Plot: Private Jost Van Liter, a naturalized American citizen, showed his gratitude to his new country by joining the Marines. In spite of two (soon to be three) purple hearts and two Bronze Stars, his commander still thinks him a sissy because he wants to see his mother once before she's deported from the States. Hawkeye tries to drum up public support on Van Liter's behalf, in spite of the Marines' outrage.
Plot B: Charles in Charge, early version. Charles makes the 4077th his own little kingdom.
Hawkeye wants Klinger to call up Van Liter's commanding officer. How does Klinger know who to call? Pierce didn't mention Van Liter. So how does Klinger know to call Colonel Mulholland? Was his the only company of wounded in Post Op?
Charles sure folds pretty easily. Hawkeye twice makes demands from Charles and the Major gives in to them quite readily.
Okay, fine, Mulholland thinks Van Liter is being a sissy. But that really doesn't explain his animosity does it?
I think its very funny that at the end, the high-and-mighty Charles is assigned to do the clerk duties, but why does potter do it? Is he really mad at charles because he overheard what charles said about him, or does he want to teach ch. a lesson about using the army clerk for private doings? Earlier on, hawk attacked ch. about the same issue, and ch. responded by saying that all the reports etc. were done, so klinger had free time (and was paid by ch., which is why he was doing it). Or did potter think that trading should only be done for important stuff, not luxury? Does someone know what the regulations would have been for charles' private use of an army clerk?
I think Potter's going to be a little more strict in what he sees as Klinger's duty. Moreover, he probably fely Charles was abusing his authority. Hawkeye might be mollified by being told that the work was finished, but Potter wouldn't be. Besides, the Colonel probably learned what all Charles requisitioned. None of which was G.I. Potter may also have been trying to teach Winchester a lesson.
Isn't it amazing how quickly those silk sheets and everything else arrived?
About Charles "folding easily", I don't think that's what was going on at all. I got the impresion that he wanted to help Van Liter as much as Hawkeye (well, maybe not THAT much), but was acting impartial to avoid soiling the illustriously aloof Winchester image.
It really wasn't a question of "folding". King Charles is being touchy about anyone trying to supercede his authority, but once Hawkeye explained what he wanted and why, Charles gave permission.
Why does Charles even have to have Klinger requisition silk linens anyway? Couldn't Winchester have gotten his parents or Honoria send him some from home? (Or even the Wagner records for that matter?)
Given how atrocious Klinger's spelling is, you have to wonder why Hawkeye doesn't type the Van Liter article himself. At any rate, you gotta hope Pierce proofread it before he let Max send it out to Stars and Stripes.
Is it my imagination, or is Klinger wearing an outfit he'd've worn back when he was bucking for a Section Eight when he leads the MPs into the Swamp? I thought he gave up wearing stuff like that.
That must've been an awful lot of water Klinger had in his mouth. Look at how little seems to have gotten on Colonel Potter just after Max spits it out. Then compare the water stain on the Colonel's uniform shortly after that. It got bigger.
"Beaver biscuits!"
Mulholland was a real jerk. They would have thrown me in the stockade if I was Hawk.
TBH I thought Potter's behaviour to Charles was pretty out of line, after all him and most of the rest of the cast used Kilinger and Radar before him for everything from disobaying orders to ordering ribs from the US. As far as he knows this is all Klinger's done for Charles and as said above he was doing it in his free time not whilst he was on duty. The later serieses of M*A*S*H were pretty bad about this sort of thing especially with potter.