Ridley Scott, The Man in the High Castle is unlike anything else on TV, with an immediately engrossing plot driven by quickly developed characters in a fully realized post-WWII dystopia."[27] Metacritic gives the first season a score of 77 out of 100, based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[28]

text: Meredith Woerner from io9 wrote, "I can honestly say I loved this pilot. It's an impressive, streamlined undertaking of a fairly complicated and very beloved novel."[29] Matt Fowler from IGN gave 9.2 out of 10 and described the series as a "a superb, frightening experience filled with unexpected twists and (some sci-fi) turns."[30] Brian Moylan of The Guardian was positive and praised the convincing depiction as well as the complex, and gripping, plot.[31] The Los Angeles Times described the pilot as "provocative" and "smartly adapted by The X-Files' Frank Spotnitz." The Daily Telegraph said it was "absorbing" and Wired called it "must-see viewing." Entertainment Weekly said it was "engrossing" and "a triumph in world-building," cheering, "The Man in the High Castle is king."

text: After its first season, Rolling Stone included it on a list of the forty best science fiction television shows of all time.[32]

text: Amazon subsequently announced it was the service's most-streamed original series and had been renewed for a second season.[33][34] Season 2 was met with mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives the second season an approval rating of 63% based on reviews from 19 critics, with an average rating of 6.86 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states, "Although its plot is admittedly unwieldy, The Man in the High Castle's second season expands its fascinating premise in powerful new directions, bolstered by stunning visuals, strong performances, and intriguing new possibilities."[35] Metacritic gives season 2 a score of 62 out of 100, based on reviews from ten critics.[36]

text: Accolades[edit]

text:
Year
Award
Category
Nominee(s)
Result

2015
IGN Awards[37]
Best New TV Series
The Man in the High Castle
Nominated

South by Southwest Awards[citation needed]
Excellence in Title Design
Patrick Clair
Nominated

2016
American Society of Cinematographers Awards[38]
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography in Television Movie, Mini-Series or Pilot
James Hawkinson (Episode: "The New World")
Nominated

Creative Arts Emmy Awards[39]
Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series
James Hawkinson
Won

Outstanding Main Title Design
Patrick Clair, Paul Kim, Jose Limon, Raoul Marks
Won

Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Contemporary or Fantasy Program (One Hour or More)
Drew Boughton, Linda King, Brenda Meyers-Ballard
Nominated

Outstanding Special Visual Effects
The Man in the High Castle
Nominated

Critics' Choice Television Awards[40]
Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series
Rufus Sewell
Nominated

Monte-Carlo Television Festival[citation needed]
Best TV Series Drama
The Man in the High Castle
Nominated

Saturn Awards[41]
Best New Media Television Series
The Man in the High Castle
Nominated

USC Scripter Awards[42]
Best Television Script
Frank Spotnitz and Philip K. Dick
Nominated

Visual Effects Society Awards[43]
Outstanding Created Environment in an Episode, Commercial, or Real-Time Project
Casi Blume, David Andrade, Nick Chamberlain, Lawson Deming
Nominated

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode
Lawson Deming, Cory Jamieson, Casi Blume, Nick Chamberlain
Nominated

Young Artist Awards[44]
Best Performance in a TV Series – Recurring Young Actor (14–21)
Quinn Lord
Nominated

2017
Artios Awards[45]
Television Pilot And First Season - Drama
Denise Chamian, Liz Ludwitzke, Candice Elzinga, Patti Kalles
Nominated

Creative Arts Emmy Awards[46]
Outstanding Cinematography for a Single-Camera Series (One Hour)
James Hawkinson
Nominated

Outstanding Original Creative Achievement in Interactive Media within a Scripted Program
"Resistance Radio"
Nominated

Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Period Program (One Hour or More)
Drew Boughton, Dawn Swiderski, Jon Lancaster
Nominated

Outstanding Special Visual Effects
Lawson Deming, Cory Jamieson, Casi Blume, Nick Chamberlain, David Andrade, Bill Parker, Justin Fox, Danielle Malambri
Nominated

Costume Designers Guild Awards[47]
Outstanding Fantasy Television Series
J.R. Hawbaker
Nominated

Leo Awards[48]
Best Guest Performance by a Male in a Dramatic Series
Kurt Evans
Nominated

Best Supporting Performance by a Female in a Dramatic Series
Chelah Horsdal
Won

Location Managers Guild Awards[49]
Outstanding Locations in a Period TV Series
Nicole Noelle Chartrand, Robert Murdoch
Nominated

Saturn Awards[50]
Best New Media Television Series
The Man in the High Castle
Nominated

text: Advertising controversy[edit]

text: As part of an advertising campaign for the release of the first season, one entire New York City Subway car was covered with Nazi and Imperial Japanese imagery as seen in the show, including multiple American flags with the Nazi eagle emblem in place of the 50 stars and multiple flags of the fictional Pacific States.[51] In response to criticism from "state lawmakers and city leaders", the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) released a statement saying that there were no grounds to reject the ads due to the fact that neutral content subway ad standards only prohibit advertising that is a political advertisement or disparages an individual or group. MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz stated that, "The MTA is a government agency and can't accept or reject ads based on how we feel about them; we have to follow the standards approved by our board. Please note they're commercial ads." Spokesperson Adam Lisberg said, "This advertising, whether you find it distasteful or not, obviously they're not advertising Nazism; they're advertising a TV show." After complaints from New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, initial reports indicated that Amazon pulled the advertisement from the subway. It was later announced that it was the MTA, not Amazon, that pulled the ad, due to pressure from Governor Cuomo.[52]


document_title: Helter Skelter (Manson scenario)

question_text: where does the term helter skelter come from

root

text: Helter Skelter (Manson scenario)

text: Background[edit]

text: Manson had been predicting racial war for some time before he used the term Helter Skelter.[3] His first use of the term was at a gathering of the Family on New Year's Eve 1968. This took place at the Family's base at Myers Ranch, near California's Death Valley.[3][4]

tag: p

text: In its final form, which was reached by mid-February 1969,[5] the scenario had Manson as not only the war's ultimate beneficiary but its musical cause. He and the Family would create an album with songs whose messages concerning the war would be as subtle as those he had heard in songs of the Beatles.[6][7] More than merely foretell the conflict, this would trigger it; for, in instructing "the young love",[8] America's white youth, to join the Family, it would draw the young, white female hippies out of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury.[5][9][10]

text: Black men, thus deprived of the white women whom the political changes of the 1960s had made sexually available to them, would be without an outlet for their frustrations and would lash out in violent crimes against whites.[10][11] A resultant murderous rampage against blacks by frightened whites would then be exploited by militant blacks to provoke an internecine war of near-extermination between racist and non-racist whites over blacks' treatment. Then the militant blacks would arise to sneakily finish off the few whites they would know to have survived; indeed, they would kill off all non-blacks.[12][13][14]

