For six and a half seasons, we've seen the staff of the 4077th go about their business and try not to go crazy in the process. In this episode, we get a firsthand look at the experience of being one of the many wounded to go through the camp.
Our eyes for this episode are those of Private Rich, an infantryman from San Antonio, Texas. While on patrol near the front lines, Rich's platoon sergeant instructs the men to spread out, prompting some snark between Rich and his squadmate, Private Ferguson. But the laughs are short-lived as they come under mortar fire, and Rich falls to the ground coughing and choking, his throat full of shrapnel. A medic is summoned to administer first aid until they can get him on a chopper to the nearest MASH... which happens to be the 4077th.
One chopper ride later, Rich is met by a typically upbeat B.J. and an unusually cranky Col. Potter, and as Klinger drives him by jeep down to Pre-Op, Radar takes Rich's valuables to put in the safe and assures him that he'll get the best medical care in Korea. Other patients in Pre-Op include a Handsome Lech who attempts to flirt with every nurse in the camp, and Ferguson, who has a leg full of shrapnel. Hawkeye enters and, after introducing himself, checks under Rich's bandage, consults B.J., and tells Rich that once they remove the shrapnel, they'll give him a tracheostomy so he can breathe until his throat heals. Father Mulcahy also stops by to introduce himself and assures the Protestant Rich that he's familiar with the practices of most denominations, although the forceful nature of Southern Baptist services is a bit beyond him. One quick X-ray session with Klinger later, Rich is off to OR, with Hawkeye as his surgeon.
When Rich regains consciousness in Post-Op, the lecherous private is in the next bed, while Ferguson is in the bed opposite. He watches Margaret tell Hawkeye and Charles that Potter's crankiness is getting worse; Charles writes it off as an early sign of senility. Hawkeye checks Rich's breathing by pinching his tracheostomy tube for a few seconds, but Rich's throat is still too swollen to allow him to speak or breathe. A day or two later, Margaret changes his dressing and gives him a sponge bath (to the envy of the lecherous private), then Col. Potter stops by and introduces himself, though not without being short with Margaret - and Klinger when he shows up to announce yet another I Corps paperwork foul-up. Klinger gives Rich a guided tour of the camp by wheelchair, finishing in the mess tent, where Hawkeye, B.J., and Mulcahy are discussing Potter's ever shortening fuse.
Another day or two later, Potter stops by Rich's bed to have a proper conversation with him (with pad and pencil in Rich's case) and deliver the good news that he's been given a medical discharge. When Potter snaps at a nurse, Rich takes it upon himself to ask the CO if he's all right, and he confesses that his gruffness has been brought on by guilt over forgetting to call Mildred on their anniversary for the first time since they were married. Hawkeye stops by as Potter leaves, and Rich relays Potter's explanation to him. Charles then shows up to confront Hawkeye over reading his private diary, but their fracas is interrupted when Rich starts choking; Hawkeye and Charles suspect his larynx is fractured, and take him back into OR. After his second surgery, he is able to get a few words out when Hawkeye pinches his tube, while Radar tells Potter that he has Mildred on the phone and has explained everything, improving the colonel's mood dramatically. Hawkeye tells Rich that repairing a fractured larynx is a difficult operation, but that Rich gave him a look of confidence beforehand that helped to boost his own confidence. Rich gestures to Hawkeye to pinch his tube and whispers, "Thank you."
The episode ends with Rich and Ferguson being loaded onto the night evac bus to Seoul, their first stop on the journey home. As Rich watches Hawkeye, B.J., and Potter through the back window, he and Ferguson share a moment of celebration that they made it through the war alive.
Attention, all personnel! Private Rich experiences the following tropes on his way through the 4077th:
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: In Pre-Op, Hawkeye notes to Rich that he and the other doctors at the 4077th may come across as goofballs who don't know how to repair a bicycle tyre, much less a human being, but he admits that while he does not, indeed, know how to repair a bicycle tyre, he's had enough experience as a surgeon to get him through OR in one piece.
- Deadpan Snarker: There are suggestions that Rich would dispense straight-faced sarcasm if he had a voice with which to do so. For example, when he catches Hawkeye looking at the chart at the end of his bed, Hawkeye says that everyone should have one, so that instead of having to answer the question "How are you doing?", they could simply direct a person to the chart. "So, how are you doing?" he asks Rich... who taps the clipboard in Hawkeye's hands in reply.
- Double Take: When Klinger enters Post-Op to deliver the unwelcome news that there's been another paperwork snafu at I Corps (hastily adding that he had nothing to do with it) and Potter leaves to sort it out, we get a first-person double take as the bewildered Rich looks Klinger up and down, taking in his latest elaborate drag costume - complete with red high heels and matching gloves and handbag. We can almost hear him thinking, "What... the... hell?!"
