Plot: With Henry away, Frank declares Prohibition.
"The best things in life are worth waiting for. Bottoms up."
That seems a rather peculiar sentiment to give someone on their wedding night. Of course, giving a bride a flask AND a gun on her wedding night seems peculiar to me.
Don't forget that infamous riding crop...
Oh, yeah. And whatever happened to Margaret's whip? "He knows that I love fine leathers."
Several points arise in this episode.
1) What did Frank do with Henry's stash of liquor?
2) When locking up the Officers (and Enlisted) club, Frank seemed to have forgotten that HE was the one who arranged with Gen. Mitchell to have it put up in the first place.
3) Margaret's having a secret cache of brandy locked in the supply room made me wonder if she DID have a drinking problem. The cache must have been hidden BEFORE Frank declared prohibition, because gullible Frank would never dream of searching Margaret's tent for liquor. She could have simply put it in her closet or under her cot.
4) Hawkeye, Trapper and Margaret must have gotten fairly drunk before they left the supply room. How else can you explain their idiocy in going back to the Swamp, where Frank was certain to catch them?
5) Note that Margaret took care to refill her little nippy bottle before they drank the rest.
(I wonder what Charles would have thought to see them swigging down brandy like it was bathtub gin?)
There are two syndication cuts that I can recall from this epiosode. Just after Frank makes his "official proclamation" that the 4077th is dry, there's a burst of lightning and heavy rain. Hawkeye said, "Boy when you make an 'official proclamation' you really make it official." Then in the scene after, when Margaret reveals to Major Burns her stash of brandy, Frank okays it by telling her, "For you, it's medicine." This helps explain Margaret's line in the supply tent/hut that "it's medicine." She's using Burns' justification.
What I'd like to know is when did Margaret refill the flask so that it had brandy in it at Mulcahy's sermon?
I think she must have refilled it before the three of them settled down to drink.
Yeah, but the sermon came AFTER they got drunk in the Swamp and Burns declared no exemptions to the prohibition.
Maybe she was too drunk to remember that, "From now on anyone--ANYONE...." bit, or, more likely, she simply ignored it. (Which was lucky for Frank, after that low blow in the mess tent.)
Henry sure gave a lot of lectures in Seoul during his tour of duty in Korea, didn't he? I don't think Colonel Potter gave anywhere near as many as Henry did. Wonder how Potter got out of it?
After Trapper is doused with rain water in the Mess Tent, the top of Hawkeye's hat is soaked from the rain, too. However, as the two Captains prepare to leave the Mess Tent, it appears that Pierce's hat is now dry.
The table the still is on appears to have been moved when Frank and Radar start to dismantle it. As it normally sits, there is no way anyone can get behind the table. (The back of the table rests against the tent.) In this ep, the table is positioned in such a way that Burns can sit in front of the still, while Radar works on the opposite side. Why was it moved? (Hawk and Trap later move the table to its rightful position.)
There's a scene which shows Father Mulcahy conducting a Mass with Klinger the only one in attendance. Pierce and McIntyre enter the tent to see if they can get some sacramental wine from the Padre. It ends with Hawkeye and Trapper deciding to stay for the 11:00 Protestant services. I believe most, if not all, of this scene has been cut for syndication. There's much of it I don't remember. (BTW, this is the scene that establishes that Klinger is an atheist. He was only attending the service because it gave him a chance to wear his white gloves.)
Not only is the line about Frank allowing Margaret to keep her brandy as "nerve medicine" omitted, but so is the scene where Frank steps outside to sign the daily report while wearing one of Major Houlihan's bras. After getting the signature, Radar tells Major Burns that he didn't see anything unusual. Burns has no idea what Radar is talking about.
Were Pierce and McIntyre really planning to drink rubbing alcohol? Or were they looking for cough syrup in the Supply Hut?
It's a good thing Margaret didn't notice that Hawk and Trap had left the cabinet open when she entered the Supply Hut. Otherwise, she might have thought the 4077th had been robbed and called for help. That wouldn't have been a pleasant situation for our heroes.
Hot Lips must have really been concentrating on getting that brandy flask refilled. She jumps out of her skin when Trapper turns the lights of the Supply Hut on. Yet, you can distinctly hear the sounds of Captain McIntyre's footsteps as he walks to the light switch. And she never notices.
It's also a good thing no one has ever needed to get into the file cabinet that Margaret kept the brandy in. That seems unusual since this is the Supply Hut we're talking about.
What about Rosie's? Isn't that always near camp? Did Frank forbid the 4077th's personnel going to Rosie's to get blasted, too?
Just after the OR scene, there's a scene in the scrub room. (Actually, I think this whole sequence has also been cut.) On the shelf behind Margaret and Frank is what appears to be a bottle of plasma. If that's what it is, what's it doing in the scrub room? Shouldn't it be in the refrigerator for storage?
Hawkeye's call for sound just before the church services is reminiscent of his earlier call for sound at the start of this ep.
Abyssinia!
>Henry sure gave a lot of lectures in Seoul during his tour of duty in Korea, didn't he? I don't think Colonel Potter gave anywhere near as many as Henry did. Wonder how Potter got out of it?>
IMHO, I think Henry liked to go to Seoul as an excuse to get away from the 4077th. Potter has been in the Army since WWI and (presumably) likes being in a war.
In the scene where Frank has Radar taking apart the still Radar says that Hawk says the still is his "wellspring of life" to which Frank replies "that's just something he read in "Cosmopolitan."
There is only one wee problem. The first issue of "Cosmo" did not hit the news stands until March of 1972.
Uh, wrong, Joseph. Cosmopolitan is much, much older than that. According to this site and this one, it was founded in 1886. However, prior to the 1960s, Cosmo was primarily a literary magazine. Hard to believe, considering what it is today.
Abssynia!