Can't remember how it ended
I used to enjoy this show. It got yanked arround at the end, and I can't recall how it ended. Please help.
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
The best I can remember is that the surviving members gathered at a Vietnam reunion in Washington, D.C. (I think it's been 20 years since the war ended). There are some loose story lines between characters wrapped up. During the reunion, each person records memories in front of a video camera (which gives us flashbacks of the last few weeks of them being in Vietnam).
During one of Nurse McMurphy's flashbacks, she is treating a serviceman who is about to die. During a tearful goodbye as he dies, he says that she'll remember his name, but she says that she won't.
In present day, the reunion group visits the Vietnam War Memorial to pay their respects to those friends killed in action or missing. McMurphy ends up remembering the young man's name after all. She even finds his name engraved on the memorial wall.
Into the reunion video camera she states (and I'm paraphrasing from memory, but it was such a memorable scene): "I remember his name, the boy in the pants: Lawrence J. McClintock. He was from Littleton, Colorado. He played football. His friends called him Lurch. I couldn't save them all."
And then a tear rolls down her face.
The ending was pretty much Satanic.
shareWe saw McMurphy point twice to names on the Memorial but we don't know who. It is implied that it could be Lurch but maybe not. I thought it was really touching how she had placed the sand on the Memorial that she brought back. I guess even in the harshest of places, it's the friendships that bring you comfort - China Beach was that for them
"I couldn't save them all. But I saved some. I thought I have forgotten. But then I remembered. He told me I would."
I think that this powerful scene was really a realisation that McMurphy did what she could - she saved some medically, others in a more personal way (ie her friends) - but even the ones that died (such as Lurch), she did what she could and saved them too by bringing them peace, love and comfort when they really needed it.
I love this show so much - not only by how gripping but it really makes you think - it does require a bit of analysis in the storytelling. But I could talk about it for longest time... :)
Also, I don't know if anyone noticed but Lurch was on the plane (with Laurette and Cherry) in the pilot episode (just when McMurphy was going to be heading home but decided to stay on). Then Lurch was quite important in the series finale just when McMurphy was about to be heading home again.
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