Plot A: Klinger saves Charles from an exploding autoclave, breaking his nose in the process. Charles swears that he will do anything for Klinger, a promise that Klinger takes too much to heart.
Plot B: B.J.'s hand is injured during the explosion, but he brushes it off as nothing serious. Col. Potter quietly brings in a replacement surgeon who happens to be a neurosurgeon, which comes in handy when B.J.'s hand goes numb.
I've seen storylines like Klinger's before. It seems a standard plot. A rescues B, B is grateful and will do anything for A, A starts taking shameless advantage of B, until B blows up.
At one point, when Klinger has ordered his breakfast for the next morning, he mentions a "three minute egg." That implies a boiled egg. I think that it's rather difficult to boil powdered eggs, unless grateful Charles somehow managed to procure real ones for Klinger.
I will never understand doctors. Why on Earth was B.J. so touchy about having his arm examined? It was obviously bothering him all along. Wouldn't he, as a surgeon, be concerned?
That's just like a physician. Just like nurses are the worst patients. They don't need somebody else to look at them--they're FINE!! It's their job to look at other people, not the other way around.Plain old-fashioned stubborness.
Hawkeye sure enjoyed telling Captain Trager that he, Hawkeye Pierce, was Chief Surgeon at the 4077th. He let Trager know that he gave the orders at the 4077th. So, why didn't Hawkeye, the 4077th's Chief Surgeon, order B.J. to let his hand be examined? For that matter, why didn't Potter give the order?
Trager really was pompous wasn't he? It's a pity he and Charles didn't share many scenes together. It've been interesting to see how well those two would have related to each other.
At the episode's end, Charles says to Klinger, "Let me Spillane." Hawkeye and B.J. really have been a bad influence on him, haven't they?
What exactly was that thing that exploded?
An autoclave. It's essentially a fancy pressure cooker used to sterlize medical equipment.
I don't think Trager was anywhere near as obnoxious as Hawkeye was in that episode.
Probably not. But I did say Trager was "pompous". Not "obnoxious".
"Horse hockey!"
I see Father Mulcahy has a hook in the scrub room. Sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't.
There's a typing pool at the 4077th? Potter speaks of checking who's in it to act as a temporary company clerk. Was Klinger a part of the typing pool? Is that how he wound up with the company clerk job in the first place? It's hard to imagine that Klinger had any typing skills prior to being drafted.
This is the second time this season that Charles acts the company clerk. The first time was in "Tell It to the Marines".
Another "47": I, the Jury was written in 1947.
Did you know, Major Trager has a twin brother? Colonel Spiker in "Of Moose and Men". (Actor Tim O'Connor played both roles.)
They did a very good job fixing Klinger's nose. In all the episodes after this, you can't tell it was ever broken.
"Beaver biscuits!"
BTW, throughout the series, we're lead to believe that meatball surgery is somewhat a specialized skill. That's why I find it surprising, despite Trager's "Surgery is surgery" comment, that the Major, whom we're told this is first taste of combat surgery, does so well his first time in OR. Surely, he'd at least be doing things the long way, rather than taking the shortcuts Pierce, Hunnicutt, Winchester and Potter regularly do when operating in OR. Yet, there's no indication of this. We're lead to believe that Trager instinctively knows all the little shortcuts and is an instant expert at meatball surgery. I don't buy that.
"Beaver biscuits!"
Maybe he read up on the many articles that Pierce, Potter etc. published recently? I had more the impression that it wasn't a different skill level, but knowledge of what shortcuts to take - when Charles was new, he spent ages reconstructing the intestine, until Hawk explained the shortcut to him.
The surgeons at the 4077th didn't write that many articles. Probably two or three. Trager betrays no signs of having read any of them.
And again, from what I understand, meatball surgery is a bit of an acquired skill. It's not just knowing the shortcuts, it's learning when to stop operating. Most surgeons, from what I gather, will spend time fussing over the work they are doing. They're not used to the idea of simply patching up the wounded and letting someone else fine tune the patient. Trager would have to fight his instincts in OR. And from what I can tell, he's someone who would be inclined to fuss over everything to get it all just right.
"Beaver biscuits!"