Episode spoilers.
John Basilone travels through America selling war bonds with actress Virginia Grey, while Eugene Sledge arrives at Pavuvu as a replacement. Sledge meets R.V. Burgin, Snafu Shelton and the other veterans of his mortar squad. Their jokes and rough treatment give him a colder welcome than he expected. Captain Haldane and Lieutenant Jones provide the leadership of his new company, but Sledge is still trying to find his place among men who already know combat.
His reunion with Sidney Phillips is brief. Phillips has a chance to go home and is eager to take it, leaving Sledge with a pistol before his departure. Looking for books, Sledge visits Robert Leckie. Their conversation turns to faith, and Leckie's disbelief clashes with the younger Marine's convictions. Sledge has finally reached the war he wanted to join, only to find that the men who have been fighting it have little enthusiasm for his expectations.
The landing on Peleliu removes any distance between those conversations and combat. Japanese fire strikes the landing vehicles and beaches as Sledge struggles ashore. Leckie's men arrive elsewhere along the coast, and a Japanese tank threatens the advance before an American tank destroys it. Once the immediate fighting eases, Sledge watches Snafu remove gold teeth from a corpse. That night he and Oswalt stand guard, frightened by what they have already seen and by the airfield fighting that still lies ahead.