Episode 7 - The Breaking Point:
- The January 3rd barrages and January 9th shelling marked the low point for the men in E Company. Even then, very few actually broke. But I knew the terror and pressure we'd been under could take their toll. I was afraid the men would lose focus, suffer a drop in morale. And that was dangerous, especially in combat. More of which lay in store for us.
—Carwood Lipton
"The Breaking Point" is the seventh episode of Band of Brothers. Narrated by 2nd Lt Carwood Lipton, Easy Company's occupation of Bastogne gets progressively worse. Many casualties result from enemy attacks, not helped by the actions of the incompetent Lt Dike. Things don't get any better when Easy Company march on the town of Foy. Needless to say, this is the biggest Wham Episode of the series.
"It's called 'wounded'. Injured is when you fall out of a trope or something":
- Actually Pretty Funny: After Lipton comes across Luz impersonating Dike in the "I'm going for help!" exchange that the two had with him during the bombardment, Lipton makes a point of acknowledging that the impression is spot on and he fully agrees with the overall sentiment before asking Luz to keep what happened to himself in future, as spreading it is only going to undermine morale further.
- An Arm and a Leg: Toye and later Guarnere each get a leg blown off.
- The Bait: Lipton uses himself as bait so Shifty can shoot the second sniper.
- Big Damn Heroes: Lt Speirs 'relieving' Lt Dike of command. See Refuge in Audacity below. Winters wants to do this during Foy, but has to be ordered not to by Col Sink.
- Boisterous Bruiser: Discussed about Lt Shames, where Winters says he has No Indoor Voice.Winters: He's seen too many war movies. He thinks he has to yell all the time.
- Break the Badass: Happens to Buck Compton after witnessing Toye and Guarnere's injuries, and he's pulled off the line.
- Break the Cutie: Malarkey loses his five best friends in the company over the course of the episode, leaving him almost completely broken.
- Broken Bird:
- Malarkey by the end. He's not even seen in the church afterwards.
- Lipton has to send one of the soldiers to the infirmary when he catches the terrified man digging obsessively with his bare hands to the point his fingernails were gone. It's as much for the benefit of the other men, however, as seeing something like that is not good for morale.
- Call-Back:
- When Webb asks whether the company vets have been injured in combat, Skip tells him about all of the wounds they've suffered, most of which were seen in previous episodes.
- The ending title cards of the last episode stated that no member of the 101st ever agreed with the notion that they needed to be rescued by General Patton. In this episode, Toye tells a film crew who asked him how it felt to be rescued by Patton that they didn't need to be rescued by him.
- As in episode 1, Lipton comes across a group of men openly beefing about a mediocre commanding officer. In that episode, he lets it slide, but in this episode he makes a point of carefully defending Dike in such a way that won't antagonise the men. In the former case, it was one thing when they were just in a training scenario, but in a combat situation undermining the CO, even if there's valid reason, will only undermine the men and the mission.
- Cigarette of Anxiety: Luz lights one after a shell falls into his foxhole and doesn't go off. Lipton has one as well, even though he doesn't smoke.
- Cerebus Call-Back: Hoobler's desire to see a Luger from the first episode, and Malarkey's desire to get one in the second. Hoobler gets one and is killed when it goes off. Malarkey is given it to console him by Lipton.
- Darkest Hour: There's a reason this episode is called "The Breaking Point".
- A Day in the Limelight: For Carwood "Lip" Lipton.
- Death by Irony: Hoobler finally gets a Luger after wanting one for the entire war. It then goes off in his pants and severs the main artery in his leg, causing him to bleed to death.
- The Ditherer: Lipton identifies this as Dike's fundamental problem; he over-delegates and never takes any responsibility for anything.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Three named and developed characters sadly go out this way - Hoobler, Muck and Penkala.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Dike is dubbed "Foxhole Norman" by the soldiers due to constantly staying in his foxhole during battles.
- Exact Words: The men congratulate Lt. Peacock on his promotion and transfer back to the States in a warm yet careful way that conceals from him, but not from the viewer, the real reason they're relieved he's transferring out of there: that they really don't want him to be leading them into battle.
- Foil: Lt. Dike and Lt. Peacock. Both are subpar commanders, but Peacock has at least gained the goodwill, if not respect, of the men because he is clearly trying his best despite his shortcomings and at least makes efforts to bond with and show solidarity to the soldiers he commands. As such, while no one is exactly sorry to see him go, there is at least genuine warmth on both sides when he does. Dike is similarly inept, but on top of that is distant from the men, doesn't share in their hardships and spends more time at command HQ or in his foxhole than with his soldiers, and makes only token attempts to get to know them. A subpar commander who nevertheless genuinely tries to rise above his limitations can be forgiven; a subpar commander who doesn't bother cannot.
- Friendship Moment: Subverted. Dike starts talking to Lipton conversationally, but walks away before it's finished.
- Gallows Humor: After both Guarnere and Toye have had their legs blown off, Doc Roe orders Guarnere to be evacuated by the jeeps first while he tends to Toye. As he's being carried past Toye, Guarnere quips "Told you I'd get back to the States before you, Joe."
- Heroic BSoD:
- Buck Compton, resulting in him being pulled off the line.
- Luz after witnessing two men's deaths in front of his eyes.
- Malarkey after his friends are killed.
- Humble Hero: Speirs congratulates Lipton on being there for the men when Dike wasn't, talking about how they view him as a Team Dad figure. Lipton has no idea what Speirs is talking about.
