Directed by: Herschel Daugherty
Written by: Don Brinkley
The Rat Patrol are in a North African town, waiting for Troy, who's on his way back from a meeting. Or at least Moffitt and Hitchcock are waiting, because Tully isn't there either; Andy (Mac McLaughlin), one of his temporary replacements, appears instead. Suddenly, German planes begin bombing the town. Moffitt orders Hitch and Andy to take cover, but then he sees Gabrielle (Louise Sorel), a woman he once loved! Moffitt rushes into the besieged city to look for Gabrielle, but she's already gone.
Moffitt meets back up with Hitch and Andy at the Café Afrique, asks about Troy, and apologizes for his impulsive actions. Soon Sergeant Troy shows up. Their new assignment: help the French underground complete the rescue of Pierre Marchand (David Bond), a French fuel scientist captured by the Germans.
Moffitt finds Gabrielle, and they reminisce over their shared past. A Flashback shows that after Moffitt survived Dunkirk with a wounded leg, he hid from the Germans on a French farm owned by Gabrielle's father. She nursed him back to health and they fell in love, but then Colonel Rettig (Gilbert Green) and his Gestapo goons came looking for Moffitt, so he had to escape. Moffitt has yearned for her all this time, but she's married now. Gabrielle relates that when Rettig took over her village, life became impossible for her. She left, but Rettig kept looking for her because he wanted her too. Eventually, Gabrielle met an elderly man who helped her evade the Nazis. Two months later, they were married. The man's name? Pierre Marchand.
As Gabrielle explains this to Moffitt at night, a car shows up and drops off Marchand, who walks with a cane. He's who they were waiting for. But it was an ambush, headed by Rettig, now a general who still lusts after Gabrielle. Gabrielle had reluctantly made a deal with Rettig — she would surrender to him if he freed Marchand — but it didn't include the Rat Patrol. Rettig doesn't care. Gabrielle pulls a gun on him, and then everyone who can starts shooting, even Marchand. All the Nazis are killed, with Gabrielle gunning Rettig down herself.
Afterwards, Moffitt meets Gabrielle at the Café Afrique. They can't be together because Gabrielle has her husband and Moffitt has his duty, and they may never see each other again, but they'll always remember the love they shared. Gabrielle watches as Moffitt leaves with the Rat Patrol.
Tropes:
- Bittersweet Ending: The Rats save Marchand and Gabrielle, but she and Moffitt can't resume their relationship because the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.
- First-Name Basis: We never learn Andy's last name.
- Flashback: To the time Moffitt was hidden away at Gabrielle's father's farm, with shrapnel in his leg. Colonel Rettig shows up at the farm, looking for "stragglers", but Gabrielle's father manages to smuggle him to safety right under the Gestapo's collective nose.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: The Rat Patrol is an Action/Adventure Series, but this episode is a romantic drama with the usual violence kept to a minimum.
- I Have You Now, My Pretty: Rettig makes it very clear that he wants Gabrielle and will go to extraordinary lengths to capture her heart... or just her body.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Moffitt doesn't want to take Gabrielle away from her husband, but he'll always wonder what might have been.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: The episode could very well have ended with the wistful violin music at the café. But they just had to abruptly switch to the usual, triumphant ending music at the very end.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: This is one of four second season episodes in which Tully doesn't appear. Andy takes his place on the team and Justin Tarr doesn't get his usual credit.
- Translation Convention: When a Nazi colonel talks to a French woman, why would they speak in English? Perhaps because it's easier than explaining that the Nazi knows French, or the French woman knows German. And the fact that Gilbert Green was born in Brooklyn and might not have known either French or German.
