The battle to take Peleliu continues for the Marines across an open airfield with little supplies. To my untrained eye, they seem to be taking ground against the Japanese, but at the cost of heavy casualties. Pvt. Sledge, no longer wet behind the ears, learns the hard way what his friend Phillips was trying to tell him. It looks like, finally, Leckie may have gotten a ticket home. And I’m left trying to figure out what the hell is this show about.
I’ve argued in past weeks that The Pacific doesn’t pay enough attention to the characters (a criticism I still stand by). However, now that we’re past the halfway mark of the series, I’m beginning to wonder what is the story supposed to be about?
Look, I’m not dumb (despite what some may think). I know that the story being told is about the Marines fighting in the Pacific Theatre of Operation. That’s not what my question means. I want to know what the threads are that we’re supposed to follow through the series — the themes, the moral lessons that we’re supposed to be learning. I talked last week about “War is Hell,” but is that it? Forget the overall series for a second, even the individual episodes have trouble with this. If you pulled the scenes with Phillips at the Sledge’s house from the beginning, and Leckie and Runner on the hospital ship at the end, there would be no start or finish to the main story being told. It seems to be that storytelling is taking just as much of a backseat as the characters are.
Sledge is in the thick of it now, eh? The taking of the airfield was horrible on the man, as he told his officer during one of the nights. The guy that gives him water takes a shot to the head. He almost gets hit by a sniper from behind. This is what his father was trying to tell him, but some lessons are only learned through experience. I wonder how the rest of the war will continue to change him.
Is Leckie done? It sure seems that way. It looks like all of his buddies, save Runner, have been lost. He’s on a hospital ship, leaving Peleiu in his wake. I’m not sure where the arc of his story ends (We’ve not seen the last of Caroline Dhavernas as Vera I trust). I hope we’ll see more of him as he recuperates and eventually integrates back into society, as that is a good story not yet told here or in Band of Brothers.
Notes & Quotes:
Clacked by Ivey West 
on Apr 18, 2010 @ 22:12 EST5EDT
Oh, I so agree. The crossing of Mordor is treacherous, I get it. But, what is the larger story? Leckie is so unikable one wonders if the person who wrote the script liked these fellas at all.
And why is it that they don’t show the Japanese?
And- you are not dumb at all, quite the contrary! But that’s coming from a person that has never, ever, ever agreed with anything the special snowflake has written.
Aw come on Ivey you were not dumb to be angry about Bones. I dropped the show completely after Season 4 and simply came back to it because you kept praising it. I had my “god this is so damn screwed up with Brennan and Booth I can’t take it anymore” then, you had it now. Of course it sounded a bit condescending by folks like me that we couldn’t understand what you expected because it was “so obvious” but just because we had this moment earlier doesn’t mean we weren’t at least as “dumb” as you for round about four seasons (in my case).
Trust me, it’s easy to still enjoy “Bones” if you just let it go. Those two will find each other but more in a seven to eight season timeframe than in a five season one :-)
I know it’s not a good idea to take me as an example when it comes to stuff you might like but I guess in this case you could. I mean that BS with Angela didn’t phase me for a second. Look at that… she even said it herself she’s managing a Kindergarten and to me that’s what every single storyline on this show has always been – people behaving totally idiotic when it comes to romance so it’s quite understandable that Julia said it’s regular faire on “Bones” what they did there.
Haven’t seen episode 6 yet so I might come back later when I did.
I agree, too. And I am still somewhat having trouble telling the characters apart! (Should I be embarrassed to admit that it wasn’t until episode 4 or 5 that I realized Leckie was the one the series opened with, telling Vera he would write to her?)
But I found myself thinking along the same lines as you as I was watching this episode. There is a great book called Battle Cry by Leon Uris, based on his own experience as a Marine in the Pacific Theatre. Granted, there was a lot of room for character development (it’s a long book), but you are able connect with the characters and feel the experience they are having in battle, and feel like you have a vested interest in whether they survive. Needless to say, The Pacific pales in comparison (for me, at least).
I’ve never read the book but maybe to understand the show The Pacific need to read the book first. I read something earlier and from what I understand The Pacific I guess is covering the war and 3 soldiers live