Wow, this is by far the best episode of the season. I don't know if it's the low expectations I set because of past episodes, but this episode finally showed the quality I've known this show to be capable of.
One of my biggest gripes all season long is how very little time we've had to see our characters on significant combat missions or in significant danger. The tension was high, and the writing was good. An entire episode devoted to a combat mission is not something I'd think to beg for out of a TV series about Airforce operations in World War II.
Now I understand character development and story setup, but these things have been the weakest part of this series. Especially considering the writing outside the planes has always been kinda cringe.
The only part of this episode that was a bit outlandish and ridiculous was that a pilot during the mission was somehow maneuvering this bomber in ways that I could not possibly believe is maneuverable it was like he was piloting a fighter jet all of sudden. Now, I don't know anything about these bombers or how they can move, but it definitely didn't seem realistic to me.
But all the same, this episode had an amazing combat sequence and looked great. The cgi was solid, but I've seen better. Sufficient it to say it held up in the sequences that used the cgi.
I'm just disappointed they've waited this long in a nine episode season to get this good. I feel like we've only had two episodes, or I guess now three are devoted to combat missions. When in Band of Brothers, we were constantly with the characters in and out of combat. Granted, one show is Army, and this is Airforce, but still, I am confident the Airforce flew plenty of combat missions that we would've been able to show.
Anyway now that this show has finally reached the quality I expect from writing, character, character interactions, and the level of stakes they must find a way to maintain it only I'm not sure they will. I hope to be proven wrong.
IMDb: 8/10
Letterboxd: 4/5
Watched on Apple TV+ in 4k Dolby Vision.