The third episode of Apple TV+’s Masters of the Air, succinctly titled “Part Three,” covered one of World War II’s most ambitious bombing missions—the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission, which was carried out on August 17, 1943.
This massive mission, which included coordinating between several groups with some of the bombers flying all the way to Africa rather than returning to base in England, allowed Masters of the Air to deliver some truly spectacular aerial combat scenes, even more than it did in its first two episodes. The show also doesn’t shy away from the human drama that unfolds as soon as the American bombers engage with the German fighter planes and counter-air measures from the ground—which means that not all the crews that left the 100th Bomb Group’s airfield will make it back.
Of course, such an important mission requires that almost all the characters we have come to know during the show’s double-episode premiere are up in the sky in their B-17s. That includes Austin Butler’s Major Gale “Buck” Cleven, one of the de facto leaders of the 100th.
I’m sure some of you noticed a familiar face sitting in Butler’s co-pilot seat for the entirety of the mission—even though it’s true that since Masters of the Air characters spend a good chunk of their time on the screen inside airplanes, the actors portraying them have oxygen masks on their faces more often than not.
Still, that was very much one Freddy Carter playing Major Cleven’s co-pilot, Lieutenant David Friedkin. Fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse book series and of its canceled-too-soon Netflix adaptation Shadow and Bone might know him better as Kaz Brekker, Dirtyhands, Bastard of the Barrel, and one of the most feared criminals in all of Ketterdam—and one of the most beloved characters of the entire series.
A British actor, Freddy Carter’s previous work includes the Netflix drama show Free Rein, which ran for three seasons from 2017 to 2019 and also included two feature-length special episodes, Free Rein: The Twelve Nights of Christmas and Free Rein: Valentine’s Day. Carter also starred in the horror movie The Convent—which, as the movie suggests, is set in a 17th-century convent—as well as the period thriller The Doll Factory, set during the time of the Great Exhibition in London and based on the novel of the same name by British writer Elizabeth Macneal.
(featured image: Netflix)
