Band of Brothers Rewatch, Part 10: Points. Second Half.
Ok, here’s the second half of Points.
First-Timers: there are spoilers! Finish watching before you come in! You get the reveal of the real men of Easy in the pics at the end. I wouldn’t spoil myself on that, if I could help it. You should experience that as God and Spanks have intended.
All caps from tasteofblame.
RECAP, The Second Half.
Austria still. Harry and Nix are on the Lido Deck. The topic of discussion is what the officers will do: stay in the army or be discharged. Harry says he’s going back home to Kitty. Nix teases him that she’s probably run off with a 4F by now. Hey, now, no need to get your issues all over Harry. I think it’s cute how much he talks about her.
Dick comes in to unbutton his jacket and lean in a manly way against the beautiful blue backdrop. Harry doesn’t think they’ll get to jump on Tokyo anyway. “The reality is, you guys are gonna spend six months here in Austria, waiting to go, and I’m gonna be back home in Wilkes-Barre, makin’ babies.”
Winters: “You didn’t tell him?”
Nixon: “I couldn’t get him to shut up!”
Harry: “What? Tell me what?”
Nixon looks all wry: “Guts and glory here applied for a transfer.”
Winters: “13th Airborne. Heading out for the Pacific right away. If I’m going I want to get it over with.”
Harry hasn’t been hanging around these two for nothin’. “Are you in on this too?”
Nixon: “I can’t let him go by himself; he doesn’t know where it is!”
Lame! <3
Dick thinks so too. He gives Nix this priceless look like, “Nix, you don’t have to come up with a reason. Harry gets it. Everybody gets it.” And laughs.
(I’m not even kidding. That’s exactly how I remember looking and laughing at my then-boyfriend when we were working together and we didn’t really want anyone to know we were dating. He used to make up these explanations for why we were in the same car or something and he thought he was so sly and I was always like, “Honey, just leave it alone!” *g*)
Harry: “You’re leaving the men?”
Winters: “They don’t need me anymore.” Dick, everyone needs one of you.
Winters is meeting with a general about his transfer. The general talks through his record.
He notes that Winters took command of the company on D-Day.
Winters flashes back to the siege of Brecourt. Hall is dead.
“In Holland they bumped you to Battalion XO. Bastards took your company away.”
Winters flashes back to the dike, shooting the SS kid.
Winters: “I fired my last shots there.”
General: “Of the whole damn war.”
Winters: “Yes sir.”
General: “You got through Bastogne without having to fire your weapon.”
Winters: “That is correct, sir.”
General: “I can’t imagine a tougher test for a leader. Having to sit through a siege like that, under those conditions.”
Winters flashes back to men running through an artillery barrage in Bastogne. Babe jumps into his foxhole and the tree comes down again.
The general asks whether Winters wants to run a division someday; whether he wants more combat experience to pursue a career in the army. “Because if you think you need more combat experience to get stars on your helmet, let me tell you, son. You’ve done enough.”
“Thank you, sir. That’s not my objective.”
The general says he took the meeting out of respect for Dick’s accomplishments and for the 101st. He denies the request. “Frankly I think your men have earned the right to keep you around.” Dick is clearly surprised, but accepts the decision and leaves.
Winters VO explains that having no enemy to fight became a problem for the men.
Skinny, Liebgott and Webster are in a jeep, looking at a cottage on a hill.
Webster: “Lieb, I fucking hate this.”
Liebgott reminds him that one of the Polish inmates from a “slave camp” fingered the guy who lives here as an officer at the camp. Webster challenges the evidence, but Liebgott says he has an order and he’s going to follow it. Liebgott gets out and walks fast toward the house, Skinny behind him.
I recently ran across a comment from an LJ fan of BoB that reminded me of something I’ve noticed before. When the guys call him “Lieb”, they’re saying “love”. :-)
Let’s go with that. Webster sighs. He can’t just let Liebgott go without him. Webster runs after Liebgott and asks whether it’s personal. Liebgott says no. Webster asks what if they’re wrong.
Liebgott turns on him and they are right in each other’s faces. I sorta like it.
Liebgott: “Were you at Landsberg? Do think he’s just a soldier like you and me? A fucking innocent German officer?” He takes off and Webster and Skinny follow.
This always reminds me of Winters taking Liebgott’s bullets after the battle at the dike in Crossroads. Bear with me. Webster clearly doesn’t want to confront this German; he doesn’t want them to just drive up and kill the guy. So his objection is, first and foremost, about the rule of law and execution without trial and ugly, messy violence, of which Web has certainly had enough, no matter his distaste for the Germans.
But I feel like part of it is that Webster wants to protect Joe from himself, just like Winters did at the dike. Joe might do anything when he’s like this, and Webster is the kind of person who has thought about what that means -- the damage that your own actions might do to you. I suspect that he doesn’t want Joe to do something he can’t live with.
Inside the cottage, the Webster and Skinny sweep the place while Liebgott addresses the man in German, calling him “commandant”. The man protests. Liebgott argues loudly with him. Liebgott backs the man into a chair. A little Websterish, actually, Liebgott switches to English when he gets really pissed. “You condemned my fucking people!”
