The Pacific – What becomes of the broken hearted?

The good news is tha,t after three weeks, I finally do care about the characters in The Pacific (well, at least some of them). The bad news? The one I really like gets screwed, then screwed two more times (an unfortunately pun, but, hey, what are you gonna do?). Basilone also separated from his unit (more importantly, his best friend. And I still can’t keep everyone else apart. Things are starting to get good on the show, but at the expense of things going well for our heroes.

In Leckie’s case, he found a nice family to be a part of, instead of just a nice girl. I don’t really get Stella’s thinking, though. Protecting both her mother and father from the loss of another “child” makes sense, but I think she reacted way to strongly to not seeing the reaction she wanted when her mother talked to Leckie about coming back after the war. What she did was downright mean, but the mess he got himself in after the fact was his own doing. Being dumped from his unit is a hard price to pay for being dumped by his lady.

Basilone, however, had it much worse. Sure, we can probably say from the outside looking in that going home is a much more cushy gig, but to lose Manny one week, and then to be separated from JP the next, that has to be rough. The camaraderie these guys developed predates the start of the series, so we only know so much about what brings them together. But I think much of the efforts that Basilone was rewarded for was based on protecting his friend, a job he can’t do from back home. I’m certainly not saying that his new posting isn’t as important as Puller indicated, but it was obvious that he’d rather be “back with the fellas.”

I still think it is too damn hard to tell all of the different characters apart. It took me most of the episode to place the young man courting Gwen (and living by the Articles of War) was Sidney Phillips. Maybe blame my inability to learn names and faces quickly, or just the fact that we never really got to know any of the characters well. This, too, is getting better, but not necessarily at the rate I’d like.

Notes & Quotes

• I’ve had many a drink my day, but that “Blockbuster” would have presented quite a bit of trouble for me.
• The MPs were cruel, cruel men with a wake up call like that.
• The first roll call after the Marines’ first night out brings a whole new meaning to “fall out.”
• What an interesting way for Leckie to repay that family’s hospitality, eh?

Clacked by Ivey West
on Mar 28, 2010 @ 23:53 EST5EDT