- Irony: Muck and Penkala are calling for Luz to join them in their foxhole during the barrage. They get hit before Luz can get there, and he survives.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Played with. It's not the jerk himself making the point but, after he comes across a group of men openly griping about Lt. Dike, Lipton makes a point of coming to his defence by pointing out that, from Dike's point of view, he's a fresh replacement who has been thrown into the command of a unit of hardened, bonded veterans and so much be struggling with the responsibility that entails. The playing with stems from the fact that Lipton confesses in narration that he doesn't really believe his own words, but is bringing it up to try and prevent the griping about Dike from undermining morale.
- Kicked Upstairs: Nixon is nearly given this but turns it down, and chooses Peacock for it instead. The rest of the men are glad to see him go - both because of his general ineptitude and he's a genuinely Nice Guy. This is also Dike's fate after Foy, though the episode doesn't state it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: A positive case. As a reward for the leadership he displayed during the past few weeks, Lipton is going to be given a battlefield commission and become an officer for the company.
- Laughing Mad: Lipton is actually laughing during the first set of bombings. His narration says that he was reminded of 4th of July fireworks.
- Mood Whiplash: He isn't laughing during the next barrage.
- Machiavelli Was Wrong: Defied by Speirs, who alludes to allowing the rumours about him to spread - and using the fear of him to inspire respect - for this very reason.
- Major Injury Under Reaction: Guarnere still makes wise cracks while he's laying in the snow with his leg blown off.
- Mauve Shirt: Hoobler, who dies in the first few minutes.
- Oblivious to His Own Description: While they rest in the church, Spiers talks with Lipton about the leader Easy Company has had since Winters was promoted. This leader made sure the men were ready and in fighting shape, helped raise moral and discouraged anything that would hinder it. Lipton is confused and Spiers has to outright tell Lipton he is talking about him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Lipton, a non-smoker, shares a cigarette with Luz. After the attacks are over.
- Later on, he goes to Winters to tell him that he thinks Dike will get everybody killed during the attack on Foy the next day, something that you're not supposed to do in the military.
- Pet the Dog: Speirs does this to Lipton at the end, congratulating him on keeping the men together even after suffering heavy losses.
- Put on a Bus: Joe Toye and Bill Guarnere after they lose a leg each. This marks their final appearances in the series.note Buck Compton gets pulled off the line too but comes Back for the Finale. To a different extent, Lt. Peacock who is reassigned back to the USA before all the killing happens.
- Reckless Gun Usage/ Pants-Positive Safety: Poor Hoobler.
- Refuge in Audacity: Speirs runs right into Foy, past the Germans without getting shot at first. Lipton's narration theorizes that they didn't shoot because they couldn't believe what they were seeing.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Penkala and Webb.
- Sacrificial Lion: Turns out that Skip Muck was this. Out of every character that dies in the series, he's the one with the most screen time and focus (especially in this episode).
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Dike says he's going for help but it's really this.
- Sergeant Rock: Lipton's role in this episode.
- Shot in the Ass: Perconte marks the last person this happens to in the series.
- Snow Means Death:
- Truth in Television since it was one of the coldest Januarys in the history of Bastogne. But many soldiers are killed, though none of them by the cold itself.
- Inverted with Guarnere and Toye. The cold temperature actually caused their blood to congeal and prevented them from bleeding to death when their legs got blown off.
- Stealth Insult: When Peacock is transferred out of combat, his soldiers warmly congratulate him and tell him how glad they are he's getting out of there. He fails to pick up on the hidden meanings in their Exact Words that it's because he's a bad commander and they really don't want to have to go into combat with him. Though that said, his likability means that the warmth the insults are couched in is sincere.
- Survival Mantra: When Toye realizes his leg has been blown off, he tries desperately to get to safety before another round of artillery comes in. First as he's dragging himself through the snow, and later as Guarnere is pulling him, he keeps repeating, "I gotta get up" and "I gotta get my helmet." Guarnere even tells him to forget about it shortly before the second round comes in that hits them both. He was likely in shock or trying to stem off shock at that point.
- To Absent Friends: The final scene takes place in a church. Lipton narrates the list of Easy Company men who perished in the attacks or else were pulled off the line for whatever reason, and each corresponding men fades from the scene. When he's done, the church looks far emptier than it did before.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Of a sort; Lt. Dike is shown to completely fall apart when he faces a real battle in Foy and gives hopelessly confused and contradictory orders out of panic, getting men killed and forcing Winters to replace him with Speirs due to his incompetence. In actuality, Dike's apparent incompetence was the result of severe injuries sustained in the battle.
- Tragic Keepsake: Malarkey keeps Skip Muck's rosary beads after he's killed. He's also given Hoobler's Luger as a gift for his brother.
- Troll: After a few of the men swap rumours about Speirs shooting one of his own men and a platoon of Germans after offering them cigarettes, Speirs shows up to check on them. While no one brings up the rumours, he pointedly offers each man a cigarette when he's done. It's heavily implied he knows full well about the gossip behind his back and is messing with their heads.
- Villainous Breakdown: If you consider Dike a villain, then he definitely has one during the attack on Foy.
- Wham Episode: Three notable character deaths, many others, two gruesome injuries and one broken badass? You bet that's a check.
- Highlighted by the final scene in the church as Easy Company finally gets some rest. Lipton sees the whole company in his mind's eye, and then each person disappears as he remembers what happened to him. At the end of the scene, a once-full church is now half-empty.
- While Rome Burns: See Laughing Mad above for Lipton.
