Every Episode of Band of Brothers, Ranked
I am a total WWII junkie just like millions of other men and probably millions of women as well.
I have seen so many movies about WWII, taken classes, and read a few books as well. Out of everything I’ve read, seen, or heard, my favorite thing associated with World War 2 is the mini-series, Band of Brothers.
These are all ten episodes of the mini-series ranked.
10. Points
First, I’d like to start off by saying that every single episode in this series is brilliant. This is what I believe is the worst episode and it is still amazing.
That being said, this episode just does not feel much like a Band of Brothers episode at times. Thematically, it tackles the challenges of soldiers while they have no enemy left to fight. This is an interesting concept and the episode does it well, but there are a few things that make the final episode weaker than the rest of the show.
The Winters narration in this episode is probably the least natural of the entire series. At times, the narration feels forced and can pull you out of the story. This is not really a problem in any of the other episodes.
There are still powerful moments, like the shooting of Sergeant Grant and the iconic capture of Berchtesgarden. These moments are surrounded by a lot of waiting, less interesting character interactions and a general tying up loose ends that is not always compelling.
9. Carentan
This episode is all about Private Blythe. It is an interesting departure from the usual style of the show. Blythe is the only perspective character that only appears in a single episode.
The episode tackles the challenges of a soldier dealing with shellshock. Blythe believes that he simply does not have the courage to fight. Over the course of the episode, he finds his courage, becomes a good soldier, and then pays for it with a devastating wound that leaves him unable to fully recover.
The episode involves some good themes and character development, but it ranks low simply because the action does not live up to the other episodes. The action is all focused on one man, so we don’t get the massive scope of ground assaults.
Carentan itself is a good set piece for action, but the battle scenes still do not quite live up to the others. Beyond the action, Blythe himself is just a difficult character to invest in. This is his only episode, so we don’t get much backstory on him. He doesn’t have much of a personality. He is just a scared private.
The story of Albert Blythe is a good concept, but the actual story itself leaves something to be desired.
8. The Last Patrol
The Last Patrol is the third to last episode of the series. At this point, the war is dying down and the focus is on trying to make it all the way to the end without taking unnecessary risks.
Private Webster was wounded in Holland, but because he did not bust out of the hospital to rejoin Easy Company, like most other Easy soldiers, he missed the siege of Bastogne. Because he missed Bastogne, he is treated like a replacement and he spends most of the episode trying to regain the respect of the men.
Everything involving private Webster and his quest to regain respect is incredibly well done. Everything involving the new Lieutenant Jones and his quest to do something meaningful before the war ends is great. The character work with Sergeant Malarkey is fantastic as well. Malarkey lost almost all of his friends and he is visibly a shell of who he used to be.
All the character work in this episode is phenomenal.
Where the episode is lacking is the actual action. The patrol itself is a pointless mission that takes place at night. The action is not bad, by any stretch, but it does not live up to the standard that Band of Brothers has established up to this point.
There is also not a strong emotional landing point. The one character to die is someone we are not attached to. Webster regains the respect of the men, but doesn’t really do anything to get it. He just does the basic things that are asked of him and characters like Liebgott decide to forgive him.
Not a bad episode, but deserving of its third to last ranking.
7. Currahee
Currahee is the first episode of the series. It is an excellent episode that introduces the characters and gets us into the show.
The episode is from the perspective of Lieutenant Winters (future Captain and Major Winters). He and Nixon are preparing to embark on D-Day and they are reminiscing about their training and a mysterious “him” that they remember. From there, it launches into a flashback on Easy Company’s training.
Very quickly, we find out that the “him” that Nixon and Winters are referring to is none other than David Schwimmer’s character, Captain Sobel.
Captain Sobel is a fantastic character, in that every moment that he is on screen you wish someone would punch him in the face. He deliberately gives his men orders that he knows they cannot carry out. He enjoys punishing them and torturing their minds. As a result, Easy company turns into a tightly wound fist and a brotherhood before they go off to war.
One of the best parts about this episode is the distinction that even though Captain Sobel is the perfect officer to train them, he has no aptitude for field combat. One of the best scenes is when every single NCO in the company mutinies to get Captain Sobel reassigned.
