‘Masters Of The Air’ Episode 8 Recap: Red Tails

Masters of the Air Episode 8 builds a box around the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944. You know, D-Day, when Masters exec producer Tom Hanks, as Captain John Miller, stormed Omaha Beach in Saving Private Ryan. With the story on the ground having already been told, and with its scope too massive for a TV episode budget anyway, D-Day instead becomes a hard-won reason for Masters to drop the Rick Dalton/Leo pointing at the screen meme. On June 9th, Rosie Rosenthal greets Harry Crosby as the lead navigator groggily comes around. Cros spent the frantic run-up to the invasion working on flight plans and plotting map points for 200 missions over Normandy, but physically collapsed after 5,000 coffees and handfuls of Army Air Force-prescribed amphetamines stopped working. He slept through the entire invasion! Rosie describes his D-Day sorties, with hundreds of B-17s in formation over a blanket of ships on the surface of the sea, all of them advancing east toward mainland Europe. “And the best part? Not a single Luftwaffe finger anywhere.” All of the danger, damage, and casualties the 8th Air Force absorbed fighting for air superiority was worth it. On June 6, the Allied forces were masters of the air.

There are other sides to the box around D-Day. Operating out of an airbase in Italy is the 99th Pursuit Squadron, flying P-51 Mustang fighter-bombers with distinctive painted red tails. These pilots represented the legendary Tuskegee Airmen, and were the first flying squadron with Black pilots and crews to deploy to the European theater. With 500 missions completed, the group are proud of their accomplishments. But fighter pilots like Lt. Alexander “Alex” Jefferson (Branden Cook), Lt. Richard D. Macon (Josiah Cross), and Lt. Robert H. Daniels (Ncuti Gatwa) crave heavier action. On a long-range mission to disable German radar ahead of Allied troops landing in southern France, they destroy their targets. But when Jefferson, Macon, and Daniels are shot down, they endure pointedly racist questioning from a German officer before eventually arriving at Stalag-Luft III alongside fellow pilots Buck Cleven and Bucky Egan. 

It might have been better to save the Tuskegee Airmen’s story for a theoretical season two of Masters of the Air, or even its own in-universe series. Yes, there is The Tuskegee Airmen and Red Tails. But there are lots of stories to tell, and ways to tell them that would more effectively honor representation. Instead, just as the cast list fatigue with Masters has been real since part one, we’re suddenly and hastily introduced to an entire new squadron of pilots and officers, and there isn’t really time to properly engage with these brave Black pilots’ story before they’re blown out of the sky and inserted into the existing white pilots’ narrative. The entire opening of Masters Episode 8, with thrilling direction from Dee Rees, portrays the technical skill and undeniable valor of these aviators. And in a resulting conversation back at Ramitelli Air Base, Capt. Erwin B. Lawrence (Tomasin Ajani) characterizes the Black pilots as “a group of men thousands of miles away from home, who finally feel like Americans.” It’s an important line, but it also feels like the logline to another series, one with the time and insight to fully explore the Tuskegee Airmen’s story.

And hey, speaking of not enough time – or to put it another way, Masters of the Air again spreading itself too thin – who would like to learn way, way more about Sandra Wesgate’s valiant actions on the frontlines of Second World War spycraft? It was pretty clear she was working in intelligence by how cagey she was with Cros about her work, and in part eight, we see Sandra operating in Paris right under the noses of the Nazis, either disguised as a citizen or leading infiltration teams. These are thrilling scenes! But they’re also too brief. And brief also describes Sandra’s fated love affair with her married lead navigator. When Crosby’s overworked ass is granted a month’s leave, he stops first in London, but he only finds a “Dear Cros” letter. “I’ll always remember our time together fondly,” Sandra writes. “You belong with Jean,” and “We’ve still got a war to win.” 

As Cros packs for his month’s leave in New York, he wonders if things will be the same between him and Jean. But down is up in war, and actions taken almost never jibe with the reality of life during peacetime. That’s basically the whole truth of his dalliance with Sandra, after all. But Rosie Rosenthal spells it out for his friend. “Nothing’s the same, Cros. Nothing. Nothing ever will be.” 

Ugly racist commentary by literal Nazis is one thing. But when the Tuskegee pilots arrive at Stalag-Luft III, they encounter more racism from the white pilot POWs. This manifests as tense silence when Jefferson, Macon, and Daniels grab their bunks in the officers’ cabin. But leave it to our golden boy, Austin Butler’s Major Gale “Buck” Cleven, to rise above the racial tenor of his time to welcome them as gentlemen and fellow American servicemen. It’s now August, 1944, and on this side of the Masters box around D-Day, the POWs will need every able hand if they’re gonna make an escape and link up with advancing friendly forces. Buck and Alex make halting inroads with one another, first talking shop about aircraft and training, then sharing some personal history, and finally their gathered intel on US troop movements and the Russian advance into Germany. With their position squeezed between a two-front war, the Germans will either execute the POWs, or force march them deeper into the Reich. Either way, and with the help of Alex and the other Black pilots, Buck and Bucky are preparing the men for a pitched battle. They fashion daggers out of wood, and saps out of scavenged metal. Whatever’s coming, they’ll face it together. It will be their D-Day.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.