Major Weems (Tom Atkins), a racist battalion commander, is systematically getting the black combat engineers in his unit killed or wounded so he can ship them home. Charles tries to hide his sore tooth from the rest of the camp.
Attention all personnel! Major Weems intends to ship the following tropes home:
- Actor Allusion: Potter pretends to be as racist as Weems to get a confession out of him, later noting that he's got the act down pat. General Steele was awfully bigoted.
- All Men Are Perverts: When Klinger is calling other hospital units about Major Weems (see Bitch in Sheep's Clothing below), he asks his colleague at the last one if there's anything he can do in return. When Klinger hears the answer, he says, "Sorry, you'll have to ask the nurses yourselves."
- Batman Gambit: Col. Potter pretends to be a racist to draw out Major Weems and get him to admit what he's doing to the blacks under his command, and then he, B.J., Hawkeye, and Major (actually Captain) Rockingham pretend to be preparing to have Major Weems court-martialed in order to get him to resign. It works.Col. Potter: Major, you're fighting the wrong war. The Civil War ended nearly 100 years ago.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A male version, and one of the nastiest versions of this trope. Major Weems has the reputation of caring about his men, always visiting them at whatever hospital unit they end up at when they're wounded, wanting to pull strings to get minorly injured soldiers medical discharges, and talking about commanding soldiers is about more than just giving orders. In actuality, he arranges for all of the black soldiers in his unit to take on the most dangerous jobs so they'll suffer the highest casualty rates, and those that do manage to survive are the ones Major Weems arrange to have shipped home so he doesn't have to deal with them.B.J.: Only 11% of Weems' unit are Negroes. They suffer 46% of the casualties.
Hawkeye: There were better odds in Uncle Tom's Cabin.
B.J.: I actually liked that guy!
Klinger: He fooled everybody. All the medical units I talked to said what a great guy Major Weems is. Always came to visit his wounded. - The Dentist Episode: Charles refuses to visit a dentist, even though he's in obvious pain, because he thinks all dentists are hacks and sadists. At the end of the episode, it's revealed Captain Rockingham is a dentist, and Charles is forced to comply, though not without a fight (see The Tag below).
- Hoist by His Own Petard: When Margaret catches Charles with a box full of codeine, he pretends the one bottle he took from the box is enough for him to deal with the pain in his tooth. Margaret seems to accept this, and then takes the entire box from Charles.
- Hot Drink Cure: Charles goes to a local Korean merchant to deal with his pain, and the man offers a variation of this, with various herbs, roots, and assorted vegetables. However, not only does it not help, but the smell and taste are so appalling to him he throws out the rest of it.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Charles may be especially snappish towards everyone in this episode because of his sore tooth, but he willingly lends Captain Rockingham his major's leaves so he can impersonate a major, and compliments Rockingham on his performance. He also, despite having tried to hide how much his tooth hurt for most of the episode, played up his pained groans so that Weems would think the Major was alone in the tent.
- The Men First: Inverted - Major Weems claims to be all about this trope, but B.J., Hawkeye and Klinger learn better (see Bitch in Sheep's Clothing above).
- Oh, Crap!: Major Weems when he's introduced to Major (actually Captain) Rockingham.
- Charles a few minutes later when it's revealed Captain Rockingham is a dentist, since he's avoided going to one for so long.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Charles is so desperate to find something to help his toothache, without having to go to the dentist, he not only seeks out a local merchant (even though he's shown nothing but contempt for local medicine in previous episodes), he also drinks from Hawkeye and B.J.'s still.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: While Major Weems may have been an extreme case, unfortunately, his attitudes were not uncommon in the American military at the time; even though Harry Truman had ordered the military to be desegregated in 1948 when he was President (mentioned in the episode), many commanders had ignored the order during The Korean War. That war would be the last conflict the American military would be involved in where the troops were segregated.
- Spotting the Thread: When Hawkeye is puzzled as to why Major Weems wants to send one soldier home with minor wounds who's recovered, and keep one who's suffered severe wounds, B.J. is the one who brings up the fact the first soldier is black, and the second one is white.Hawkeye: How can it be racial? This doesn't even make sense.
- The Tag: Hawkeye and B.J. (with help from Col. Potter and Margaret) end up treating Captain Rockingham after Charles bites his thumb when he tries to treat Charles' tooth.
- Xanatos Gambit: With a side of Uriah Gambit, Major Weems' plan. He assigns the black soldiers in his unit to the most dangerous tasks, thus they'll either be wounded and given a medical discharge, earn points for discharge faster, or die and go home in a box. It all adds up to the same thing: getting them out of his unit.