Satisfied that Liebgott is safe, if not from himself, Webster goes outside to calm his nerves with a cigarette. Skinny comes out too. “He’s guilty. Liebgott says so.”
Webster: “He probably is.” He probably is.
A shot rings out, making Webster flinch. They think it’s over, but it’s not.
The man runs out of the cottage, bleeding from the neck and takes off up the hill. Jesus Christ with the neck wounds. Liebgott has bad neck karma, doesn’t he?
Liebgott tries to shoot the running man but he’s out of ammo.
He yells at Webster: “Shoot him!”
Webster says no. He doesn’t want to do anything he can’t live with either.
The man suddenly falls. Skinny got him.
They drive back in the jeep.
Liebgott: “Officers don’t run.”
Webster: “The war’s over; anybody would run.”
Checkpoint. Janovec talks to a guard on duty with him. The guys says this is the end of his second war. Janovec checks the papers of people in a truck passing by and waves them on. He salutes as they drive away.
Webster pulls up in a jeep to relieve him. All sing-songy: “Don’t salute the Germans!”
I kinda love Webster in this scene. Wait, watch his face. I call it his checkpoint face. He’s all badass and skeptical.
Janovec: “Aw, come one, they sorta get a kick out of it. Besides, I got me a new enemy. The Japs.” Janovec has 75 points.
Webster takes over the checkpoint. He tells Janovec that he has 81 points. Janovec: “That’s just not good enough!” His jeep takes off.
Webster jettisons some German luggage and forces a German couple to give a soldier a ride to Munich in their car. The civilians protest and he tells them to suck it. Cause he's bad to the bone.
Down the road, a barrel falls of a passing truck and into the path of Janovec’s jeep. Crash. Webster sees and bolts down the road to help.
Janovec’s dead. Speirs, Winters and Major Kent view the body. Webster: “75 points. He was 10 points short.”
Winters VO wishes that was their only casualty.
It’s nighttime. A jeep with three men, Grant driving. They come upon a grisly scene. Three vehicles, one dead German, one dead Brit, one American: armed and drunk. The drunk guy explains that one of the dead guys wouldn’t give him gas and the other dead guy wouldn’t listen. He tries to leave in the Brit’s jeep, but Grant wants to contain the damage. He calls out, “Hold on a second there, alright?” The soldier whirls around and shoots Grant in the head. He drives away as the other men run to help Grant.
Inside, a medic examines Grant as Gene holds a bag of plasma. Tab is looking worried. Speirs is awesomely holding and stroking Grant’s hand. I think his heart grew two sizes this day.
The doc says he would need a brain surgeon, but even that probably won’t save him. Speirs and the boys hustle Grant away. Speirs is going to find a surgeon. Tab is going to find the shooter. He has orders to take him alive.
Tab rousts the men out of bed. I’d feel bad about this, but many of them haven’t had time to put anything on over their wifebeaters, so I’m ok with it. Looks like the whole company is going on a manhunt.
Speirs knocks on a door with his gun. The surgeon comes outside in his jammies and looks at Grant’s wound. He agrees to help, but wants Speirs to put the gun away. The surgeon drives them to a hospital as Gene holds the bag.
Talbert and Luz are playing cards. Clearly the shooter is in the other room, having a conversation with the rest of Easy Company. Tab is jumping out of his skin. He wonders whether he should go in and stop it. Luz tells him to play cards. Not without compassion, he’s just trying to manage him a little. Speirs charges in.
Speirs: “Where is he?”
Talbert: “How’s Grant?”
Speirs: “Where is he??!”
Talbert: “Is he ok?”
Speirs: “WHERE IS HE??!!”
Dude, he got to three. I love your priorities, but tell him where the guy is.
In the room, the shooter is a little bit bloody. Bull says he’s a replacement from I Company. Look at Speirs. That is a face you don’t want to see.
Speirs: “Where’s the weapon?”
Suicidal Replacement: “What weapon?”
Great. The one guy in the regiment who hasn’t heard the stories about Speirs.
Speirs backhands him across the face, splattering blood.
Speirs: “When you talk to an officer, you say ‘sir’”.
Ha. This scene makes me all kinds of nauseated, but always like it when Speirs is a cold-blooded badass.
Speirs cocks his gun and aims it at the soldier. No one has any doubt that he will do it. What’s interesting is the different reactions. Perconte’s eyes get really big and he blinks and steps back and then closes his eyes. Babe looks down. Martin steps back, and ducks his head slightly, but he really has a regular Martin face on. He’s cool as a cucumber, that boy. Bull looks at Speirs. He’s not too bothered, but he ducks his head a little. More looks worried. Malarkey looks ok, but then he closes his eyes.
Liebgott, my beautiful Liebgott. He’s standing just behind Speirs’ left shoulder. I mean to say he’s going to get brain matter on him. And instead of looking at Speirs, like the other guys are, he’s mostly looking at the soldier. He’s going to see the guy die. Then he looks at Speirs.
Speirs points the gun away. He wipes the guys blood from his hand onto the soldier’s uniform and turns to leave. “Have the MPs take care of this piece of shit.”
