Plot: After Henry refuses to let Cowboy, a wounded helicopter pilot, go home , he becomes the target of an unknown attacker.

"Dear John from Reno." I loved it.

It certainly took people a long time to decide that Henry should perhaps maybe leave the 4077th for a while. The second attack, confirming that he was, in fact, the target (as opposed to Hawkeye or Ho Jon) should have been sufficient.

Lucky for all concerned that Cowboy hadn't just switched off the radio.

This episode marks the first time we hear Father Mulcahy speak the Hebrew language. He would do so at least twice more in the series.

I think one scene cut from this episode involves Hawkeye talking to a patient about his injured leg. It takes place just before Hawkeye goes talking to Cowboy. IIRC, the scene in syndication begins with Hawk and Cowboy talking.

Cowboy asks Hawkeye to let him go home, at least for little while. Klinger, after his wife Laverne divorced him, asked Colonel Potter to let Max go home for a little while. Is this really possible in the Army? A temporary discharge?

My god, I've forgotten all about this scene, it's been cut for syndication for so long! There's a scene where Trapper and Frank argue over Captain McIntyre taking a jeep so he can spend time with a nurse. Henry gets into the argument and denies Trapper the use of the jeep. This event gets refered to twice in this ep. Trapper mentions it to Hawkeye. Henry thinks Trapper's the one who's trying to kill the Colonel. Why? Because Henry wouldn't let McIntyre use the jeep.

Who drives the jeep into Henry's tent? I mean, sure a weight can be put on the gas peddle to make it go forward, but cars do often have a tendency to veer to a side sometimes. Especially on presumably unpaved roads.

By the way, Henry's tent looks different than it did in "Chief Surgeon Who?" It looks smaller.

There's a radio in the box by the door to the Swamp again. In later episodes that space will be occupied by the portrait of Frank's mother.

Here's another deleted scene: Henry calls for Radar to come into his office. Rather than risk going into the office, the company clerk talks to Henry on the phone. When Henry wants to sign the fitness report, Radar sends it in attached to a fishing rod.

Why does Henry have to tell Major Burns what the different cabinets hold? The Duty Roster cabinet is clearly labeled. All the file cabinets are. Besides, wouldn't Radar know which is which?

Hawkeye told Trapper "it's hard not to smell the gun powder" in Cowboy's bag. Really? Then how come it went unnoticed for so long?

Cowboy is the first person in a helicopter to wear a parachute. At least as far as I can remember. Actually, wearing a chute is a good idea. It just doesn't ever seem to be done. BTW, Cowboy wasn't wearing one when he first gets out of his chopper.

In some shots while Henry and Cowboy are struggling, the chopper is still. In other shots it's wobbling and weaving.

Unless I'm wrong, that's an electrical tower you can see in the background as Cowboy turns back to the 4077th.

"Who drives the jeep into Henry's tent? I mean, sure a weight can be put on the gas peddle to make it go forward, but cars do often have a tendency to veer to a side sometimes. Especially on presumably unpaved roads."

This has bothered me too... especially when Radar makes the comment "A Jeep must have broken loose and drove into his tent." Do Jeeps just break loose? (I guess it is good that in later eps that Rizzo takes over the moter pool so that he can sleep under them to stop these maverick Jeeps from running amuck.)

Also, Cowboy thinks a lot of himself considering how bad an assassin he really is. He says he can shoot the eyeballs out of a rattlesnake from 50 years riding at a full gallop (I guess he means on a horse). Yet all shooting at Henry standing still, running him down with a jeep, blowing up the latrine, setting explosives in his chair, etc... He seems pretty lousy at the killing game.

That or Henry is inordinately lucky.

Watched this the other day. I just got the first and second seasons on DVD, along with a note saying that season three would be out Winter 2003.

First off, this is wonderful seeing the episodes uncut, and so clear. You don't realize what you've been missing until you see it.

I noticed something about Henry. He kept dithering about, on the edge of panic, for most of the episode. Once in the helicopter, however, when he realized what was going on, he went very still. No screaming, no fainting. And he did a fairly good job of fighting off the Cowboy.

I watched most of the two seasons this weekend (a real MASH glut) and I noticed, time and time again, that when a real emergency arises, Henry instantly takes full command, firm, decisive, with all his priorities straight (wounded come first, etc.)

Yup. Probably the most vivid demonstration of this comes during his famous 'rules of war' monologue in 'Sometimes You Hear the Bullet'.
That I think is what ultimately make Henry so loveable; he's not a buffoon, just a decent Average Joe in way over his head.