David Kenyon Webster

But it does open an interesting discussion.

Was acceptance and belonging in Easy Company earned through combat? As we see later in the series, when men like David Webster miss out on Bastogne, and despite having jumped into Normandy and been involved in Market Garden, he's ostracised having missed out on the dark days, and it takes a long time for him to be re-accepted into Easy Company.

Yeah, and I think, oh, the dogs, the dogs.

I think the the opening scene is deceptively important because almost nothing dangerous is happening yet socially there's quite a lot going on so you look at the confidence of the veterans they already understand the rhythms of this group they know who can be teased you can take a joke who's good at what and where everyone fits the darks game is entertainment but there's also a little social ritual you know the replacements are watching that from the outside there's that's the difficult thing about joining any established group but here the stakes are enormously higher because belonging is not merely about whether people like you These are people who may have to trust you when somebody is shooting at them.

And we see that with Randleman, don't we? The difference between Randleman and Cobb.

Exactly.

And that tension becomes important later in the series of Webster.

He jumped into Normandy... and was in market garden yet missing bastone later places him outside another shared experience and there's a real a real tension um at that episode and that tells us something quite uncomfortable about group identity the threshold for belonging can keep moving um you survive one ordeal and discover that another experience has now become the new qualification