Top 5 Unusually Heavy Episodes of 1980s Cartoons: #2
#2: The Phantom Brigade, G.I. Joe
Originally broadcast October 9, 1985
Written by Sharman Di Vono
Plot summary (from Allmovie.com):
Cobra Commander uses an elderly gypsy woman to conjure up three dangerous ghosts: a Roman legionnaire, a Mongol warrior, and an American WWI flying ace. He then sends them into battle against the G.I. Joe team, secure in the knowledge that phantoms can’t be killed or injured. The Joes attempt to mount a counteroffensive by appealing to the dormant patriotism of the American ghost.
What made it so heavy (includes spoilers):
I really went back and forth between this one and Worlds Without End on which should be #2. I had to go with this one for the massive kick in the gut it gave me.
In this episode, Cobra uses ghosts to fight G.I. Joe, and ghosts are already creepy. By nature of how the ghosts were summoned, this episode drew attention to the fact that the ghosts were once living people with hopes and desires and all that, which only made it creepier.
One of the ghosts is a World War I fighter pilot. He is set up quickly to be a sympathetic character, immediately recognizing a locket that was used to summon him from the dead. He complies with Cobra Commander’s commands and attacks G.I. Joe headquarters. The animators did a great job of making it eerie; his plane was in tatters, and his attacks created ghostly flames that made spooky moans. The Joes didn’t know what was hitting them.
Wild Bill figured out how to stop the ghost pilot. The pilot recognized Wild Bill’s American flag, which Cover Girl held up in the window of the helicopter, and realized he was dogfighting with Americans. Both aircraft landed, and what came next was one of the most bone-chilling but heart-breaking moments I’ve ever seen on TV, much less in a children’s cartoon.
The pilot strikes up a conversation with the Joes, who can’t believe what they’re seeing. I’m going to put the key moment here because a recap won’t do it justice.
COVER GIRL: Why that pilot’s just a kid!
PILOT: Hey, that’s some flying machine you’ve got there. What outfit you with?
WILD BILL: G.I. Joe.
PILOT: Never heard of it, but … I’ve been away from home for months. Say … why you looking at me that way?
WILD BILL: I ain’t looking at you … I’m looking through you!
COVER GIRL: Total emptiness. There’s nothing there.
ROADBLOCK: That’s ’cause he’s a ghost!
[…]
PILOT: I had a close call with one of the Kaiser’s boys this morning, but … I can’t be … dead.
(Other ghosts laugh at him)
DUKE: Back off, you buzzards.
PILOT: My girlfriend, Jenny. I wonder if she’s dead too?
It hurts when you see a good person get made fun of. It’s another level completely when the good person is being mocked by his fellow ghosts because he’s the last one to realize he’s dead and his loved ones probably are too. The way in which his joy and love were so immediately replaced with horror and loss was a kind of tragedy I had never seen before.
The young man eventually helped G.I. Joe win the battle, but I couldn’t shake this episode for days. There was something about it that made it very easy to empathize with, and putting myself in that situation horrified me. It made me think about his girlfriend, Jenny, losing her boyfriend to the war. It made me think about his parents, having lost their son. And it made me think about how his character would’ve been ambushed by these thoughts mere moments after thinking he was just doing his duty and everything was fine.
Since I couldn’t find the episode anywhere to embed here, here is New Order’s “Love Vigilantes,” which — I swear I remember reading somewhere — inspired this episode.
Great song. Never seen that episode, but it sounds very deep.