Season 6, Episode 20: Mail Call Three
Special Guest Star: Molly G
Air Date: February 6, 1978
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To answer your question, Rob, yes. Jody is still the guy making time with the wives while the husband is deployed. (Or so my military friends tell me.)
All correct. And if we ever find him…
Also, it’s convenient for the modern military that the name Jody works for any gender. The Greatest Generation really thought ahead.
I came here to say this. As both Clinton and the good Captain said, the term is still in use.
I don’t know about the name Jody, but I was in the Navy in the late 80’s stationed at Norfolk,VA. When a carrier group would leave for a 6 month deployment, the base clubs would be full of spouses looking for companionship for the next 6 months. They were called “Med cruise widows”.
What a great guest, I love people who dig into the psyche of the characters!
When it comes to BJ, he is a character I actually appreciate more the older I get… I like how he goes from this fresh faced, hopeful young man to disillusioned and bitter, his journey is really interesting. That is one of the reasons I like him better than Trapper as a character, I like that we see him be affected by his experiences, his character arc is much more interesting. Nothing seems to get to Trapper, and the man we see in the first episode is basically the same as we see in his last one.
It’s so easy to understand where BJ is coming from here, just the feeling of being completely out of control, that the rest of the world – the people you love most – manages without you. That paired with the expectations of a husband in the 50s, the provider, the head of the house. And as you talk about, we will see him get mad and frustrated about these types of situations further down the line too, and even though I dislike how he feels like his situation is worse than everyone else just because he has a kid, I also completely get it. We can all relate to these feelings in some kind of way, and fictional characters are supposed to feel real, so kudos to the writers!
I like that you talk about Peg too, because she is certainly going through things as well. It reminds me of a later episode where Mildred is mad at Potter, and Margaret explains to him that yeah, that’s because she is frustrated with being alone and she misses you, so I’m guessing Peg is feeling that too. BJ can’t help that he was sent away, but for Peg – it’s easier to take her frustrations out on the person she is closest to, than to be mad at the entire system, or just the faceless army. Maybe she is feeling like she is only a mom and a provider, and hardly even a woman anymore, and mentioning the neighbor hitting on her was a small way of taking some frustrations of her own out on BJ. If you had been here it wouldn’t have happened. Or maybe she truly thought it was just a funny thing that happened, insignificant, and something they could laugh about later. Anyway, I think it’s really interesting to think about the emotions of the people left behind.
I also have to mention the short scene with Margaret and Charles – I love it! One of my favorite things about MASH is the rhythm between the actors, the way they listen and react to each other, and that scene is such a good example of that, Loretta Swit and David Ogden Stiers have perfect timing together, that whole scene is like a dance.
I wish the writers would have given these two characters more to do together. Not as love interests, no, but as friends of sorts. They have a lot in common, and this reluctant respect and interest they have for each other, both just exotic creatures in each other’s worlds, is so interesting.
Charles does creep me out a bit though, when he tells her she is good breeding stock and checks out her butt. Dude, that is so inappropriate! Thank god she threw him out! 🙂
Again, thank you for this episode, I truly enjoyed it!
Okay, MarieKristina, let’s prove we can talk about more than just Margaret. I think Peg *may* have been making a jab at BJ, and that would be understandable. But I never thought of that, because the idealized version of Peg in my head (totally influenced by BJ, of course) wouldn’t do that. I think, to Peg, the pass really is insignificant (as you say), for two reasons. First, she knows she’s 100% committed to this marriage and the neighbor has no shot. Second, she’s an attractive woman who probably gets flirted with or hit on more than BJ realizes. She probably doesn’t know how clueless BJ is, BJ, after all, would never hit on a married woman even if he were single, so he’d probably be surprised at how many men hold themselves to much lower standards.
But to continue my agreement with you, on some level, she may also appreciate that someone in the Western Hemisphere still sees her as more than a mom and finds her desirable.
Also, BJ totally sees this neighbor as someone who is betraying his trust and threatening his marriage. And sometimes we don’t take these things that seriously, but he’s correct. For the neighbor’s sake, I hope he moves away before the armistice.
Finally, on whether or not she should’ve told him: They’re still pretty newly married. This is their first big separation. She’s still learning the rules. It took my wife and I more than one deployments to figure out exactly what to tell one another right away and what to save until I got home. And then there are always buddies who come over and share war stories that you hadn’t quite gotten around to telling her yet…
As long as we talk about a pretty, blonde female character, we’re good! 😉 😀 😉
Oh yes, I hope the flirty neighbor moves away before BJ gets back, that guy would not want to meet the angry, disillusionised man that comes back from Korea….
Hawkeye and Radar have a heartwarming big brother) little brother dynamic on the show. It’s a shame Radar wasn’t in Season 6 that much.
Rob, Molly G is a great guest and this was (is — I’m still listening) a great MASHcast episode. The story about Hawkeye and his Dad helped guide my behavior while my parents went through a long separation while I was growing up. I think I was far from perfect, but I would’ve been worse without Hawkeye. Also, your (Rob and Molly’s) analysis of BJ’s delusion about keeping his family and his home life exactly the same was spot on.
Football players used to be smaller, especially at the high school level. BJ was one of those tall, skinny receivers, or maybe a defensive safety. I used to love blocking guys like that. The main tactic was to have a lower center of gravity when you collided, and it was so easy to do.
I’ve totally felt BJ’s fear of replacement. My wife is good at reassuring me like Peg is good at reassuring BJ.
Signing off for now, with 27 minutes to go in the podcast, You know I’ll jump back in if I have more to say. Thank you as always!
Another great episode. And a great guest. I was listening with my daughter and she has some strong opinions on laugh tracks. She despises them and thinks that they should be outlawed.
Fantastic observations from Cpl. Capt. Molly G!
My thought about why Peg even bothered to mention being hit on at the party was possibly because here she is, a young woman who is still a relatively new wife, and now a new mother, with her husband thousands of miles away in a war. She’s lonely, she’s raising her child alone, she’s running their household, she’s most likely exhausted much of the time, and maybe when she looks in the mirror, she’s not seeing the face of the woman she was just a few short years ago. And now this neighbor makes a pass at her, and although she’d never entertain the idea of cheating on BJ, maybe she likes having been reminded that she’s still beautiful and sexy, and an object of desire from men. And maybe telling BJ about the pass is a coded way of letting him know that the beautiful, sexy young woman he fell in love with and married is still there waiting for him…and she’s also a lot more capable and accomplished than she was when he shipped out.
Great episode. I loved the insight into BJ’s character. ‘Not as Normal as he thinks’ is a great way to describe him.
Reading Hawkeye reading the letters, I still think he deserves some criticism as surely anyone writing to him in such intimate terms would write ‘Dear Hawkeye’ and not ‘Dear Ben’ and he should have stopped reading at that point.