The BEST episodes of China Beach
Every episode of China Beach ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of China Beach!
The trials of a weary nurse, her friends and colleagues in a Vietnam War field hospital.
#1 - Hello, Goodbye (1)
Season 4 - Episode 16 - Aired 7/22/1991
McMurphy agrees to attend a China Beach reunion planned by Boonie and recalls her last day in Vietnam, and travels to Washington DC with the others to visit the Vietnam Memorial. Karen comes to terms with the ghost of her absent mother, KC.
#2 - How to Stay Alive in Vietnam, Part I
Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/29/1989
Beckett and a civilian photographer temporarily join Dodger's patrol; McMurphy gets to know a wounded POW.
#4 - I Could Have Danced All Night... But Didn't
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 6/4/1991
McMurphy meets a sympathetic drummer at a 1983 wedding and recalls the 1969 wedding of Lila and Sarge Pepper, as well as the end of her relationship with Dr. Richard.
#5 - Dear China Beach
Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1989
Dodger is left with an Amerasian baby that is supposedly his son; McMurphy makes a poor patient when she comes down with dysentery; and Holly badgers everyone into answering the letters sent by seventh-graders from Colorado.
#6 - Juice
Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/10/1990
In 1972, Dr. Richard and his nurse take a romantic trip to Florida, where they run across a hard-livng McMurphy working at an orange-juice factory.
#7 - Warriors
Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/14/1990
McMurphy is in an emotional and ethical turmoil when she delivers Vinnie's buddy from death but he falls into a terminal coma; and Frankie finds herself in charge of a squad of grizzled grunts.
#8 - You, Babe
Season 4 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/13/1990
In Saigon in 1967, KC gives birth with McMurphy's help and gives the baby over to a foster mother.
#9 - 100 Klicks Out
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 6/11/1991
The imminent fall of Saigon reunites KC with her daughter as she struggles to get the little girl out of Vietnam and safely to America and a waiting Boonie. In the 1980s, a cynical McMurphy tries to prevent further child abuse in New Mexico.
#10 - Fever
Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/3/1990
In 1970, McMurphy returns home to Lawrence, Kansas to make peace with her mother and try to settle down into civilian life, but finds both goals beyond her grasp.
#11 - Twilight
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 3/22/1989
Wayloo Marie's digging results in a medal ceremony for Boonie and an unwelcome investigation into his lost jungle patrol. McMurphy sees Dodger again as he prepares to go back into action. Frankie befriends a captured deserter.
#12 - Limbo
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/14/1988
McMurphy continues her vigil by Dodger's bedside as he stays in a coma. KC agrees to get Boonie some black market penicillin for a native hospital in exchange for his help in building her a beauty salon on base.
#13 - The Unquiet Earth
Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/20/1989
McMurphy and K.C. are kidnapped by the Viet Cong and taken underground into a warren of tunnels, where their captors expect McMurphy to operate on their wounded leader.
#14 - The World, Part I
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 4/26/1989
Wayloo Marie prepares to return the world and a new job at BBC news. She's unexpectedly joined by McMurphy, who's returning to her unsettled family in Kansas following her father's heart attack.
#15 - A Rumor of Peace
Season 3 - Episode 15 - Aired 2/7/1990
China Beach reacts to the rumors of peace floated by Beckett and Frankie during their pirate radio broadcast.
#16 - Skin Deep
Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/27/1989
McMurphy uses a little guilt and a little blackmail to get a reluctant K.C. to visit a wounded soldier whose face has been badly disfigured. Holly, the new doughnut dolly, challenges the nurses on behalf of the Red Cross Volunteers to compete in a Miss China Beach beauty pageant. Frankie is assigned to the motor pool and runs into Sarge Pepper, who's not very eager to have her there.
#17 - Independence Day
Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/25/1989
China Beach celebrates a soggy Independence Day with Boonie and Holly trying to keep everyone's spirits up, McMurphy dealing with a love struck private as she tries to sort out her feelings for Dr. Bernard, Lila and the Sarge discussing the future and Beckett and K.C. quarreling over registering the dead to vote.
#18 - With a Little Help From My Friends
Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/15/1989
Holly is shaken when it appears that Hang is connected to the VC and has been using their friendship to gain information; Frankie is seriously injured by a booby trap; and McMurphy aids Dr. Bernard at a civilian clinic.
#19 - Through and Through
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 7/16/1991
In 1985, an increasingly angry Colleen torments herself and her husband until she discovers she's suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome and seeks help to deal with the memories of her final weeks in Vietnam.
#20 - The Always Goodbye
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 6/18/1991
The arrival in Bangkok in 1969 of a hard-drinking McMurphy and a young private disrupts KC's carefully developed new life and brings back unwanted memories.
#21 - The Call
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/8/1990
Frankie returns to Chicago in 1969 to try her hand at being a standup comic but runs into the tragically funny trial of the infamous Chicago Seven. Back in Vietnam, McMurphy tries to help Dodger convince some Montagnard tribes people to evacuate their homes.
#22 - One Giant Leap
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/17/1990
In 1969, China Beach watches from afar as the first men land on the moon. McMurphy simmers jealously as Dr. Richard falls for a new nurse. Beckett entertains a group of USO singers in his G.R.U. hut. A disturbed Boonie meets with a tragic accident.
#23 - F.N.G.
Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired 4/16/1990
In November 1966, fairly new guys Colleen McMurphy and Dr. Richard find themselves learning the ropes when they arrive at China Beach.
#24 - How to Stay Alive in Vietnam, Part II
Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/6/1989
The wounded Cambodian POW befriended by McMurphy is taken away by the South Vietnamese for interrogation as the photographer Cat pursues the story of his defection and a new commander arrives to take over the base, leaving Lila and K.C. unsure of their positions.
#25 - China Men
Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/22/1989
Dodger and Hyers square off after a battlefield incident; McMurphy spends an uncomfortable evening with Dr. Bernard's sophisticated civilian friends; and Boonie gets a surprise from the sexy Asian singer all the men in camp are longing for.