“Cover me, when I run
Cover me, through the fire
Something knocked me out the trees
And now I’m on my knees…”
~ Peter Gabriel.
May 1966.
Patrick once again mans the door gun of his Huey without wearing his “monkey harness” as they fly toward “Landing Zone Monkey” to relieve some besieged American troops. As they touch down and soldiers dismount the helicopter, the last man bumps into Patrick, causing his trick knee to give out. He falls from the chopper as it lifts off without him, and is soon raked by machine gun fire and shot down.
Charlie, shocked to see Patrick on the ground, hands him a rifle from a dead American soldier and shouts at him to follow his lead. Sgt “Hero” gathers the men and plans an attack on a pillbox near the treeline with is pinning down his relief squad. Patrick volunteers and successfully takes out the pillbox, though he sustains a minor wound and the loss of his left ear lobe. As night falls, Sgt “Hero” details the plan of attack to relive the besieged troops further up the valley and sets up a perimeter.
In LA, Nicky is in the hospital succumbing to the final stages of liver failure. Liz attends to him, and before he passes away asks if Patrick turned out to be a good man, or an asshole like him. She reassures him that he’s a good person, and with a smile fixed on his face, dies.
The next morning Sgt “Hero” instructs his men to take their “pep pills” since they have a long march in front of them. Though the men are cautioned to take only one pill, most pop them like tictacs and, without their knowledge, become high on dextroamphetamine. As they approach a quiet village, the men under Sgt “Hero’s” command open fire on civilians, mostly women and children, and in the process accidentally kill Charlie. Patrick, who didn’t take any of the pills, spots movement to his right and charges off to investigate. Moving through the brush, he comes face to face with a young Vietnamese woman and her twin girls escaping the carnage.
