[BoB REWATCH] Part Seven: The Breaking Point & Part Eight: The Last Patrol

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Welcome to the Band of Brothers rewatch discussion post for
PART SEVEN: THE BREAKING POINT & PART EIGHT: THE LAST PATROL
You are welcome to discuss any and all aspects of the episodes in the comments on this post. Please recognize that others may hold different opinions than you and continue to abide by our #1 rule: don't be a dick. Additionally, I ask that y'all take care to keep spoiler content off of spoiler-free threads. Otherwise, have fun!

Part Seven: The Breaking Point
Spoiler-free thread.
Spoiler friendly thread.

Part Eight: The Last Patrol
Spoiler-free thread.
Spoiler friendly thread.

If you'd like to chat about the episode in real time, join us over on Discord:

The spoiler-free Discord chat.
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To participate in discussions about previous episodes, you can visit the posts below:

Part One: Currahee & Part Two: Day of DaysPart Three: Carentan & Part Four: ReplacementsPart Five: Crossroads & Part Six: Bastogne

Comments

[thrillingdetectivetales]

This is a comment thread for spoiler-free discussion of Band of Brothers Part Seven: The Breaking Point.

For spoiler friendly discussion of the episode, please see the thread below.

[yourlibrarian]

I noticed in this episode that they finally got winter coats and gloves.

Well, Hoob finally got his Luger and clearly more than he bargained for. Another great example of how real life tells different stories than fictional ones. I did wonder, however, where the shelter for Winters came from since it seemed they kept moving forward.

The story of Dier is another good example. I would have expected that his problems stemmed from a battlefield promotion that he wasn't prepared for, but apparently not.

I'll confess, Peacock's departure made me laugh. But the problem of Winters not being able to hand off command to anybody competent was surely a common problem.

I'm surprised though, that anyone had to be told to take cover once the shelling started. Isn't this after all a company of very experienced men?
I'm going to assume at least part of that was to create visual drama.

I wondered, seeing everyone hacking up trees with axes, what the standard equipment for these soldiers was. No wonder Swiss Army knives are a thing.

Boy, lots of losses this episode. It was also interesting to hear an episode narrated since we haven't had that happen until this point.

When Lipton made his report to Winters and then said that Winters couldn't do anything, I wondered why Winters hadn't given his instructions to Dier with the sergeants looking on, so that multiple people would be clear on what needed to be done and what the orders were.

I'm really surprised the men would start celebrating without first clearing out all the buildings. But maybe that was partly due to the lack of supervision in the area.

I also wondered, after the fact, if Dier hadn't been someone's favorite in high command so much as he was placed on the battlefield to eliminate him from the command structure. Someone with his level of incompetence would have a high likelihood of getting himself killed.

Given the narration I figured Lipton would be with us at the end, and that he would realize that he had been the leader he was looking for. I suppose I should have expected the promotion as well. I quite like the scene with the choir, and the images of all the men who have been lost.

[thrillingdetectivetales]

Well, Hoob finally got his Luger and clearly more than he bargained for.

Ugh, he really did. That's one of the most heart-wrenching parts to watch, for me. Like there's plenty of tragedy throughout the whole show but that one just hurts, y'know?

I'll confess, Peacock's departure made me laugh.

I always find that scene so funny, too. Just his not getting while they're like, "THANK GOD."

It was also interesting to hear an episode narrated since we haven't had that happen until this point.

I'll be honest, I don't love that this volume of narration comes out of essentially nowhere. It bothers me from a narrative standpoint that we don't have any internal dialogue at all and then an entire episode of it out of nowhere from Lipton. There's a little bit in one other episode but I'm pretty firmly of the belief that if you're going to use a convention like that in a show setting, you either need to establish that it's going to be a thing right off the bat and use it as a tool accordingly, or steer away from it altogether. Dropping it in to add context to a story just illustrates to me that the writer/director failed in the pursuit of "show don't tell."

I don't mind narration overall, I just wish they had picked one and stuck with it instead of sprinkling it in randomly more than halfway through.

I wondered, seeing everyone hacking up trees with axes, what the standard equipment for these soldiers was

That would be a perfect time to call back to the list Joe Toye gives in the first episode, lol.

I wondered why Winters hadn't given his instructions to Dier with the sergeants looking on, so that multiple people would be clear on what needed to be done and what the orders were.

I'm sure that he did, in reality. I'd imagine it's one of those things where they're trusting the audience to make some assumptions that they probably shouldn't trust the audience to make because the audience has no way to know, lol. I think the bit where Buck and Lip and the rest of the non-coms are circled up talking to each other and Buck calls over his shoulder for Dike's confirmation and he gives it is probably meant to implicate that kind of thing, but you're right in that it doesn't do a very good job.

Someone with his level of incompetence would have a high likelihood of getting himself killed.

Because he spends so little time there it's difficult to say what the motivations could be for his being given command of Easy. Dike has a bit of that Sobel thing going on, where he's painted to be a guy who's trying to make it career military and is just utterly unsuited for the job, but I feel a lot less sympathy for him than for Sobel because he doesn't engage at all. Even though he was kind of a raging asshole in many ways, Sobel was very concerned with Easy's wellbeing.

I quite like the scene with the choir, and the images of all the men who have been lost.

That scene was nice, and the music was lovely. It was a little heavy-handed but it's not like this show has been especially subtle up until this point, lol.

[yourlibrarian]

Yes, so senseless.

And yes, Peacock's so happy to be going and glad everyone's so happy for him! Heh.

I guess it didn't bother me because it seemed to me that in every episode they tended to switch up the way it was told. So we had a few episodes which were about no specific character, some that had a featured character, some that had what amounted to an outsider POV (which is what I'd argue Last Patrol was), one where there's only one character's POV (Doc's), and then this one where there's narration. I figured that part of the purpose here was to provide a semi-unreliable narrator. So we can see what he's doing but he's not telling us some of those things. So in the end we finally get the camera focus turned around on him.

I only now realized my voice recognition translated Dike as Dier!

I feel a lot less sympathy for him than for Sobel because he doesn't engage at all. Even though he was kind of a raging asshole in many ways, Sobel was very concerned with Easy's wellbeing.

Yes, that's someone whose death comes as a relief.

Heh, no not subtle. But some of the details were remarkable to think about, such as that they hadn't slept indoors in more than a month in that cold. The difference must have been as remarkable, and maybe that soft lit room's peace was one way of conveying that visually.