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<p><strong><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">Episode No. 38, "Flesh and Blood"<o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><img width="371" height="281" style="width:3.8645in;height:2.927in" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.png@01D4AF05.50066280"></span></strong><strong><span style="font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">The title serves this episode exceedingly well, as the concept of blood relations weaves its way through John Finch's excellent script as a recurring theme.
</span></strong><b><span style="color:black"><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">We already have learned that Sefton is counting on Tony’s vote because he is, after all, his own flesh and blood. Further, Sefton tells Edwin that he envies him because of his grandchildren, who are where
immortality lies.</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Barbara complains to Tony that little Stevie’s father, Tim Bernard, rarely thinks of her but only about his family in France and of course the baby boy</span></strong></span></b><b><span style="color:black">—</span><strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black">that
is, his own flesh and blood. Later, in hospital to visit the injured Tony, she confides to him that she sees no future between them, as she wishes to return to Guernsey with her baby, and Tony is not the biological father.</span></strong><span style="color:black"><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Teddy Martin tells his wife, Dora, that he suspects that Barbara will choose Tim over Tony because “It’s the kids that hold a marriage together, in the long run, and that means your own flesh and blood,
not somebody else’s.”</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">From his hospital bed, Tony grumbles to his father that he really did not expect him to accept his plans for a ready-made family, knowing Sefton’s feelings toward the sanctity of a blood relationship.</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">In the final scene, after Tony assures Barbara that he will wait for her, she declares in no uncertain terms that she wants Stevie’s father to be his own flesh and blood. For that biological reason, she
insinuates, Tony always would remain second best in her affections. </span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">And then, when Tony explains to her that his father could not even begin to comprehend that she might turn down his marriage proposal, Barbara points out that Tony nonetheless continues being his father’s
son. It is a basic fact of life, she adds: “When there’s no one else, there’s always your own flesh and blood.”</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Some random comments about “Flesh and Blood”...</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">We never learn Barbara’s surname. Our only clue is when Tony mentions that her initials are “B. D.”</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">This is the second episode with direct ties to Guernsey. “For Strategic Reasons” (Episode No. 8) takes place there just prior to the German occupation of the Channel Islands. And here, in “Flesh and Blood,”
Barbara explains to Tony that she was evacuated from Guernsey, but her parents remained behind, under German rule.</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Beyond the recurring theme of its title, this intriguing episode is, quite simply, one very good story of wartime romance and its bittersweet complications. Like many another serviceman, Tony Briggs finds
that the chaotic circumstances of displaced persons, broken relationships, and unplanned progeny can (and, most often, do) lead to unrequited love.</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">There is an amusing scene in which Edwin and Sefton compare notes as “armchair generals,” predicting where the landing in France will be.</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Though Tony receives a mere flesh wound for his efforts in cautioning the commander and his lover about the minefield, that in no way diminishes the courage he displays in trying to save their lives.</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Thanks to director David Giles, that harrowing scene can lay claim to some of the finest editing in the entire series: the woman’s foot narrowly missing a buried mine, the commander’s foot about to trip
the igniter, the sound of an explosion, billows of smoke, the cries of startled seagulls, Tony being struck by shrapnel, Barbara falling to the ground and looking toward the blast, smoke clearing to reveal two bodies from afar, close-ups of those same lifeless
bodies amidst more smoke. All of this drama is delivered to the audience within the span of thirty-six seconds.</span></strong><br>
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<strong><span style="font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">Again we witness Sefton’s selfish immunity to the hardships of war. Having been inconvenienced during the journey from Liverpool, he complains to the innkeepers (Teddy and Dora), “The things we put up with
in wartime!” They can only look at one another in silence, having lost their son in combat over Germany just six months earlier.</span></strong></span></b><span style="font-size:11.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:14.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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