text: In this holocaust, the members of the enlarged Family would have little to fear; they would wait out the war in a secret city that was underneath Death Valley that they would reach through a hole in the ground. As the only actual remaining whites upon the race war's true conclusion, they would emerge from underground to rule the now-satisfied blacks, who, as the vision went, would be incapable of running the world. At that point, Manson "would scratch [the black man's] fuzzy head and kick him in the butt and tell him to go pick the cotton and go be a good nigger".[13][15]

text: The term "Helter Skelter" was from the Beatles song of that name, which referred to the British amusement-park ride of that name but was interpreted by Manson as concerned with the war.[6] The song was on the Beatles' White Album, first heard by Manson within a month or so of its November 1968 release:[16]

text: Former Manson follower Catherine Share, in a 2009 documentary called Manson, for Cineflix Productions et al., claimed:

text: When the Beatles' White Album came out, Charlie listened to it over and over and over and over again. He was quite certain that the Beatles had tapped in to his spirit, the truth—that everything was gonna come down and the black man was going to rise. It wasn't that Charlie listened to the White Album and started following what he thought the Beatles were saying. It was the other way around. He thought that the Beatles were talking about what he had been expounding for years. Every single song on the White Album, he felt that they were singing about us. The song 'Helter Skelter'—he was interpreting that to mean the blacks were gonna go up and the whites were gonna go down.[17]

text: Fulfillment[edit]

text: In the months before the murders were conceived, Manson and his followers began preparing for Helter Skelter, which they thought inevitable. In addition to working on songs for the hoped-for album, which would set off everything, they prepared vehicles and other items for their escape from the Los Angeles area (their home territory) to Death Valley when the days of violence would arrive. They pored over maps to plot a route that would bypass highways and get them to the desert safely. Indeed, Manson was convinced that the song "Helter Skelter" contained a coded statement of the route they should follow.[1]:244–5[18]

text: Manson had said the war would start in the summer of 1969.[11] In late June of that year, months after he had been frustrated in his efforts to get the album made,[18] he told a male Family member that Helter Skelter was "ready to happen".[19] "Blackie never did anything without whitey showin' him how," he said. "It looks like we're gonna have to show blackie how to do it."[19]

text: On August 8, 1969, the day Manson instructed his followers to carry out the first of two sets of notorious murders, he told the Family, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter."[20] When the murderers returned to Spahn Ranch, the Family's Los Angeles area headquarters, after the crime, Manson asked Tex Watson, the sole man among them, whether it had been Helter Skelter. "Yeah, it was sure Helter Skelter," Watson replied.[21]

text: At the conclusion of the second set of murders, the following night (August 9–10), one of the killers wrote "Healter  [sic] Skelter" on the refrigerator of the house in which the murders took place. That, along with other references to Beatles songs, particularly "Piggies", was written in blood.[22][23]

text: References to the Beatles and the Book of Revelation[edit]

text: When the Beatles first came to the United States, in February 1964, Charles Manson was an inmate in the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island, in southern Puget Sound. He was serving a sentence for attempting to cash a forged U.S. Treasury check;[1]:142–3 he was 29 years old.[1]:136 His fellow inmates found his interest in the British rock group "almost an obsession". Taught by inmate Alvin Karpis to play the steel guitar, Manson told many persons that "given the chance, he could be much bigger than the Beatles."[1]:145[24]

text: To the Family, a few years later, Manson spoke of the Beatles as "the soul" and "part of 'the hole in the infinite'".[5] When he delivered the Helter Skelter prophecy around the campfire at Myers Ranch, the Family members believed it:

text: [A]t that point Charlie's credibility seemed indisputable. For weeks he had been talking of revolution, prophesying it. We had listened to him rap; we were geared for it—making music to program the young love. Then, from across the Atlantic, the hottest music group in the world substantiates Charlie with an album which is almost blood-curdling in its depiction of violence. It was uncanny.[5]

text: In My Life with Charles Manson, Paul Watkins wrote that Manson "spent hours quoting and interpreting Revelation to the Family, particularly verses from chapter 9".[18] In an autobiography written with assistance some years after the murders, Tex Watson said that, apart from Chapter 9 of the Book of Revelation, the Bible had "absolutely no meaning in our life in the Family".[6] (Even so, Watson stated that "we... knew that Charlie was Jesus Christ.")[6]

text: For a period in his childhood, Manson lived with an aunt and uncle, while his mother was in prison. He later told a counselor that the aunt and uncle had "some marital difficulty until they became interested in religion and became very extreme".[1]:137

text: Beatles lyrics, as interpreted by Manson[edit]

text: "I Will"

tag: ul

text: "Honey Pie"

text: "Don't Pass Me By"

text: "Yer Blues"

text: "Blue Jay Way"

text: "Sexy Sadie"

text: "Rocky Raccoon"

text: "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"

text: While in the Death Valley area after the New Year's Eve gathering at which Manson announced Helter Skelter, the Family played over and over the White Album's five following songs:[5]

text: "Blackbird"

text: Helter Skelter

text: "Piggies"

text: "Revolution 1"

text: "Revolution 9"

text: In his autobiography, Tex Watson tied the prophecy to one more White Album song, "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey", though he changed monkey to monkeys, plural. While on LSD at a party in late March 1969, Watson explained, he and two Manson girls realized they themselves were "the monkeys... just bright-eyed, free little animals, totally uninhibited". As they started "bouncing around the apartment, throwing food against the walls, and laughing hysterically", they were, in their own view (if not that of the others in attendance), "all love—spontaneous, childlike love". It would seem Watson took the song's "me and my monkey[s]" to signify Manson and the Family, though he does not say it that way; he fails to indicate whether the interpretation was brought to Manson's attention.[38]

text: Manson himself invoked "Yellow Submarine", a Beatles song that was released in 1966 and that inspired an animated movie of the same title. The movie was released in the United States in November 1968, within a week or so of the White Album. In the first months of 1969, after he had delivered the Helter Skelter prophecy around the New Year's Eve campfire near Death Valley, Manson applied the name "Yellow Submarine" to a canary-yellow, Canoga Park house to which the Family repaired at his instruction. There, as they would prepare for Helter Skelter, they would be "submerged beneath the awareness of the outside world".[5]

text: Book of Revelation, as interpreted by Manson[edit]

text: CHAPTER 7[39]

text: CHAPTER 9:[43]

text: CHAPTER 10:[53]

text: CHAPTER 16:[56]

text: CHAPTER 21:[58]

text: CHAPTER 22:[59]

text: Synthesis[edit]

text: To Manson, the synthesis of Beatles and Bible was hardly to be questioned:

text: Look at [the Beatles'] songs: songs sung all over the world by the young love; it ain't nothin' new.... It's written in... Revelation, all about the four angels programming the holocaust…the four angels looking for the fifth angel to lead the people into the pit of fire…right out to Death Valley. ... It's all in black and white, in The White Album—white, so there ain't no mistakin' the color....[18]

text: Abbey Road epilogue[edit]

text: If Manson's interest in and references to Magical Mystery Tour constituted a prologue to his focus on the White Album, there was also a kind of epilogue in the form of Family references to Abbey Road, the Beatles album that came after the White Album.