As Speirs walks back through the outer room, Tab calls after him. “Grant’s dead?”
Speirs turns. His manner is completely back to normal. “No. Kraut surgeon says he’s gonna make it.”
Speirs is in an office, questioning Alton More about Hitler’s photo albums. More says he doesn’t have them and Speirs is pissed. As he leaves, More smirks, but Speirs can’t see. Talbert comes in. He asks to resign as 1st Sergeant; he wants to be back among the men. He’d be happy to serve as Staff Sergeant of one of the platoons. Speirs says he guesses Tab has earned the right to demote himself and gives him Grant’s platoon. Tab is pleased.
Speirs and Winters walk outside, toward Winters’ jeep. Speirs knows that Easy will need a CO, after the war. “It’s absolutely irresponsible to leave them in the hands of the wrong person. They’re too much of a valuable resource.”
Winters smiles at him like he smiles at Nix when he’s making shit up like that, covering badly.
“So you’ve decided to stay with the army?”
Speirs gets over himself: “Yes, I’m going to stay with the men.”
Winters: “Well I’m glad to hear it.”
God, I love the dress uniforms. Look at all the uniforms in this scene. Winters talks to Malarkey. There’s an Airborne exhibition in Paris that requires Malarkey’s expert advice.
Malarkey: “If you need someone to go...someone has to be there.”
Winters smirks. “We do; we absolutely do.”
Malarkey salutes. Winters returns his salute, and then shakes his hand.
Lipton steps up.
“Yes, Carwood.” I always find that cute.
Winters says that when there’s a battlefield commission, they usually don’t let the officer stay with the same company. “They’re afraid the men won’t show him the same degree of respect as they would another officer.”
Lipton: “Yes, sir. It’s a good theory, sir.”
Winters: “It’s an idiotic theory, especially in your case.” One of my favorite Winters lines. Winters wants to assign him to Battalion HQ.
Winters: “Right now, down at the airfield, there is a German general who’s a little POed about having to surrender to Private Babe Heffron from South Philly.” He thinks 2nd Lieutenant Carwood Lipton from West Virginia is a better choice.
Lipton: “Major, is this the type of job I can expect from now on?
Winters: “Yeah, yeah, when we’re not sunning ourselves by the lake.”
*whimper* Ok, now he’s just messing with me! Somebody’s going to have to write me some sunning by the lake fic.
Said airfield. Winters and Nix pull up in a jeep and drop Lipton. Lipton relieves Liebgott. Seriously? Liebgott’s guarding the prisoners.
*sigh* “Let’s get Liebgott to recount the horrors of the concentration camp.” Ok, they walked right into that one. Didn’t know at the outset that they were mostly Jews. Fine. “Let’s get Liebgott to tell the other Jews that they can’t eat anymore and they have to be locked up again.” Well, it was urgent and Webster wasn’t around. Not good enough, but whatever.
Need somebody to go shoot a Nazi? Let’s get Liebgott. Hey, I got a couple hundred German soldiers down at the airfield and they need someone to keep them in line. Let’s get Liebgott. What the hell? I’m not saying he’s not competent. I’m saying you guys need to either give him a break or be prepared to pay for his therapy.
Anyway, the general looks at Winters; Winters gestures to Lipton. The general asks Lip whether he may address his men. Lip says that’ll be fine.
A truck pulls away to reveal Captain Herbert Sobel, who is suddenly having a bad day. Full of bad decisions. The enlisted man with him salutes Winters, but Sobel just looks away.
Winters: “Captain Sobel.”
Sobel: “Major Winters.” Ouch.
Winters: “Captain Sobel!” Sobel stops.
Winters: “We salute the rank, not the man.” Well played.
Sobel stops and salutes. He looks like he’s going to throw up.
Liebgott looks at Sobel and then at Winters. I don’t think he’s ever felt this way about another man. Look at the deadly smirk.
Nix is sitting at Dick’s back, trying not to look at him. Winters can feel his reaction, and turns around and looks at Nix. Nixon can’t hold it. He smiles and then looks at Winters. He loves him so much right then for the uncharacteristic beat-down, but he doesn’t want to give him a big head. Nix, seriously, you better watch out. I think Liebgott wants to wrestle you for Winters right now. And he’s scrappy.
The General starts to address his men.
Winters calls Joe over: “Liebgott?” Yeah, cause maybe the General’s gonna say something bad about Jews. We want to make sure Liebgott gets the full experience.
Liebgott translates: “Men it’s been a long war; it’s been a tough war. You have fought bravely, proudly, for your country.” Liebgott huffs a tiny bit at this last part. “You are a special group. We have found in one another a special bond that exists only in combat, among brothers. We have shared foxholes. Held each other in dire moments. We have seen death and suffered together. I am proud to have served with each and every one of you. You deserve long and happy lives, in peace.” By the end, Liebgott’s face has changed, but it’s very subtle. I think this could have been really heavy, but it’s nice.
We’re back at the lake. Wet Winters! Yay! Flashback loop is stamped “closed”. Winters swims toward the pier. He stands up in the shallow water. Holy mother of god.
