Season 7, Episode 15: B.J. Papa San
Special Guest Stars: Lisa Pomegranate and Parker
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I actually enjoyed the “B” plot more than the “A” plot. I’ve always liked Dick O’Neil and he doesn’t disappoint.
Haven’t those huts been used in previous episodes? I can’t remember specific episode(s) but I think that area of the ranch has been used before.
The closest close-up I can recall is during “The Interview” episode when BJ gives his personal message. The camera gets so close that all you see of the top of BJs head is his forehead.
What you’re seeing during the flat tire scene is the inner tube. Before they invented tubeless tires the interior of a tire contained a removable tube that could be inflated. They are mainly used today as floatees for lake and ocean swimming.
If you want another “smoking a cigarette” joke – A rooster and an egg are lying in bed with the egg smoking a cigarette. The egg says “So what else do you want to know”/
Iron Guts — still listening, great episode (as usual). The gold braid is a reference to the gold braid used on a general officer’s formal uniforms, specifically class A and mess dress. The braid is used on the hat, the collar, the epaulets, and the sleeves, depending on which uniform we’re talking about. Also, a brigadier general is the lowest ranking general — only one star — a trainee general officer, as it were. I think the name came from one-srar generals commanding brigades, but in an uncharacteristic show of faith, the U.S. Army has colonels do that now. The next ranks in order are major general, lieutenant general, and “just plain” general, with no preceding qualifier words. General of the Army is a five-star rank we haven’t awarded since World War II, when the army was way bigger. Lieutenant general is three-star because just like a lieutenant is the tenant officer you get in lieu of a captain, a lieutenant general can sub for a full (four-star) general in a pinch.
– Captain Entropy, your aide’s lowly assistant
A simple mnemonic to use to remember the general officer ranks is:
Be (Brigadier General)
My (Major General)
Little (Lieutenant General)
General (General)
I found someone on Facebook with that girl’s name. She looks like she might be the right age but gave no indication of what she does for a living or that she was super-smart. It did say she was going through cancer treatments. Again, I don’t know if that is the girl from this episode but that’s what I found.
The IMDb writer said Johns Hopkins is in DC. It is actually in Baltimore unless they have a branch campus.
Did think it was funny she spoke multiple Asian languages but Korean wasn’t one of them.
Hawkeye kind of gave Charles a dirty look for not helping but I didn’t see him rushing out there. Charles at least was aware of the sulfer distributions. What exactly does that do to treat pneumonia?
I liked the B plot. The general wasn’t a bad guy. But some things struck me as odd. Why did they make him hop from where the jeep stopped to the hospital? Couldn’t the colonel drive him to the door? And why was he even driving? Couldn’t he have grabbed a sergeant to go with him? I did get a chuckle with how he handled Klinger by mentioning his son.
And did he have the authority to transfer Korean soldiers? I get it’s a TV show, just nitpicking.
The closest thing I remember to Charles dating a 4077th nurse was when the the chef was there and people were lined up to eat. Charles bribed Klinger to get a good seat and he had Kelleye as his companion. And when the nurse was there that was a classical pianist broke out the accordion, Kelleye asked him to dance and he accepted.
George, it’s sulfa, not sulfur. Cleveland Clinic says, “Sulfa” is short for sulfonamides, a class of drugs that consists mostly of antibiotics. It’s also contained in other medications…..Sulfa drugs work by preventing bacteria from producing” folic acid, which every organism needs.
Wonderful episode with two guests I feel so lucky to call Comrades in Mashblr. They’re both total geniuses and I loved hearing their enthusiasm for putting BJ in a blender – a passion I absolutely share. Special shout out to Parker who has actually made me cry into a pillow with their MASH writing – not joking, not kidding, 100% true story.
What an excellent point about how the B-plot works when you approach it from the angle that it’s comparing the difference in treatment that a general gets versus what a Korean family gets. Also so glad to hear In Love and War get brought up, I’d never made that connection before but it’s startling how similar the two episodes are. I think Love and War is more directly making a point about how Hawk doesn’t understand his role in the war and how his very presence in Korea is a symptom of something terrible happening to these people, but BJ Papa San could be read the same way! Both end with their respective Korean attachments getting the hell out of dodge for their own safety and survival, leaving the american army guy behind with (in BJ’s case) no goodbye or consideration for their feelings – as you’d expect from a family trying to survive a war! I liked what Rob said about how BJ feels like it’s happening TO him, which might be emotionally very true and painful (yessss put him in a blenderrrrr) but pales in comparison to what actually IS happening to this family he’s projected all his feelings onto. Maybe I’m being too harsh. Or maybe not!
Also I noticed Rob how you said you like looking for different meanings/interpretations in songs rather than tv or movies… youve gotta have a mash playlist right. one for every character i’ll bet. lets hear it lets go.
As much as I enjoy listening to the podcast-discussions about the MASH-episodes I love, I also truly enjoy listening to the conversations about the episodes I don’t care for… It’s always so interesting to get to experience an episode from someone else’s perspective.
