Plot: Heavy casualties are coming in, creating problems because they are nearly out of sodium pentothal. They are forced to use ether and local anethetics, which slows everything down and creates additional problems. Father Mulcahy volunteers to deal with the black market to get some pentothal. He scrounges from everyone, including Charles, who reluctantly donates a case of wine, then insists on coming along to help negociate, which almost ruins everything.

This is the episode where Charles loses his nice warm polar suit.

Why did Mulcahey and winchester leave their jeep behind when they stole the black marketeers truck? Could'nt Mulcahey have driven the truck back to camp while Charles followed in the jeep? Or vice versa?

When Winchester was hanging out of the jeep shouting back at the black marketeers, I was certain for a second he would get a bullet in the arm or something. Now that might have been interesting, if only the episodes were longer.

Winchester is a major, so I assume he wasn't drafted in. Watching this episode made me wonder why on earth he joined the military - the vocation probably least suited to his upper-class sensibilities. Or was he lured by the possibility that he might get to order people around?

Funny, I've always assumed he was drafted. But I also think it was established, or at least strongly hinted at, that Frank Burns was drafted.

To be honest, Charles' surliness seems to indicate he's been thrown in at the deep end, but I find it odd someone (a draftee, no less) would be promoted so quickly.

As with Frank Burns, I've always have assumed that Charles had the connections to be promoted to the rank of major. I don't know if you've seen the eps where Frank Burns leaves, but what happens after his discharge, seems to indicate that he has some kind of connection. Charles has also indicate that he has such, too.

Charles started out with a cushy job in tokyo hospital, and if he hadn't angered his superior officer by winning money of him with cards, he wouldn't have seen a MASH at all.

I guess that charles volunteered, so he could pick and choose a cushy job, instead of being sent into danger like a draftee, and because if has any political ambition (the way he talks about his influential, power- and money-rich boston family), it probably would look good to certain people if charles had taken part in the war and proved his manliness or whatever.

Except Charles was never shown to have any political ambitions. The only ambition he had was to become Chief of Thoracic Surgery at Boston ....(the name of the hospital changed a couple of times in the series). The bottom line is that Charles' aspirations were confined to his being a doctor. Sure there'd be politics involved, but not the "Charles-is-running-for-Mayor-of-Boston" type of politics.

I still think Charles was drafted. His attitude is such that he would have seen being a soldier as beneath him. It was something that *sniff* others did. But Charles would have felt he had too much breeding and was too civilized to get involved in War.

It was after he was drafted that Charles used his connections to get stationed in Tokyo. That ended, as Constanze pointed out, when Charles angered his C.O., Horace Baldwin.

I tend to agree with Benn that Charles was likely drafted. As for Charles obtaining the rank of Major, I always thought that maybe it was due in part to his superior medical education and training. He had also been practising medicine for eight years prior to the Korean War (longer, I think, then Hawkeye, Trapper or BJ) so the Army may have taken that into account when commissioning him. Or maybe he was originally commissioned as a Captain, and was promoted to Major sometime prior to being sent to the 4077. Its entirely plausible. Then again, maybe his family did pull some strings. Both Charles and Frank being Majors is one of the grey areas that is never fully explained in the series, especially where Frank is concerned! Frank probably did have some connections, otherwise, he'd of been given a Section 8 instead of being promoted and transferred to the USA, let alone getting the rank of Major to begin with! In any event, Charles, IMHO, was more deserving of the rank then Frank, based on his medical expertise.

Y'know, if you go along with the idea that Charles was made a Major because of how much medical experience he had, or rather how long he'd been a surgeon, then that might explain how Frank became a Major. In one ep, Frank boasted of how well his medical practice was thriving while Hawkeye was still doing his residency. (I can't quite remember the exact quote, much less the episode it was said in. Sorry.)

Now that you mention it, I do remember that exchange between Frank and Hawkeye (though Frank may have been exaggerating about how thriving his practise really was.) That could explain him being commissioned as a Major.

But you have to remember in the ep "The Novocaine Mutiny" the presiding judge of Pierce's court martial told Burns if he hadn't been drafted as a doctor, he would have gotten a job as a pastry chef. I think this ep made it clear that Burns wasn't appropriate for command and either reduced his rank or transfered him out.

Burns was never demoted. Infact, after his breakdown, he came close to getting a Section 8, but the Army being the Army, opted instead to make him a Lt.Col. and reassign him to a stateside hospital! He wasn't demoted or transferred, however, for his actions in The Novacaine Mutiny inspite of the investigator's comments.

"But you have to remember in the ep "The Novocaine Mutiny" the presiding judge of Pierce's court martial told Burns if he hadn't been drafted as a doctor, he would have gotten a job as a pastry chef." - Corey Hines

I'm not sure that has an effect on anything. I mean, it sounds to me like when Frank was drafted, the Army took one look at what Burns' occupation was - doctor - and assigned him to a MASH unit. It apparently also looked at how long he had been practicing medicine and decided that his years of "experience" qualified him to be a Major.

What the Colonel (or was he a General?) in "The Novacaine Mutiny" was undoubtedly refering to was Frank's military record. That is, based upon what his file at the 4077th said about him as a military doctor, a file compiled after Frank had been assigned to the unit, the presiding officer thought Frank Burns would have been assigned as a pastry chef.

That's my guess anyway.

Sorry, what I meant to say was that "Burns wasn't appropriate for command and should have either reduced his rank or transfered him out."

I think that Frank Burns' rank and assignment as a surgeon was left alone for very much the same reason Hawkeye, Trapper and B.J. were never booted out of the Army - the Army needed too many surgeons for the war effort, no matter how unruly, or in Frank's case, incompetent, they were.

Also keep in mind, being a pastry chef wouldn't necessarily mean a rank reduction for Major Burns. He could have been the Major in charge of the other pastry chefs.

Of course, I gotta wonder if the Army really has a position that is called "pastry chef"? I mean, wouldn't that be the job of whoever had KP?

Why are Pierce, Houlihan, Hunnicutt, Winchester, Klinger and Mulcahy playing poker in the Officers Club? As far as I can tell, there's no heating unit in there. Why didn't they play someplace warmer?

At the end of the poker game, Charles asks his fellow players to "Pay up". Why? His winnings were in the middle of the table, aren't. Just grab them, Charles.

In this ep, Radar's serial number is "R-A-1-9-4-9-0-6-9". In "Lt. O'Reiley", it was "3911810". The prefix "R-A", incidentally, stands for "Regular Army" and indicates that Radar volunteered for duty. I'm not sure, but I thought Walter was drafted.

Margaret passed out from being so close to the ether. There's a commercial break and when we come back, Hawkeye is reviving her by feeding her fresh oxygen. Um, when Houlihan passed out, Pierce was in the middle of an operation. Did he wait until he was finished operating before going to help Margaret? Why didn't someone do that while Captain Pierce was still busy working on that soldier?

As Radar is helping Father Mulcahy load the jeep for the black market exchange, we see him reach into Charles' bottle of wine. In the next shot we see him reach into it again.

How'd the Padre get in touch with the black marketeers so quickly? I'd think it'd take considerable time to get in touch with such an underground organization, much less to make known what you need and make the arrangements for conducting the transaction.

This episode reinforces a very important lesson - Never go with Father Mulcahy to deal with the black market. You'll come back in your underwear. (See also "Tea and Empathy" for another example.)

Interesting that Charles seems to be more upset about losing the wine than the polar suit. Especially considering how cold it is outside.

"All that good whiskey shot to hell."