Episode 2 - "Day Of Days":
- John Hall: I wonder if everybody else is as lost as we are.Dick Winters: We're not lost, Private. We're in Normandy.
"Day of Days" is Episode 2 of Band of Brothers. Told from the POV of Dick Winters (the first of four POV episodes for him), it's D-Day and Easy Company is dropped into Normandy. Unfortunately, the transport aircraft are met with a hail of flak, killing off Lt Meehan and leaving Winters as the de-facto Commanding Officer. Due to the chaos, Easy Company members are scattered across the area. Winters finds himself also in charge of a young Private Hall from Able Company.
"This has been a day of tropes":
- Actor Allusion: Andrew Scott (Hall) had fought in Normandy before...
- Ambiguous Situation: Spiers is shown handing out cigarettes to German prisoners, then another soldier hears a burst of gunfire. In later episodes it's a plot-point as to what exactly happened.
- Anyone Can Die: Lt. Meehan is the first one killed off, and this episode is here to establish that this is the case for the series.
- Bathos: During the battle at Brécourt Manor, Popeye gets shot in the ass, which is somewhat Played for Laughs. As is Toye getting debris blown in his eyes twice from a grenade.
- Big Damn Heroes: Speirs and Dog Company arrive just in time to help win the battle at Brécourt Manor.
- Bittersweet Ending: Winters and Easy Company successfully destroy the guns at Brécourt Manor and make it through their first day of combat. However, most of the men are still scattered across Normandy, Winters is upset over losing Private Hall, and the success of Operation Overlord is still far from certain.
- Blood Knight: Guarnere in this particular episode.
- Brick Joke: Two.
- For the past two episodes, Guarnere has been wondering if Winters is a Quaker (as he's The Teetotaler). In one of the last scenes, Winters takes a drink of some wine: "It's been a day of firsts." He then says to Guarnere "I'm not a Quaker".
- In the previous episode, Toye spends a couple of minutes griping about the weight of all the gear he has to jump into Normandy with, Perconte sarcastically asks him where he's going to keep the brass knuckles, prompting Toye to respond that he could use some of those. In this episode, Toye decks a German...with a pair of brass knuckles.
- Contrived Coincidence: Malarkey comes across a POW who was born and raised 100 miles from him (but his parents were German and moved back, hence him being in the German army). This is Artistic Licence – History – because in real life they were actually from the same town. They changed it because the coincidence was too unbelievable.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Dick Winters. Guarnere and Malarkey are prominently featured as well.
- A Death in the Limelight: Poor Private Hall.
- Distant Reaction Shot: We see Malarkey's Oh, Crap! face when Speirs executes the POWs.
- Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Guarnere seemingly doesn't want people talking about his brother's death because of this.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him:
- Lt. Meehan is killed when his plane is shot down – in the first five minutes of the episode no less.
- Pvt. Hall suddenly dies when he steps onto a German Anti-Infantry mine.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Although Perconte could be heard saying it in the previous episode, it's explained that the Easy men call Guarnere "Gonorrhoea" due to the similarities in pronunciation.
- The Enemy Weapons Are Better: Played with; soon after landing in Normandy, Winters briefly arms himself with a German rifle taken from a soldier killed in an ambush — but only because he lost his equipment during the jump and, in this case, having any rifle is better than just his service knife. Notably, once the unit come across the body of a US paratrooper killed in the jump, he takes the dead soldier's gun and ammo and uses that instead for the rest of the episode. Also implied to be the reason Malarkey is hunting for a Luger.
- Establishing Character Moment: First appearance of in-universe Memetic Badass Ronald Speirs. He's shown handing cigarettes out to a group of prisoners before he executes them all.
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Subverted. After Hall is killed the battle continues. But later on, Winters mentions the death to Nixon. It's significant as it's the first man Winters loses in battle.
- Friend or Foe?: At one point, a squad of German soldiers get confused by the American attack tactics as they make their way through the Brécourt Manor gun battery, and start firing on the other Germans manning one of the guns in the mistaken belief that they're Americans.
- Ironic Nickname: Hall gets nicknamed "Cowboy" when he's from New York City.
- Lethal Chef: Implied with Malarkey.Malarkey: Sir if you have a reservation someplace else, I'd be happy to go.
- Life Saving Misfortune: Had Captain Sobel not been reassigned, then he would have been on the HQ transport plane in Meehan's place when it gets shot down.
- Mercy Kill: Toye does one to a wounded horse.
- The Nicknamer: Guarnere nicknames Hall "Cowboy" for no apparent reason.
- One Last Smoke: Speirs hands out cigarettes to the German POWs before executing them, as they can't be burdened with prisoners.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Winters decides to take a swig of booze after the battle of Brécourt Manor."It's been a day of firsts."
- Pet the Dog: "This kid's alright" said by Guarnere about Hall.
- Rebuilt Pedestal: Winters for Guarnere by the end of the episode.
- Refuge in Audacity: Malarkey runs out into the field in the middle of gunfire to raid a dead soldier. The enemy don't shoot at first, assuming he's a medic.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Private Hall fills this purpose and his role is to signify the Anyone Can Die nature of the show. Lt Meehan in a way too, as he exists to be killed off so Winters can become Easy's Commanding Officer. Of course, since the series is Based on a True Story, these are also examples of Real Life Writes the Plot and Truth in Television.
- Skewed Priorities: Malarkey runs out to search a German soldier for a Luger in the middle of a battle.
- Tag Along Kid: Hall has elements of this. Winters mentions that he wasn't old enough to buy a beer, putting him at around 18 or 19 at most.
- Tsundere: Guarnere shows that he's a Type A. He gives Hall a condescending nickname and snarks at everyone. Late in the episode Hall fires back with Guarnere's Embarrassing Nickname – and Guarnere happily says "he's alright, that kid."
- You Killed My Brother: Guarnere unloads on a group of travelling Germans, against Winters's orders because he's obviously out for blood after finding out that his brother has been killed in Italy.