“Towel?” Nix throws him a towel. Cause he’s there on the pier, watching Dick swim. And looking at pictures of the two of them. *dies*
Nixon: “Look at these two kids. What the hell happened to them?” <3 Lame.
Winters: “New Jersey, huh?”
Nixon: “Yeah, think about it.”
Winters: “Yeah, I am.”
So am I.
Winters towels off his magnificence: “You awake yet?”
Nixon: “Awake? Time to go to bed.”
Nixon thinks about it for a second, then runs a few steps to the end of the pier, and dives in.
Baseball!!!
Webster’s at bat.
Buck’s the catcher!
Winters VO gives us the epilogues.
Buck Compton came back to let everyone know he was ok. After the war, he became a prosecutor. He convicted Sirhan Sirhan for the murder of Robert Kennedy. He was appointed to the California Court of Appeals.
I absolutely love this shot of Webster. He looks up, then turns back real fast to smile at somebody. He became a writer for the Saturday Evening Post and the Wall Street Journal. He wrote a book about sharks. In 1961, he went out on the ocean alone, and was never seen again. That’s incredibly sad.
Johnny Martin got a job with the railroad, then owned a contracting company. He lives in Arizona and Montana.
Look how hot Luz is! I fall in love with Luz in Last Patrol and again right here. He looks good in that t-shirt. He became a handyman in Providence, R.I. “As a testament to his character, over 1600 people attended his funeral in 1998.” That always makes me tear up a little.
Doc Roe became a construction contractor. He died in Louisiana in 1998.
Frank Perconte returned to Chicago and worked as a mail carrier.
Lieb's all happy and cute. Winters VO says Liebgott drove a cab in San Francisco.
The VO says that Bull was one of the best soldiers Winters had. He went into the earth-moving business in Arkansas.
Alton More returned to Wyoming with Hitler’s photo albums. He was killed in a car accident in 1958.
Everyone lost touch with Floyd Talbert, until he showed up at a reunion shortly before his death in 1981. By the way, Winters’ book calls Tab the best soldier that Winters had.
OMG, just look at Lip and Harry. Seeing them laugh like that is one of my very favorite shots of the whole thing.
Carwood Lipton became a glass-making executive and settled in North Carolina.
Harry Welsh married Kitty Grogan and became an administrator for the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania school system.
Look at Speirs! Look at Winters and Nixon, walking across the field. Damn. They should have filmed that walk in slo-mo.
Ronald Speirs stayed in the army and served in Korea. He returned to Germany as governor of Spandau prison. I absolutely love that fact. He retired a Lieutenant Colonel.
Winters and Nixon walk up to Speirs. Winters tells him to call in the men. Speirs does so, in the awesome voice.
Winters announces that the president has received the unconditional surrender of the Japanese. The war is over. Fine, but look how pretty Babe is. Aw. And I’m really enjoying the t-shirts. I love this show.
Two more epilogues. Lewis Nixon was divorced a couple times, but then married a woman named Grace and things started going well. He spent the rest of his life traveling the world with her. He died in 1995.
After the war, Winters was Personnel Manager for the Nixon Nitration Works, in Nixon, New Jersey. He knew the owners. In 1950, he returned to the service to train officers and rangers. He bought a farm near Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he lives today. And I mean today, guys. In a week, Dick Winters will celebrate his 91st birthday.
I have seen nothing more powerful on screen, in my life, than the reveal of names that ends this series. Seeing the man that’s been talking to us throughout the series, then seeing the name “Dick Winters”...I’ve seen the series six times or so, and I still find it stunning and moving.
Carwood Lipton. Look at that face. At first, I didn’t think Donnie Wahlberg really resembled him, but in the documentary you see the real Lipton smile a little and that’s where the resemblance is. They both have that amazing smile.
Don Malarkey. Oh my god, with his heart on his sleeve, once again. Do you not want to find him and hug him and make him soup? What a man. He says that the men he served with were so incredibly brave. He doesn’t admire anyone more than Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye.
Bill Guarnere. Listen to that voice. Great job by Frank John Hughes, huh? Wild Bill says he was one little part of a big war. And sometimes it makes him cry.
Babe! He says the real heroes are buried in Europe and here at home.
Shifty. You knew that was Shifty all along, right? Peter Youngblood Hills looks nothing like Shifty, as far as I can tell, but man he got that voice down. The cadence, the lightness of it. Perfection. Shifty says that during the war he felt like he could do anything, but afterward he lost a lot of confidence. Aw.
Johnny Martin! OMG, Martin crying is almost worse than Malarkey crying. He says they were just hoping to stay alive.
Lipton, man. Recites the Henry V.
Now Winters again.
“Do you remember the letter that Mike Ranney wrote me? You do? Do you remember how he ended it? ‘I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, 'Grandpa? Were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said 'No. But I served in a company of heroes.’”
That’s it! That’s the end of the best thing I’ve ever seen on screen, anywhere. I feel accomplished! It’s my little tribute to this magnificent thing. I hope you love it as much as I do.
