“I wanted to be a soldier, but I wanted to be a World War II soldier.” “He served the United States with honor and distinction.” “In the old days, deserters were shot, right?”   Alas, in this fascinating last episode of the investigative podcast Serial 2, Sarah Koenig and her team try to answer the big outstanding of the Bowe Bergdahl case: Did anybody die while looking for Bowe Bergdahl after he left the OP Mest? Looking back at my response to Episode 1: DUSTWUN, my opinion on Bergdahl has completely transformed since then. During the first couple episodes of Serial 2, I was confused about how I felt about…

“He’s Not a Hero”             The Bowe Bergdahl case has proven itself to be representative of many bigger issues, not only referring to the war in Afghanistan, but shows the difficulties and trauma when faced in wartime and how stressful situations may lead to not so thought through and rash decisions. In this illuminating, thought-provoking episode of Serial 2, Sarah Koenig and her team investigate the highly-politicized aspects of the Bowe Bergdahl’s case. Upon listening to this episode, it is clear to me that the Bergdahl case caught the public by storm by the strategic, predominate political strategies done by the White House with the Rose Garden spectacle, Susan Rice’s…

“Wait, what was all of this about? Did they really just give up five leaders of the Taliban for one American soldier?” In this enlightening episode of Serial 2, Sarah Koenig and her team investigate the circumstances of the trade deal that was made by the United States and the Taliban to safely return Bowe Bergdahl back home. In the episode, Koenig describes the meetings that U.S. personnel had with the Taliban to negotiate terms of agreement for the return of the U.S. soldier. It was interesting to see a nation like the United States negotiating with a sub-national group that many Americans hold a negative image of. The Taliban’s…

I wanted to be a soldier, but I wanted to be a soldier back then. In this interesting, dual part episode of Serial 2, Sarah Koeing and her team delve into Bowe Bergdahl’s past, in terms of his childhood and his peculiar personality, and his past as a member of the Coast Guard before joining the military. It was fascinating to see the foreground in which Bergdahl’s mindset was molded, and quotes from close friends of his that articulate his quiet, yet reflective behavior, which may have affected his code of ethics in the long run. When regarding the information about Bowe’s history of mental illness and considering his stringent…

First plan was go from point A to point B. That was it.             In this thrilling episode of Serial 2, Sarah Koenig and her team investigate the question that I have been eagerly waiting to be addressed about the Bergdahl case: Why did Bowe Bergdahl walk off? It was said in other episodes that Bergdahl was upset at the poor leadership in his platoon which triggered his decision to cause a DUSTWUN, but this episode illuminated that there was more to scratch the surface in terms of the lead-up to this action. In the Serial 2 podcast, the correspondents utilize a multitude of various sources to display their credibility…

In this thought-provoking, informative episode of Serial 2, Sarah Koeing and her team investigate what it is happening on the home front during Bergdahl’s capture. They detail the organizations and efforts of Bergdahl’s friends and family, to bring the U.S. soldier back. How do you manipulate an entire country to get an enlisted soldier home? You know? I mean, how do you do that? Based on the episode, it seems as the main actors on the U.S. side are not prominently big organizations like the FBI or CIA, like one would think, but more down the rungs of the ladder individuals. For example, when Koeing talks to Nathan, the intelligence…

In this exhilarating, enlightening episode of Serial 2, Sarah Koeing and her team dive into the intricacies of the Taliban and their relationship with different sides during the war. In the beginning of the episode, the story of U.S. journalist David Rhode is unraveled, as he was captured by the Taliban before Bergdahl. One thing that was interesting to pick up in this story was the difference of priority between Rohde’s and Bergdahl’s captures—the weight placed on a U.S. soldier versus an U.S. journalist. Compared to Bergdahl, Rohde was treated significantly better and had an Afghan translator with him that kept him in the loop of the workings in the…

“These guards are watching the only U.S. soldier who’s ever been taken prisoner in this war. Other groups might want to steal him from them.” In this fascinating, fast-paced episode of Serial 2, Sarah Koeing and her team detail the escape plots of Bowe Bergdahl from his capture by the Taliban. Bowe Bergdahl, the infamous American soldier supposed to have deserted his post from his military base in Afghanistan, illustrates his traumatizing, horrible capture by the Islamic Fundamentalist political group, the Taliban. The episode picks off from the realization from the American forces who were searching for Bergdahl incessantly, that he is actually deep into Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan. This…

The bizarre tale of Bowe Bergdahl continues in the second episode of Serial 2, The Golden Chicken, as Sarah Koeing dives into the complicated details of Bowe’s capture by the Taliban. “We were blessed.” The controversy behind Bergdahl’s capture are deviated into two sects: (1) Bergdahl walked into a Kuchi (nomad) tent and that is how the Taliban got a hold of him or (2) Bergdahl was kidnapped out in the open by guys on motorcycles. Countless rumors and descriptions of Bergdahl and his capture arose in Afghanistan, and I cannot help but find it interesting at the amount of time, resources, and energy invested into finding this man. “Even…