In episode 5, I think, when the junkie medic is scrounging morphine, he’s also desperately looking for scissors. Why?
To cut loose skin? To cut clothing? To cut bandages?
I vote for bandages or adhesive tape. That stuff doesn’t tear even with modern technology.
Dangit, you mean Joey’s right?
We have an argument going. Someone says it’s to skin-pop (but why couldn’t he use a knife?). Someone else says it’s to cut the morphine open (ditto as to knife). Joey says, because he’s a medic, you morons – he’s not just a junkie – sheesh!
Oh, man! See what I get for not paying attention close enough? I didn’t realize he was a junkie and scarfing up all the morphine for himself. He did act a little strange, in retrospect, but it was combat in the snow and all.
Did anyone read the book? How does it compare?
He may need it to cut the clothes off.
WTF?!? Junkie??? I saw the series when it aired on HBO. I bought the DVD set and watched it a good dozen times now… I’ve never seen anything to indicate he is a junkie? Where the heck are you people getting this from?
I can’t be that naive.
MeanJoe
I’m with MeanJoe on this one…what the heck are you people talking about? Junkie? He’s a medic, he needed the morphine for injured soldiers. There is nothing in that episode that would indicate that he’s a junkie. If he was a junkie do you really think that he would be running around announcing that he’s trying to collect morphine from everyone?
He needed the scissors to cut clothing out of the way (which he is shown doing near the end of the episode on the soldier with the leg wound).
wouldn’t he be able to use a normal knife to cut clothes, bandages etc., rather than add extra equipment?? hahah Im just playing devils advocate here 
I expect because scissors are safer than a knife. The last thing you need in a combat situation is a medic who’s disabled because he’s just stabbed or cut himself (or his assistant) with a knife when the cloth gives abruptly. Scissors are easier to handle–those knives had fairly long blades and handles. They might even be faster, since you have essentially two blades cutting into the cloth from both sides, instead of a single blade ripping or sawing it.
And Roe wasn’t an addict. As Nurobath and MeanJoe said, he needed the morphine for the wounded.
I haven’t read the book, but the film portrays it that way. He’s not using all the morphine for himself by any means. But he’s using some of it. Note especially the scene where he begins wrapping cord around his hand and saying a prayer. Implication is that he’s injecting or popping into his fingers. You have to watch the flow of the whole episode as well, noting his changes in behavior and appearance, esp the time, apparently immediately after getting well, when he sits apart and doesn’t let himself get drawn into the conversation around the campfire (I know there could be other reasons for this, but watch the whole thing). There are certain directorial choices which frame it that way, like including the soldier’s quip about hoping he’s not using it for himself, the opening scene showing how easily his finger bleeds, etc. The implication seems pretty clear to me overall, and I (we) see no other way of explaining the hand-wrapping scene.
If it were meant for him to be a junkie I don’t think the director would have made it so unclear that the audience would have to try and decipher it from a few tiny clues during the episode. I don’t really see the reason for him being a junkie anyway. There’s nothing in that episode (or any other) that deals with that subject at all so why hide it there in the first place. If the director wanted to imply that he was using I think they would have done a bit more with it (as they did with Nixon’s drinking).
I didn’t see anything in his behavior that wasn’t perfectly consistent with being in an extremely high stress combat situation. As for the campfire scene, my take is that as the medic he’s not really a part of the group (he doesn’t carry a weapon and isn’t supposed to directly take part in combat) he’s a bit of an outsider. He gets along fine with the other men but he doesn’t share the same experiences with them and he understands that so he sits a bit away from them. I have a feeling that there may be a bit of a bad luck thing about hanging out with the medic as well so they keep a bit of a distance…although I have no idea if that’s true or not just a guess.
I’ll have to check the hand wrapping scene again…don’t remember that part.
I just watched this episode a few nights ago and I really didn’t see anything that would lead me to believe that he’s a junkie. The junkie angle kind of messes up the whole interaction with the nurse as well (or at least makes it less poignant).
I don’t think there’s enough rollyeyed smiles in the world.