Oh and look, the polls are ginormous. Go ahead and choose more than one option, just so you don't drive yourself crazy.
Poll Points
First-Timers: there are spoilers! Finish watching before you come in! You get the reveal of the real men of Easy in the pics at the end. I wouldn’t spoil myself on that, if I could help it. You should experience that as God and Spanks have intended.
All caps from tasteofblame.
RECAP, The Second Half.
Austria still. Harry and Nix are on the Lido Deck. The topic of discussion is what the officers will do: stay in the army or be discharged. Harry says he’s going back home to Kitty. Nix teases him that she’s probably run off with a 4F by now. Hey, now, no need to get your issues all over Harry. I think it’s cute how much he talks about her.
Dick comes in to unbutton his jacket and lean in a manly way against the beautiful blue backdrop. Harry doesn’t think they’ll get to jump on Tokyo anyway. “The reality is, you guys are gonna spend six months here in Austria, waiting to go, and I’m gonna be back home in Wilkes-Barre, makin’ babies.”
Winters: “You didn’t tell him?”
Nixon: “I couldn’t get him to shut up!”
Harry: “What? Tell me what?”
Nixon looks all wry: “Guts and glory here applied for a transfer.”
Winters: “13th Airborne. Heading out for the Pacific right away. If I’m going I want to get it over with.”
Harry hasn’t been hanging around these two for nothin’. “Are you in on this too?”
Nixon: “I can’t let him go by himself; he doesn’t know where it is!”
Lame! <3
Dick thinks so too. He gives Nix this priceless look like, “Nix, you don’t have to come up with a reason. Harry gets it. Everybody gets it.” And laughs.
(I’m not even kidding. That’s exactly how I remember looking and laughing at my then-boyfriend when we were working together and we didn’t really want anyone to know we were dating. He used to make up these explanations for why we were in the same car or something and he thought he was so sly and I was always like, “Honey, just leave it alone!” *g*)
Harry: “You’re leaving the men?”
Winters: “They don’t need me anymore.” Dick, everyone needs one of you.
Winters is meeting with a general about his transfer. The general talks through his record.
He notes that Winters took command of the company on D-Day.
Winters flashes back to the siege of Brecourt. Hall is dead.
“In Holland they bumped you to Battalion XO. Bastards took your company away.”
Winters flashes back to the dike, shooting the SS kid.
Winters: “I fired my last shots there.”
General: “Of the whole damn war.”
Winters: “Yes sir.”
General: “You got through Bastogne without having to fire your weapon.”
Winters: “That is correct, sir.”
General: “I can’t imagine a tougher test for a leader. Having to sit through a siege like that, under those conditions.”
Winters flashes back to men running through an artillery barrage in Bastogne. Babe jumps into his foxhole and the tree comes down again.
The general asks whether Winters wants to run a division someday; whether he wants more combat experience to pursue a career in the army. “Because if you think you need more combat experience to get stars on your helmet, let me tell you, son. You’ve done enough.”
“Thank you, sir. That’s not my objective.”
The general says he took the meeting out of respect for Dick’s accomplishments and for the 101st. He denies the request. “Frankly I think your men have earned the right to keep you around.” Dick is clearly surprised, but accepts the decision and leaves.
Winters VO explains that having no enemy to fight became a problem for the men.
Skinny, Liebgott and Webster are in a jeep, looking at a cottage on a hill.
Webster: “Lieb, I fucking hate this.”
Liebgott reminds him that one of the Polish inmates from a “slave camp” fingered the guy who lives here as an officer at the camp. Webster challenges the evidence, but Liebgott says he has an order and he’s going to follow it. Liebgott gets out and walks fast toward the house, Skinny behind him.
I recently ran across a comment from an LJ fan of BoB that reminded me of something I’ve noticed before. When the guys call him “Lieb”, they’re saying “love”. :-)
Let’s go with that. Webster sighs. He can’t just let Liebgott go without him. Webster runs after Liebgott and asks whether it’s personal. Liebgott says no. Webster asks what if they’re wrong.
Liebgott turns on him and they are right in each other’s faces. I sorta like it.
Liebgott: “Were you at Landsberg? Do think he’s just a soldier like you and me? A fucking innocent German officer?” He takes off and Webster and Skinny follow.
This always reminds me of Winters taking Liebgott’s bullets after the battle at the dike in Crossroads. Bear with me. Webster clearly doesn’t want to confront this German; he doesn’t want them to just drive up and kill the guy. So his objection is, first and foremost, about the rule of law and execution without trial and ugly, messy violence, of which Web has certainly had enough, no matter his distaste for the Germans.
But I feel like part of it is that Webster wants to protect Joe from himself, just like Winters did at the dike. Joe might do anything when he’s like this, and Webster is the kind of person who has thought about what that means -- the damage that your own actions might do to you. I suspect that he doesn’t want Joe to do something he can’t live with.
Inside the cottage, the Webster and Skinny sweep the place while Liebgott addresses the man in German, calling him “commandant”. The man protests. Liebgott argues loudly with him. Liebgott backs the man into a chair. A little Websterish, actually, Liebgott switches to English when he gets really pissed. “You condemned my fucking people!”
