The WORST episodes of China Beach
Every episode of China Beach ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of China Beach!
The trials of a weary nurse, her friends and colleagues in a Vietnam War field hospital.
#1 - Vets
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 3/15/1989
The accounts of life in Vietnam by real vets are intercut with scenes from old episodes showing how closely the show has mirrored reality.
#2 - All About E.E.V.
Season 2 - Episode 6 - Aired 1/11/1989
A dashing lieutenant colonel parachutes into China Beach for some R&R and disrupts the lives of Lila, KC and Wayloo Marie. Dr. Richard and McMurphy play a game of sexual brinksmanship. Frankie falls for a GI who thinks he's Chuck Berry.
#3 - Phoenix
Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/21/1990
K.C. finds herself in the middle of a C.I.A. assassination plot, and dependent on McMurphy to vouch for her innocence.
#4 - Somewhere Over the Radio
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 5/11/1988
Lila, Cherry and Laurette find themselves pinned down with a combat squad whose leader is not dealing with reality. Back at China Beach, KC and a frightened Boonie prepare to mount a rescue mission. Dr. Richard is injured just before he's scheduled to leave for R&R in Hawaii with Beth Ann.
#5 - Chao Ong
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 6/8/1988
Despite distractions, McMurphy and Natch finally get together. Laurette gets a chance to join another, bigger USO tour. McMurphy gets blamed for a body that disappears on her shift.
#6 - Escape
Season 4 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/27/1990
While attending his father's funeral in 1985, Beckett reflects on his childhood and his tour of duty in Vietnam with the Graves Registration Unit.
#7 - She Sells More than Sea Shells
Season 4 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/6/1990
Still in 1985, Karen learns how her natural mother, KC, coped with her pregnancy by turning to Boonie for help.
#8 - The Big Bang
Season 4 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/29/1990
In 1985, a reunion between Boonie and Dr. Richard stirs up memories of their first meeting in Vietnam in 1966. It also brings up questions for Boonie's 18-year-old adopted daughter, Karen.
#9 - Magic
Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/3/1990
McMurphy finds herself caught up in a triangle affair with Dr. Bernard and Vinnie; Holly tells Boonie how she feels about him; and Lila copes with the disappointment of losing command of China Beach to Otis.
#10 - Women in White
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 1/4/1989
McMurphy fights jealousy, envy and fear when a confident woman doctor comes in from the States and takes over Dr. Richard and Dodger's case. Wayloo Marie tries to win a position as a armed forces tv reporter with a report on the war from a woman's point of view. Frankie debuts as a disk jockey
#11 - China Beach (1)
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 4/26/1988
It's November 1967 and nurse Colleen McMurphy faces the last week of her tour of duty in Vietnam, dealing as usual with the dying boys, primitive conditions, and the sexual pressure from pilot Natch Austin. USO singers Georgia Lee and Laurette Barber arrive to entertain the troops in the base's new R&R center. Brand new Red Cross volunteer Cherry White also arrives, determined to find her brother, a marine no one can locate.
#12 - Hot Spell
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 5/4/1988
KC agrees to ask about Cherry's brother as she sets up a deal to buy an antique vase. Laurette prepares to perform for visiting brass. Lila, KC, Laurette, McMurphy and Cherry share confidences as they wait out a mortar attack together.
#13 - Skylark
Season 3 - Episode 18 - Aired 3/14/1990
A pair of ballroom dancers bring a note of grace and harmony to the uneasy relationship between McMurphy and Dr. Richard while completing a mysterious mission of their own.
#14 - Who's Happy Now?
Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/11/1989
Dr. Richard worries over a craniotomy that has permanently altered a patient's mental capacity; Lila faces an inspection that will determine if she gets a key promotion; Sarge Pepper asks for some advice about courting Lila and K.C. finds herself in a very awkward position when a senior officer goes AWOL on her permanently.
#15 - Promised Land
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 4/12/1989
Beckett faces going home when his tour ends in April 1968, as the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr polarizes black-white relations in the nation and at China Beach.
#16 - Brothers
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 6/1/1988
Laurette faces an important audition with laryngitis. Beckett battles the pressure of racial prejudice and financial coercion when he discovers someone has been using the body bags in his GRU. Dr. Richard returns from R&R in Hawaii disillusioned by the perceived changes in his wife. Dodger finally finds Rick, Cherry's long-lost brother.
#17 - Lost and Found, Part I
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 11/30/1988
Lila takes over command of China Beach and orders KC off the base. McMurphy finally lets herself admit how much she cares for Natch when she receives some disturbing news about him. Wayloo Marie Holmes, former Saigon weather girl, arrives at China Beach to handle her first journalism assignment, extolling the recreational facilities at the base.
#18 - Strange Brew
Season 3 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/30/1990
With everyone else away for a distant USO show, K.C. and McMurphy indulge in an alcoholic binge that takes them to a dreamy landscape where a Native American guide tries to help them heal past and present wounds.
#19 - X-Mas Chn. Bch. VN, '67
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 12/21/1988
Christmas '67 brings a steady supply of casualties and a crazed Santa to China Beach.
#20 - Home
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 4/27/1988
Laurette auditions local entertainers to fill in the act and McMurphy struggles to overcome her feelings when a Viet Cong woman who was responsible for blowing up a friend is brought into the hospital for treatment.
#21 - After Burner
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 4/5/1989
McMurphy goes through the emotional wringer when Natch Austen returns to China Beach after six months as an MIA. Lila cares for the ""pet"" of a wounded G.I. Boonie and KC have trouble with the on-the-make hustler who's now in command of the Jet Set.
#22 - Holly's Choice
Season 3 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/30/1990
Holly has had an abortion and as her friends at China Beach try to deal with it, the circumstances that led up to it are gradually revealed.
#23 - Where the Boys Are
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 3/8/1989
As McMurphy's enforced R&R continues with the help of an 18-year-old medic, Boonie tries to recreate a combination spring beach frolic and senior prom. KC warns Boonie that Wayloo Marie has learned part of his story. A chopper pilot shows Frankie that joys of flying.
#24 - One Small Step
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/1/1990
Suddenly back home and missing one leg, Boonie begins a slow and painful re-entry into civilian life with the comfort of a loving nurse.
#25 - The Gift
Season 3 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/23/1990
McMurphy finds herself under suspicion when a wounded G.I. she doesn't remember names her as his beneficiary. Lila has mixed feelings about an old friend who now outranks her and has arrived at China Beach to do a recruiting film about Army nurses.