Recap / Blackadder S 4 E 6 Goodbyeee

"I heard that it started when a bloke called Archie Duke shot an ostrich 'cause he was hungry."

After receiving word that the generals are preparing for yet another "big push," Captain Blackadder decides to get himself removed from duty on grounds of insanity by wearing a set of underpants on his head, stuffing pencils up his nose, and saying the word "wubble" a lot. General Melchett arrives to see if Blackadder really has gone mad, and lets slip to George that not only does he know perfectly well that the wearing of underpants on one's head is a common way of feigning insanity, he has had people court-martialled and shot for that very offence. Fortunately, Blackadder overhears this and, clearly not wanting to rely on George's uncle bailing him out of another execution, quickly removes his disguise and claims that what he actually meant was that he was "mad with excitement" for the big push, which Melchett is all too happy to believe.

Waiting for the now-inevitable assault, Blackadder recounts his past military career, including how a unit including him and the man who would eventually become Field Marshall Haig massacred the peace-loving pygmies of Mboto Gorge and stole all their fruit. Baldrick performs a recital of his wartime poetry, while George recounts how he and his friends from the local tiddlywink group all signed up together at the start of the war, before realising that he is the last surviving member of said group. Baldrick then suggests a way out for Blackadder, namely calling Field Marshall Haig and asking to be reassigned elsewhere, which Blackadder realises could actually work given their past connection. George is still gung-ho about going over the top however, but Baldrick is much less keen, and angrily questions why they can't all just put their weapons down and go home; George struggles for an answer, before telling him to get back to polishing boots.

Meanwhile, General Melchett wakes up Captain Darling in the middle of the night and rewards him for his faithful service with a commission for the front line. Melchett explains to the horrified Darling that it would be wrong to keep him out of such a historic victory. He is completely oblivious to all of Darling's attempts to explain that he wants to stay where he is. Eventually, Darling is taken away to the front line.

As the sun rises, Blackadder calls Haig and explains his predicament. Haig agrees to help Blackadder out, under the threat of having him shot if he ever contacts him again for any reason. Unfortunately, Haig's solution is to advise Blackadder to wear underpants on his head, stuff pencils up his nostrils and pretend to be mad, before slamming down the phone. Moments later, Darling arrives, and both men despondently realise that any hope of getting out of their predicament has evaporated.

The platoon line up in the trench, getting ready to go over the top, when all of a sudden the sound of shells and gunfire ceases. Baldrick, George and Darling briefly think that peace has broken out, but Blackadder points out that the gunfire has stopped simply so that their own men won't get killed by it. Baldrick suggests one last cunning plan, but there is no time to hear it out. Blackadder's only comment is that whatever Baldrick's plan was, it had to be better than his own plan to feign insanity. Who would have noticed another madman in this war?

The final order to advance comes, and the four charge across No Man's Land to their presumed deaths. After a few moments of silence, the hellish landscape of No Man's Land dissolves into its modern-day form: a field full of poppies.

Includes examples of:

• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: After learning that he's been reassigned to the front for the "Big Push" Darling desperately begs Melchett to reconsider and let him stay. If you've read this far into the recap you'll know that it doesn't work.
• Alas, Poor Villain: Captain Darling, supercilious little toad that he has been, suddenly becomes very human and likable, mere minutes before he dies.
  Blackadder: How are you feeling, Darling?
  Darling: Ahm... not all that good, Blackadder. Rather hoped I'd get through the whole show. Go back to work at Pratt and Sons, keep wicket for the Croydon Gentlemen, marry Doris... Made a note in my diary on the way here. Simply says: "Bugger."
• The Apocalypse Brings Out the Best in People: In the final scene, Baldrick says he has a plan. Instead of mocking and berating him as usual, Blackadder ruefully remarks that Baldrick's plan, whatever it is, is probably better than what he came up with.
• Armchair Military:
  • It's clearly been a while since Haig was last out in the field. His sole appearance in the series sees him standing over a battlefield map and carelessly tossing the soldier figures over his shoulder after they "die".
  • The same is true for General Melchett, if he ever was on the sharp end. He sees the whole advance as a jolly game, compared to playing sports at school.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Baldrick's angry and sincere question: "Why can't we just stop, sir? Why can't we just say, 'No more killing! Let's all go home'? Why would it be stupid just to pack it in, sir? Why?!" Neither Blackadder nor George have a response.
• Artistic License – Military: Deliberately used for Rule of Drama. The British artillery cease fire before the infantry are ordered to charge. In real life, the guns would still have been firing since the "Creeping Barrage" was standard practice - the artillery gradually extended the aiming point at roughly the same speed as the advancing infantry. The alteration adds to the impact of the scene because it sounds like the war's just ended... and then Darling's Wham Line "The Great War, 1914 to 1917" hits you, and you know what's just happened.
• Beat: A very prominent one occurs when George tries to reminisce over the "good laughs" they shared over the years. After a few moments of silence, Blackadder says he can't think of any either.
• Bolivian Army Ending: The episode ends with Captain Blackadder and the rest of the characters about to make the "final push" on the Germans, although the audience knows full well that the war still has a year left to run. The series ends with shellfire and a fade to a field of poppies, and an implication that they all died. However, some versions released on video show the characters dying bravely but uselessly, making a comment on the obsolescence of individual heroism in a new age of industrialized warfare. Many viewers found it one of the most touching endings to a comedy program ever written. It was first aired in the UK ten days before Remembrance Sunday, without a single complaint.^note Technically speaking. One woman wrote to the Radio Times not because she thought it was in bad taste, but rather because she thought it was too realistic and depressing.
• Continuity Nod: Another Mrs. Miggins is mentioned in conversation, and Baldrick joined as part of the "Turnip Street Pals".
• Deadpan Snarker: Lt. George, of all people, when they're about to go over the top.
  Blackadder: Prepare your stick, Lieutenant.
  George: Right-o, Sir. Wouldn't want to face a machine gun without this!
• Department of Redundancy Department: Baldrick's poem, The German Guns, which goes thusly:
  "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM"
  "BOOM BOOM BOOM"
  "BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM"
  "BOOM BOOM BOOM"
• Disproportionate Retribution: Melchett mentions that he executed an entire platoon of soldiers for trying the exact same tactic at Obfuscating Insanity Blackadder is using right now, which leads to Blackadder pretending that he is not acting crazy, he is just pointing out what those other blokes did. Thankfully, Melchett buys it.
• Downer Ending: The first and second series had most or all of the main cast being killed off, but in Black Comedy form, but this one turns the sadness factor up to eleven thanks to the fact that so many millions died equally senseless deaths in the real World War I.
• Dumbass Has a Point: Granted, it is presented in a very simplistic manner, but no-one has any answer to Baldrick's angry questions as to why this war has to continue.
• Face Death with Dignity: Once it's clear he has no more escapes, Edmund goes out with a degree of professionalism.
• Foreshadowing: When discussing the Christmas Truce, Blackadder quipped, "Both sides advanced more during one Christmas piss-up than they managed in the next two-and-a-half years of war." Two and a half years from December 1914 is still 1917 by the time Darling tells his Wham Line below when the guns briefly fall silent.
• General Ripper: Field-Marshal Haig is portrayed as one in a much darker manner. He's played by Geoffery Palmer with no bombast, nor even Melchett's enthusiastic delusion. Instead, he quite calmly sweeps up rows and rows of toy soldiers with a dustpan and chucks them over his shoulder as he plans out the battle in which the show's protagonists are about to take part.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: The show goes very much for the "lion led by donkeys" portrayal of Douglas Haig, depicting him as a man utterly indifferent to the deaths of his soldiers. While Haig did indeed preside over several very costly offensives, he did so in an attempt to relieve the German pressure on his French allies. Most people who worked with Haig described him as an empathetic man who failed to grasp the realities of modern warfare, and he was by no means the only senior officer of his generation to exhibit such a fault. After the war, he devoted the rest of his life to helping veterans.