text: Abbey Road was released in the United Kingdom in late September 1969,[61][62][63] after the murders. By that time, most of the Family was at the group's camp in the Death Valley area, searching for the Bottomless Pit.[1]:233 Around October 1 (the U.S. release date),[64] three Family members arrived at the camp with an advance copy of the album, which the group played on a battery-operated machine.[65]

text: In the second week of October, the desert redoubts were raided by law officers who found the Family with stolen vehicles, including dune buggies; Manson and several others were arrested.[1]:126–8 By mid-November, when Manson had become a suspect in the Tate-LaBianca murders, Family members who had been released from jail had made their way back to Spahn Ranch.[66] There, on November 25, 1969, the LAPD confiscated a door on which someone had written "Helter Scelter  [sic] is coming down fast."[1]:294

text: A photograph shows the confiscated door was also inscribed with "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 — ALL GOOD CHILDREN (Go to Heaven?)"  [sic].[67] This children's rhyme is heard in "You Never Give Me Your Money", a song that appears on Abbey Road. In October 1970, the prosecution offered testimony about the door during Manson's trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders; but only the "Helter Skelter" inscription seems to have been noted.[1]:376

text: In late September or early October 1969,[68] before the arrests, Tex Watson had left the desert camp and gone on to separate himself from the Family. Late in the separation, he, too, bought a cassette recording of Abbey Road. Walking for miles across the desert to rejoin the Family in late October, he played his tape continuously to see what The Beatles might have to tell him. When, at the last moment, he turned back, an old prospector informed him the arrests had taken place. Watson returned to his native Texas, where his own arrest, for the Tate-LaBianca murders, occurred a month later.[69]

text: In late July 1970, while Manson was on trial, three persons were hacked, two fatally, on the beach near Santa Barbara, California. One of the Manson girls spoke of this incident as "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", an Abbey Road song that plainly is about homicidal madness.[70]

text: Timeline[edit]

text:
March 21: Charles Manson, aged 32, is released from Terminal Island, San Pedro, California, after seven years' imprisonment for attempting to cash a forged government check. He is granted permission to move to San Francisco.[1]:146
Summer: Manson and the first members of what will come to be known as his Family leave the San Francisco area in an old school bus they modified in hippie style.[71] In an alternate account, some months of Manson travels and acquisition of Family members precede the group's departure from San Francisco in the school bus, around November 10.[72]
November 27: The Beatles' album Magical Mystery Tour is released in the United States.[73] The Family will come to call its geographical and psychological movement in the school bus "the Magical Mystery Tour".[26]

text:
April 4: Martin Luther King, Jr., is assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
Late spring: Having ended up in the Los Angeles area after months of roaming through the West Coast and the Southwest,[1]:174 Manson and the Family become associated with The Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson after Wilson picks up two female Family members hitchhiking in Malibu. Several Family members begin living in Wilson's Pacific Palisades home while, by midsummer,[74] others will be living at the Spahn Ranch in (or near) Chatsworth.[1]:250 During the spring/summer of 1968, Dennis Wilson also introduces Manson to his friend Terry Melcher, a record producer who has worked not only with the Beach Boys, but also with The Byrds, Paul Revere & the Raiders, The Mamas & the Papas, and many other L.A.-based musical acts.
August 9: Gregg Jakobson, another music industry friend of Dennis Wilson, pays for studio time to record songs written and performed by Manson.[1]:214
August: Three weeks before the lease on his house is to run out, Dennis Wilson has his manager evict the Family members from it.[1]:251
October 31: Having been consolidated at the Spahn Ranch since the eviction from Dennis Wilson's house, the Family members set out in a new school bus (purchased September 1)[75] toward Death Valley to set up an alternate base.[76]
November 1: The Family members arrive at the Death Valley area's Golar Wash, maybe 120 miles (190 km) north of Los Angeles and 90 miles (140 km) west of Las Vegas. They load themselves into the unused Myers Ranch, which is owned by the grandmother of a new Family member.[76]
November 3: When Manson and Family member Paul Watkins take a short trip from Golar Wash to visit "Ma Barker", owner of another unused (or little-used) ranch,[77] not far from Myers, Manson presents himself and Watkins to her as musicians in need of a residence congenial to their work. When she agrees to let them stay at the ranch if they'll fix what needs fixing, Manson honors her with one of The Beach Boys' gold records, several of which he'd been given by Dennis Wilson. On the way back to Golar Wash, Watkins, who has seen a newspaper while they've been on their trek, mentions a police shooting of a young black in San Francisco; Manson replies that a black revolt has been building up for years. He says the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr., is a "heavy number."[76]
November 13: Animated movie Yellow Submarine, based on the song of the same name by The Beatles, is released in the United States.[78]
November 25: Release of the Beatles' White Album (formal name, The Beatles) in the United States.[79] (Release in the United Kingdom was November 22.)[79][80][81]
Mid-December: Family member Paul Watkins and two female Family members go to Los Angeles for a few days. While they're there, they see Yellow Submarine.[5]
Before the end of December: While back at Spahn Ranch, Manson and Charles "Tex" Watson visit an acquaintance in nearby Topanga Canyon. When, in response to a question from the acquaintance, they tell him they haven't heard the new Beatles album, he plays it for them.[82]
New Year's Eve: Around a campfire on a bitter cold night at the Myers Ranch, the Family members listen as Manson lays out the prophecy of Helter Skelter.[83]

