Season 7, Episode 11: Dear Comrade
Special Guest Star: Brett Young
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It’s great how they were able to shake things up with the “Dear” episode format, first with “Dear Sigmund,” and then even more so with this. I do agree it makes the lack of a Margaret-focused one more noticeable, but that aside they do a good job with it. I liked how it let them comment on differences in perspective based on culture, like when he talks about their spoiled attitudes towards food. And of course Charles makes a perfect pairing with him, as the strongest embodiment of Capitalistic greed.
I love the opening scene of this episode where BJ and Hawkeye crash back into the Swamp and spoil Charles’ afternoon. The visual of them sowing destruction as they move around the tent, literally just dumping out their suitcases on the floor to make as much mess as they can is fantastic. I love the way all the actors play off each other. I can easily imagine a similar scene with Frank in the tent instead of Winchester, but Winchester’s contempt is so much funnier than Frank’s fury (in my opinion).
One of my favorite things about Hawkeye is his ironclad disdain for guns and weapons. I love the image of him lying on Radar’s desk covered in papers after presumably spending hours on the phone trying to find a place to send the gun where it won’t be used in combat. You talked about how pointless it was for Hawkeye and BJ to fill the gun with cement since it would still be in the camp, but I assumed that the plan was for the gun to still be taken to an artillery unit so that it’d be miles away before anyone realized it had been dismantled (I can just imagine Potter’s world-weary sigh when he gets a call from the front from some irate colonel).
One of the things I wish had been explained more is why Kwang ultimately decides to help the unit with their itching problem. He doesn’t really have a reason to, other than, I guess, gaining their trust, although he leaves by the end of the episode, so that’s a bit of a moot point. It’s almost like there’s a missing scene that showed Kwang changing his mind as he starts to see the soldiers as people instead of the enemy.
Another great episode. I had the pleasure of having lunch with Brett at the Baltimore Comic-Con recently. It is always great to hear him on Fire & Water podcasts. Congrats on the Robbie, Brett! I’m sure it will look great hanging above the mantle.
I rewatched this episode after listening. I never really paid attention to BJ going through the supply cabinet in Col Potter’s office before. Did anyone else notice that he pocketed a small box of something before he got up? I wonder what that was and if it was directed or just Mike Farrell messing around.
The Curse of Oak Island is a reality show from the History Channel. The basic premise is two brothers have spent the last 10 years looking for buried treasure on this island off the coast of Nova Scotia. Robert Clotworthy doesn’t actually appear on the show, but he is the narrator. He is the voice recapping what the brothers and their team have discovered after coming back from the commercial break. My wife is obsessed with this show. I mentioned to her about him appearing on MASH and she said “oh, he’s that annoying narrator.” I guess when you binge watch a show like she does, hearing everything she just watched being reiterated repeatedly gets on her nerves.
Great discussion! This is a memorable “Dear” episode because the main characters never find out what’s actually going on, that the guy working for Charles is a North Korean spy. It’s hard to think of any other episode where all the main characters are in the dark like this throughout the episode, although they do catch him speaking English better in the tag scene. I like how he’s not antagonistic or trying to cause harm to the 4077th but is merely there to learn. Another solid episode for Season Seven.
By the way, Todd Davis, who played one of the patients in postop, was a regular on General Hospital for many years. His character on that show was friends with a character played by Kin Shriner, who was also the voice of Green Arrow on Justice League Unlimited. So there’s a connection between two shows covered on this network!
Lovely discussion about a MASH-episode I don’t like at all…
I like the concept of it, it’s a good idea to have life in camp seen through an outsiders eyes, but it’s just done in such an uninteresting way. Kwang has no personality, and very little screen time, really. If they had done the episode from his perspective only, him making observations based on small snippets of conversation he hears, interactions he sees, I think it would have worked better, but now we see a lot of scenes Kwang is not a part of.
They could also have done more with the cultural differences, the food-thing is mentioned but other than that, there’s really nothing. Maybe he could have noticed differences between how the doctors interact with Korean and American patients, or maybe there isn’t a difference and he could have commented on that. I just want something more.
And also – his observations are that at the 4077 they do things in unorthodox ways, and in their free time they are decadent. Yes, we know this already, why did we need to have this pointed out to us now? Seems like a summary to people who haven’t seen the show before.
It doesn’t make any sense to have Kwang in the OR, I am all for suspension of disbelief, but that I just don’t buy.
Oh, and that remedy – what in the world would make it that color? What kind of bark is it made from, that must have been a spectacular looking tree 🙂
I can’t for the life of me understand why they didn’t give Margaret a Dear-episode. This would have been a perfect opportunity too. By now, Margaret has come far in her evolution. She has gone through the whole Frank-thing, the Donald-fiasco, and she has come to realize that she doesn’t need to be on the arm of a man to have worth as a human being. She relates to the people in camp so very differently now, and how great would it have been to hear her thoughts on Hawkeye, Potter and Charles, all of them. And the nurses, she still doesn’t have a great relationship with them, and there’s so much to explore there. What a missed opportunity!
I know that Loretta Swit fought hard to make Margaret something more than just this caricature who was just there to be flirty or angry or be made fun of, and I can’t help wondering if the producers were mad about this and didn’t want to give her a Dear-episode just because? Like, “okay, you can have all of these things, but you can’t have everything the boys have.” Or maybe I’m just over analyzing, I only do that every waking second of every day… 🙂
In a Dear-episode, she could have written a friend, someone she could really be herself with. I wrote a Dear-episode for Margaret, actually, where she writes her friend Helen, 35 chapters spanning all 11 seasons, so – fixed it! 🙂
I would have loved to see a Dear-episode for Frank too, they could have explored another side of him. He could have written his mom, and we could have seen sides of him that we never did otherwise. Was there maybe something more to him, something deeper, more serious, underneath the facade – was he really sad, hurt, confused – there were so many opportunities there. It could have started out with him describing a very glorified version of his days in camp, with him as the big hero, and then turn into something deeper, darker. How great would that have been! Such a bummer it was never done.