Satisfied that Liebgott is safe, if not from himself, Webster goes outside to calm his nerves with a cigarette. Skinny comes out too. “He’s guilty. Liebgott says so.”
Webster: “He probably is.” He probably is.
A shot rings out, making Webster flinch. They think it’s over, but it’s not.
The man runs out of the cottage, bleeding from the neck and takes off up the hill. Jesus Christ with the neck wounds. Liebgott has bad neck karma, doesn’t he?
Liebgott tries to shoot the running man but he’s out of ammo.
He yells at Webster: “Shoot him!”
Webster says no. He doesn’t want to do anything he can’t live with either.
The man suddenly falls. Skinny got him.
They drive back in the jeep.
Liebgott: “Officers don’t run.”
Webster: “The war’s over; anybody would run.”
Checkpoint. Janovec talks to a guard on duty with him. The guys says this is the end of his second war. Janovec checks the papers of people in a truck passing by and waves them on. He salutes as they drive away.
Webster pulls up in a jeep to relieve him. All sing-songy: “Don’t salute the Germans!”
I kinda love Webster in this scene. Wait, watch his face. I call it his checkpoint face. He’s all badass and skeptical.
Janovec: “Aw, come one, they sorta get a kick out of it. Besides, I got me a new enemy. The Japs.” Janovec has 75 points.
Webster takes over the checkpoint. He tells Janovec that he has 81 points. Janovec: “That’s just not good enough!” His jeep takes off.
Webster jettisons some German luggage and forces a German couple to give a soldier a ride to Munich in their car. The civilians protest and he tells them to suck it. Cause he's bad to the bone.
Down the road, a barrel falls of a passing truck and into the path of Janovec’s jeep. Crash. Webster sees and bolts down the road to help.
Janovec’s dead. Speirs, Winters and Major Kent view the body. Webster: “75 points. He was 10 points short.”
Winters VO wishes that was their only casualty.
It’s nighttime. A jeep with three men, Grant driving. They come upon a grisly scene. Three vehicles, one dead German, one dead Brit, one American: armed and drunk. The drunk guy explains that one of the dead guys wouldn’t give him gas and the other dead guy wouldn’t listen. He tries to leave in the Brit’s jeep, but Grant wants to contain the damage. He calls out, “Hold on a second there, alright?” The soldier whirls around and shoots Grant in the head. He drives away as the other men run to help Grant.
Inside, a medic examines Grant as Gene holds a bag of plasma. Tab is looking worried. Speirs is awesomely holding and stroking Grant’s hand. I think his heart grew two sizes this day.
The doc says he would need a brain surgeon, but even that probably won’t save him. Speirs and the boys hustle Grant away. Speirs is going to find a surgeon. Tab is going to find the shooter. He has orders to take him alive.
Tab rousts the men out of bed. I’d feel bad about this, but many of them haven’t had time to put anything on over their wifebeaters, so I’m ok with it. Looks like the whole company is going on a manhunt.
Speirs knocks on a door with his gun. The surgeon comes outside in his jammies and looks at Grant’s wound. He agrees to help, but wants Speirs to put the gun away. The surgeon drives them to a hospital as Gene holds the bag.
Talbert and Luz are playing cards. Clearly the shooter is in the other room, having a conversation with the rest of Easy Company. Tab is jumping out of his skin. He wonders whether he should go in and stop it. Luz tells him to play cards. Not without compassion, he’s just trying to manage him a little. Speirs charges in.
Speirs: “Where is he?”
Talbert: “How’s Grant?”
Speirs: “Where is he??!”
Talbert: “Is he ok?”
Speirs: “WHERE IS HE??!!”
Dude, he got to three. I love your priorities, but tell him where the guy is.
In the room, the shooter is a little bit bloody. Bull says he’s a replacement from I Company. Look at Speirs. That is a face you don’t want to see.
Speirs: “Where’s the weapon?”
Suicidal Replacement: “What weapon?”
Great. The one guy in the regiment who hasn’t heard the stories about Speirs.
Speirs backhands him across the face, splattering blood.
Speirs: “When you talk to an officer, you say ‘sir’”.
Ha. This scene makes me all kinds of nauseated, but always like it when Speirs is a cold-blooded badass.
Speirs cocks his gun and aims it at the soldier. No one has any doubt that he will do it. What’s interesting is the different reactions. Perconte’s eyes get really big and he blinks and steps back and then closes his eyes. Babe looks down. Martin steps back, and ducks his head slightly, but he really has a regular Martin face on. He’s cool as a cucumber, that boy. Bull looks at Speirs. He’s not too bothered, but he ducks his head a little. More looks worried. Malarkey looks ok, but then he closes his eyes.
Liebgott, my beautiful Liebgott. He’s standing just behind Speirs’ left shoulder. I mean to say he’s going to get brain matter on him. And instead of looking at Speirs, like the other guys are, he’s mostly looking at the soldier. He’s going to see the guy die. Then he looks at Speirs.
Speirs points the gun away. He wipes the guys blood from his hand onto the soldier’s uniform and turns to leave. “Have the MPs take care of this piece of shit.”