text:
~January 10: Word comes from Manson, who is in Los Angeles, that the Family is to move from the desert to a house he's found in Canoga Park. Because the canary-yellow house is a place where the Family, preparing for Helter Skelter, will be "submerged beneath the awareness of the outside world," Manson dubs it the Yellow Submarine.[5]
Mid-February: While riding in a car with Paul Watkins, Manson sees a white woman and a black man holding hands on the street. He explains to Watkins that that's why black men have not yet risen up in rebellion against whites: they're pacified by access to white women.[5][10]
Before mid-March: In preparation for a visit they are for some reason expecting from Dennis Wilson's friend Terry Melcher, owner of a record company, Family members clean the Canoga Park house, set up their instruments, and prepare vegetables, lasagna, salad, French bread, freshly baked cookies, and marijuana. They are hoping Melcher will agree to record the music they've been preparing to trigger Helter Skelter; Melcher doesn't arrive.[6][18]
March 23: Entering uninvited upon 10050 Cielo Drive, which he has known as the residence of Terry Melcher, Manson gets a cool reception from a male friend of Sharon Tate, who, with her husband, Roman Polanski, is the new lessee; Tate looks on. Manson, who possibly knows Melcher no longer lives at the place, has come calling for someone and is told to check the guest house; after briefly going back to the guest house, he leaves. In the evening, when he enters the property again, Manson is received with an equal lack of enthusiasm, at the guest house, by landlord Rudi Altobelli, an entertainment-industry figure who had met him the previous summer through Dennis Wilson. Though Manson asks for Melcher, he prolongs the conversation with Altobelli and attempts to establish a connection with him. Altobelli, who will be going to Europe the next day, lies that he will be out of the United States for a year; he gives Manson incomplete information about Melcher's new location. In learning that Manson had been directed to the guest house by persons at the main house, Altobelli expresses his wish that Manson not disturb his tenants. Manson leaves; Tate later asks Altobelli whether "that creepy-looking guy" showed up at the guest house.[1]:226, 228–31
~April 1: The Family starts settling back into the Spahn Ranch, which they had quit after owner George Spahn, under pressure from police, had shut down an unlicensed nightclub they'd set up at the ranch to raise money for their preparations for Helter Skelter. They will not concern themselves with Spahn's objections; during Helter Skelter, they must be at Spahn, from which they'll have a "clear escape route to the desert."[38][54]
Mid-June: While Manson and Family member Paul Watkins are discussing Helter Skelter, Manson tells Watkins "it looks like we're gonna have to show blackie how to do it."[19]
July 27: In a dispute over money, Family member Bobby Beausoleil acts on Manson's instruction to murder Family acquaintance Gary Hinman. After stabbing Hinman to death, Beausoleil writes "Political piggy" on a wall in Hinman's blood.[1]:33, 102–3
August 6: Beausoleil is arrested after he is caught driving Hinman's car; the knife he used to stab Hinman is found in the car's tire well.[1]:33
August 8: In the afternoon, Manson tells the Family members, "Now is the time for Helter Skelter."[84]
August 9: After midnight, acting on Manson's instruction, three Family members including Tex Watson murder Sharon Tate and four other persons on the premises of 10050 Cielo Drive. Susan Atkins, one of the killers, writes "Pig" on the house's front door, in Sharon Tate's blood. When the killers and a fourth Family member, who accompanied them, return to Spahn Ranch, Watson assures Manson it was Helter Skelter.[85]
August 10: After midnight, three Family members acting on Manson's instruction murder Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at their Los Feliz home, next door to a house at which Manson and Family members had attended a party the previous year.[1]:182, 207 Using LaBianca blood, one of the killers writes "Rise" and "Death to Pigs" on the living room walls. She writes "Healter  [sic] Skelter" on the refrigerator.[1]:39[86]

text: Impact[edit]

text: Manson entranced youths of the 1960s, and at first he and his Family represented a peaceful, harmonious, and loving revolution to strive for a better world than they inherited. To Tex Watson, Manson had exactly the type of love that he needed.[87] Through this convincing love that Manson put out, he was able to create murderers for his plan to start a race war.[88]

text: Watson, who, as noted above, was with Manson when Manson first heard the White Album, took part in both the Tate murders and the LaBianca murders. Indeed, in his own recounting of the crimes, he is the only killer to participate directly in every one of the seven homicides and is the sole killer of at least three of the victims.[85][86] While awaiting trial, he told other Family members, "It seemed like I had to do everything."[89]

text: On the late 1968 day he and Manson first heard the album, Watson separated himself from the Family,[77] which he did not rejoin until the following March (1969). By that time, Manson's prophecy had captured the group's imagination, but Watson would be a while in grasping its details. In his 1978 autobiography (as told to Ray Hoekstra), he wrote as follows:

text: Although I got it in bits and pieces, some from the women and some from Manson himself, it turned out to be a remarkably complicated yet consistent thing that he [Manson] had discovered and developed in the three months we'd been apart.

text: Manson's testimony[edit]

text: At his 1970 trial for the Tate-LaBianca murders, Manson was permitted to testify, after the attorneys for the other defendants and him had attempted to rest their case, without calling a single witness. Lest he violate the California Supreme Court's decision in People v. Aranda by implicating his co-defendants, the jury was removed from the courtroom.[1]:388 He spoke for over an hour.[1]:388 As for Helter Skelter, he said the following:

text: It means confusion, literally. It doesn't mean any war with anyone. It doesn't mean that some people are going to kill other people ... Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down around you fast. If you can't see the confusion coming down around you fast, you can call it what you wish.[1]:390–1

text: As to there having been a conspiracy, of which he was alleged to have been a part, to commit the murders, Manson said this:

text: Is it a conspiracy that the music is telling the youth to rise up against the establishment because the establishment is rapidly destroying things? Is that a conspiracy?

text: The music speaks to you every day, but you are too deaf, dumb, and blind to even listen to the music ...

text: It is not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says 'Rise,' it says 'Kill.'

text: In various press and parole board interviews, Manson has dismissed the Helter Skelter conspiracy as an invention by the trial prosecutor to tie him to the murders. At about the one-fifth point of his 1992 parole hearing, Manson said the following:

text: [A]s far as lining up someone for some kind of helter skelter trip, you know, that's the District Attorney's motive. That's the only thing he could find for a motive to throw up on top of all that confusion he had. There was no such thing in my mind as helter skelter.[90]

text: Primary sources[edit]

text: More detail about Helter Skelter is found in the following: testimony of Paul Watkins.

text:
Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry
Will You Die for Me? by Charles Watson as told to Ray Hoekstra
My Life with Charles Manson by Paul Watkins and Guillermo Soledad

text: As has been noted, Bugliosi led the prosecution in the Tate-LaBianca trials; at the time of the trials, he was a Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney.[1]:xiv, 117 Charles Watson is the above-mentioned Family member who took part in the murders. Watkins was an above-mentioned Family member who was not involved in the murders.

