Plot: Father Mulcahy writes a letter to his sister the nun, describing his frustration at not being able to do more to help out. His depression is shared by many at the 4077th, as they face another Christmas season far from home.
At one point in this episode, Radar is on the phone with his mother, anxious because their cow is about to give birth and the vet has not arrived. When they find that the birth is breech, Radar grabs Charles and begs him to help. Charles then informs Mrs. O'Reilly that she must reach inside the cow and turn the calf around. When I first saw this, I could almost hear veterinarians around the country screeching in protest. Anyone who has ever read the James Herriot books knows that it is impossible to turn a calf around in the womb. According to Herriot, he had often heard farmers tell of "some other vet" who had done so, but it is nonsense. A breech birth has to be delivered breech. (Herriot, in fact, preferred them that way.)
I liked the ending of this episode, where they all toast Father Mulcahy.
One of the problems Mulcahy faced in this episode was an obnoxious patient (or should I say impatient?) who wanted to be treated NOW, by a doctor, not a nurse. Refusing to acknowledge that, at the moment, there was no doctor to be had, he shoved Margaret away, and then punched Mulcahy. Mulcahy punched him back, which, under the circumstances, was about all he could do to settle the twit. He was later overcome with guilt, and Hawkeye was teasing him about it. The twit, by the way, showed no remorse for what HE had done, and refused Mulcahy's apology. I wish someone had chewed him out, or at least bugged him about it. ("Hey, buddy, how many years in Purgatory do you think you'll get for punching a priest?")
I thought he totally deserved to get socked. First he shoves a woman, then he decks a priest! Talk about chutzpa. If I'd been Mulcahy, I'd have hit him too. Only difference would have been that I wouldn't have felt bad!
Yeah, you'd think Margaret, who was a witness to what happened would have chewed the soldier out. Or at least bring him up for disciplinary action.
One nit: the cow's name is Edna. Uh, isn't that also Radar's mother's name? People must've at him strangely, when Uncle Ed said, "It's time to milk Edna."
I'm watching this episode right now, and maybe I imagined this, but maybe not: Hawkeye, BJ, Potter, and Winchester had just come out of OR along with Father Mulcahy when Radar comes in wanting Mulcahy to come to the phone to bless the cow in labor. The next shot is Radar and Mulcahy walking into the clerk's office where a fully dressed Winchester is waiting, annoyed that Radar placed a call to his (Radar's) mother instead of Winchester's sister. But Winchester had just before been in his scrubs with the other surgeons. How did he get from there to the phone and change his clothes so rapidly?
I'd have to watch this ep again, Greg, but remember the Scrub Room is pretty close to the Clerk's Office. It's just a doorway or two away. I mean, they are all in the same building. Charles might have been able to change clothes fast enough to get there.
"Mule fritters!"
In the episode "Out of Gas", there's a scene in the changing room where Father Mulcahy is trying to gather together stuff to trade on the black market for the sodium penathol. In that scene, if you look above B.J. and read the name tags above the hooks for each officer's coats, you'll see there was one for Father Mulcahy. In this ep, that tag is gone. Did the Padre do something to have his hook taken away? <:-0
I'm watching this episode right now, and maybe I imagined this, but maybe not: Hawkeye, BJ, Potter, and Winchester had just come out of OR along with Father Mulcahy when Radar comes in wanting Mulcahy to come to the phone to bless the cow in labor. The next shot is Radar and Mulcahy walking into the clerk's office where a fully dressed Winchester is waiting, annoyed that Radar placed a call to his (Radar's) mother instead of Winchester's sister. But Winchester had just before been in his scrubs with the other surgeons. How did he get from there to the phone and change his clothes so rapidly? - Greg Odorizzi
First of all, as Charles is leaving the change room, he's carrying his coat. I'm not sure where his hat and scarf are. But when he leaves, he's clearly heading for the Company Clerk's Office. It's the same direction Radar and the Padre go. So all Winchester had to do while the Corporal tells Mulcahy about the cow is put his hat, scarf and coat on and wait in Radar's office.
I believe the scene where Father Mulcahy is tending bar at the Officers Club running back and forth trying to listen to Klinger's and Margaret's sob stories is cut for syndication. It certainly doesn't look familiar to me.
Mulcahy's complaint that he doesn't make a difference at the 4077th seems a bit unfounded when you consider that it was he who performed the tracheotomy with a Tom Mix knife, stole penicillan from the black market, traded with the black market for sodium penathol, the care he's shown the local orphans, acting as a replacment counterbalance for Toby Hill's chopper, etc. It's strange that Hawkeye, nor anyone else for that matter, reminded the Padre of these things he's done that made a crucial difference.
This is the second Christmas episode of the series so far.
This episode also establishes that Father Mulcahy's full name is John Francis Patrick Mulcahy. But as D.K. Henderson has pointed out elsewhere, that changes from time to time.
You know, the Mess Tent sure appears to be a lot warmer in this ep than it did in "Baby It's Cold Outside".
"All that good whiskey shot to hell."
Has anyone noticed that when Mulcahy is talking to Hawkeye, he walks to the window directly behind the soldier he hit? At that point, the Padre says, "And when I step in, I really step in", referring to the punch he threw at the soldier.
"All that good whiskey shot to hell."