As Speirs walks back through the outer room, Tab calls after him. “Grant’s dead?”
Speirs turns. His manner is completely back to normal. “No. Kraut surgeon says he’s gonna make it.”
Speirs is in an office, questioning Alton More about Hitler’s photo albums. More says he doesn’t have them and Speirs is pissed. As he leaves, More smirks, but Speirs can’t see. Talbert comes in. He asks to resign as 1st Sergeant; he wants to be back among the men. He’d be happy to serve as Staff Sergeant of one of the platoons. Speirs says he guesses Tab has earned the right to demote himself and gives him Grant’s platoon. Tab is pleased.
Speirs and Winters walk outside, toward Winters’ jeep. Speirs knows that Easy will need a CO, after the war. “It’s absolutely irresponsible to leave them in the hands of the wrong person. They’re too much of a valuable resource.”
Winters smiles at him like he smiles at Nix when he’s making shit up like that, covering badly.
“So you’ve decided to stay with the army?”
Speirs gets over himself: “Yes, I’m going to stay with the men.”
Winters: “Well I’m glad to hear it.”
God, I love the dress uniforms. Look at all the uniforms in this scene. Winters talks to Malarkey. There’s an Airborne exhibition in Paris that requires Malarkey’s expert advice.
Malarkey: “If you need someone to go...someone has to be there.”
Winters smirks. “We do; we absolutely do.”
Malarkey salutes. Winters returns his salute, and then shakes his hand.
Lipton steps up.
“Yes, Carwood.” I always find that cute.
Winters says that when there’s a battlefield commission, they usually don’t let the officer stay with the same company. “They’re afraid the men won’t show him the same degree of respect as they would another officer.”
Lipton: “Yes, sir. It’s a good theory, sir.”
Winters: “It’s an idiotic theory, especially in your case.” One of my favorite Winters lines. Winters wants to assign him to Battalion HQ.
Winters: “Right now, down at the airfield, there is a German general who’s a little POed about having to surrender to Private Babe Heffron from South Philly.” He thinks 2nd Lieutenant Carwood Lipton from West Virginia is a better choice.
Lipton: “Major, is this the type of job I can expect from now on?
Winters: “Yeah, yeah, when we’re not sunning ourselves by the lake.”
*whimper* Ok, now he’s just messing with me! Somebody’s going to have to write me some sunning by the lake fic.
Said airfield. Winters and Nix pull up in a jeep and drop Lipton. Lipton relieves Liebgott. Seriously? Liebgott’s guarding the prisoners.
*sigh* “Let’s get Liebgott to recount the horrors of the concentration camp.” Ok, they walked right into that one. Didn’t know at the outset that they were mostly Jews. Fine. “Let’s get Liebgott to tell the other Jews that they can’t eat anymore and they have to be locked up again.” Well, it was urgent and Webster wasn’t around. Not good enough, but whatever.
Need somebody to go shoot a Nazi? Let’s get Liebgott. Hey, I got a couple hundred German soldiers down at the airfield and they need someone to keep them in line. Let’s get Liebgott. What the hell? I’m not saying he’s not competent. I’m saying you guys need to either give him a break or be prepared to pay for his therapy.
Anyway, the general looks at Winters; Winters gestures to Lipton. The general asks Lip whether he may address his men. Lip says that’ll be fine.
A truck pulls away to reveal Captain Herbert Sobel, who is suddenly having a bad day. Full of bad decisions. The enlisted man with him salutes Winters, but Sobel just looks away.
Winters: “Captain Sobel.”
Sobel: “Major Winters.” Ouch.
Winters: “Captain Sobel!” Sobel stops.
Winters: “We salute the rank, not the man.” Well played.
Sobel stops and salutes. He looks like he’s going to throw up.
Liebgott looks at Sobel and then at Winters. I don’t think he’s ever felt this way about another man. Look at the deadly smirk.
Nix is sitting at Dick’s back, trying not to look at him. Winters can feel his reaction, and turns around and looks at Nix. Nixon can’t hold it. He smiles and then looks at Winters. He loves him so much right then for the uncharacteristic beat-down, but he doesn’t want to give him a big head. Nix, seriously, you better watch out. I think Liebgott wants to wrestle you for Winters right now. And he’s scrappy.
The General starts to address his men.
Winters calls Joe over: “Liebgott?” Yeah, cause maybe the General’s gonna say something bad about Jews. We want to make sure Liebgott gets the full experience.
Liebgott translates: “Men it’s been a long war; it’s been a tough war. You have fought bravely, proudly, for your country.” Liebgott huffs a tiny bit at this last part. “You are a special group. We have found in one another a special bond that exists only in combat, among brothers. We have shared foxholes. Held each other in dire moments. We have seen death and suffered together. I am proud to have served with each and every one of you. You deserve long and happy lives, in peace.” By the end, Liebgott’s face has changed, but it’s very subtle. I think this could have been really heavy, but it’s nice.
We’re back at the lake. Wet Winters! Yay! Flashback loop is stamped “closed”. Winters swims toward the pier. He stands up in the shallow water. Holy mother of god.
