The Pacific: episode four

SPOILER ALERT: This blog is for those who are watching The Pacific on Sky Movies. Don't read on if you haven't seen episode four – and if you've seen more of the series, please be aware that many UK viewers will not have done …

Paul MacInnes' episode three blog

So now we know why Bob Leckie spends the whole time staring into space. He's trying not to wet himself.

I jest and, of course, do not wish to demean our hero in any way. But I refuse to believe it entirely coincidental that Leckie's diagnosis with eneurisis (a chronic inability to control one's bladder) and the sudden upturn in the quality of this drama are entirely unrelated. It seems that when Leckie gets wet, the Pacific gets better.

This fourth episode begins with a fast and furious run through the battle of Cape Gloucester. The heavy combat is at night, as on the Solomon Islands, and as before it's disorienting to watch, the camera jittering with each shot fired. Yet the more disturbing events take place during the day. Leckie, suddenly confronted with a Japanese patrol, guns them all down without blinking. On patrolling an abandoned encampment, Leckie and Philips witness a fellow marine throttle an injured enemy to death. The marine looks up and, fixing Leckie in the eye, attempts a comradely smile. All it conveys, however, is madness. Later still, Leckie is witness to the suicide of a French soldier in the rain-sodden jungle. It's no wonder his bladder gives up the ghost.

After the 1st Marines are moved once again, this time to the infested island of Pavuvu, Leckie cops a break and is signed off for medical treatment. He recuperates in the company of a soothing shrink and on departing again encounters the murdering marine. Going by the name of Gibson, he has been dispatched from duty after attempting to kill himself and is cooped up in a cell. "I hope it's quick and easy for you Leckie", says Gibson. Leckie fixes him with the stare, then breaks it.

This episode has psychological complexity – and not just because of a concentration on the trauma induced by combat. Leckie is a character far removed from the romantic sap of the previous hour. He is irascible and querulous throughout. He is loyal to his comrades but not his superiors. There is also a question to be asked as to exactly what kind of correspondence he is maintaining with Vera Keller. "This island has an exotic name that means the death of hope," he writes before confessing to his friends he's made it all up. Is Leckie looking to scare this woman he's met only once, or is he really writing to posterity – and dramatising himself in the process?

Whatever the reason, this episode was several degrees more interesting than those that preceded it. I note it was both written and directed by Graham Yost (who wrote Speed and its excellent villain, inhabited by Dennis Hopper). Quite how much freedom each writer is granted to embellish on the characters is unclear, but Yost certainly appears to have broken from the flat, almost documenty style with which the series began.

Sadly this is the only episode of the 10 written by Yost so we will see which way the drama moves on next week. One development I expect is the arrival of Eugene Sledge in the Pacific theatre. This week's opening vignette, which showed him misfiring mortars, suggests he might not adapt quite as easily as national hero John Basilone.

Laughter in the face of despair dept

Conley to Leckie, proferring some leftover rations: "Want some of this? It's basically soup"

Quickfire repartee of the week

Leckie with his lieutenant in the matter of the missing Japanese pistol: "If you're talking about the thing that isn't missing because it doesn't exist, then I don't have it."

Iconic product placement

In the hospital complex it appears they drink only Coca Cola. And in the iconic bottles too. Must be the consoling effect it has on the troops.

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