text: See also the trial testimony of Gregg Jakobson, who met Manson at the home of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson in May or early summer of 1968 and who arranged a recording session for Manson in August of that year.[1]:155, 214 Jakobson indicated that Manson and he had talked about Manson's "philosophy on life" in various settings "innumerable times" – "Maybe 100."[1]:223[91]

text: Footnotes[edit]

text:
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah Bugliosi, Vincent; Gentry, Curt (1994). Helter Skelter (a Manson Scenario): The True Story of the Manson Murders (25th Anniversary ed.). W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-08700-X.
Jump up ^ Decision in appeal by Charles Manson and others from conviction for Tate-LaBianca murders, People v. Manson, 61 Cal. App. 3d 102 (California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division One, August 13, 1976). Retrieved June 19, 2007. The court's characterization of Helter Skelter as a "chimerical vision" appears in the third paragraph from the end of the decision's section headed "The Conspiratorial Relationship".
^ Jump up to: a b Bugliosi 1994, 244.
Jump up ^ Watkins, Paul, and Soledad, Guillermo, My Life with Charles Manson, Chapter 12.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Watkins, Ch. 12
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Watson, Charles as told to Hoekstra, Ray, Will You Die for Me?, Chapter 11 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Watson website. Retrieved 28 April 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Bugliosi 1994, 241.
Jump up ^ Watkins, Ch. 11
Jump up ^ Prosecution's closing argument, The State of California v. Charles Manson by Vincent Bugliosi; Los Angeles, California, January 15, 1971 Transcript
^ Jump up to: a b c Bugliosi 1994, 247.
^ Jump up to: a b Prosecution's closing argument The State of California v. Charles Manson by Vincent Bugliosi; Los Angeles, California, January 15, 1971 Transcript,
Jump up ^ The State of California v. Charles Manson by Vincent Bugliosi; Los Angeles, California, January 15, 1971
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Testimony of Paul Watkins in the Charles Manson Trial University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved 28 April 2007.
Jump up ^ In trial testimony, Manson associate Paul Watkins indicated that the militants would be "the Black Muslims". In his autobiography, Manson associate Tex Watson said Manson sometimes referred to the Black Muslims, other times the Black Panthers. On page 246 of the 1994 edition of Bugliosi and Gentry's Helter Skelter is a similar statement, apparently based on statements made to Bugliosi by Paul Watkins. In Chapter 10 of the Watkins autobiography, My Life with Charles Manson (written with Guillermo Soledad), Manson is quoted as follows: "The heavy dudes, though, are the [Black] Muslims. I've seen those cats in jail. They sit back real stoic like and watch and stay cool, you know. But they'll be the ones who bring the shit down. Yeah, it's gonna come down hard... a full-on war." The statement predates Manson's formulation of Helter Skelter.
Jump up ^ Witness Paul Watkins, quoted in prosecution's closing argument]
Jump up ^ In an interview, Family member Tex Watson has said he and Manson first heard the White Album on December 1, 1968; but this does not appear to match recollections in Watson's autobiography, in which, among other things, Watson seems to indicate he and Manson first heard the album on a Saturday (which December 1 was not)."Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-04-05. Retrieved 2007-05-03.  In an autobiography of his own, Paul Watkins, another Family member, seemed to think Manson first heard the album near December's end. This is not the only chronological mismatch between the recollections of Watkins and Watson.
Jump up ^ Manson 2009 documentary by Cineflix Productions et al.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Watkins, Ch. 13
^ Jump up to: a b c Watkins, Ch. 15
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 13 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 28 April 2007.
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 14 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 28 April 2007
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 15 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieve 28 April 2007.
Jump up ^ Susan Atkins’ Story of 2 Nights of Murder Los Angeles Times, Sunday, December 14, 1969. mansonfamilytoday.info. Retrieved April 14, 2008.
Jump up ^ Sanders, Ed (2002). The Family. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press. p. 11. ISBN 1-56025-396-7.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i Bugliosi 1994, 240.
^ Jump up to: a b Sanders 2002, 27.
Jump up ^ "Blue Jay Way" review and information allmusic.com. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 6
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 7 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine. Oddly, the song seemed to continue to be about Atkins, even after the murders. When David Dalton and David Felton, in their 1970 Rolling Stone story about Manson, wrote that "Sexy Sadie laid it down for all to see", they were referring not to Atkins's sexual frankness but to her crime account as published within a week of the Tate-LaBianca indictments. Running to nearly three pages when it appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, December 14, 1969, the said account was based mainly on a tape-recorded interview of Atkins by her attorney at his office on December 1; it detailed the "2 Nights of Murder" of the Tate-LaBianca crimes. (See Bugliosi 1994, pages 160 and 193.)
Jump up ^ "If Christ Came Back as a Con Man" by David Dalton, Gadfly, October 1998. gadflyonline.com. Retrieved 17 September 2007.
^ Jump up to: a b c Bugliosi 1994, 242.
Jump up ^ helter skelter, defined in Compact Oxford English Dictionary Retrieved June 19, 2007.
Jump up ^ helter-skelter, defined in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. Retrieved June 19, 2007.
Jump up ^ Watkins, Ch. 12. As Watkins tells it, Manson said, "Are you hep to what the Beatles are saying?... Dig it, they're telling it like it is. They know what's happening in the city; blackie is getting ready. They put the revolution to music... it's 'Helter-Skelter.' Helter-Skelter is coming down."
^ Jump up to: a b c Sanders 2002, 106.
^ Jump up to: a b c d e Bugliosi 1994, 243.
^ Jump up to: a b Revolution 9: Minute by Minute David J. Coyle. Retrieved 30 August 2009.
^ Jump up to: a b Watson, Ch. 12 Archived 2013-08-18 at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ CHAPTER 7:
Jump up ^ Prosecution's closing argument. The State of California v. Charles Manson by Vincent Bugliosi; Los Angeles, California, January 15, 1971 Transcript.
Jump up ^ Paul Watkins (relating Manson's vision), quoted in Bugliosi 1994, page 246.
Jump up ^ 1992 parole hearing
Jump up ^ CHAPTER 9:
^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Bugliosi 1994, 239.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 114.
Jump up ^ Transcript of Charles Manson's 1992 parole hearing University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved May 24, 2007.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 109–10.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 127.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 138.
Jump up ^ Oral history of the Manson murders, Steve Oney, Los Angeles magazine, July 2009, page 152.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 107.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002,107-8.
Jump up ^ CHAPTER 10:
^ Jump up to: a b Watkins, Ch. 14
^ Jump up to: a b Sanders 2002, 111.
Jump up ^ CHAPTER 16:
Jump up ^ Book of Revelation, Chapter 16, King James Version Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Retrieved May 1, 2007.
Jump up ^ CHAPTER 21:
Jump up ^ CHAPTER 22:
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 87.
Jump up ^ Abbey Road review and information allmusic.com. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Lewisohn, Mark (1990). The Beatles Day by Day: A Chronology 1962–1969. New York: Harmony Books. p. 123. ISBN 0-517-57750-X.
Jump up ^ Schultheiss, Tom, ed. (1980). A Day in the Life, The Beatles Day-by-Day 1960–1970. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Pierian Press. p. 266. ISBN 0-87650-120-X.
Jump up ^ Schultheiss, 268.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 288.
Jump up ^ Watkins, Ch. 23
Jump up ^ Photograph of Spahn Ranch door University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved April 29, 2007.
Jump up ^ In Chapter 3 of his 1978 autobiography, Watson indicated he left the desert camp on October 2, 1969. In a letter of April 1, 2008, to CNN, he revised this and indicated he had left around September 25.
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 16
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 93, 393.
Jump up ^ Bugliosi, 164 and 174.
Jump up ^ Sanders 2002, 13–20.
Jump up ^ Magical Mystery Tour review and information allmusic.com. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Prosecution's closing argument, The State of California v. Charles Manson by Vincent Bugliosi; Los Angeles, California, January 15, 1971 Transcript.
Jump up ^ Watkins, Ch. 8
^ Jump up to: a b c Watkins, Ch. 10
^ Jump up to: a b Watson, Ch. 9 Archived 2007-04-05 at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ The Yellow Submarine on IMDb
^ Jump up to: a b Schultheiss, 226.
Jump up ^ White Album review and information allmusic.com. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
Jump up ^ Lewisohn, 110.
Jump up ^ In an interview, Tex Watson has indicated he and Manson first heard the album on December 1, 1968;[1] but this does not appear to match recollections in Watson's autobiography, in which, among other things, Watson seems to indicate he and Manson first heard the album on a Saturday (which December 1 was not)."Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2007-04-05. Retrieved 2007-05-03.  In an autobiography of his own, Family member Paul Watkins seemed to think Manson first heard the album near December's end. This is not the only chronological mismatch between the recollections of Watkins and Watson.
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 12
Jump up ^ Watson, Ch. 13 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Jump up to: a b Watson, Ch. 14 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Jump up to: a b Watson, Ch. 15 Archived 2010-11-19 at the Wayback Machine.
Jump up ^ [2]
Jump up ^ Atchison, Heide pg 23
Jump up ^ Watkins, Ch. 25
Jump up ^ Transcript of Charles Manson's 1992 parole hearing Retrieved 2 February 2012.
Jump up ^ Also Jakobson's trial testimony.