This is a great episode and the only reason that it ranks so low on this list is because it is just an introduction and the following episodes are just that good.
6. Why We Fight
This is the penultimate episode of Band of Brothers and there are some absolutely amazing moments in this episode.
I will start with a quick summary. This episode is from the perspective of Caption Nixon. It begins with a mysteriously somber scene in a bombed out town, then flashes back to some happy times in the German countryside. The war is winding down, so the men are enjoying some of the spoils of war (mainly food, women, and trophies).
The happy times towards the beginning quickly devolve into horror when a patrol finds a concentration camp. The men are horrified at what they see and the grim reality of the war cannot be ignored.
The reason I love this episode and believe it ranks this high, in spite of a lack of combat, is that there are some of the best moments and lines in the entire show. My personal favorites are as follows:
- Nixon returns from a mission in which all the new recruits were killed but him and he has a discussion with Winters on whether those boys were really heroes
- Webster orders a German baker to give up his food and threatens to kill him because there is no way the baker “never smelled the stench” of the concentration camp less than a few miles away.
- Webster shouts at a passing column of surrendering Germans, saying that they “dragged [their] asses halfway around the world for what?” His criticism of the Nazis is that world conquest is ridiculous, stupid, and impossible, so they just caused all of this for nothing. The moment hits home, especially when the camera zooms in on the recently divorced Nixon.
- The episode ends with the men claiming that Hitler should have killed himself a few years earlier and “saved them the trouble”. Nixon replies “yeah, he should have. But he didn’t.” The finality of the statement is an indictment of history in general. What “should” happen counts for nothing in history.
My favorite scene of all is the scene between Perconte and O’keefe.
O’keefe wants nothing more than to fight, but Perconte, who has seen too much of war, puts him in his place. Perconte says that having a warm bed, hot food, showers, and toilet paper is the “best part of war” that he has seen. O’keefe then gets his true awakening later in the episode when they find the concentration camp.
It is a truly heartbreaking moment to watch such a young kid realize the horrors of war.
5. Bastogne
Bastogne is all about the famous defense of Bastogne by the 101st in the Battle of the Bulge. To most followers of all things World War 2, the defense of Bastogne is the true claim to fame of the Screaming Eagles.
This episode is tough, gritty, and downright miserable. For most of it, the soldiers are just enduring the harsh conditions and artillery shelling of the Germans. There is no fun at all to be had in this episode.
This episode ranks in my top 5 for one reason only: Eugene Roe.
Doc Roe is such a good character and this episode provides a perspective you rarely get in war movies. It gives us an entire hour long journey of a combat medic through one of the hardest patches of the war. Low on every kind of supply, Doc Roe must find a way to keep his men alive and fighting through the bitter siege.
Roe and the nurse, Renee, have some great back and forth in which Roe explains that their touch calms and is a gift from God.
Roe’s calm, Cajun accent helps reinforce how awesome he is and helps make this episode one of the best.
4. Replacements
One of the things that makes Band of Brothers so phenomenal is that every episode takes on a life and an approach all its own.
This episode, James McAvoy’s only episode, explores the dynamic of replacement troops. The men in the first three episodes have been together for almost two years and now that they are in Holland, there are new replacement soldiers.
Some of the vets treat the new guys well, but most are at least a little bit harsh to the newcomers. McAvoy’s character is one of the replacements who has a tough time being accepted by the older soldiers. He is also killed in his first engagement.
The brilliance of this episode is that it is told not from the perspective of one of the new recruits, but by their sergeant, Bull Randleman. By giving us Bull’s perspective, we can focus on his task of trying to keep these replacements alive, instead of getting side-tracked by any one replacement.
Bull spends the night wounded and behind enemy lines. His replacement troops, who have just seen their first combat, decide that they will venture out to go get him. He ultimately survives without their assistance, but their willingness to go after him signifies their progression from replacements to true brothers of Easy company.
3. The Breaking Point
You could probably swap any episode that I’ve ranked 3–7 with any of the others and I would have no problem with it. I am giving the edge to “The Breaking Point” because it just has a little bit of everything.
