CHINA BEACH: NIGHTFALL (TV)
Summary
One in this drama series set during the Vietnam War, which focuses on the women stationed at China Beach, a combined U.S. Armed Forces hospital and USO recreational facility located near the South China Sea. In this episode, a woman washes up on shore and Colleen's attempts to revive her are unsuccessful. She takes her body to Beckett, who notes that she is a civilian and was not killed in combat, and he tends to the corpse as elsewhere, K.C. spends the evening with a john. Colleen finds K.C. and asks if she can identify the woman, pointing out that she was wearing a pair of K.C.'s earrings, though K.C. seems reluctant to help. When she views the body, she notes that someone carved "diem," or "whore," into her flesh, and though she maintains that she does not know her, it is revealed that the woman, Nhung, was working for K.C. and borrowed her clothes and shoes before she was killed. K.C. talks to Otis, who says that the "extremely unfortunate accident" is being "handled," though K.C. states that Nhung attended an officers' party that night and was clearly murdered by someone there. Otis tells her that he does not intend to inquire further, as no one is likely to confess, and an angry K.C. vows to investigate the matter on her own.
When Colleen presses her, K.C. admits that Nhung was indeed working for her, and then questions Sarge, who drove Nhung to the party in question. He tells her that the officers later drove themselves and sent him away, admitting that he left Nhung behind for a mere fifty dollars and was more concerned about potential damage to his Jeep. K.C. next appeals to Lila, telling her that Otis is refusing to investigate, though Lila declines to get involved. Nhung's teenage daughter Lien then visits K.C., guessing that her mother has taken up with a "big-heart G.I.," and K.C. struggles to tell her the truth as Lien asks if she too can work for her. Acting off of Lien's information, K.C. visits the local Madame Lai, who seems unconcerned that Nhung is dead and refuses to give her the officers' names, and K.C. is angry at her lack of interest in her girls' safety. Lila then talks to K.C. again and recalls being the "token woman" at the officers' parties in the early days of her career, finally turning over the names of the men at the party when Nhung was killed.
K.C. confronts Otis again and threatens to go over his head with the names, and he urges her to drop the matter, pointing out that people are dying every day in the war. She argues that he is placing less value on Nhung's life because she was a prostitute, just as she herself is. When she returns to Madame Lai's, she spots a young woman being assaulted by a G.I. and is hurt when she intervenes. Colleen tends to her injury and calls her out on trying to regain "control" over her life after her bad childhood through prostitution, though K.C. dismisses her. Sarge then returns K.C.'s engraved lighter, a gift from Otis, explaining that Nhung lent it to him, and K.C. realizes that Otis was at the party and knows more than he has let on and possibly even killed her himself. He denies it, but she accuses him of being unable to control his own tastes and caring more about his own reputation than a woman's life, and he tells her that he is transferring back to Saigon. She then visits Lai again and pays her for Lien, with Lai mockingly calling her a "do-gooder" for removing the girl from a life of prostitution. She sends Lien away with a nun, assuring the girl that she "owns" herself. At a chapel, K.C. prays aloud and recalls her former job at a meatpacking plant, vividly describing the slaughter of the cattle and admitting that she has made herself numb to emotion, fearful that something could one day "pierce her heart." Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: January 10, 1990 10:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:47:52
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:51545
- GENRE: Drama, medical
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, medical; Vietnam War; African-American Collection - Drama
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1988-1991
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- John Sacret Young … Executive Producer, Created by
- Georgia Jeffries … Supervising Producer
- John Wells … Supervising Producer
- Geno Escarrega … Producer
- Fred Gerber … Producer
- Mimi Leder … Producer
- Christopher Leitch … Director
- William Broyles Jr. … Created by
- Lydia Woodward … Writer
- Paul Chihara … Music by
- John Rubenstein … Theme Music by
- Dana Delany … Cast, Colleen McMurphy
- Michael Boatman … Cast, Pvt. Samuel Beckett
- Nancy Giles … Cast, Pvt. Frankie Bunsen
- Jeff Kober … Cast, Sgt. Evan 'Dodger' Winslow
- Robert Picardo … Cast, Dr. Dick Richard
- Concetta Tomei … Cast, Maj. Lila Garreau
- Brian Wimmer … Cast, Cpl. Boonie Lanier
- Marg Helgenberger … Cast, K.C. Kolowski
- Dorian Harewood … Cast, Major Melvin P. Otis
- Troy Evans … Cast, Sarge Pepper
- Nobu McCarthy … Cast, Madame Lai
- Catherine Ai … Cast, Nhung
- Lily Pitton … Cast, Lien
- Michael Cannizzo … Cast, G.I.
- Wynn Hollingsworth … Cast, Colonel