tag: ol


document_title: List of current champions in WWE

question_text: who is the current cruiserweight champion in wwe

text: List of current champions in WWE

text: Current champions[edit]

text: At the top of WWE's championship hierarchy are the WWE Universal Championship on Raw and the WWE Championship on SmackDown. The Universal Champion is Brock Lesnar, who is in his first reign. He defeated Goldberg at WrestleMania 33 on April 2, 2017. The WWE Champion is AJ Styles, who is in his second reign. He won the title on the November 7, 2017, edition of SmackDown Live by defeating Jinder Mahal.

text: Secondary titles in WWE include the WWE Intercontinental Championship for Raw and the WWE United States Championship for SmackDown. The Intercontinental Championship is held by Seth Rollins, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Finn Bálor and former champion The Miz in a triple threat match on April 8, 2018, at WrestleMania 34. The United States Championship is held by Jeff Hardy, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Jinder Mahal on the April 16, 2018, episode of Raw.

text: The WWE Cruiserweight Championship is part of the Raw brand and is for wrestlers 205 lb (93 kg) and under. It is defended on Raw and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.[1] The title is held by Cedric Alexander, who is in his first reign. He won the vacant title by defeating Mustafa Ali in the finals of a 16-man tournament on April 8, 2018, on the WrestleMania 34 pre-show.

text: The WWE Raw Women's Championship is held by Nia Jax, who is in her first reign. She defeated Alexa Bliss on April 8, 2018, at WrestleMania 34. The WWE SmackDown Women's Championship is held by first-time champion Carmella. She won the title by defeating Charlotte Flair on the April 10, 2018, edition of SmackDown Live after cashing in her Money in the Bank briefcase.

text: The WWE Raw Tag Team Championship is currently held by Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy, who are in their first reign as a tag team and Hardy's third individually. They won the vacant titles by defeating Cesaro and Sheamus at the Greatest Royal Rumble. The WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship is held by The Bludgeon Brothers (Harper and Rowan), who are in their first reign as a team, and the second for Harper individually. They won the titles by defeating Big E and Kofi Kingston of The New Day and former champions The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) in a triple threat tag team match on April 8, 2018, at WrestleMania 34.

text: The top title of NXT is the NXT Championship, which is held by Aleister Black, who is in his first reign. He won the title by defeating Andrade "Cien" Almas on April 7, 2018, at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans. The secondary title of NXT is the NXT North American Championship, which is held by Adam Cole. He defeated EC3, Killian Dain, Lars Sullivan, Ricochet, and Velveteen Dream in a six-way ladder match on April 7, 2018, at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans to become the inaugural champion. The NXT Women's Championship is held by first-time champion Shayna Baszler. She won the title by defeating Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans. The NXT Tag Team Championship is held by first-time title holders The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong). Fish and O'Reilly originally won the titles as a duo by defeating Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe of Sanity on the November 29, 2017, taping of NXT (aired December 20), but after Fish suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee, Cole replaced him in April 2018, and Strong joined the group at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, with all four being recognized as champions under the Freebird Rule. The WWE United Kingdom Championship is intended to be the top championship of a U.K. based brand, but is currently being defended in NXT, as well as in U.K.-based independent promotions; the only active WWE championship to be defended outside of WWE. The champion is Pete Dunne, who is in his first reign; he won the title by defeating Tyler Bate at NXT TakeOver: Chicago.

text: Raw[edit]

text:
Championship
Current champion(s)
Reign
Date won
Days
held
Location
Notes

WWE Universal Championship

Brock Lesnar
1
April 2, 2017
390
Orlando, Florida
Defeated Goldberg at WrestleMania 33

WWE Raw Women's Championship

Nia Jax
1
April 8, 2018
19
New Orleans, Louisiana
Defeated Alexa Bliss at WrestleMania 34

WWE Intercontinental Championship

Seth Rollins
1
April 8, 2018
19
New Orleans, Louisiana
Defeated previous champion The Miz and Finn Bálor in a triple threat match at WrestleMania 34

WWE Cruiserweight Championship

Cedric Alexander
1
April 8, 2018
19
New Orleans, Louisiana
Defeated Mustafa Ali for the vacant title in the finals of a 16-man tournament on the WrestleMania 34 pre-show

WWE Raw Tag Team Championship

Bray Wyatt and Matt Hardy
1,
(1,3)
April 27, 2018
0
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Won the vacant titles by defeating Cesaro and Sheamus at the Greatest Royal Rumble

tag: table

text: SmackDown[edit]

text:
Championship
Current champion(s)
Reign
Date won
Days
held
Location
Notes

WWE Championship

AJ Styles
2
November 7, 2017
171
Manchester, England
Defeated Jinder Mahal on SmackDown Live

WWE SmackDown Women's Championship

Carmella
1
April 10, 2018
17
New Orleans, Louisiana
Cashed in her Money in the Bank contract and defeated former champion Charlotte Flair on SmackDown Live

WWE United States Championship

Jeff Hardy
1
April 16, 2018
11
Hartford, Connecticut
Defeated Jinder Mahal on Raw.

WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship

The Bludgeon Brothers
(Harper and Rowan)
1
(2, 1)
April 8, 2018
19
New Orleans, Louisiana
Defeated previous champions The Usos and Big E and Kofi Kingston of The New Day at WrestleMania 34

text: NXT[edit]

text:
Championship
Current champion(s)
Reign
Date won
Days
held
Location
Notes

NXT Championship

Aleister Black
1
April 7, 2018
20
New Orleans, Louisiana
Defeated Andrade "Cien" Almas at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

NXT North American Championship

Adam Cole
1
April 7, 2018
20
New Orleans, Louisiana
Defeated EC3, Killian Dain, Lars Sullivan, Ricochet, and Velveteen Dream in a six-way ladder match at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans to become the inaugural champion

NXT Women's Championship

Shayna Baszler
1
April 7, 2018
20
New Orleans, Louisiana
Defeated Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

NXT Tag Team Championship

The Undisputed Era
(Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O'Reilly, and Roderick Strong)
1
November 29, 2017
149
Winter Park, Florida
Defeated Eric Young and Killian Dain of Sanity on NXT
Fish and O'Reilly won the match and were originally champions as a duo, but after Fish suffered a torn ACL and MCL in his left knee, Cole replaced him in April 2018, and Strong joined the group at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans; WWE recognizes this as a single uninterrupted reign that begun on December 20, 2017, when the episode aired on tape delay, with all four being recognized as champion under the Freebird Rule.

WWE United Kingdom Championship

Pete Dunne
1
May 20, 2017
342
Rosemont, Illinois
Defeated Tyler Bate at NXT TakeOver: Chicago


document_title: Ashvamedha

question_text: who issued ashwamedha coins after performing ashvamedha sacrifice

text: Ashvamedha

text: The sacrifice

text: The Ashvamedha could only be conducted by a powerful victorious king (rājā).[3][4] Its object was the acquisition of power and glory, the sovereignty over neighbouring provinces, seeking progeny and general prosperity of the kingdom.[5]

text: The horse to be sacrificed must be a stallion. The horse is sprinkled with water, and the Adhvaryu, the priest and the sacrificer whisper mantras into its ear. The horse is then set loose towards the North-East, to roam around wherever it chooses, for the period of one year (or half a year, according to some commentators). The horse is associated with the Sun, and its yearly course. If the horse wanders into neighbouring provinces hostile to the sacrificer, they must be subjugated. The wandering horse is attended by a hundred young men, sons of princes or high court officials, charged with guarding the horse from all dangers and inconvenience. During the absence of the horse, an uninterrupted series of ceremonies is performed in the sacrificer's home.

text: After the return of the horse, more ceremonies are performed. The horse is yoked to a gilded chariot, together with three other horses, and Rigveda (RV) 1.6.1,2 (YajurVeda (YV) VSM 23.5,6) is recited. The horse is then driven into water and bathed. After this, it is anointed with ghee by the chief queen and two other royal consorts. The chief queen anoints the fore-quarters, and the others the barrel and the hind-quarters. They also embellish the horse's head, neck, and tail with golden ornaments. The sacrificer offers the horse the remains of the night's oblation of grain.

text: After this, the horse, a hornless he-goat, a wild ox (go-mrga, Bos gaurus) are bound to sacrificial stakes near the fire, and seventeen other animals are attached to the horse. A great number of animals, both tame and wild, are tied to other stakes, according to a commentator, 609 in total.[6]

text: The chief queen ritually calls on the king's fellow wives for pity. The queens walk around the dead horse reciting mantras. The chief queen then has to spend a night with the dead horse.[7]

text: On the next morning, the priests raise the queen from the place. One priest cuts the horse along the "knife-paths" while other priests start reciting the verses of Vedas, seeking healing and regeneration for the horse.[8]

text: The Laws of Manu refer to the Ashvamedha (V.53): "The man who offers a horse-sacrifice every day for a hundred years, and the man who does not eat meat, the two of them reap the same fruit of good deeds."[9]

text: Similar sacrifices elsewhere

text: Many Indo-European branches show evidence for horse sacrifice, and comparative mythology suggests that they derive from a Proto-Indo-European ritual. The Ashvamedha is the clearest evidence preserved, but vestiges from Latin and Celtic traditions allow the reconstruction of a few common attributes.

text: A similar ritual is found in Celtic tradition in which the King in Ireland conducted a rite of symbolic marriage with a sacrificed horse.[7] Roman horse sacrifice tradition also coincide with Ashvamedha.[10]

text: Horse sacrifice were performed among the ancient Germans, Armenians, Iranians,[11] Chinese, Greeks,[12] among others.

text: List of performers

text: Sanskrit epics and Puranas mention numerous legendary performances of the horse sacrifice.[13] For example, according to the Mahabharata, Emperor Bharata performed a hundred Ashvamedha ceremonies on the banks of Yamuna, three hundred on the banks of Saraswati and four hundred on the banks of the Ganga. He again performed a thousand Ashvamedha on different locations and a hundred Rajasuya.[14] Following the vast empires ruled by the Gupta and Chalukya dynasties, the practice of the sacrifice diminished remarkably.[15]

text: The historical performers of Ashvamedha include:

text:
Monarch
Reign
Dynasty
Source

Pushyamitra Shunga
185-149 BCE
Shunga
Ayodhya inscription of Dhanadeva and Malavikagnimitra of Kalidasa[16]

Sarvatata
1st century BCE
Gajayana
Ghosundi and Hathibada inscriptions.[16] Some scholars believe Sarvatata to be a Kanva king, but there is no definitive evidence for this.[17]

Devimitra
1st century BCE
Unknown
Musanagar inscription[16]

