Recap / Band Of Brothers S 1 E 10 Points

Episode 10 - Points:

"Men, it's been a long war, it's been a tough war. You've fought bravely, proudly for your country. You're a special group. You've found in one another a bond, that exists only in combat, among brothers. You've shared foxholes, held each other in dire moments. You've seen death and suffered together. I'm proud to have served with each and every one of you. You all deserve long and happy lives in peace."

— German General, translated by Joe Liebgott

"Points" is the tenth and final episode of Band of Brothers. As Easy Company moves into Austria, it's announced that the Germans have surrendered. Anyone with enough points can, if they wish, go back home to America^note To briefly elaborate; in order to manage the US military's manpower requirements for its ongoing combat and occupation obligations while also ensuring that the surplus of enlisted men this resulted in could start to be returned to civilian life as quickly, fairly and objectively as possible, a points system was established to try and calculate who would remain to continue fighting/occupying Germany, who would be transferred to the Pacific for the then-likely invasion of Japan, and who could go home. Points were awarded based on four criteria: 1 point per months of service in the armed forces since November 1940, 1 point per months of service overseas (plus an additional 5 points per campaign fought in), 5 points per decoration earned, and twelve points per dependent child (for a maximum of three children). At the time of the episode, the amount of points required for an honourable discharge was 85. Enlisted soldiers could also apply to remain in the military and continue serving professionally if they wished. For example, a man with no children who enlisted in March 1942, was shipped overseas in September 1943, served in the Normandy, Ardennes and Central Europe campaigns, and earned the Purple Heart after being injured by enemy action in Normandy would have about 77 points by April 1945, whereas a man with the exact same career but one child would have about 89 points. But for those who don't, they must wait in Austria until they're called to fight in Japan. Dick Winters spends a good amount of time considering having himself transferred to fight in Japan immediately. Also features The Reveal of who the interviewees at the start of each episode really are. Get your tissues ready.

We band of tropes:

