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'The Pacific' - 'Melbourne' Recap
by Jason Hughes, posted Mar 29th 2010 2:31PM
(S03) Wasn't that a stark contrast from the first two episodes. As viewers, we were just as out of sorts watching that arrival in Melbourne, Australia as the marines themselves were. After two weeks of near non-stop warfare and bloodshed, the marines got a chance to get some much needed R & R, as well as the attention of some very appreciative Aussie young women.The more relaxed pace of the episode allowed us to get to know some of our principal cast members more intimately. Particularly Robert Leckie and John Basilone, who had very different experiences in Melbourne. Basilone was the decorated war hero, given the highest honor he could possibly achieve, while Leckie found something even sweeter: a woman.
As someone who's never been to war, I can't speak of what it must be like during these breaks from the action, when the military personnel can interact socially with regular civilians. Knowing that you could be called back to the front at any moment must create a heightened sense of emotion, which could explain why both Leckie and the lovely Australian lass he became smitten with seemed to get so serious so quickly.
Of course, courtship in the 1940s was also very different than it is these days, with less of an emphasis on just casually dating and more of a focus on the rituals of moving toward a long and lasting marriage. The awkwardness of young men who've been away from women for so long, finding these beautiful women ready and willing, so it would seem, only to be introduced suddenly to their families must have been a bit jarring.
But it was precisely those intimate moments with the families, and with the couples themselves, that created the emotional connections we needed. Now we have an idea of what they've left behind when they go back to fight again. We know what they're like, sort of, when they're away from war, which helps to humanize them a bit.
The action was so relentless through the first two episodes, that it became difficult to differentiate one soldier from another. We found ourselves latching onto little things that would make this one stand out over that one; including our main characters. Now, we've seen how reluctantly Basilone is accepting his new status as a marine hero, and how depressed he is to be leaving his friends and the battle behind to go home and sell war bonds.
We've seen the heart of Robert Leckie, and we know how deeply he fell in love, and subsequently how much he was shattered by her rejection -- solely so that her family wouldn't suffer if he died. He has a self-destructive side that could prove to be his undoing, but we know he's a passionate man who wears his heart on his sleeve. Unfortunately, that heart sometimes beats louder than his brain, leading to him pulling a sidearm on a superior officer.
The jarring transition from Guadalcanal to Melbourne was appreciated not just for it allowing us to take some time and get to know these characters, but for showcasing what a whirlwind of disparate experiences these very young men had to go through. The drinking and carousing they got up to makes perfect sense after the horrors they witnessed. And for many of them, the distractions did not provide the needed happiness.
In many ways, this was a transitional episode; a short breather between military campaigns. There wasn't a lot that happened, other than relationships being forged that may or may not come back into play for our marines. But it was a nice respite, and an interesting examination of how some of these men can be just as "lost" in civilized society as they were in the jungles of Guadalcanal.
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