First off, Lipton is maybe the best perspective character in the whole show. Lipton is Easy Company’s true leader, inspiring the men and guiding them when they think that commanding officer, Lieutenant Dyke, is absent and will get them all killed. Over the course of the episode, Lipton keeps his men alive as much as possible and the new CO, Captain Speirs, helps Lipton realize what he has done.
Beyond Lipton’s arc, the episode covers so many things. There is a continued cold and misery like there was in Bastogne. The soldiers are moving, but the issues persist. Hubler kills himself accidentally. Muck and Pencala are killed by artillery. Toye and Garnier are wounded so badly that they have to be sent home. Buck Compton is broken to see his friends so shot up and he has to come off the line. Malarkey is also badly affected and Lipton has to try and keep him in fighting shape.
There is also the progression of Lieutenant Dyke. Dyke starts off as absent, but Winters cannot replace him. He is too well connected. This gives us some perspective on how politics work even in war time. Then, when Dyke finally proves his incompetence, Speirs gives us one of the best action scenes in the entire show. Here it is. My words won’t do it justice.
Beginning to end, this episode is just full of incredible character development, thematic commentary, and top-notch action.
2. Day of Days
“Day of Days” could easily take the top spot in any ranking. D-Day is the definitive operation of the war and paratroopers were a huge part of it, albeit a scattered and imperfect one.
Band of Brothers is at its best when its best character, Dick Winters, is at the center. In this episode, we get to see Winters as a tactical commander. The commanding officer goes down before they even hit the ground, so Winters becomes commander of Easy Company on D-Day.
The episode follows Winters as he gradually assembles some men together, finds a large group of the 101st, and then leads an assault on enemy gun positions.
This episode ranks in the top 2 for the simple reason that the action is superior to basically every other World War 2 movie or tv show episode that I have ever seen. The assault on the gun positions is so well shot and so well done that you feel like you are a member of Easy Company as well.
An added nuance to this episode is the presence of Able Company’s Private Hall. Winters knew Hall from the basketball team back in the States and even though he is technically not under Winters’ direct command, Hall is the first person that Winters links up with on the ground. After spending the entire night of June 5/6th with Winters, Hall volunteers for the mission.
Hall ends up being the first person killed under Winters’ command and Winters spends a poignant moment mourning the loss of Hall.
1. Crossroads
“Crossroads” is the perfect episode.
Winters is once again our perspective character and this episode gives us the best character work for him. The episode begins with a very abbreviated combat scene in which Captain Winters is leading his men in an attack. There is not much additional detail given because it flashes forward.
Winters is now the battalion commander and is no longer the head of Easy Company. As a result, he must do much more paper work than he is accustomed to doing, including a detailed report of the action scene that was alluded to at the beginning.
The rest of the episode flashes forward and backward between Winters’ distasteful job as battalion commander and his final operation in Holland.
The balance of action and character work is immaculate. There are scenes where Winters is grappling with letting go of his company and allowing Moose Heyliger to take over and there are scenes where Winters is leading an assault against two companies of SS.
When the episode finally shows us the attack on the SS, Winters and his men are trapped in a vulnerable position. If the Germans realize their advantage, Winters and all of his men will be killed or captured. Winters’ solution to this problem is to attack before the Germans are aware of their advantage.
Winters, being a brilliant tactician and the perfect leader, leads the assault himself. They get the jump on the sleeping SS troops, order an artillery strike, and kill or capture nearly two full companies. The German artillery responds, killing one of Winters’ men, but Nixon reassures him that the damage dealt was well worth the one man.
As Winters transitions out of his role as battlefield commander and into his new role of paperwork and management, he continues to flashback to the assault. There have been small moments where we see Winters kill a young German soldier, but we don’t get the whole picture until the very end.
The episode ends with Winters remembering the scene. At first, the German soldier, so young that he is barely even a man, smiles when he sees Winters. As realization strikes, the smile leaves the boys eyes, before Winters shoots him dead.
This is the last engagement where Winters fires his weapon and the defining end to his battlefield tenure is to shoot a young boy dead on the field.
This episode is the perfect episode in a perfect show. It is well-paced, well shot, well acted, well written, and well done in every way. There is a perfect blend of action and thematic character development. “Crossroads” is Band of Brothers at its absolute best.
