Being deep into Combat's fifth and final season by this point and only having around 6 episodes left to watch, it's clear the show is showing its age. Most tv programs can't retain the amount of quality they had earlier in their time on the air and this show is sadly no different. This episode is full of the firefights, morals, and repetitive music we've experienced dozens of times before. The Germans use the same 5 weapons they've been using for the entire series (Kar98k, Gewehr 43, MG42, MP40 and Walther P38) and the squad travels through an array of "varying" locations that seem to be copy and pasted. This very bland episode begins with (technically) all the squad members sitting around a few tents. Little John is present in the teaser, but not in the actual episode as Dick Peabody was injured while working on Gulliver (another bomb of an episode). The area around the tents starts getting attacked by artillery shells and Private Harris (James Franciscus) jumps into an embankment to treat a wounded man, but then stops halfway and lets someone else treat him. Harris, Saunders, Caje, Doc and McCall then move out and come across a german machine gun position. Saunders tells Caje to take Harris and McCall to flank the machine gun while he and Kirby attack the germans from another angle. Not long into the gunfight, McCall is hit. Both Doc and Harris try to heal him, the former being perplexed by Harris' medical methods. Despite being tasked with handling explosives, Harris says he went to meds school. Later, the squad comes upon their main target: a german bunker with a large, radio antenna. McCall, Caje and Doc hang back while Saunders and Harris sneak around to the rear of the building and place a satchel charge. A huge explosion destroys the antenna and the remaining germans are killed. Finally, the squad takes refuge in a cave and waits for a French contact of theirs to give them the whereabouts of a high ranking american POW who needs to be retrieved. The squad sets up along a road a convoy of two vehicles is expected to pass through. A Kubelwagen is sighted in front with a larger truck close behind it, and the american colonel is in this truck. As Saunders and the others ambush the vehicles, they succeed in killing the germans and leaving the colonel unharmed, albeit not entirely. He's taken back to the cave for a closer look. Doc finds that he was hit in the throat and slowly choking. Unless he and Harris perform an emergency incision into his windpipe, he's going to die. This is where Harris' fear comes in, as it's revealed he quit wanting to be a medic because he's afraid of making a mistake and killing a patient. Saunders convinces him to do it by saying he knows Harris gave up on being a doctor because he's afraid he might kill someone, but if he doesn't operate, the guy will be killed. Doc and Harris complete the tracheotomy. Harris is then dropped off at base and Saunders tells him good luck in whatever he decides to do from now on. Like I said before, it's clear to me that this show is running out of momentum. The height for me was season 4, and while the show in color looks exciting, it's proof that making something look good can't make up for lack of a good plot. Franciscus' character is just annoying. I couldn't tell if he was lying or not about his medical experience throughout much of the episode, as Doc seems to always have a skeptical look on his face when he listens to him talk. The action in this episode (if you can call it that) is atrociously paced. The initial gunfight with the machine gun mounted behind the log is unbearably long and repetitive. With the exception of a recent episode I watched, I don't think the germans have ever come out on top in a gunfight in this show. To summarize, this episode pretty much sums up the mediocrity of Combat's final season, as the show was no longer using the advantages it had available to itself. The first episode of the season actually finally gave us new scenery (along with a huge lake and big explosions) but for a long time now that's been gone. I just wish there was more variety in the environments, as there weren't many snow episodes, and none so far that are in color. The germans could have been given new equipment like rocket launchers or smoke grenades. Unfortunately, this is just more of the same and has almost nothing to distinguish itself from most other installments.
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