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Episode 6 of the Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air begins with Major John “Bucky” Egan (Austin Butler) on the run in German territory after he survived bailing out of his doomed B-17. Bucky is alive and undetected, for now. However, he is all alone deep within Nazi Germany and he has no food, water or shelter.
Meanwhile, Major Harry Crosby (Anthony Boyle) is sent to represent the 100th Bomb Group at a conference of nearly all the Allied nations, and Lieutenant Robert “Rosie” Rosenthal (Nate Mann) and his crew are sent to a retreat to clear their heads after the disastrous Munster raid.
Masters of the Air Episode 6 recap
A major storyline in Episode 6 is Bucky's attempt to survive on the run in Germany, and then in captivity. His time undetected doesn't last long, as he is found by a couple of farmers while wading through a stream. Bucky is held with several other downed Allied airmen, and the group is marched through a town by Wehrmacht soldiers. Here, Bucky witnesses the destruction that Allied air raids are causing deep in the heart of Nazi Germany.
Anger grows among the residents as the captive airmen are marched through the destroyed city, and this anger culminates in assaults on the prisoners. At first, some of the German guards attempt to disperse the residents. Eventually though, their superiors allow the assaults to proceed. German authorities execute some of the prisoners by shooting them in the head, and local residents beat several of the others to death.
Bucky then finds himself being driven on a cart with corpses to be buried. The Germans don't realize that Bucky is still alive, and he escapes and makes a run for it through the forest.
In Bucky's next scene, we see him passed out when German soldiers find him and bring him to a temporary holding camp. Here, he is interrogated by a German officer, Lieutenant Haussmann. At first, the officer appears to be cordial. He even offers Bucky a glass of whiskey and a cigarette. When Bucky doesn’t divulge any information beyond his name, rank and serial number, however, the German lieutenant says that they have no record of Bucky. If he is unable to provide additional information, the Gestapo will treat him as a spy. This means he will likely be tortured and executed.
Bucky still refuses to give the lieutenant any information beyond his name, rank and serial number. He is thrown back into his cell, and is abruptly awakened by Nazi guards where he is brought outside and put on a train along with dozens of fellow POWs. The train takes the Allied prisoners to a camp where they find other POWs who have already been captured. Bucky finds several of his friends who he had assumed were dead. He asks about Buck, and then viewers hear a voice off-screen say, “John Egan, Your 2:00.”
With this, Bucky and Buck are reunited at last. It is telling that their spirits are still up and they are happy to see each other. The two are smiling despite their status as prisoners, knowing that the war is over for them and there will likely be many physical and mental hardships they will have to endure throughout the duration of the conflict.
Rosenthal and Crosby process their grief and trauma
The remainder of the episode largely focuses on two storylines: Rosenthal's R&R time with his crew at the Coombe House, which they call “The Flak House,” and Crosby's time at the Allied conference at Oxford. Rosenthal knows that he is being sent away from Thorpe's Abbott because of the horrors he endured during the raid at Munster.
Rosie meets the therapist who is at the retreat, Dr. Huston. Rosie asks Huston if he can be cleared and sent back to his unit, saying that the three missions in three days was not too much for him to handle in that he needs to get in a rhythm and maintain that rhythm. Ultimately, Rosie is able to allow his mind to relax and spend time with his team as they attempt to is they mentally prepare for their return to combat in the skies.
Crosby is shown around Oxford, and inquires about his roommate, “subaltern” A.M. Westgate (Bel Powley), who has not yet arrived. Crosby’s tour guide, James, corrects the pronunciation of subaltern. Soon after, Crosby meets his roommate, who introduces herself as Alessandra. She often goes by Sandra, and will not reveal her middle name.
Crosby faces criticism from a British officer who is angry that the Americans are “oversexed, overpaid and over here.” To this, Sandra replies that the British are upset they are “undersexed, underpaid and under Eisenhower.”
The British officer further chastises Crosby for allowing his men to behave with “a lack of moral discipline,” to which Crosby replies that as a leader, he recognizes that each of the flyers under his command might be living on borrowed time. Therefore, Crosby makes it clear that he will not tell them how to live what could be their final days.
Later, Crosby confides in Westgate the survivor's guilt that he feels after Bubbles’ death, to which Westgate reassures him that he is not responsible. She says that the only person responsible for all of the death and trauma is Adolf Hitler.
Review
Overall, Episode 6 was a nice change of pace for this series. The episode touched on the horrors that the pilots endured and how they handled the grief and trauma that came with their job. We also got to see downed airmen resorting to escape and evasion, as well as facing capture and dealing with interrogation and the threat of torture and execution.
Finally, at the very end of the episode, there is a reunion between Bucky and Buck, which shows the emotional impact that being reunited had on both men despite them being prisoners of war. Viewers saw how uplifting it was for Bucky and the other prisoners to be reunited with their fellow flyers even though it came in the context of being held at a prisoner-of-war camp.
Episode 6 was unique in many ways that brought more depth to the characters and the series. It shared the most similarities with Episode 4, and helped to set the stage for the final three episodes. This episode took a different approach to telling the story of the Bloody Hundredth, but it touched on aspects that the rest of this series missed. Band of Brothers and the Pacific also largely avoided the stories of prisoners, which adds to the importance of this episode.
