Season 8, Episode 3: Guerilla My Dreams
Special Guest Star: Stephanie Kice
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Sadly, Haunani Minn (the guerilla woman) passed away at age 67 on November 23, 2014.
I think this might be the first episode of MASH that I experienced, aside from vague memories of hearing the opening and closing credits dating back to my earliest memories. I hadn’t become a regular viewer yet, but I have a distinct memory of this episode. I would have been 10 years old in 1979. I was doing something else like reading when I suddenly heard Hawkeye say, “You son of a bitch,” and then there was the sound of the guns being drawn and silence. It made an impression on me that this was a more serious show than the shows I was watching at the time, like Happy Days and Three’s Company. I didn’t become a regular MASH viewer until the final season, but I think this episode led the way to my fandom.
I really liked your discussion of the ambiguity about the entire situation with the Korean woman and Lieutenant Park. In the early years, Hawkeye was often written as being 100% right about everything, but here, Hawkeye was not perfect. He was unaware that the woman actually was what Lieutenant Park said. This of course doesn’t mean that Park’s tactics are acceptable, but it is unclear what the correct actions are for our characters. I respect how Colonel Potter handled it and reluctantly concluded there was nothing they could do. The episode ended on a somber and uncertain note, in contrast to the previous episode, in which the serious subject involving the McCarthy hearings was neatly resolved with comedy.
The scene in post-op is brilliant because you assume that the woman is trying to escape only to have us discover she is trying to kill the American GI. Chilling. As you say, this is a different episode of MASH where the writers show the other side of things. This time I do think Hawkeye is wrong.
Great episode all around and wonderful discussion.
It was so interesting listening to this, because “Guerilla My Dreams” is a weird episode for me…
I tend to think that I like it more than I actually do, or I like the idea of it more than I do the actual episode.
It’s one of the episodes that really suffer from it’s short run time, I would have loved for this story to be able to breathe more.
And also – as you touch upon – I think the aftermath of these events would have been more interesting to focus on. Like, Hawkeye most of all gets his view of the world shaken up quite a bit, so what does that do with him continuing on with his everyday work?
I really like that our heroes are wrong, plain and simple. They saw a wounden woman and assumed she was the innocent victim they needed to protect.
As Stephanie said, I love that it’s a female character. The other Korean females the doctor’s deal with are peasants, mothers, bar girls, prostitutes, none of them poses a threat.
And for Hawkeye too, he gave his heart away to that Korean lady in an earlier episode, and I think that has affected how he sees Korean women in general, they’re good and kind, and he needs to save them.
And over all, he has this huge need to save people, whether it being for them or to coddle his ego. It’s like he clings to his role as a doctor so much that it becomes consuming. It makes me think of the scene in Comrades in Arms, when he literally wants to take the wounded enemy soldier with him, like, are you just gonna carry him with you there, doctor, across the very dangerous Korean landscape? It’s likee if he can hold on to his doctor-role, he doesn’t have to think about imminent death, and possible feelings for a colleague. And at this point in the show, he clings to his role as a doctor to protect his sanity, it’s about the only thing that makes sense to him in all the chaos.
I also think that it’s so interesting how he gets upset when the Korean Commander refers to the woman as just a pawn, because Hawkeye has treated women like that himself before, just like pawns in his game. Like when he set up that attempted rape against Margaret in Bananas, Crackers and Nuts, for example. But it makes all the sense for him as a character not to reflect over that.
Also, where Hawkeye is as a character by this point – it’s like the Commander is a dark shadow of him. Two men, determined to do their job, at whatever cost.
The scene with the chess game reminds me of the famous one in “The Seventh Seal”, where the main character plays chess with death. The Commander does represent death here, for the woman, and maybe also for Hawkeye’s view of the world, of right and wrong.
I like that we get so see Scully again, he and Margaret are just so cute! We do see a side of him, though, that is a nice continuation from his last appearance – we see that he doesn’t really take no for an answer, he likes to have things his way. He is so insistent on getting some alone time with Margaret, and doesn’t listen to what she says. Margaret isn’t bothered by it, of course, she’s charmed by him once again, but it’s still there.
So, he likes his woman quiet and cute, and he likes to take charge. Interesting…
I also got to comment on Margaret’s earlier line about never loving anyone who doesn’t outrank her – in my mind, that is something her father told her a long time ago.
