The tone of this finale is set right from the beginning when the story jumps back stateside to visit the wounded troops. The big announcement comes across—the Japanese have surrendered. The war is over. The news arrives suddenly, and there is no portrayal of the momentous detonations of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki as you might expect from a WWII story set in the Pacific. Our story was always told from the perspective of the marines we've followed, and since they weren't there, there's little commentary on the nuclear solution that brought an end to the war. While this makes perfect sense, I admit I did find it a little disappointing.
Still, there's a lot to be said for how this story addresses the immediate effects of the surrender. Amidst the joyful revelry of the other troops, Sledge, Snafu, and Leckie have very somber reactions. These moments of resigned, reserved celebration say a lot about just how much the war took from these men, and how little they expected from a post-war life.
The episode strives to wrap up the stories of our cast. Other series may have devoted just a portion of an episode to life after the war, but The Pacific makes it a point to detail every bit of what happens stateside and devotes the entirety of this story to scenes of re-acclimation and recovery. Lena returns to give the Basilone family John's Medal of Honor in a scene that would have perhaps been better placed in Part Eight, but placing it here does help to establish the theme of "closure" that drives this episode.
Leckie returns to find his bedroom as not much more than a storage room. There's some depressing irony in the fact that he gets a better welcome from his taxi driver than his own parents. But, in classic irreverent Leckie style, he's soon back on his feet. He returns to his old workplace, and promptly gets himself his old job and a raise by using that characteristic brashness that we saw in Part Three and Part Four. He also does a remarkable job of starting a relationship with a young lady we briefly saw back in Part One. The courtship scenes here are very well done, but again it just seems so surreal to be back in this territory so soon after all the death and destruction.
Sledge returns home as well, and struggles with the impending decisions of having to find something to do in a life after war. One of the more poignant scenes in this story is how Snafu leaves Sledge without a goodbye. It's made even more powerful by the later revelation that Snafu did not speak to his fellow soldiers for many decades afterwards.
Eugene comes home to Alabama to find Sidney waiting for him with news of his impending marriage. It's a brief moment of boyish fun that reminds of us who these two friends were before the war. Of course, though Eugene left the war, the war didn't leave him, and the nightmares tell the tale. Sledge's story is perhaps the most tragic of them all, as he comes back to a world that threw him into a war he wasn't ready for, and now finds himself no longer equipped for life as a civilian.
Though this story does give fair tribute to the life stories of the people we've followed throughout the series, from a purely cinematic standpoint it does feel a bit drawn out in places. The episodes that haven't focused on battle have sometimes suffered from pacing issues, and I think the same applies here as none of the energy and gravitas that was built up in the previous episode is present. There are spots when the episode spends rather long times (particularly near the end with Sledge) on single shots that don't seem to serve any purpose other than to give the story a quiet and reflective feel.
The series ends with a photo montage detailing the post-war lives of the marines who were our guides through this story. It's a beautiful way to wrap things up, and gives us a chance to see the real faces and post-war histories of our cast while simultaneously giving kudos to the actors who had to step into these roles. Although there were many debatable choices in the earlier parts of the episode, the ending was everything it should have been, and serves as a very good conclusion to this remarkable series.
