User Reviews

I have no problem with one key element of a plot in a series like this being far-fetched, but in this episode, almost everything that happens is simply unbelievable. This ruins the episode for me.

Carter and Newkirk are dressed as an elderly German woman (Newkirk) and her son. They are walking outside a new Luftwaffe HQ, seeking to get inside to see the operation. But the guards will not permit this, so they go back to camp. Inside the barracks, they are still in costume, giving Hogan the details of what little they saw. I thought, "Given the frequent unexpected entrances of Schultz and/or Klink, why don't they change back to their uniforms and then fill Hogan in?" As soon as I said this to my wife, in comes Schultz, who is placated when Hogan tells them they are rehearsing for a play.

General Burkhalter is inspecting bills that Colonel Klink is agreeing to pay, and decides they are too high and Klink will have to pay. As Kommandant, I would think Klink would have to pay for everything out of whatever budget he has been given.

Then Klink wants to find a way to pay less than 450 marks to paint that Luftwaffe HQ. Hogan volunteers his men for 350 marks. Klink agrees as long as painting his office is included. Seems like a high price for POWs for a job that is supposed to take no more than 2 days.

The mission is to plant a bug in the wiring and see if there's anything else they can learn. Hogan manages to steal a valuable map of troop locations, but as they are about to return to camp, the colonel tells Schultz to search them. Now Schultz did a simple pat-down and would not have really found a few pieces of paper, especially if Hogan stashed them somewhere other than his pockets. But Hogan panics and flips them into the light fixture above, where anyone looking up could see something dark above the shade. Since they block out much of the light, it seems someone would do so soon.

But before that happens, Hogan sees the papers starting to smolder, so he has LeBeau switch off the one light and gets the Germans to leave them off "so the paint will dry properly."

They all return the next morning for a quick inspection. That light is still off. Hogan flips it on and off quickly, assumes they noticed it was too dark, and he gets on a stool to retrieve the paper. I was surprised the paint from yesterday hadn't dried yet. They get outside without Schultz being told to search the men again-they had been inside for no more than two minutes.

But now Schultz insists they stop at the tavern for a beer, despite Hogan insisting he doesn't feel well and that he just wants to go back to the stalag. Of course, at the tavern, a Gestapo man comes in and orders Schultz to search the men like he should have. This time, Newkirk cleverly hides those papers in another German officer's coat, and a moment later retrieves them with no trouble.

Back at camp, when Hogan asks for his money, Klink submits his bill for transportation into town and for "overtime" pay for Schultz. It wipes out what the men were to get paid. Hogan then enters Klink's office and tells his men to quit painting immediately, leaving a half painted office-in bright green and dark red, no less-for Klink to deal with.

As for the illogical parts, I'll begin with the spy mission at the beginning. Newkirk and Carter were supposed to try to get inside to take pictures, if possible. Based on what we saw later, had they gotten in, they would have taken pictures of a few office desks and chairs, and a few men inside another room with radio equipment. So what?

I'm pretty sure electronic bugs in the 1940s could only send a signal a short distance if not wired directly. Kinch certainly had no chance to connect a wire all the way back to camp. That the Germans would be doing their work right in the middle of the office and not be worried about paint spilling on themselves, their desks or papers did not compute either. Hogan could have stuffed the papers under his hat and been safe-based on the search we saw.

The next morning, for the brief inspection, they would never have taken all 5 POWs back for a two-minute inspection. And at the end, when Klink is trying to stiff Hogan and not pay him a cent, he would never have submitted his "expenses" knowing the men had barely begun painting his office. He would have surely waited until they finished.

There were some laughs but it just seemed like very few of the actions taken by anyone-Allied or Axis side-were illogical and nonsensical. Thus I cannot justify a rating higher than 4 out of 10.