Before next week's final episode, which looks to be absent of fighting, there was "Part 9," a mixture of the intense fighting we've come to know and a descent in Hell, the ultimate dehumanizing experience on Okinawa. Sledge and the other Marines are tossed onto the island, and from the big map before zooming in, it actually looks pretty close to Japan.
Snafu becomes self-conscious about what he and others have become, trying to pull Sledge back. On the other hand, Sledge is like Snafu from when we first met him. He sees all Japanese as people to be killed, picking up a gun and mowing them down at will. And it's hard to blame him. The conditions are bad, he's been psychologically broken down, and the enemy is not afraid to use women strapped with explosives as weapons. By the end, Sledge, too, pulls himself back from the edge, opting not to kill the Japanese woman or the boy, looking on with horror and disgust when the Marine who does kill the boy repeats the same line Sledge states earlier, "We're here to kill Japs, ain't we?"
The last kicker is about as dehumanizing as it gets: the war is finished due to some bomb dropped in still far-off Japan while everyone is milling around. In the end, Okinawa was taken but the war is over, so what was the point? As was the case with Peleliu, not much. The hard fought gains, the soldiers killed, loss of humanity--perhaps the most important effect on those still alive--seem all for nothing.
Where is Leckie? The asymmetrical nature of the miniseries is sometimes frustrating in that the main characters go in and out of focus without much of an explanation. Leckie hasn't been seen and or was in a single scene since getting injured on Peleliu. During that time, Sledge has flourished as a character. In any case, the final episode will wrap up the story for all characters.
Score: 9.5/10