• All Germans Are Nazis: Discussed as Easy Company moves into Berchtesgaten, it's noted that unlike other places they've moved through, the streets are practically empty of people. Nixon notes that it's because, being the holiday getaway of the high-ranking Nazi elite, it's the one place they've been where nobody living there can deny being a true Nazi.
• Artistic Licence – History:
  • Easy Company are implied to reach the Eagle's Nest first. They were actually third – but the previous two units were given orders to move out before they could stay too long.
  • Webster goes with Liebgott when he tracks down an SS officer in charge of the concentration camp. In reality he wasn't there.
  • When the German colonel surrenders to Winters, he's shown being allowed to keep his weapon. In reality Winters took it.
  • Major Winters is the one to announce the Japanese surrender to Easy Company during the baseball game in August 1945, which includes several characters we've been following throughout the whole series. In fact, Winters and every other Toccoa man in Easy Company had been discharged and sent home by this point (except for Webster, who was having difficulties getting his points tally verified).
• Back for the Finale: Buck Compton and Captain Sobel show up for the final sequence.
• Because You Can Cope: Winters attempts to abandon the 101st and go fight in Japan right away with the rationalization that the men don't need him anymore.
• Bittersweet Ending: A good amount of Easy Company men have been killed or severely injured in the war and all carry the scars of the experience. Some, like Joe Liebgott, break off all contact after the war is over. However, their efforts ultimately helped defeat Nazi Germany and many of the men go on to live long and happy lives, forever bonded by their shared experiences.
• Book Ends: One of the rumors surrounding Speirs throughout the series is that he once shot one of his own men for being drunk^note The incident did happen, but it wasn't simply for being drunk. The man was drunk in the middle of battle, had made it clear he was going to disobey orders to hold their position, then refused Speirs' order (twice) to return to the rear so as not to endanger the unit, and responded to Speirs' warning by aiming his rifle at Speirs, resulting in Speirs shooting him in self-defence. Here, confronted with a soldier who had gotten drunk and killed two Germans, two British soldiers, and almost killed Grant, he almost executes the man, even pointing his pistol at him, before changing his mind and telling the men to hand him over to the military police.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Implied to be the reason behind Winters' desire to transfer to the Pacific; deep down he doesn't really want to remain a soldier, but feels the need to go where he can help "do some good". The recruitment officer who interviews him seems to pick up on this, and suggests that instead of transferring immediately he instead wait and enjoy the remaining time his points will give him with his men, with the implication that he should instead think of himself for once and do what he really wants to do.
  Officer: If you think you need more combat experience to get stars on your helmet, let me tell you something, son: you've done enough. [...] Major, I took this meeting out of respect for your achievements and for the 101st. If they do go to the Pacific eventually, you should be running one of the battalions. But frankly, I think your men have earned the right to keep you around.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: The most egregious example. Although the war is over, Janovec is killed in a road accident and Grant is shot by a drunken replacement. Grant does survive though. Justified, as both of those events really happened.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: The ending may be bittersweet but they've earned it.
• Everyone Has Standards: Webster was one of the soldiers who was most pissed at the Germans in the last episode, but he refuses to kill the German they find in the cabin since they don't have any actual proof he was the one who ran a camp.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Malarkey's Beard of Sorrow is gone, and he seems to be somewhat happier.
• Fire-Forged Friends: The speech the German general gives to his men describes them as this.
• Foregone Conclusion: A common thread throughout the episode is the expectation and fear that many have that, now that the war in Europe is over, they will soon be transferred to the Pacific to fight the Japanese. While this was the intention — at least, for men who still had points to earn — and the process of shipping men out for this purpose had begun, the viewer knows that Japan would surrender mere months after Germany, ending the Second World War and meaning that for most of the main characters this would never come to pass (and even most of those who had already been transferred would have only started training for Pacific combat before the surrender).
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Janovec although it's justified mainly due to him being a replacement. Subverted when Winters is being interviewed about his transfer and it shows he still remembers Private Hall's death - from Episode 2.
• The "Fun" in "Funeral": At George Luz's funeral in 1998, over 1600 people show up.
• Friendship Moment: The baseball game closing the episode.
• Happily Married: Harry Welsh did go home and marry Kitty. Although Lewis Nixon had two divorces, his third marriage with a woman named Grace was a happy one.
• Hypocrite: Upon encountering Winters again, now higher ranked than he is, Captain Sobel initially snubs him by refusing to salute and has to be firmly reminded of military protocol and courtesy towards higher-ranked officers. In "Currahee", Sobel was a pedantic stickler for military protocol regarding the respect owed to him from lower-ranking men, including Winters. This was based on an actual incident that occurred in real life between the two men.
• Irony: The men rig a lottery so that Shifty Powers gets chosen to go home. On his way to the airfield, he gets into an accident and winds up spending several months in various hospitals overseas. Everyone else in the company gets home long before he does. Adding insult to injury, he was robbed of his backpay and souvenirs while hospitalized.
• It's Personal: Webster asks Liebgott if their task to kill the alleged SS officer is this or Just Following Orders. It's confirmed when Liebgott interrogates him:
  Liebgott: What did you do to my people?!
• Kleptomaniac Hero: All of Easy Company get to raid the Eagle's Nest once they make their way up to it. They take as much of Hermann Goering's wine/liquor collection as they can haul out on trucks, with Nixon having first pick.
• Meaningful Echo: Winters's narration at the end of Episode 2 expresses a desire to find "a peaceful corner of the world". His narration at the end of this one says that he did find it and lived there for the rest of his life.^note He was alive at the time of filming but died in 2011
