One thing I would like to know from any of you readers who have experience in the military is whether or not squad leaders actually give inspirational pep talks in the field, and if they do whether or not they actually motivate the people fighting alongside them. It's one of those war movie cliches that has a good chance of being true, but I've never known a veteran who I felt I could ask. For screen writers making movies and TV shows, the pep talk is often a convenient way to express a storytelling concept that isn't apparent in the action, like in this week's episode of The Pacific when just such a hushed heart-to-heart revealed that the bravest men on Peleliu pushed themselves across a grim airfield with the belief that, no matter how many casualties it causes, their fight is just.

Since we're living far past the time when scenes of war are glorified by filtering out any fear or doubt, suicidal charges like the First Marines' assault on the hills of Peleliu come with a much more troubling set of emotional complications. It's very clear by the way this extended scene is shot and acted that the maneuver isn't supposed to be seen as just a bold act of heroism, but also an act of tactical desperation. War as it's depicted in modern cinema seems like little more than a series of tremendously bad ideas outweighed by other ideas that are only slightly less acceptable. For the marines on Peleliu, running across that airfield was the only way they could avoid losing the battle completely. In the most grim fashion possible, they sacrificed a few to preserve the many, a theme that repeats itself throughout the episode.

In what may be the most chilling scene in an episode full of hard-to-watch moments, an entrenched soldier has a nervous breakdown while his entire platoon hides in the craggy hills past the airfield. His cries threaten to give away their position, and lacking a syrette of morphine or any other way to silence him, his squad commander clubs him with a helmet, killing him. When morning comes and it's clear what happened, the men try to convince themselves that the death was necessary. They use the words I've heard many World War II veterans use to describe the violence they experienced: "Better him than us. It had to be done."

Over the past couple episodes, The Pacific has been gradually replacing Bob Leckie with Eugene Sledge as the de facto main character. That's because the real Leckie's final moments in combat were on the second day of the First Marines' assault on Peleliu. As in the episode, he was critically injured by an explosion that got him sent home for the duration of the war where he eventually wrote the popular memoir Helmet For My Pillow. Personally, I'll miss James Badge Dale's depiction of Bob Leckie. It gave an emotionally resonant anchor to the show's early episodes and I don't think The Pacific would have worked without it. Thankfully, as the relentless action becomes the center of the series, Joseph Mazzello's nuanced take on Eugene Sledge serves as a more than adequate replacement.

I commented during the early episodes that The Pacific didn't look like the most expensive show on TV. I suppose it's because most of the budget went to the later episodes where stunning set pieces were required to recreate the biggest infantry battles of the Pacific theater. The details of the airfield scene were particularly striking. I appreciate that they included a destroyed car that, though it was only on screen for a matter of seconds, conveyed a world that was once inhabited by civilians instead of just seeming like a place that was never anything but a battlefield. In a story that is just as concerned with the human cost of the war as it is with the epic battles, little touches like that are essential.

Best Moment: The men in Sledge's squad silently sharing sips from the one canteen with any water left in it. The scene conveyed all the anxiety, determination and camaraderie of the impending assault.

Notes: I want to point out the great, anchoring performance by Rami Malek as Merriel "Snafu" Shelton. He brings a grim sort of levity to the series that balances Sledge's steely determination.

Episode Rating: 5/5- The Pacific has really hit its stride, making up for its rocky start with some thoroughly engaging war cinema and providing commentary that is meaningful without being rote.