• Holiday Ceasefire: Edmund, George and Baldrick recall taking part in the 1914 Christmas Truce and playing football with the Germans. Edmund is still annoyed about being penalized because he insists he wasn't offside.
• Home by Christmas: Melchett and George keep saying "see you in Berlin for coffee and cakes!" Eventually, Blackadder lampshades this by snarking "I hope their cafes are well-stocked. Everyone seems determined to eat out the moment they arrive."
• Hope Spot: The episode features one of these after another being demolished; firstly Blackadder's insanity gambit, then his plan to call Haig, and finally the brief silence before the unit goes over the top.
• Hurricane of Euphemisms: George when recounting the fates of his fellow Cambridge Tiddlywinkers of 1914:
  George: Well, er, Jacko and the Badger bought it^note died at the first Ypres front, unfortunately. Quite a shock, that. I remember Bumfluff's housemaster wrote and told me that Sticky had been out for a duck^note in cricket, being out for a duck means a batsman is out without having scored any runs, so Sticky was likely killed not long after being sent to the front line for the first time, and the Gubber had snitched a parcel sausage-end and gone goose-over-stump frogside^note hit by a German artillery shell and killed in action in France.
  Blackadder: Meaning?
  George: I don't know, sir, but I read in The Times that they'd both been killed.
• Internal Deconstruction: The series has largely been a grimly hilarious satire on the madness of war. However, the episode slowly begins to show the severe consequences of that madness: the characters who we've come to love and laugh at are being sent to a grisly end, the people in charge don't give a damn, and as the reality of the situation dawns on them, they quickly go from quirky to despondent. Even Blackadder can't mock or belittle his fellow soldiers, offers them a solemn farewell, and all the characters are killed after leaving the trenches, and going over the top.
• I Owe You My Life: Blackadder saved Haig from a pygmy who was wielding a deadly mango fruit at the battle of Mboto Gorge. Years later, Blackadder tries to call in the favour. Unfortunately for him, Haig just tells him to try the Obfuscating Insanity tactic that he'd already tried and failed with earlier.
• Irony: If Baldrick's plan was to get all four of them intentionally injured on the nail sticking out of one of the ladders to avoid going over the top, it probably would've worked. But the one time Baldrick has a good plan, Blackadder won't listen.
• Karma Houdini: Field Marshal Haig and Melchett are the only named characters still alive at the end of the episode, and at the very least Haig will live out the entire war, and probably Melchett as well. The historical Douglas Haig died in 1928, from a heart attack. He was 66-years-old at the time of death.
• Killed Offscreen: We don't actually see anyone getting killed on-screen, but the creators have confirmed that, yes, Blackadder, Baldrick, George and Darling were all cut down by machine guns within a matter of seconds. The episode's original ending actually did show the latter three dying and Blackadder surviving by playing dead, but the footage looked so awful that a new ending was hastily thrown together in editing.
• Lonely Piano Piece: The charge over the top is accompanied by a slow rendition of the show's theme song on a piano.
• Mirror Character: A downplayed version. We learn over the course of the episode that both George and Baldrick signed up with their friends, and are now the only surviving members of said groups. For all their differences in social class, hygiene and (to an extent) intelligence, their experiences haven't been that dissimilar.
• Mirroring Factions: On a geopolitical scale. When trying to recount the reasons for the war, George says it was to stand up to the Germans and their "villainous empire-building." Blackadder reminds him that the British Empire currently spans a quarter of the world, while the German Empire only consists of "a small sausage factory in Tanganyika."
• Mutually Assured Destruction: Discussed. Blackadder describes the causes of World War I in essentially these terms, several decades before the term "MAD" was actually coined.
  Blackadder: You see, Baldrick, in order to prevent war in Europe, two super-blocs developed: us, the French, and the Russians on one side, and the Germans and Austro-Hungary on the other. The idea was to have two vast opposing armies, each acting as the other's deterrent. That way, there could never be a war.
  Baldrick: But, this is a sort of a war, isn't it?
  Blackadder: Yes, that's right. You see, there was a tiny flaw in the plan.
  George: What was that, sir?
  Blackadder: It was bollocks.
• Nobody's That Dumb: For all his delusions and incompetence, Melchett isn’t going to fall for the insanity trick. This becomes Played for Drama, since it has fatal consequences for Blackadder.
• Noodle Incident: Melchett casually references having to execute an entire platoon in the Sudan for trying the "Underpants on the head, pencils up he nose" method of feigning insanity. Then there's Mboto Gorge, a colonial battle fought against the peace-loving pygmies of the Upper Volta, during which Blackadder saved General Haig's life when the latter was attacked by a native armed with a sharp mango.
