Plot A: Winchester is taping a letter home, detailing such things as sitting for a portrait by Col. Potter, his "mysterious" loss of weight a month ago, and a description of Margaret.
Plot B: Hawkeye has been invited to Seoul for the weekend by Nurse Gilmore, but obstacles keep turning up.
"Starting tomorrow--he gets taller."
I don't think that this would have been a very good move, because Charles assuredly would not have thought that his height had changed. He probably would have done some thinking, then put two and two together.
I did like the rubber chicken in the teapot. I wonder why it wasn't used more. You can get a lot of mileage out of a rubber chicken. Unless of course, they gave it to the cook.
I always thought BJ was joking about making Charles taller.
Klinger's gambit in this episode was fainting spells, which brings up an observation. Klinger seized on this after hearing Charles comment that his nephew Felix was being discharged for having fainting spells. He definitely said the word nephew, not cousin. A nephew is the son of one's sibling. So, which sibling? The only one we hear of is his sister Honoria, who is unmarried. Surely the Winchesters would not countenance an illigitimate child in their midst, and besides, Charles does not seem old enough to have a grown-up nephew.
Winchster could have much older brother or sister who has the nephew. Maybe Winchster and Honoria are the "kid" brother and sister to them and this other sibling has let the Winchster ranch.
But then that is a flimsy explanation, I believe goof up is the answer.
"Klinger seized on this after hearing Charles comment that his nephew Felix was being discharged for having fainting spells. He definitely said the word nephew, not cousin. A nephew is the son of one's sibling. So, which sibling? The only one we hear of is his sister Honoria, who is unmarried. Surely the Winchesters would not countenance an illigitimate child in their midst, and besides, Charles does not seem old enough to have a grown-up nephew." - D.K. Henderson
In a later episode, "The Life You Save", Charles does mention having a brother who died young. Doesn't affect D.K.'s nit. Just thought I'd mention it.
Potter took some liberties with his portrait of Winchester. Charles was not sitting with his mouth open when we first see him posing for Potter.
B.J. says he can't be officer of the day because he has Post-Op duty. I was under the assumption that there were three Post-Op shifts in each day, each doctor taking a turn being in charge of Post-Op. Would this have necessarily prevented Hunnicutt from taking on both duties?
Considering how long Radar has worked at the 4077th, you'd think he'd be aware the each medicine bottle has directions on them, indicating when, how much and for what to take the pills. ("Purple for pain...")
According to Charles, "Humor is the opiate of the incompetent." Given the jokes (practical and otherwise) we see perpetrated by Winchester, that statement is pretty ironic.
This episode marks the first time Charles boasts that he doesn't sweat only to proceed to do so soon afterwards.
It's kind of strange to hear Charles say the B.J. is an excellent surgeon. I don't think we ever hear him say that about Hawkeye.
Is it established whether Charles is single or married? If he's single, it could be his wife's sister/brother's child.
Well, Charles did get "married" after that weekend in Tokyo in the episode "Mr. and Mrs. Who?" But beyond that, I think the intent was that Winchester was single.
Isn't it interesting that when Potter paints Winchester, he is painting a profile... and yet the picture is a full-face painting. (this gets kind of important because of the discussion of winchester's fat earlobes). Also, Winchester starts screaming in the last 30 seconds ("don't change the color of your face... I'm out of umber") and yet Potter is quick enough to get the picture of him screaming. Potter appearantly paints in the polaroid method.
Just how long has Winchester been assigned to the 4077th at this point? We know at least one month, since the practical jokes involving Charles' pants took place a month ago (at least that's what Charles tells his parents: "About a month ago..."). But at the start of his Charles' letter/tape recording, he complains of the extremes in temperature he's experienced in Korea. Has he really been there long enough to experience Korean winter and summer?
Scene cut: After Radar invites the soldier to see the cockroach collection, the scene shifts to Charles once again in the Swamp recording his message to his parents. He complains of the humidity and asks his parents to send some deodorant. (Not that he cares about the rest of the camp. He just doesn't want to offend himself.) Wouldn't the 4077th have deodorant there already? (And didn't Colonel Blake have some? I remember him using it in "Henry In Love".)
Charles then goes on to describe how he dissed Radar and how he can ill-afford to offend the Corporal. To mollify O'Reilly (because Radar is in charge of the phone lines), Charles brings him a case of Grape Nehi. Those Grape Nehis look awful red to me. Most of the Grape Nehis I've seen in my life were a dark purple.
According to Radar, Rosie charges a dollar a bottle for the Grape Nehis at her bar. My god, that's about what a bottle would cost today. Either Rosie was charging a very exorbiant price for those drinks, or inflation is an illusion.
When Hawkeye asks Charles for some pajamas, he called Winchester, "Charlie". The Major doesn't appear to have noticed that. It's one of the rare times after Winchester was assigned to the 4077, that he was called anything other than "Major", "Charles" or "Winchester".
The lines where Charles tells his father to "Talk to Senator Griswold. You paid good money for him" do not appear in closed-captioning.
If Charles never perspires, why does he need deodorant?
I think the scene where Charles talk about Father Mulcahy has been cut for syndication. In it, Charles describes the Padre as sounding like Dennis Day. Then we have a flashback to a scene in the shower where Father Mulcahy reveals that one of Charles' patience has pulled through. It was apparently due to the Father praying for Winchester's surgical skills rather than Charles' skills per se.
The interior of the shower, btw, has been rearranged in that scene. The shower head faces the doorway. Normally, they run perpendicular to the door.
In "Sons and Bowler", didn't Charles say something about "having a father, but (Pierce has) a dad"? Yet, in this ep, he refers to his father as "Dad".
"Gentlemen, please. Mozart."
Rosie charging $1 for a bottle of Grape Nehi in 1952/53 is equivalent to charging $6.70 today - yikes!
>Wouldn't the 4077th have deodorant there already?<
Knowing Charles, he probably only uses some realy expensive deodorant from some store in Boston, and wouldn't want to lower himself to using the common man's stuff. But, by the time his parents get the tape and he gets the package, the heat/humidity would probably be over!