I don’t care for “BJ Papa San” at all, it’s an episode I always skip. And honestly – it’s the B-plot that ruins it for me. The slap stick kind of humor doesn’t work for me at all. This is a problem I have with several A- and B-plot heavy episodes. Sometimes the two complement each other really well, but often the more light hearted plot – which is of course there to form a contrast to the more heavy things going on parallell to it – just misses the mark, the tone just doesn’t complement the other one, it just feels off.
I mean, the difference between the Korean man being in serious danger because of his pneumonia and Charles spoon feeding the General is huge and ironic of course, but it’s too much for my taste. And Radar having bees all of a sudden, being able to distinguish one individual bee from the others, the General being allergic to bee stings – it’s a very specific type of humor that I wish would have been left in the early seasons of the show.
Sadly, almost all of the other character are just criminally underused too, Margaret, Mulcahy and Klinger might as well not have been there at all. I personally prefer when everyone is involved in the same storyline, even if a character has just one small scene, it at least feels more significant.
I would really have liked for the episode to only deal with BJ’s story, there is a lot to dig into there, layers of BJ to be discovered.
I think my favorite thing is BJ leaning against Hawkeye in the dressing room, like you talk about – I really love how comfortable they are with each other. Their relationship can be stormy and they can get mad at each other for sure, but there is this genuine foundation of love and trust between them that I really like. Trapper and Hawkeye had this whole vibe of fraternity brothers, but BJ and Hawkeye are more like real brothers. That scene makes me think of the short little scene in “They Call the Wind Korea” (I think it’s that one anyway…) where Margaret is upset and leans against Hawkeye’s shoulder for a second. It’s just very sweet that Hawkeye, with all of his sides, is also someone to lean on. Figuratively and literally.
BJ’s line about how “Hello” and “Put it on Hawkeye’s tab” is the only Korean he knows makes me think of the only line in French I know. I took French for three years, but I was not a very motivated student… For some reason the only thing that stuck with me is the phrase “Ça te dérange si je fume ?” It means “Do you mind if I smoke?”, and is completely useless to me, because I have not smoked in my entire life. Oh well, time in French class well spent! 🙂
I truly enjoyed listening to this episode, very insightful comments from all of you!
Rob, you’ve had a lot of great guests and covered a lot of great episodes this season. (You were all right, too.) I haven’t commented on all of your episodes, even though I’ve wanted to. But I wanted to say some things about this great episode and these great guests, so I had to comment (several times).
First, I love the point you all made about the obvious familiarity and even intimacy between Hawkeye and BJ. I hope we’ve all experienced that kind of friendship.
Second, you also made great points about the relentlessness and the indifference of war. In its effects, it seems more like a natural phenomenon than the concerted action of human beings. It’s a terrible storm or a behemoth we unleash. Okay, the prose is getting pretty purple here, but the point is, once it starts, we lose control of it. We can’t stop it whenever we want. That takes an agreement by all parties or complete dominance by one. Either option is very difficult to achieve. We can’t predict exactly what war will do, and it doesn’t care what happens to the people who are in its way. When we try to mitigate the effects of war, even on a small, localized, scale, we may do some good, but never as much as we want. I still remember people I should’ve found a way to help, or found a way to help more. Logically, I know that if I’d managed everything I hoped to, I just would’ve hoped for more. War is also insatiable, and as you all said and the episode said, their need outweighs our ability.
Knowing all this, BJ set his sights on limited objectives. He failed to achieve them all, but better to live with the regret of incomplete success than with the regret of doing nothing at all.
Another great episode in the can. Like my podcast buddy, CPT Entropy, I have not commented much this season. But hearing your fantastic guests talk about BJ’s mustache brought up a memory of mine.
I was enlisted before earning a ROTC scholarship and becoming an officer. Back in Basic Training, we had to shave every day. At Advanced Individual Training (AIT, it’s where we learn how to do our Military Occupational Skill [MOS]), we were afforded the privilege of growing a mustache. I took full advantage of that. I kept that mustache for years afterwards.
After becoming a commissioned officer, I was often lectured that an unwritten rule was that officers don’t have mustaches. In a move of defiance, I kept it. Then in 2003, my cavalry unit deployed to take part in the Iraqi Invasion. The XO said that the officers were to grow deployment mustaches. I shaved mine off in spite.
I grew out another mustache later in 2008 when I deployed to Iraq again. I was newly married at the time. My wife told me that I had better shave it off before I returned home.
Joe, I got to have a deployment beard in 2012-2013. I thought I’d do a full beard again when I retired, but my wife was against it Apparently, she thought the pictures of my previous one made me look too “Duck Dynasty”.– always a potential concern for a white guy who grew up in the rural South.
One thought that crossed my mind during a recent rewatch… BJ gives up on finding the family awfully fast! Even if the surgery session had gone on for awhile, given that the family was likely traveling by foot or – at best – cart, he and Hawkeye could’ve at least driven a few more miles down the road to see if he could catch up with them.