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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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