Combat! - The Celebrity - recap and reframe

The men of Company K required my attention. Instead of the usual recap and review, I'll give a quick recap without the screenshots, and follow with whatever short but exceedingly lame story I can make from the screenshots.

Combat!

Season 1 Episode 8: The Celebrity

They’re headed down the road. Some footage from prior episodes plays to emphasis the need for a break. Headed to Avranches for rest…the place doesn’t quite exceed their expectations.

Diet Cola Stalker, aka Tab Hunter, guest stars. The story is by Tom Sellers and Art Wallace; the teleplay by Art Wallace. Burt Kennedy directed.

Replacements show up--already a familiar theme. One is well-known. Kelly finds out the new guy is assigned to K Company. He challenges L Company to a baseball game, betting $100 on the game. The celebrity is Del Packer, a major league pitcher. Saunders is having none of the celebrity business.

The game, or maybe it’s just batting practice, is rudely interrupted when the Luftwaffe drops in sans invitation with Der Fuhrer’s best wishes for an explosive good time. The celebrity stands dumbly while everyone else opts to steal a base. Billy grabs the celebrity and drags him to cover. When the party favors from Berlin have all finished exploding, a man has been injured; he has a wound in the arm just serious enough to get him sent home.

The celebrity has expert ratings on carbine, machine gun, and BAR; it seems the company is fortunate to have him.

In the morning, Saunders, Packer, Billy, and Kelly are off on a mission. A few Germans have a surprise for them. Saunders splits up his men, taking DCS (Diet Cola Stalker) with him. DCS hesitates instead of following Saunders’ command; Billy takes bullet from the German that DCS was supposed to eliminate before Kelly kills the German.

At the hospital, it looks like Billy is going to be okay. Billy, unaware of Packer's role in his injuries, asks him to send a letter to his brother and mother, along with an autographed baseball. The guilt-ridden celebrity agrees to do it.

Hanley meets with Saunders who reports what happened. Saunders blames himself, saying that the celebrity wasn’t ready. Hanley, in one of his better speeches, reminds Saunders that DCS was as ready as any of the others that they ask to go out and die. And Hanley has news…new orders…they’re moving up to the line at 2100…but DCS is being moved to London to a nice soft job…or he can stay with the squad on the line…like any sane person, he chooses London. But he has to whine to Saunders first; he’s looking for absolution. Saunders doesn’t offer it.

DCS takes a baseball to Billy, but Billy’s cot is vacant.

In the midst of shelling on the battlefield, DCS shows up, saying that his transfer was revoked…at his request. He tells Saunders that he has his own private war to fight, but that he can’t fight it in London.

Saunders takes Packer with the squad on a mission to take out an enemy observation post, a winery. When Saunders catches lead in the leg, and the Germans have them all pinned down with heavy machine gun fire, DCS saves the day with his pitching arm and a grenade that takes out the gun as well as the side order of Germans. (Is this Saunders’ 2^nd or 3^rd wound?) Packer gets his absolution when Saunders asks to lean on him.

A decent episode...but not among my favorites. I'm not sure whether it was the writing, or the acting; I just didn't care for the Tab Hunter part. He didn't get to do much besides worry. My guess was that he would get redemption and death (like the Jeffrey Hunter character), dying while saving the squad with the grenade toss (which looked several times longer than humanly possible, in my opinion). I was also disappointed that there weren't more memorable camera shots. The story was pretty flat. The highlight was Hanley's speech to Saunders.
***

Prepare yourself to enter another dimension...a dimension of slight, of stound. Prepare to enter...The Combat! Zone:

Something's bothering Sarge, and it's not just the fact that the rest of the men haven't seen soap and water in weeks...but that's definitely part of it. He needs some space...and fresh air.

Even the attractions of a fancy French city fail to mollify his mood.

 He turns in, and dreams of simpler times, when men could wear catcher's masks and pads any time they desired without the harsh judgment of fashion critics.

An explosion shatters the pleasant images in his dream. It's that tree exploding upward from beneath the ground! That tree haunts all of dreams like some black sentinel of the underworld, bringing ominous tidings of doom.

No. It's just a dream. He awakes to find the lantern still going, his trusty rifle nearby. Or is it still a dream. He doesn't carry a rifle. He carries the Thompson.

It must be someone else's gun. He must be awake, because he can hear Billy pestering Littlejohn for another bedtime story.

He decides to get up. He has to get that sinister tree out of his mind. He finds the new guy, who looks vaguely familiar, and has a smoke. They discuss the full mellow flavor of the cigarettes. The new guy prefers Old Gold. Sarge is partial to Luckies.

The bedroll doesn't seem quite so hard after a good smoke. Sleeps comes quickly...unfortunately, so does that stinkin' tree. This time it brings some woody friends, and trio of Nazis playing Deutchland Uber Alles on machine guns in three part harmony.

Fortunately for Sarge, he's wearing his lucky helmet. Neither the bullets nor the trees can hurt him in his dream.

Still he's troubled by the dream. He tells the LT about it the next day. The LT isn't sympathetic. Sarge leaves, still disturbed.

He goes to Littlejohn; the big guy always listens. He listens, but he doesn't have any answers. Sarge can tell that the big man just does't understand. How could he? He's got that George Hamilton hair and isn't burdened with the extra stripes that make you pick who has to die to preserve the rest of the squad.

That night, he rolls out his bedroll with a sense of impending doom. He does not welcome sleep.

But sleep comes. He dreams that Kelly catches a football, but it doesn't cheer him up. He knows what lurks behind Kelly's helmet.

It's that tree again! The entire unit flees from the cursed arbor-demon.

Everyone except that vaguely familiar guy who's still looking for someone with a catcher's mask, or anyone who will play catch with him.

Unable to find anyone, he shrinks into nothingness, crushed by the red-laced orb. The ball rolls, growing ever larger.

It grows until it becomes the size of a hill with a ruined castle upon its stitching. Sarge realizes that if he can get into that castle, the tree won't be able to reach him ever again. It's a long climb.

But there is a friendly face waiting for him. She wants to know if he seeks the Grail.

At daylight, all is well once more. A good shower washes away the memories of the tree...or is that it lurking in the background near the lone chimney?