private baldrick never got to tell the audience his final "cunning plan" to escape the trenches, as he is sent "over the top" before he can reveal it to blackadder, george and captain darling, though it possibly involved a splinter on the ladder. however, baldrick stated that blackadder was correct in the final plan being "as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed professor of cunning at oxford university". blackadder admits that "whatever it was, it was better than my idea of pretending to be mad. who'd ever notice another mad man round here?" the episode's ending implies that baldrick is killed in that attack.