The whole POINT of that ep was how he watched over them. Protected them. Felt when they were shot. Looked for boots when they didn’t have any. Made due with an absolute lack of supplies during a time where the casualty rate was high. Showing how a guy that never fired rounds was indispensable to the unit.
Using the morphine for personal use in that context would be totally against everything that the show was trying to establish. He’d be using limited vanishing medical supplies just to get high…Please.
We may be barking up the wrong tree, but it really seems that the directors want to plant the suspicion. Which works, imho. Nixon’s drinking, of course, is known, but the Roe’s (alleged) using has to be a totally secret thing. And it puts the audience in that shaky position of thinking, is he… no… couldn’t be… but wait… then why… but him?.. no… then again…
Anyway, when we watched the entire episode, considered the choices the directors made in the scenes, we decided that yeah, the implication is that he was using.
For instance, why show so many scenes of him scrounging the morphine? Sure, medics need morphine and supplies are short, that’s obvious – there doesn’t seem to be any need in the plot or character development to shoot this episode the way they did, taking up so much screen time for that, plus all the other indications, unless there’s an intent to plant a suggestion.
So sneaky I’ve never seen anyone else even mention it.
Errr the point was establishing they had ZERO supplies. Why show him going around asking for scissors everywhere? A simple item like that was out of his reach. Everytime he saw another unit or when he went to that hospital the first thing on his lips was about medical supplies (not just morphine) they might have that he could use the only reason he bugged all the men for it was that was the only thing they had.
Really think about it. He’d be taking away morphine from the men that might need it, lower his ability to help them by being doped up, and betray them. It’s exactly the opposite of what the show was about.
Yeah, I know. It’s not pretty to think so. But these guys are people, after all. They’re in a hellish situation, and people have weaknesses.
Like I say, we might have it wrong. But I think he’s using.
If there’s some alternate explanation for starting off with his fingers that way, and the hand-wrapping/prayer scene in the foxhole – like if it’s a rosary and not a piece of cord – I’ll consider my conclusions unfounded.
I’m not in agreement on that last point. Look at the other work of these filmmakers. They avoid black and white, and have a keen sense of human tragedy. He was indeed a brave and thoughtful man who took great risks for the sake of others. That doesn’t mean he’s immune to the urge to dull the pain. And if he is using, who knows when it began, maybe before supplies were so tight. If he’s using, it must be a terrible moral dilemma for him.
Okay, I just finished watching it again. There is nothing in that episode that even comes close to suggesting that he’s using. Actually he asked about the scissors more than he asked for morphine. He only asked for morphine three times and that was before the first round of shelling started at the beginning of the episode. After that he never asked again. He also used morphine to help at least two other men and offered it to one more who refused. I still don’t know what you’re talking about with the hand wraping thing.
I think you’re trying too hard to find something that just isn’t there.
Darkhold makes some very good points…well said.
There’s nothing in the book to even suggest that Roe was a junkie.
In the movie I think the “running around for supplies” scenes were also meant to give the viewers a chance to get reacquainted with the other soldiers, and to let us see who was sharing foxholes.
You couldn’t possibly mean the part where he’s using a rosary, could you? Those wrap around the hand…
And none of these could be explained by, oh… I don’t know… watching people get the shit blown out of them?
I have watched the whole thing. Many times. And read the book. You might want to look into the “other reasons.”
Commonly known as “humor”…
I thought that was just to show how godawful COLD it was outside and how ill-equipped the men were. The ground is cold enough to be jagged… and the MEDIC of all people doesn’t have gloves??
Like I said, I’m not exactly sure what you’re talking about, but I think it’s a rosary he’s “wrapping” around his hand.
Cool. We’d been saying “yeah he is”/“no he ain’t” throughout the episode, then that scene collapsed the wave function on the side of using. But if it’s a rosary, everything else becomes naught. Like I said above, everything individually could be explained in other ways… it was only taking it all together that the pattern seemed to emerge.
Looks like we were hearing the Devil in the record, though.
So what was the significance of that first scene where his finger bleeds, then? We never did come up with another idea why that was in there.
Thanks, guys. I’ll set the remaining 3 stooges straight. It’ll also give us a good excuse to watch it again!