User Reviews

In my last review of a Combat episode, I said how it isn't often we get to see Saunders in a vulnerable state, but Hear No Evil is without a doubt another occasion. This time however, the Germans are secondary antagonists and Saunders' main enemy is the lack of one of his senses, making normally easy tasks next to impossible. The episode begins with him battling through an area with the squad and fighting germans. Saunders lags behind them a bit and gets separated, but it appears as though all enemy forces are dead. Before Saunders can react, a dying german arms a stielhandgrenate and it explodes right next to his head. Saunders screams in agony, but finds to his horror that he can't hear himself. Now alone, he has to somehow make his way out of this territory without the use of his ears and try to evade germans at the same time. Shortly after, he is almost shot by a trio of germans next to a lake. Although Saunders was standing next to the same lake, he didn't notice them until after getting shot at. He manages to lose them by hiding up in a tree. Soon, Saunders comes to an abandoned church and comes across a small dog. He decides to make use of the animal and let it act as his ears, basically. As the dog leads him around, a german motorcycle and sidecar come down a road. Saunders takes cover, but the dog leaps from his arms and passes right in front of the cycle, causing the driver to swerve into some water, damaging the vehicle. The german in the sidecar gets out and tries to shoot the pesky animal with his handgun, but is called back by the driver right before he discovers Saunders. After this close encounter, night falls and Saunders tries to rest in a ditch. A sizable battle erupts around him between US and german forces, but he has no idea until the dog notices it. Saunders runs away, and the dog ventures ahead to come across two germans trying to eat. One of them follows the dog back to Saunders, and the german orders him to surrender. The dog attempts to bite the german's leg, which leads to him fatally kicking it. Saunders pushes the german back and chokes him to death against a tree. The surviving nazi, wondering why his comrade hasn't returned to eat yet, tries to look for him. Saunders takes the german's G43 rifle and tells the other nazi to give up. Even though he still can't hear anything, Saunders gets the german to make a passing patrol go away by saying everything is fine in this area. Once they leave, the captured german finds out that Saunders is deaf after he yells to him and gets no answer. The german later takes advantage of this and kicks Saunders in the face, which allows him to grab his rifle. Saunders manages to run and hide in some bushes, unable to tell whether or not the german is shooting at him. Once he passes by, Saunders beats him to death with his canteen. He proceeds to fall asleep on a nearby log, and wakes up some time later after hearing american forces nearby. A medic kneels next to Saunders and tells him they're going to get him back to where he's supposed to be. Saunders, overjoyed at being able to hear again, says that sounds good to him. If there's one thing this episode does right, it's show how important your senses are. Most people take them (including your hearing) for granted, but Morrow's performance here shows just how difficult life (let alone life in a battlefield) would be without hearing. Due to his deafness, he has a lot more close calls with german forces than usual, since they can be sneaking right behind him and he'll have no idea. However, the episode isn't strong everywhere, and the main fault in the script arises because of the inclusion of the dog. It exhibits too much loyalty to Saunders, and just feels too lighthearted for a gritty Second World War show like Combat. Although there's a good amount of shooting in this one, most of it isn't done by Morrow except in the beginning, so fans of him might feel disappointed. Additionally, the shots of "Saunders" fighting the germans in the opening credits isn't actually him at all; it's Earl Parker, Morrow's stunt double. Someone who worked on Combat said Earl was able to mimic Vic Morrow to such a degree that you could have the camera 5 feet from his face and you couldn't even tell it wasn't him. Not just appearance wise, but in his movements and timing too. Overall, Hear No Evil is an enjoyable episode that puts Saunders in the hot seat, even if the script ultimately lets it down.