• Mirroring Factions: When a German officer addresses his men for the last time, Liebgott translates his speech. What he says parallels exactly what Easy Company have been through, and the Americans are seen smiling at this.
• Post-Victory Collapse: A sort of slow-motion psychological version of this is explored throughout the episode. The war in Europe is over, the war in Japan is almost over (though no one in the episode knows how long it will last), Victory Is Boring is beginning to settle in, the lack of an enemy means an increasing lack of purpose is felt, a lot of men are increasingly frustrated at the fact that the fighting is functionally done by they haven't earned enough "points" to be discharged from duty, and so forth. All of this leads to increasing resentment, some fraying of the bonds that kept them all together, and a consequent weakening of morale.
• Plenty of Blondes: As Easy Company pass through Austria, a number of blonde farm girls are seen smiling and waving at them.
• Reality Is Unrealistic: Speirs saying "when you talk to an officer, you say sir" sounds like it's right out of a war movie but it's something he actually said.
• Retirony:
  • Part of what makes Janovec's death's particularly tragic is that he only has ten "points" left on his service record; this means that he was essentially only a few months away from being discharged from duty and being able to go home.
  • The drunk replacement kills two German and two British soldiers after the War in Europe had already ended. Averted with Grant, who barely survives being shot thanks to Easy Company managing to find a brain surgeon in time.
• The Reveal: The names of the real life Easy company vets in the interviews are revealed in the final segment.
• Scenery Porn: This episode features the most of it. There are rather a lot of beautiful shots of the 'Austrian'^note actually Swiss scenery, presumably to contrast against the gritty battlefield scenes that were almost Deliberately Monochrome.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Subverted. Winters considers transferring himself to Japan but ends up staying with Easy Company.
  • Played straight with Harry Welsh, who has the points to allow himself to be discharged from service and feels he cannot justify throwing himself into combat again when he has a fiancee waiting for him at home.
• Shirtless Scene: Winters gets two when he's swimming in the lake.
• Stealth Insult: When failing to get a salute from Captain Sobel, Winters admonishes him with "We salute the rank, not the man." Thus making it clear that every salute Sobel ever received from Winters when he was subordinate was based purely on rank, not on personal respect.
• Title Drop: From the real Carwood Lipton, reciting a line from Henry V.
• To Absent Friends: Averted in the finale. It's not said what happens to those who weren't in the baseball game scene - such as Malarkey, Guarnere, Heffron, Toye, etc.^note For the benefit of those curious about the named individuals at least: Donald Malarkey completed his university studies at the University of Oregon, worked as a sales manager for an auto company, was elected County Commissioner of Catsop County, Oregon in 1954 and eventually wrote his memoirs; Bill Guarnere worked various odd jobs until he secured a full disability pension from the army, before becoming an active participant in numerous veterans organisations and organising numerous reunions of the men of Easy Company; Babe Heffron worked for a distillery for twenty years before spending his remaining working years clerking on the Philadelphia waterfront; Guarnere and Heffron remained lifelong friends and wrote their memoirs together; and Joe Toye, unable to resume work as a coal miner following the loss of his leg, found work as a drill-bit grinder at Bethlehem Steel in Pennsylvania.
• Victory Is Boring:
  • The episode is an examination of this very trope. There are no more battles to be fought and most of the men sit around wondering what they are to do now - as they can't go home and they have to wait until they're either called to Japan or the war ends. It's possible that this is the reason Winters considers transferring himself to Japan.
  • Seems to be the case for Speirs, who remained in the army for years.
  • Otherwise subverted towards the official end of the war. Winters is given the option of serving in Korea but declines. Most of the men go back to peaceful lives too.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Although it's said that Sgt. Grant is going to be fine, his fate is never revealed in the episode. In reality he lived until 1984, as the owner of a cigarette shop. Subverted for Malarkey, Hefron and Guarnere whose fates aren't revealed in the narration but their real selves appear in interviews.
• "What Now?" Ending: Implied in-universe. After Winters announces that the war is officially over, some of the men look as if they don't know how to take the news. Having spent so long in the army, they're not sure how to readjust to civilian lives.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: Done via a baseball game a la The Sandlot and Winters narrating what happened to the Easy Company men except those who were sent home (Guarnere, Toye, Shifty), transferred (Malarkey) or didn't train at Toccoa (Heffron).
  • Buck Compton becomes a prosecutor and is part of the trial for Sirhan Sirhan, the murderer of Robert F Kennedy.
  • David Webster goes on to become a journalist, later writing a book about sharks. In 1961 he is lost at sea.
  • Johnny Martin returns to the railroad before opening his own construction company.
  • George Luz becomes a handyman. As a testament to his character, 1600 people attend his funeral in 1998.
  • Eugene Roe goes on to be a construction contractor and dies in 1998.
  • Frank Perconte becomes a post man.
  • Joe Liebgott becomes a cab driver and sadly breaks off all contact with everyone else.
  • Bull Randleman goes into the earth-moving business in Arkansas.
  • Alton More takes Hitler's personal photo album back home and dies in a car accident in 1958.
  • Floyd Talbert loses touch with everyone for years, but shows up to a reunion right before his death in 1981.
  • Carwood Lipton becomes a glass-making executive.
  • Harry Welsh returns home and marries Kitty, becoming a school administrator.
  • Ronald Speirs is the only man to remain in the army, serving in Korea and later becoming a prison governor.^note Not just any prison, Spandau Prison, where the top Nazi brass were held after Nuremberg He retires a Lt Colonel.
  • Lewis Nixon is married and divorced twice before finding true love and travelling the world with a woman named Grace. He dies in 1995.
  • Dick Winters goes on to work with Nixon until he's called back to train soldiers for Korea. He opts not to go himself and instead retires to his "peaceful corner of the world."

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