“Towel?” Nix throws him a towel. Cause he’s there on the pier, watching Dick swim. And looking at pictures of the two of them. *dies*
Nixon: “Look at these two kids. What the hell happened to them?” <3 Lame.
Winters: “New Jersey, huh?”
Nixon: “Yeah, think about it.”
Winters: “Yeah, I am.”
So am I.
Winters towels off his magnificence: “You awake yet?”
Nixon: “Awake? Time to go to bed.”
Nixon thinks about it for a second, then runs a few steps to the end of the pier, and dives in.
Baseball!!!
Webster’s at bat.
Buck’s the catcher!
Winters VO gives us the epilogues.
Buck Compton came back to let everyone know he was ok. After the war, he became a prosecutor. He convicted Sirhan Sirhan for the murder of Robert Kennedy. He was appointed to the California Court of Appeals.
I absolutely love this shot of Webster. He looks up, then turns back real fast to smile at somebody. He became a writer for the Saturday Evening Post and the Wall Street Journal. He wrote a book about sharks. In 1961, he went out on the ocean alone, and was never seen again. That’s incredibly sad.
Johnny Martin got a job with the railroad, then owned a contracting company. He lives in Arizona and Montana.
Look how hot Luz is! I fall in love with Luz in Last Patrol and again right here. He looks good in that t-shirt. He became a handyman in Providence, R.I. “As a testament to his character, over 1600 people attended his funeral in 1998.” That always makes me tear up a little.
Doc Roe became a construction contractor. He died in Louisiana in 1998.
Frank Perconte returned to Chicago and worked as a mail carrier.
Lieb's all happy and cute. Winters VO says Liebgott drove a cab in San Francisco.
The VO says that Bull was one of the best soldiers Winters had. He went into the earth-moving business in Arkansas.
Alton More returned to Wyoming with Hitler’s photo albums. He was killed in a car accident in 1958.
Everyone lost touch with Floyd Talbert, until he showed up at a reunion shortly before his death in 1981. By the way, Winters’ book calls Tab the best soldier that Winters had.
OMG, just look at Lip and Harry. Seeing them laugh like that is one of my very favorite shots of the whole thing.
Carwood Lipton became a glass-making executive and settled in North Carolina.
Harry Welsh married Kitty Grogan and became an administrator for the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania school system.
Look at Speirs! Look at Winters and Nixon, walking across the field. Damn. They should have filmed that walk in slo-mo.
Ronald Speirs stayed in the army and served in Korea. He returned to Germany as governor of Spandau prison. I absolutely love that fact. He retired a Lieutenant Colonel.
Winters and Nixon walk up to Speirs. Winters tells him to call in the men. Speirs does so, in the awesome voice.
Winters announces that the president has received the unconditional surrender of the Japanese. The war is over. Fine, but look how pretty Babe is. Aw. And I’m really enjoying the t-shirts. I love this show.
Two more epilogues. Lewis Nixon was divorced a couple times, but then married a woman named Grace and things started going well. He spent the rest of his life traveling the world with her. He died in 1995.
After the war, Winters was Personnel Manager for the Nixon Nitration Works, in Nixon, New Jersey. He knew the owners. In 1950, he returned to the service to train officers and rangers. He bought a farm near Hershey, Pennsylvania, where he lives today. And I mean today, guys. In a week, Dick Winters will celebrate his 91st birthday.
I have seen nothing more powerful on screen, in my life, than the reveal of names that ends this series. Seeing the man that’s been talking to us throughout the series, then seeing the name “Dick Winters”...I’ve seen the series six times or so, and I still find it stunning and moving.
Carwood Lipton. Look at that face. At first, I didn’t think Donnie Wahlberg really resembled him, but in the documentary you see the real Lipton smile a little and that’s where the resemblance is. They both have that amazing smile.
Don Malarkey. Oh my god, with his heart on his sleeve, once again. Do you not want to find him and hug him and make him soup? What a man. He says that the men he served with were so incredibly brave. He doesn’t admire anyone more than Bill Guarnere and Joe Toye.
Bill Guarnere. Listen to that voice. Great job by Frank John Hughes, huh? Wild Bill says he was one little part of a big war. And sometimes it makes him cry.
Babe! He says the real heroes are buried in Europe and here at home.
Shifty. You knew that was Shifty all along, right? Peter Youngblood Hills looks nothing like Shifty, as far as I can tell, but man he got that voice down. The cadence, the lightness of it. Perfection. Shifty says that during the war he felt like he could do anything, but afterward he lost a lot of confidence. Aw.
Johnny Martin! OMG, Martin crying is almost worse than Malarkey crying. He says they were just hoping to stay alive.
Lipton, man. Recites the Henry V.
Now Winters again.
“Do you remember the letter that Mike Ranney wrote me? You do? Do you remember how he ended it? ‘I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day when he said, 'Grandpa? Were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said 'No. But I served in a company of heroes.’”
That’s it! That’s the end of the best thing I’ve ever seen on screen, anywhere. I feel accomplished! It’s my little tribute to this magnificent thing. I hope you love it as much as I do.
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