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The Best Episodes of China Beach

Every episode of China Beach ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of China Beach!

The Best Episodes of China Beach

Dateline: November 1967. Within klicks of Danang, Vietnam, sits a U.S. Army base, bar and hospital on China Beach filled with wounded soldiers and one...

Seasons4

  1. Background image for Vets
    8.6/10(48 votes)

    #1 - Vets

    S2:E12

    The accounts of life in Vietnam by real vets are intercut with scenes from old episodes showing how closely the show has mirrored reality.

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  2. Background image for The World (1)
    8.6/10(45 votes)

    #2 - The World (1)

    S2:E16

    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.

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  3. Background image for The World (2)
    8.6/10(46 votes)

    #3 - The World (2)

    S2:E17

    McMurphy reassesses her life as she tries to decide whether or not to return to Vietnam following her father's death.

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  4. Background image for Twilight
    8.3/10(42 votes)

    #4 - Twilight

    S2:E13

    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.

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  5. Background image for Women in White
    8.2/10(44 votes)

    #5 - Women in White

    S2:E5

    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

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  6. Background image for Tet '68
    8.2/10(47 votes)

    #6 - Tet '68

    S2:E7

    Wayloo Marie tries to keep reporting, McMurphy and KC are trapped in an officer's restroom, Beckett is held prisoner by Mai's brother and Dr. Richard and the wounded Dodger prepare to defend the hospital during the fierce fighting of the 1968 Tet offensive. Cherry comforts another Red Cross volunteer at a firebase.

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    Director:Steve Dubin
    Writer:John Wells
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    The 20 WORST Episodes of China Beach

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  8. Background image for Waiting for Beckett
    8.1/10(51 votes)

    #7 - Waiting for Beckett

    S1:E6

    Cherry is taken in by a deserter who claims to know her brother, and who is pursued by a determined office from the CID. Laurette and Boonie try to help a stressed out Beckett get some sleep.

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    Director:Kevin Hooks
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for Lost and Found (2)
    8.1/10(45 votes)

    #8 - Lost and Found (2)

    S2:E2

    Wayloo Marie becomes a casualty as she shoots her assignment. Frankie Bunsen arrives for temporary duty. McMurphy finds a badly injured Dodger.

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  10. Background image for X-Mas Chnbch VN '67
    8.1/10(45 votes)

    #9 - X-Mas Chnbch VN '67

    S2:E4

    Christmas '67 brings a steady supply of casualties and a crazed Santa to China Beach.

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    Director:Mimi Leder
    Writer:John Wells
  11. Background image for Cherry
    8.1/10(44 votes)

    #10 - Cherry

    S2:E8

    Wayloo Marie becomes intimidated by the war as its reality sinks in following Cherry's death. McMurphy tries to fight the bureaucracy to keep Dodger from going to Japan for more medical help. KC fights her heroin habit as she tries to locate Cherry's brother and prepares to accompany her body home to Iowa for burial.

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    Director:Mimi Leder
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for Where the Boys Are
    8.1/10(41 votes)

    #11 - Where the Boys Are

    S2:E11

    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.

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  13. Background image for China Beach (1)
    8.0/10(62 votes)

    #12 - China Beach (1)

    S1:E1

    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.

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  14. Background image for Lost and Found (1)
    8.0/10(43 votes)

    #13 - Lost and Found (1)

    S2:E1

    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.

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  15. Background image for Somewhere Over the Radio
    7.9/10(43 votes)

    #14 - Somewhere Over the Radio

    S1:E5

    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.

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    Director:Rod Holcomb
  16. Background image for Home
    7.8/10(47 votes)

    #15 - Home

    S1:E3

    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.

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  17. Background image for Limbo
    7.8/10(41 votes)

    #16 - Limbo

    S2:E3

    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.

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    Director:Dan Lerner
  18. Background image for All About E.E.V.
    7.8/10(39 votes)

    #17 - All About E.E.V.

    S2:E6

    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.

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  19. Background image for Psywars
    7.8/10(39 votes)

    #18 - Psywars

    S2:E10

    An Army psychiatrist visits the Five and Dime and touches off McMurphy's inability to deal with Natch's death. Wayloo Marie learns something about Boonie's past service in Vietnam.

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    Director:Fred Gerber
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for After Burner
    7.8/10(40 votes)

    #19 - After Burner

    S2:E14

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
  21. Background image for Promised Land
    7.8/10(38 votes)

    #20 - Promised Land

    S2:E15

    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.

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  22. Background image for China Beach (2)
    7.7/10(52 votes)

    #21 - China Beach (2)

    S1:E2

    McMurphy decides that she can't leave China Beach even though she is eligible to go home. Cherry and Laurette arrive- Cherry to look for her brother whom her family lost contact with and Laurette as a USO back up singer who gets promoted to lead when the lead singer can't cope with the war.

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  23. Background image for Hot Spell
    7.6/10(44 votes)

    #22 - Hot Spell

    S1:E4

    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.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for Crossing the Great Water
    7.6/10(36 votes)

    #23 - Crossing the Great Water

    S2:E9

    Dr. Richard throws himself into helping a Vietnamese orphanage when his wife Beth Ann serves him with divorce papers. McMurphy tries to reconcile Dodger and herself to his uncertain future after his stay in Japan.

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    Director:Mimi Leder
  25. Background image for Brothers
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #24 - Brothers

    S1:E7

    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.

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  26. Background image for Chao Ong
    NaN/10(0 votes)

    #25 - Chao Ong

    S1:E8

    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.

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Best Episodes Summary

"Vets" is the best rated episode of "China Beach". It scored 8.6/10 based on 48 votes. Directed by John Sacret Young and written by John Wells, John Sacret Young, it aired on 3/15/1989. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "The World (1)".