Satakarni I
1st or 2nd century CE
Satavahana
Nanaghat inscription mentions his second Ashvamedha[18][16]

Vasishthiputra Sri Santamula or Chantamula
3rd century CE
Andhra Ikshvaku
Records of his son and grandson[19]

Shilavarman
3rd century CE
Varshaganya
Jagatpur inscriptions mention his fourth Ashvamedha[16]

Bhavanaga
305-320 CE
Nagas of Padmavati
The inscriptions of Vakataka relatives of the Nagas credit them with 10 horse-sacrifices, although they do not name these kings.[16][19]

Vijaya-devavarman
300-350 CE
Shalankayana
Ellore inscription[20][21]

Shivaskanda Varman
4th century CE
Pallava
Hirahadagalli inscription[20]

Kumaravishnu
4th century CE
Pallava
Omgodu inscription of his great-grandson[20]

Samudragupta
355-375 CE
Gupta
Coins of the king and records of his descendants[20][22]

Kumaragupta I
414 – 455 CE
Gupta
[23]

Madhava Varmana
440-460 CE
Vishnukundina
[19]

Pravarasena II
5th century CE
Vakataka
Inscriptions of his descendants state that he performed four Ashvamedha sacrifices[20]

Dharasena
5th century CE
Traikutaka
[21]

Krishnavarman
5th century CE
Kadamba
[21]

Narayanavarman
494–518 CE
Varman
Legend of Bhaskaravarman's seals[24]

Bhutivarman
518–542 CE
Varman
Barganga inscription[24]

Pulakeshin I
543–566
Chalukyas of Vatapi
[25]

Sthitavarman
565–585 CE
Varman
[26]

Pulakeshin II
610–642 CE
Chalukyas of Vatapi
[19]

Madhavaraja II (alias Madhavavarman or Sainyabhita)
c. 620-670 CE
Shailodbhava
Inscriptions[27][24]

Simhavarman (possibly Narasimhavarman I)
630-668 CE
Pallava
The Sivanvayal pillar inscription states that he performed ten Ashvamedhas[20]

Adityasena
655-680 CE
Later Gupta
Vaidyanatha temple (Deoghar) inscription[24]

Madhyamaraja I (alias Ayashobhita II)
c. 670-700 CE
Shailodbhava
Inscriptions;[28] one interpretation of the inscriptions suggests that he merely participated in the Ashvamedha performed by his father Madhavaraja II[24]

Dharmaraja (alias Manabhita)
c. 726-727 CE
Shailodbhava
Inscriptions; one interpretation of the inscriptions suggests that he merely participated in the Ashvamedha performed by his grandfather Madhavaraja II[24]

Rajadhiraja Chola
1044–1052 CE
Chola
[29]

Jai Singh II
1699–1743 CE
Kachwahas of Jaipur
[30]

text:
The Dhanadeva-Ayodhya inscription, 1st century BCE, mentions two Ashvamedha rituals by Pushyamitra in the city of Ayodhya.[31]

An Ashwamedha coin of Kumaragupta, who performed the sacrifice in 5th century CE

Coin of Samudragupta circa 335-380 CE. Ashvamedha type.

text: The Udayendiram inscription of the 8th century Pallava king Nandivarman II (alias Pallavamalla) states that his general Udayachandra defeated the Nishada ruler Prithvivyaghra, who, "desiring to become very powerful, was running after the horse of the Ashvamedha". The inscription does not clarify which king initiated this Ashvamedha campaign. Historian N. Venkataramanayya theorized that Prithvivyaghra was a feudatory ruler, who unsuccessfully tried to challenge Nandivarman's Ashvamedha camapign. However, historian Dineshchandra Sircar notes that no other inscriptions of Nandivarman or his descendants mention his performance of Ashvamedha; therefore, it is more likely that the Ashvamedha campaign was initiated by Prithvivyaghra (or his overlord), and Nandivarman's general foiled it.[32]

text: In Hindu revivalism

text: In the Arya Samaj reform movement of Dayananda Sarasvati, the Ashvamedha is considered an allegory or a ritual to get connected to the "inner Sun" (Prana)[33] According to Dayananda, no horse was actually to be slaughtered in the ritual as per the Yajurveda. Following Dayananda, the Arya Samaj disputes the very existence of the pre-Vedantic ritual; thus Swami Satya Prakash Saraswati claims that

text: the word in the sense of the Horse Sacrifice does not occur in the Samhitas [...] In the terms of cosmic analogy, ashva s the Sun. In respect to the adhyatma paksha, the Prajapati-Agni, or the Purusha, the Creator, is the Ashva; He is the same as the Varuna, the Most Supreme. The word medha stands for homage; it later on became synonymous with oblations in rituology, since oblations are offered, dedicated to the one whom we pay homage. The word deteriorated further when it came to mean 'slaughter' or 'sacrifice'.[34]

text: He argues that the animals listed as sacrificial victims are just as symbolic as the list of human victims listed in the Purushamedha.[34] (which is generally accepted as a purely symbolic sacrifice already in Rigvedic times).

text: All World Gayatri Pariwar since 1991 has organized performances of a "modern version" of the Ashvamedha where a statue is used in place of a real horse, according to Hinduism Today with a million participants in Chitrakoot, Madhya Pradesh on April 16 to 20, 1994.[35] Such modern performances are sattvika Yajnas where the animal is worshipped without killing it,[36] the religious motivation being prayer for overcoming enemies, the facilitation of child welfare and development, and clearance of debt,[37] entirely within the allegorical interpretation of the ritual, and with no actual sacrifice of any animal.

text: Reception

text: The earliest recorded criticism of the ritual comes from the Cārvāka, an atheistic school of Indian philosophy that assumed various forms of philosophical skepticism and religious indifference. A quotation of the Cārvāka from Madhavacharya's Sarva-Darsana-Sangraha states: "The three authors of the Vedas were buffoons, knaves, and demons. All the well-known formulae of the pandits, jarphari, turphari, etc. and all the obscene rites for the queen commanded in Aswamedha, these were invented by buffoons, and so all the various kinds of presents to the priests, while the eating of flesh was similarly commanded by night-prowling demons."[38]

text: This part of the ritual offended the Dalit reformer and framer of the Indian constitution B. R. Ambedkar and is frequently mentioned in his writings as an example of the perceived degradation of Brahmanical culture.[39]

text: While others such has Manohar L. Varadpande, praised the ritual as "social occasions of great magnitude".[40] Rick F. Talbott writes that "Mircea Eliade treated the Ashvamedha as a rite having a cosmogonic structure which both regenerated the entire cosmos and reestablished every social order during its performance."[41]