**Richard Brooks.** The battle scenes are excellent in this one, really tense. There are other very tense moments, too, as the character played by Brooks begins to lose it. (Very good performance.) The scene with McKay using the n-word is actually quite shocking. The Ruiz arc continues. This chapter is strong. There’s a possible end in sight. And Marcus might be a father. Very soap opera but it’s written and played really well. 9/10
**Penny Johnson Jerald.** Better than the 2-parter that opened the season, but still not up to the quality of the best episodes of season one. It’s a cleverly constructed script, but it feels too contrived sometimes. Too “TV.” And it plays like soap opera, too. The Goldman-Devlin-McKay stuff is fun, but does it really belong on this show? First appearances for Betsy Brantley as Dr. Seymour and Richard Brestoff as Maj. Darling. He’s clearly a dick from the off. 9/10
While out on a patrol, Anderson and Goldman observe some VC transporting an American prisoner and photograph him before leaving the area. Although they are badly outnumbered, Ruiz stupidly goes back down the trail after a necklace he dropped, tipping their position and getting a man killed. Alex drops by to see Goldman. Zeke goes to the hospital to try to straighten out some records and ends up saving the life of psychiatrist Jennifer Seymour from a homicidally insane LURP. An explosion in the latrine sets of Major Darling, while Anderson suggests that it might not be VC but an American solider who planted the grenade. Taylor gets accused -- falsely -- of doing the dirty deed and now it is up to Anderson and Goldman to find a way to clear him. Ruiz begins to completely breakdown. Anderson's budding relationship with Seymour is short-circuited when he betrays her confidence by sharing information he gained from her in an effort to clear Taylor.
**Kelly Hu, Krista Errickson.** Very much a mixed bag, as we follow various characters in various parts of Saigon in the hours before the VC launch a coordinated attack. Zeke’s scenes are the best, saying goodbye to his ex-wife, rescuing a friend’s daughter, and confronting a gun-toting soldier who has just murdered a hooker. A lot of scenes take place inside a VC-infested hotel/brothel and there’s plenty of tension, but it’s a very different story to the ones we got in season one. 8/10
Anderson meets with his wife and sees her off after her announcement that she is remarrying. Goldman begins a relationship with Devlin which almost ends as they are both nearly blown up by a VC bomb. Percell is fed up with the senselessness of the war and Ruiz becomes convinced that he is going to be the next to die. Johnson and Taylor go to check on Bridger only to be told that he is dead (he is faking it), while Stacy Bridger has arrived to find her father. Goldman is ordered to have Alex pull her story about the soldier who died in the opium parlor and Zeke runs into Stacy Bridger -- rescuing her from some Vietnamese punks. He takes her back to the hotel where Zeke ends up trying to save a suicidal marine deserter. The deserter has sold information to the VC and ends up killing himself. Meanwhile McKay sends Goldman on a ""snipe"" hunt so that he can be alone with Alex, and inadvertently exposes Goldman to serious danger.
**Penny Peyser, Leo Rossi.** Big changes for the second season. New regulars (Kim Delaney, Dan Gauthier) and Baker and Horn are gone, though both are mentioned. This episode delivers a lot of action early on, then switches to scenes of personal drama and romance. Terence Knox has some great scenes. 8/10
Having received some warning of the upcoming Tet Offensive (In Angel of Mercy), Bravo Co. is still unprepared for what happens to them after they are transferred to Tan Son Nhut Base outside of Saigon. Zeke and Goldman catch up with one of their men in an opium parlor and have a run-in with some Vietnamese thugs. The situation is basically under control until a female wire service correspondent -- Alex Devlin -- butts in. Alex explains that she was following up on a story lead. Lt. McKay is introduced as a chopper pilot who will be shuttling Bravo Co. As they prepare to leave on a mission, Zeke opens a letter from his ex-wife who claims she will soon arrive in Saigon to see him. The company is landed in a hot-LZ and only gets saved from sure disaster when Lt. McKay uses his helicopter to fire machine guns at the hostile position. Alex meets up with Jake Bridger who tells a story about VC infiltrating the cities as peasants. McKay and Goldman start to ""argue"" over both their increasing
Again, the show delivers one of its very best episodes. And again, it is an episode unlike any other. The battle scenes look different–we don’t see the enemy–and the sense of sheer futility is stronger than usual. Pamela Gidley is back for a third episode, and the conclusion of her storyline. It’s also the final episode for Joshua Maurer as Horn, and he gets most of the very best scenes. _Spring 1988: CBS aired Tour of Duty as a replacement for Houston Knights in the middle hour of Saturday prime time, after High Mountain Rangers and before West 57th. Against it: Ohara on ABC; Beans Baxter and Mr. President on Fox; The Golden Girls and Amen on NBC._ 10/10
RikerDonegal
Curt Johnson - Indie Genius