Masters of the Air Episode 5 follows the Bloody Hundredth on one of their deadliest bombing runs yet, so much so that fans have likened it to a horror movie.
Just like Band of Brothers and The Pacific, Masters of the Air has emphasized the sheer horror of warfare; missions descend into chaos with a single flak explosion, leaving men gruesomely injured and terrified as their planes plummet to the ground.
Episode 3’s bombing run to Schweinfurt and Regensburg was easily the most traumatic sequence of the opening episodes. Curt’s heroic demise was bad, but Babyface’s nightmarish death is one of the most upsetting scenes of the 2020s so far.
The fifth episode followed the 100th as they flew to Munster with just 17 bombers, led by Bucky (who was desperate for vengeance after Bucky’s plane was downed in Bremen). Let’s just say, it did not go well.
Masters of the Air fans compare Episode 5 to a horror movie
Only 13 bombers make it to Bremen, and a single plane makes it home: the Royal Flush, flown by Robert Rosenthal. Men in the other planes are either forced to bail or killed; one gunner gets his face blown off by flak, and another is forced to tourniquet his leg in the heat of battle.
Reacting to the episode on Reddit, one user wrote: “This one was paced and scored like a horror movie. You only get about two brief slight releases of tension until they land. Very well done.”
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live footage of me trying to go about my life after watching episode 5 of masters of the air pic.twitter.com/MtQ0Hj7kJP
— Eve❔ (@finallyeve) February 16, 2024
“I’m torn between recognizing what a fantastic show this is and dealing with the fact this shit actually happened. Sobering,” another commented.
“I was SO unsettled because of the music. I know people on here complain a lot about the music during the scenes in the air but I really think it made it even more anxiety-ridden this time,” a third wrote.
“This is the episode that shifted the series for me into The Pacific territory. I fully mean that as a compliment,” a fourth also wrote. “While Band of Brothers doesn’t exactly glamorize war, it dials up the camaraderie element to 11. What a bunch of special boys, they really did something great over there. Then The Pacific made you wish people never, ever, ever had to go through something so terrible. Masters of the Air is like that. It’s an honest accounting of something you never, ever, ever want to get near.”
This echoes recent sentiments about how Masters of the Air succeeds in one area better than Band of Brothers: it captures the futility of war and luck of survival.