A couple of small observations – in this episode we see Hawkeye having a problem with a Howitzer. I wonder if there will be another “Howitzer” in a future episode he will also have a problem with, let’s just put a pin in that… 😉 😉 😉 Also, there’s a very cute dog in the background in the Howitzer-scene, I’m very glad he got some screen time, and I hope he was paid in treats and belly rubs. 🙂
And when Hawkeye pours the cement into the Howitzer, he says “Death Takes a Holiday”, which is one of my absolut favorite episodes in a later season, just a nice little connection there.
So, Dear Comrade is an episode I usually skip, but hearing you talk about it was fun!
It is criminal they never did a “Dear…” episode for Margaret. They only had 11 seasons to get to it!
Right? What a missed opportunity, so much could have been done there.
I’m certain that the sequences of Potter in the mess tent suggesting they pass the howitzer to an artillery unit and Kwang coming across Pierce and Hunnicutt performing their “cannondectomy” were cut in syndication.
Brilliant episode, Rob and me. What amazing insight into probably the most impactful episode of MASH ever. I’m glad we were up to the task of giving this episode the gravity it deserved. I wept.
Brett, I hate to add another comment after your exceptionally humble coda, but I will anyway! Congrats on getting your Robbie and breaking the speed record for getting one! I hope to hear more fantastic podcasts with your name attached soon. By the way, Spectrum is still a cable provider and TV station owner in Florida.
I think seeing Margaret write her dad after the episode where Howitzer Al visited might have worked, if we had gotten to see her being herself more and having a more honest relationship with him — more growth in the direction that episode started.
I have a similar college roommate story I’ll save for a face-to-face discussion with one or both of you. It even involves Springsteen, but it isn’t the sort of thing I want written down.
I thought your discussion of Winchester’s…frugality was interesting. If we go by the usual ten-to-one value rule, Charles paying a dollar a day is really ten dollars a day at current value — still super cheap, but probably more than people near the camp were making as farmers. In Afghanistan, there was a saying people had about obviously corrupt leaders taking a new office. “Well, at least his pockets are full.” A friend I served with went on to work for a charity that helped developing nations sell their natural resources in ways that didn’t get the government or the people exploited. On a work trip back to Kabul, she told me about a study of robber baron types that discredited that saying. Because, as Brett said, it’s a game, and the amount of money they can steal or skrimp is how they keep score, according to the study results. So, it doesn’t matter how full their pockets get, they keep scamming. But Rob, I love that you place a higher value on “your good name and your conscience.” I think that shows much greater wisdom than Charles can bring to bear at this point in his arc.
I think “grinning lackey to a capitalist fool” is a better vice-presidential slogan, myself.
Sun Tzu wrote, “Amid the turmoil and tumult of battle, there may be seeming disorder and yet no real disorder at all; amid confusion and chaos, your array may be without head or tail, yet it will be proof against defeat.”
I’m thinking the scene in the OR is a great example of that. It looked like chaos, but everyone was doing exactly what they were supposed to be doing.
Rob, so glad you two made it Tarpon Springs! I think I know the restaurant you mean.
Can I blame the dermatologist for not being willing to leave the golf course in Tokyo to help suffering soldiers? Even if it’s in a dirty MASH camp a few miles from the front? You bet your sweet bippy I can. I get angry thinking about it. Luckily, Kwong (sp?) did a better job than he would have.
A fellow veteran friend of mine who married an East Asian woman — maybe Korean, I can’t remember– told me how traditional medicine in the region worked, according to his experience: You go in to the office and talk to the…doctor? Herbalist? Medical care provider. The provider asks you questions about your diet, your sleep, your lifestyle, sources of stress, and of course, your symptoms. This interview takes about forty-five minutes. Then, he takes 90 seconds selecting what looks like different kinds of grass and dirt and throwing them into a container. Then he gives you instructions about how to prepare and administer it. Then you go home, prepare the foulest smelling substance you’ve ever been near (just like in the episode), and drink it or slather it or whatever. You do that every day, and in a few days you’re feeling better than you were before you got the malady.
Regarding the Army commendation for Kwong, I don’t know if that would have meant much to 1950s Koreans. But I know that Afghans held certificates and awards from the Coalition in high esteem. We also learned that if we received a certificate or plaque or something from them, it really meant a lot. But yeah, Kwong’s alias could’ve used a ten spot even more.
It would not have worked for the comedy, but had I been in Potter’s shoes, I would have thanked Hawkeye for bringing this theft of government property to the Army’s attention, taken the gun off his hands, had it moved to the artillery unit, and appointed an investigating officer. The end result would have been at least one supply sergeant in the stockade.
Red Notice was terrible, but at least I finished it. Argyle didn’t last twenty minutes.
Yes, drinking when you’re trying to hide something is dangerous, but sometimes these are the risks we have to take for our country.
Brett is right, of course, about moonshine. It’s corn-based whiskey. My great-grandfather had a vertically integrated moonshine business back when the county was dry and times were hard. Moonshine’s still available back home even though the county’s been wet for decades. My wife found that out when my mother had to warn her away from the “special” water bottle in Mom’s kitchen. Brett’s also right about Justified. It’s one of my top five favorite television shows ever. My wife enjoyed it, too, but she said I only watched it because it reminded me of home.
I’ve failed to comment on a lot of great MASHCast episodes this season — work and hurricanes and what-not — but I really love this MASH episode,. Also, Brett, as you both agreed, is a delight. For all these reasons, I had to pull out all the stops for this one. Great job, men!