The Plot Against America
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It isnt an abstract idea thats exclusively consumed in classrooms or textbooks.
It comprises actions and choices, beliefs and emotions.
Its something that people participate in, contribute to, and live through.
Its often ugly and rarely beautiful, because it showcases a societys true colors, which are never clean.
Simon sets the mood immediately.
Winchell is still on the campaign trail, but each rally has been plagued with violence.
Herman hears about anti-Jewish violence around the country on the radio while hes making deliveries for his brother.
A new Italian family, the Cucuzzas, has moved in downstairs where the Wishnows used to live.
It went to hell, Alvin responds.
However, it takes Walter Winchells assassination in Louisville, Kentucky, to shift the country into high alert.
Suddenly, Lindbergh is nowhere to be found.
That brief, noxious statement will be the last public words anyone hears from Charles Lindbergh.
But Lindberghs eventual disappearance isnt the most immediate concern of the Levin family.
There are two phone calls between Bess and Seldon, each one day apart.
I couldnt make it through either without crying.
Bess tells Philip to tell Seldon he misses him.
Whats happening isnt his fault, but you could almost feel the guilt emanating from his body anyway.
If he didnt go speak to his Aunt Evelyn, the Wishnows would still be in Newark.
But its the second phone call that represents the highest peak ofThe Plot Against America.
Seldon calls Bess in hysterics because his mother hasnt come home.
He hasnt eaten dinner.
He instinctively knows that shes been killed.
She tells him to put the phone down and go see whats in the refrigerator to eat.
Just then, gunshots ring outside the Levin home.
Bess sinks to the floor and waits for Seldon to return to the phone.
There isnt any dinner, but theres cereal and milk.
(Its Rice Krispies.)
She then tells him that shell call him back at 10:30 if his mother hasnt returned home.
Bye for now, Seldon!
she says in an elated voice thats barely masking her own fear.
Bess knows that if they dont do something, Seldon might not make it through the night.
So Bess springs into action.
They havent yet told him that the Klan burned his mother alive in her car.
As they make their way home, Herman and Sandy spot Mrs. Wishnows burnt automobile on the road.
Unswayed by her conspiratorial ramblings, Bess kicks her sister out for good.
Evelyn isnt the only one splintered from her family.
When he enters the second car, he finds the keys and a newspaper in the visor.
The headline reads that Lindbergh and the Spirit of St. Louis have gone missing.
Its understandable why Alvin makes this transition.
He wants to disappear into money and stability for good.
But Herman doesnt see it that way.
Two years have passed, and Herman and Alvin are now on opposite sides of an old argument.
They come to blows.
Bruises are sustained, and glass is shattered.
The Levin family has been permanently ruptured.
While Bess and Minna tend to their husbands, Sandy sits on the stairs in silence.
Seldon goes upstairs to comfort Philip, who shrinks away from the world.
Lindbergh might be gone, but the chaos remains.
These wounds are permanent, and no salve will ever soothe them.
Thousands of people wait in line to cast their vote, but theres no romance in democracy.
Some people learn theyve been purged from the roll.
Shadowy figures take some ballot boxes to an undisclosed location to burn the ballots.
Herman and his family listen on the radio as the results slowly start to pour in.
Fascists still live among us, even if they go by a different name.
The American experiment continues to fracture, bit by little bit, every single day.
Note: This recap has been corrected to reflect that the episode takes place in 1942, not 1940.
We apologize for the error.