• Obfuscating Insanity: Blackadder tries to pretend he's crazy so he doesn't have to go over the top. By wearing his underpants on his head and sticking a pencil up each nostril. Unfortunately for him, Melchett is not only wise to such a ruse, he's had soldiers shot for doing it in the past. Luckily, Blackadder overhears Melchett talking about this and is able to quickly drop the insanity act.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: For the entirety of the series, Blackadder rarely said anything that wasn't a sarcastic remark or an insult. Before heading into No Man's Land, he wishes his comrades a sincere "Good luck, everyone". Not even he can dismiss the horrors they're about to face.
• Pet the Dog: When Darling arrives in the trench towards the end of the episode you'd expect Blackadder to mock him for his misfortune. Instead Edmund treats him with relative kindness, even addressing him by his title instead of just "Darling", and goes along with the fiction that Darling volunteered for the mission despite the fact that he's clearly there under duress and is visibly terrified.
  • Earlier, Melchett visits Darling late at night, and he's still at the front desk, admitting that despite not going over the top himself (he thinks) he's still very anxious about what will happen to their men. Melchett for his part says he considers Darling a son and is transferring him to the front as a favour to him, despite not being what he actually wants.
• Precision F-Strike:
  • "Yes, that's right. You see, there was a tiny flaw in the plan. ... It was bollocks."
  • A combination of this trope with and Gosh Darn It to Heck! and Narrative Profanity Filter. After Haig unwittingly dashes Blackadder's attempt to get out of the trenches before the push, Blackadder says that the words he wants to say rhyme with "clucking bell."
  • Another comes from Darling: "I wrote a final entry in my diary on the way here. It just says 'Bugger'."
• Screw the War, We're Partying: Reference is made to the Christmas truce of 1914, during which Blackadder played in the football match.
  Blackadder: Both sides advanced further during one Christmas piss-up then they managed in the next two and half years of war!
  Baldrick: Do you remember the football match?
  Blackadder: Remember it? How could I forget it?! I was never offside! I could not believe that decision!
• Sole Survivor: George and Baldrick are revealed to be the only surviving members of the groups they signed up with.
• Special Guest: Geoffrey Palmer as Field Marshal Haig. He's even named in the opening credits, the only instance of such on the show.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: Three different people (in order, a platoon of British soldiers, Blackadder, and Haig) think of pretending Obfuscating Insanity by putting their underpants on their heads, pencils up their nose, and acting like gorillas. Unfortunately for Blackadder, when Melchett caught the platoon doing it, he got them all summarily executed for cowardice and makes clear he will do it to anybody else he catches doing that, screwing Blackadder over.
• Sudden Downer Ending: The main characters are finally forced to go over the top and charge machine gun nests. Rather than being saved by a hilarious cop-out Deus ex Machina or a surprising show of skill, the characters are all killed in seconds.
• Too Dumb to Live: For once, George's display of this trope is tragic rather than funny, as he is so confident that the "big push" will be a success that he actually turns down General Melchett's offer to go back to HQ and listen in to the reports, which directly leads to his death.
• War Is Hell: Yes, entirely.
• Wham Episode: The episode begins with orders coming that the crew are going to make a push across No Man's Land, and the tone of the episode gets progressively darker and gloomier as the characters begin to accept and realise the gravity of what awaits them. The final scene ends with a "good luck" from Blackadder as they climb out of the trench and it is strongly implied that they're all going to die in the big push. Their fate is confirmed by the script, whose stage directions conclude with the words "They won't get far." The final moments of the episode itself cements this as it shows the scene of conflict dissolve to reveal the same warzone many years later as a poppy field.
• Wham Line:
  • While they're discussing Darling's arrival in their trench. To this point in the episode, George has happily awaited the order to advance, going so far as to turn down an offer to leave with General Melchett before the battle.
    George: Well, this is splendid, comradely news! Together, we'll fight for king and country, and be sucking sausages in Berlin by teatime.
    Edmund: Yes, I hope their cafes are well stocked; everyone seems determined to eat out the moment they arrive.
    George: No, really, this is brave, splendid and noble! [Pause] Sir?
    Edmund: Yes, Lieutenant?
    George: I'm ... scared, sir.
  • Just before they go over the top.
    Darling: I say, listen. our guns have stopped.
    George: You don't think...
    Baldrick: Perhaps... the war's over? Perhaps it's peace.
    George: Oh, hurrah! The big knobs have gone round the table and yanked the iron out of the fire!
    Darling: Thank God. We lived through it. The Great War, 1914 to 1917.
• You Owe Me: Blackadder tries calling in a favour from Field Marshal Haig to get reassigned, as he'd saved Haig from a pygmy woman with a sharpened mango.

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