Plot: When Hawkeye becomes temporary commander of the 4077th, he undergoes a drastic change as he deals with the tensions and tediums of command.
I watched this episode on DVD last night, and at the end, I realized that I had not really noticed any cut scenes. Usually seeing stuff that I have not been able to see for years really jumps out at me, but apparently they were pretty subtle in cutting this episode. The only thing that I really noticed was the scene with Hawkeye and on of the patients in Post-Op, where the patient was very squeamish about getting his tube and some stitches removed. I think some of that might have been trimmed. I didn't understand why Hawkeye didn't just tell the patient to look the other way!
The "Front" is not supposed to be more than three miles or so from the MASH, is it? What the heck took B.J. so long? Or did the aid station commandeer his services since their own surgeon had been killed? He took long enough for Hawkeye and Charles alone to deal with a whole platoon of wounded. (Charles, BTW, must be feeling really ill--you'd think that he would be in there chewing B.J. out as well.)
Once again the implication is that, in this whole MASH unit, there are only four doctors available, which seems absurd. Just who makes up the "second surgical team" that we occasionaly hear reference to?
It should be noted that this is not the first time Hawkeye was left in charge of the 4077th. Pierce was essentially in command of the camp in "Officer of the Day". His actions and attitude in that ep are completely different than the ones displayed in this ep.
Potter telling Radar about his dream was a good way to prepare fans for the change in B.J.'s appearance. (The Colonel dreamt he had gone home and Mildred had Hunnicutt's mustache.)
Why was General Imbrie notifying Potter about the change of command (Imbrie replacing Hammond) as late as he did? Couldn't have been done earlier or have waited?
Why would Winchester's sinuses be a good excuse for him not to be in command? It certainly didn't keep him out of OR. (And didn't they have antihystamines back then? Would that not have helped Charles' sinus condition?)
Pierce really should have listened to Potter when the Colonel told him, "no one (obeys) orders" at the 4077.
What's the big deal about Potter having the liquor locked up? There's plenty of booze in the Swamp, isn't there? Hawkeye could've helped himself to it any time he wanted to.
Again, after the events of "Officer of the Day", Radar shouldn't have been surprised that the first thing Pierce did was go right back to sleep. He pretty much did the same thing in the previous ep.
There's an OR session. In it, B.J. is wearing a red shirt. Then a scene cut, it's night and Radar's talking to Colonel Potter on the phone. The scene shifts again to daytime and B.J. is still wearing that same red shirt. I suppose it could have been a long OR session. But there's no indication that's true. BTW, I wonder if that red shirt faded after a few washes and became the pink shirt we often saw Hunnicutt wear during the last few seasons of the series?
As Potter, Hunnicutt and Pierce are drinking in the Swamp, it seems to me that the Colonel's position on Hawkeye's bunk changes. In the long shot, the box that Hawk has stuff in is well to Potter's left. Yet in the close-up shot, the box is much closer to the Colonel. The lighting is also different in those shots. In the longshot, a shadow from the cup's handle can be seen. In the close-up, the shadow is gone.
As Potter asks, "Do you know how ridiculous you two look?", Pierce is looking up and grimacing. In the close-up, his expression has changed and he's looking down.
The end theme has been changed. It's more uptempo than in previous seasons.
"All that good whiskey shot to hell."
Potter tells Charles that he will be in command of the 4077 during his absence. Charles declines because of his sinus condition, so Potter tells Pierce that he's the man. But there's another major in camp, a certain Margaret Houlihan. Shouldn't SHE be the next one in line for the job? The 4077 is not a combat unit, so there should be no problems with her being in temporary command. And come to think of it, SHE should be first in line because she has seniority over Charles.
Not in the 50s. That was a time of a "Woman's place is in the home". Despite M*A*S*H's liberal progressive outlook, a nurse would never have been placed in command of men, much less doctors, in those days.
"All that good whiskey shot to hell."
Well, that too could make for awkward situations. Pierce is a captain and Margaret is a major, so she would be perfectly within her right to to refuse to obey his orders. Or does being temporary base commander let him outrank superior officers for the time he holds that post? On the other hand, I don't recall seeing Margaret in that one (I could be wrong of course), so maybe she was on R&R somewhere, which rendered the whole rank conflict thing moot.
NANJAO In my opinion, it may have been better to put B.J. in temporary command and have Pierce go "awol" in that episode. We already had an episode with Pierce in charge at that point, and he had proved to be a very laid back and lenient leader. On the other hand, B.J.'s leadership style was an unknown and ripe for some character development. The storyline could easily have worked both ways, and putting B.J. in charge would have avoided contradicting what we already had seen Pierce do in that situation.
I like the idea of B.J. being in command. It would have been interesting. I suspect he would have taken the job more seriously than Pierce did in his original outing. At the very least, there should have been an ep with Hunnicut as Officer of the Day.
One other thing I thought about regarding Margaret and Hawkeye and the command dynamic. The Major might outrank the Captain, but Pierce is the camp's Chief Surgeon. He's already in a position of command. That, along with the gender politics of the day, would make Hawkeye the logical choice, after Charles, to put in charge of the 4077th in Colonel Potter's absence.
"All that good whiskey shot to hell."