- Fade to Black: All scene transitions are achieved by fading to black; in the context of the episode, this represents Rich closing his eyes as he either passes out or falls asleep.
- Forgotten Anniversary: When Rich writes "You OK?" on his pad after Potter snaps at a nurse, Potter admits that his short temper of the last few days has been brought on by guilt over forgetting, for the first time in 35 years of marriage, to call Mildred on their anniversary. Such is his shame that he can't even bring himself to call her and apologise. Rich tells Hawkeye, who tells Radar, who puts a call through to Mildred and explains everything before fetching the CO to talk to her himself.
- Handsome Lech: One of the other soldiers who was wounded on the same day as Rich is a private who is conventionally attractive, but badly misguided in his attempts to flirt with the nurses, especially Margaret (making "Hubba hubba!" his opening line is just his first mistake). She politely but firmly rejects his every advance.
- Huddle Shot: Rich is at the centre of several huddle shots as multiple members of the 4077th medical staff gather around him to look at the wounds in his throat, most notably when he is lying on a stretcher in Pre-Op and Hawkeye and B.J. share a look under his bandage.
- Hypocritical Humour: When Charles tells Hawkeye that he believes Potter's bad mood is an early sign of senility, he rattles off some other "symptoms", including "chronic irritability, difficulty relating to others, uh, self-absorption..." Hawkeye counters, "That's not Potter, that's you!"
- Idiosyncratic Cultural Gesture: When Potter first gets to talk to Rich, Rich immediately puts his hand up to shake it. Potter immediately guesses Rich is The Friendly Texan, because as Potter says, "I haven't met the Texan yet who didn't offer up a handshake, no matter how many tubes were coming out of him."
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: When Charles confronts Hawkeye over breaking into his foot locker and reading his diary, Hawkeye says that in all the times he's broken into Charles' foot locker, he's never touched his diary. An unconvinced Charles asks about the juvenile illustrations that have suddenly appeared in the margins, and Hawkeye says it made for dry reading without them.
- Layman's Terms: The lecherous private in the next bed to Rich is one of Charles' patients, and during his Playing Sick routine, he asks Charles if perhaps he missed something. The insulted and unimpressed Charles tells him that he has "a superficial laceration of the trapezius, or, put into words that you could understand, you've got a boo-boo on your shoulder."
- The Oner: Because this episode is filmed through a single camera, most of the individual shots are significantly longer than average for the series, most notably the view from Rich's eyes after his chopper lands and B.J., Radar, and Klinger carry his stretcher onto a jeep, which Klinger then drives down to Pre-Op while Radar assures Rich that he's in safe hands at the 4077th; this shot goes on for nearly two minutes.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Potter is gruff at the best of times, but for the first two acts of this episode, he snaps at almost everyone on the staff at the slightest provocation. They know something must be wrong, but his short fuse makes them too nervous to broach the subject directly.
- Playing Sick: The Handsome Lech private admits to Rich that his shoulder wound isn't that serious, but he's planning to milk it for every drop he can so as to put off returning to the front lines. Charles doesn't buy his act for a second:Charles: By the way... that was the worst performance I've ever seen in here! It lacked sincerity, depth! You're lucky I stayed through the whole show!
- P.O.V. Cam: The central pillar of the script; we see the entire episode through the eyes of Private Rich as he is wounded in action, airlifted to the 4077th, and treated in Pre-Op, the OR, and Post-Op.
- Secret Diary: As Rich tells Hawkeye that Potter's anger is born of guilt over forgetting his anniversary, an enraged Charles storms into Post-Op to confront his bunkmate over breaking into his foot locker and reading his personal diary - and drawing rude illustrations in the margins (Hawkeye says it made for dry reading without the pictures, and also scoffs at how much Charles talks himself up in his entries).
- Sound-Effect Bleep: When the Sergeant is calling for the medic, he shouts "Medic! God damn it, medic!" When he does, the "god" is covered up by the sound of a mortar explosion.
- The Speechless: Due to his throat injury, Rich cannot speak for most of the episode.
- Verbal Backspace: When Radar takes Rich's valuables to put in the safe until he is ready to leave, he says that only he and Col. Potter know the combination - then backs up and says he thinks Margaret knows as well, and then remembers he told Hawkeye, who probably told B.J.
- The Voice: We never see Rich's face since we are looking through his eyes, but we do hear his voice - at least until thirty seconds into the episode, when he takes a throat full of shrapnel. He only has three more lines after this.
- Way Past the Expiration Date: When Klinger wheels Rich into the mess tent, B.J. jokes that the meat they are serving is from The American Civil War - it's blue on one side, grey on the other.
