I don't think this show deserves the amount of hate it gets. The last season was definitely flawed and there were things I didn't like about it, but if you see the vision the producers had for the show you'd realize it was quite meaningful what they did. Given the amount of time they had to tell the rest of the story, I thought they did what they had to.
The last season focused on how John Smith got to his position and how his story ends. Whatever path he was going to choose, he wanted to do the best he could for his family. Either choice was bad. Whether he decided to escape and hide out in the neutral zone forever or join the Nazis, neither were ideal. The scene where baby Thomas is crying because he had nothing to eat showed a sense of urgency. John didn't have time to "sleep on it" and think through what their family was going to do. He had to make a choice fast. He didn't conform with the ideas of Nazism at the time but decided he'd try to do it for a while until he found a better option. One thing lead to another, as life does and he ended staying there longer than intended. He found great success working in the Nazi Reich and could provide for his family more than he ever could've at the expense of his humanity. When he goes to the alternate reality where Thomas was alive, we can't help but feel emotional because we see John genuinely is a loving father. He tries to stop Thomas from joining the military and not making the same mistakes he did and we question whether he's changed by the experience but no, he kills Himmler and becomes Reichfuhrer and is irredeemable. There were a lot of obstacles in his way that were life and death situations but he triumphed time and time again to gain more and more power. He was a survivor and a really good one. He gained so much momentum he didn't know how to stop, as demonstrated in the final episode and them being on a high speed rail as a metaphor. The only way he could be stopped was by a 3rd party (Resistance) and his wife he trusted with his life betraying him so his train would be "derailed".
I don't think it was any coincidence that his name was "John Smith". John Smith is a generic name that's typically used as examples for anybody. The significance of the story is to demonstrate to the viewer that anybody could've been "John Smith" and committed the same atrocities he did in the name of family. It all began with a "way out" to help his family, but in the end it became so much more and consumed him. After all that had happened with his wife and son dying and the realization of what he had become, the only way he could find peace was through death and he killed himself. In real life, death is like that. There usually isn't a dramatic grand speech. It's the weight of all his sins in one moment and the realization that after all that he sacrificed, it couldn't save the thing he tried to set out and save. So the choice he made and the journey he embarked on was all for nil. Despite him thinking that sacrificing his humanity for the greatest opportunity for his family being the best choice. He was wrong. He became the worst version of him of all the alternate realities. There was no way to undo all the evil he'd done. It was a little anticlimactic but it was real. In the real world, most of us are not gonna have the power to commit the evils that John did, but we can certainly make mistakes in our own life in the name of family. Even if it seems like it's gonna be something temporary, it can spiral out of control. We can all relate to John Smith in some way. Which is why he's one of the greatest antagonists in TV history and also why I thought this ending was appropriate.
The last season focused on how John Smith got to his position and how his story ends. Whatever path he was going to choose, he wanted to do the best he could for his family. Either choice was bad. Whether he decided to escape and hide out in the neutral zone forever or join the Nazis, neither were ideal. The scene where baby Thomas is crying because he had nothing to eat showed a sense of urgency. John didn't have time to "sleep on it" and think through what their family was going to do. He had to make a choice fast. He didn't conform with the ideas of Nazism at the time but decided he'd try to do it for a while until he found a better option. One thing lead to another, as life does and he ended staying there longer than intended. He found great success working in the Nazi Reich and could provide for his family more than he ever could've at the expense of his humanity. When he goes to the alternate reality where Thomas was alive, we can't help but feel emotional because we see John genuinely is a loving father. He tries to stop Thomas from joining the military and not making the same mistakes he did and we question whether he's changed by the experience but no, he kills Himmler and becomes Reichfuhrer and is irredeemable. There were a lot of obstacles in his way that were life and death situations but he triumphed time and time again to gain more and more power. He was a survivor and a really good one. He gained so much momentum he didn't know how to stop, as demonstrated in the final episode and them being on a high speed rail as a metaphor. The only way he could be stopped was by a 3rd party (Resistance) and his wife he trusted with his life betraying him so his train would be "derailed".
I don't think it was any coincidence that his name was "John Smith". John Smith is a generic name that's typically used as examples for anybody. The significance of the story is to demonstrate to the viewer that anybody could've been "John Smith" and committed the same atrocities he did in the name of family. It all began with a "way out" to help his family, but in the end it became so much more and consumed him. After all that had happened with his wife and son dying and the realization of what he had become, the only way he could find peace was through death and he killed himself. In real life, death is like that. There usually isn't a dramatic grand speech. It's the weight of all his sins in one moment and the realization that after all that he sacrificed, it couldn't save the thing he tried to set out and save. So the choice he made and the journey he embarked on was all for nil. Despite him thinking that sacrificing his humanity for the greatest opportunity for his family being the best choice. He was wrong. He became the worst version of him of all the alternate realities. There was no way to undo all the evil he'd done. It was a little anticlimactic but it was real. In the real world, most of us are not gonna have the power to commit the evils that John did, but we can certainly make mistakes in our own life in the name of family. Even if it seems like it's gonna be something temporary, it can spiral out of control. We can all relate to John Smith in some way. Which is why he's one of the greatest antagonists in TV history and also why I thought this ending was appropriate.