“You need someone who outranks you, who can take care of you. Don’t you come dragging home some boy that lacks ambition,” and that just stuck in her head and created this conviction in her. I think further down the line she would be able to see this for herself, that that was just her father speaking through her.
Also – had it been another nurse who allowed herself to be distracted – there would have been hell to pay for that poor nurse! Especially if she had been distracted by a man. That’s very Margaret – she is all about rules and regulations, unless she can break them for her own gain, and she does have different standards for herself and others.
I think that flaw in her makes her even more interesting (surprise, surprise), just that constant balance of doing what she heas been taught is right, and what her heart tells her to do.
While I do like the silence when they all just stand looking at each other in the end, there’s something about it that doesn’t really work for me. I mean , I get why Hawkeye would just go quiet, his view of the world, good and evil if you will, has been shaken up, and him being at a loss for words feels impactful – he always have something to say – but the rest of them? I don’t know what Colonel Potter for example would have said, but it feels like he should have found his words pretty easily. I don’t know, maybe it’s just the fact that I would have liked this whole scene to be in the beginning of the episode, and we would have seen the aftermaths of the events instead.
If only MASH-episodes were an hour long…
Doesn’t the woman who plays the guerilla soldier also play the pregnant mother in The Kids? The one who has the baby that recieves Frank’s Purple Heart? And that also is the cutest baby I have ever seen. (No, I don’t have kids, so no shade to any babies of my own 🙂 )
Love the podcast! Thank you so much for making it. A couple of things stood out for me that you didn’t mention in the this episode.
You had asked if Charles was in on the plan to sneak the prisoner out. He definitely was in on it. He says to the Lieutenant “A game of chess might be a *distraction* from the folly in which we are all engaged.” He emphasizes the word distraction when he looks at Hawkeye and BJ.
One other thing I don’t think you talked about but I think is very funny is that when Charles was telling Klinger how he drinks brandy, he says “One urges it to insinuate its fumes through the joyous olfactory passages.” Later when Klinger is drinking the brandy with the guards, he tells them to warm it over the fire because it is good for the “old factory.” The writing on this show sometimes just blows my mind.
Anyway, thanks again for the podcast. I look forward to when it hits my feed every week and maybe someday I’ll be able to participate.
George Cheung, the one who says “because he has the face of a dog” played the Chinese restaurant owner in the Seinfeld episode, The Pothole. It’s the one where Elaine uses a phony address to get a special dish from the restaurant because they wouldnt deliver to her actual address
Rob, I know I’ve already communicated this to you separately, but I want everyone to know: This is one of my favorite episodes, and you and Stephanie knocked it out of the park. You covered every important point well — the doctors being wrong about the woman; Lieutenant Park’s ruthlessness, intelligence, and mission focus; Mako’s incredible performance (and Alan Alda’s!); and the moral ambiguity and moral dilemmas of war. At the end, Mako and the guerrilla almost seemed allied against the young doctors. Hawkeye and BJ were dilettantes, novices when it came to war. But Park and the guerrilla, for all their differences, shared a common understanding of what was happening and a common contempt for the Americans’ ignorance (Potter excepted, of course). This episode is brutal, but magnificent in its ability to communicate its message — a masterpiece in my estimation. Thank you for a VERY enjoyable discussion.
Great show, Rob and Stephanie. It was interesting seeing our heroes read this situation all wrong. While you don’t want to cheer on someone being sent to their execution, she was clearly trying to kill anyone she could. Mako was amazing in his steadfastness as well as his patience. I feel his character could’ve really been more aggressive about getting his way, but allowed this to play out out of respect to his American allies (I’m sure that was always reciprocated). Finally, regarding Napoleon Brandy, it’s a good type of brandy. However, It’s not always a Cognac. The Napoleon name on the label refers to a quality of age, and not necessarily made in the French Cognac region. It has to be aged in oak barrels a minimum of 6 years, which places it right in between a VSOP (Very Superior Old Pale) and an XO (Extra Old) brandy in quality.
This is the season I started watching the show. I was 12 at the time and only had a passing knowledge of it. Don’t know why I started but this is the first one I remember seeing. After that I was hooked and started watching reruns.
Where were they going to send her? Another hospital isn’t going to defend her once Mako shows up.
So was she a Korean version of the Viet Cong?