exsequar | Forget-me-nots and second thoughts

It's been a busy week, so I only just got around to watching episode 8 of The Pacific. I knew I needed the mental space and time to process it, so I couldn't just watch it any time I had a minute free.

I was spoiled for Basilone's death a few ways - it's hard not to be, having looked at the book displays for The Pacific many times and obviously noticing that both Leckie and Sledge wrote books, but Basilone did not. The result of me knowing already was that I spent this entire ep sobbing. Every time he and Lena were happy, sweet, beautiful together, I cried immediately. It was incredibly heartwrenching yet gorgeous at the same time.

I loved Lena. I loved her just as Basilone loved her, from the moment he laid eyes on her. I loved her stubbornness, her assertiveness, her playfulness. And I loved how he pursued her - quietly yet inexorably, and how you could see her gradually being more and more charmed instead of put off. It was one of the more beautiful and believable love stories I have ever seen, and it only took 50 minutes. That was one masterful piece of storytelling and acting. The actors had amazing chemistry, and the whole thing clicked in exactly the way Leckie and his girl did not for me. When they cut to the wedding, I just burst into wracking sobs, because - augh. So much pain in my heart. I was yelling at my screen when he decided to reenlist. No, stay home! Make six babies! Be happy with your wonderful wife! ;____;

I also sobbed when Eugene picked Haldane's book out of the trash can. Oh look, I'm sobbing again. Haldane. I still... I'm still in denial.

I take back what I said about how it should be just Eugene's story. I was always fond of Basilone, but his story seemed a little light on the ground - I didn't feel a super strong emotional connection to him. This episode changed that entirely. Jon Seda was phenomenal. This is exactly what I was hoping for when I saw in the promos that The Pacific would include more personal storylines, including the women in these men's lives. I thought the balance of the episode was really quite well done - the bits of training reminding us that Basilone is still a soldier, but the quiet, domestic scenes followed by the deeply harrowing invasion of Iwo Jima worked startlingly well. I think they didn't go deep into Iwo Jima because, well, Basilone didn't live very long there (;___;) but also, Flags of Our Fathers has gone there in a very thorough way. I think we got three episodes of Peleliu both because Eugene wrote a very thorough account of it, but also because it's a battle that is forgotten in the shuffle of history, and Spanks don't think it should be. So in short I thought that this was a very different and effective sort of episode, and I loved it. Even as it tore my heart into tiny tiny pieces.

I really hope Lena conceived that night. I hope she had a little Basilone, a piece of him to keep.

Gah, my heart. :(

I can't wait for this week's episode. Joe Mazzello said it and 7 duke it out for his favorite, so I bet it's gonna be a doozy.

Oh, by the way, I got a Tumblr! It's stupidly addicting and I don't know if I'll keep rolling around in it because it's an enormous distraction, but I'm over here at exsequar, of course. Largely Band of Brothers, Jacob Pitts, Justified, The Pacific, some Glee and Supernatural, plus random bits and bobs that please me. Only follow me if you want to, of course!