Season 8, Episode 7: Nurse Doctor
Special Guest Star: Remy Skyfire
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I can see a catholic priest in 1951 saying “she was a woman too.
1. he May have been in seminary as young as 14
2. any co-ed function he went to before that boys and girl’s DID’NT TOUCH.
3. From that to the army? Women space creatures
Yeah! What Rob M said!
Also, yes he has a sister he’s close to, but there’s a limit on the transferability of relationships with siblings and relationships with other human beings. Siblings barely count.
“She was a woman too” is such a Radar line. I wonder if they had it laying around the shop and just decided it was too good to not use. 🙂
I’m overly thinking the isolation Mulcahy expresses in this episode. We just had Potter saying he knew the camp wasn’t thrilled to have him replace Blake, revealing something that he recognized without anybody saying it to him directly. He knows there’s that distance as C.O. versus everybody else. Plus he’s always called “Colonel”, with only the rare moments when Hawkeye and maybe BJ call him Sherm or Sherman. So we’re seeing a similar but different distinction for Mulcahy. It’s not unique to being a military chaplain. Whether it’s a priest or pastor or preacher or Father, the religious leader of a church can always feel the friction between that term of respect also indicating an emotional distance. I never had the chance to talk with my dad about it, but I imagine he felt some relief being home where he could just be “dad” instead of “pastor”. But since Catholic priests can’t marry, Mulcahy doesn’t have that in his future. It’s fascinating to see them touch on this in even a small way in the show.
And I’m on board with Nurse Gail being neurodivergent, or less specifically, a medical nerd. She has a lot of knowledge and wants to use it, but her social skills are lacking. Something I can sympathize with immensely.
If I may add onto Remy’s comments about Margaret, that same ferocity she brings to her relationships is exactly why she will push Gail to continue her studies, and is just the person we should have in our corner. Loved it.
The scene of Hawkeye and Mulcahy in that isolated part of camp stands out as you mentioned because it has such a distinct setting compared to the usual sets. Scenes at the ranch add to the realism of the show.
That’s a good point of how Hawkeye in this episode is somewhat avuncular and similar to Alan Alda in real life. I kind of prefer that kinder, gentler side of Hawkeye to the edgier version from the book, movie, and early years of the show, although I know we’ll see the darker side of him again in some future episodes.
This was great, thank’s for an interesting conversation!
Nurse Doctor is an episode I tend to skip, so it was really great to go back and watch it with fresh eyes after listening to this, and I did enjoy it more this time around.
I think my biggest gripe with Nurse Doctor is something I have with several other episodes too – when they bring in a guest female character, there is so often a romance involved, and the journey we go on is really all about one of the guys. I know I mentioned in “Inga” that I wish it hadn’t been a romance, that she and Margaret could have had a storyline together instead. They have a lot in common.
I feel the same way about Lil, and upcoming Aggie. This is of course not a “real” romance, but still. All of these guest characters are interesting, and it would have been fun to see them go on a journey that wasn’t closely tied to them having some sort of interest in one of the guys.
I would have loved for this episode to be more like The Nurses, part 2. Like you talk about, show me what the situation with the other nurses is like, don’t just tell me.
How interesting would that have been, with this new nurse feeling alienated from the rest of the group, not knowing how to fix it, and Margaret seeing that whole situation from a new perspective.
Margaret and Gail really are a lot alike, they can’t really understand why the group don’t like them, they have done everything right. Gail says she works hard, does her job, but still people don’t like her, and Margaret is just like that in The Nurses. She became the leader her father taught her to be, and still – she was the one on the outside hearing the others having fun. Feeling alienated from the “cool” gang she was used to being a part of.
Margaret is of course my girl, but she is not very emotionally smart, I don’t think at this point she has sat down and analyzed that whole situation and thought, “hm, well maybe I did alienate them by my behaviour, I should have reached my hand out first and tried to fix the situation.”
But I also think this realization has sort of marinated within her, and it comes out like this – she can apply her new knowledge on this nurse. While of course coming off harsh and sort of stand-offish herself, because she is still Major Margaret Houlihan, her father’s daughter, and she can’t allow herself to get too soft.
And I for sure thinks she sees herself in Gail when it comes to having ambition too, she knows all about how hard that can be for a woman. I’m thinking about “Hot Lips is Back In Town”, when she wants to implement that triage program, and that creepy dude tells her sure, I can make that happen for you, you just have to sleep with me to make it so.
She says that the army is no help for women with ambitions, and she has experienced that herself, in many ways, and it’s so interesting that she can admit it at this point.
Also – I love the evolution of Margaret’s tent! Look how warm and inviting it is now, compared to the early seasons, where it’s all green and plain. The sort of living quarters her father would approve of.
But at this point, it’s like Margaret’s real personality is finally shining through, and it shines brighter than the army. She is starting to show the warmer side of her in the way she decorates her tent too. Love that it’s so much red in there, because as we know – red is anti green. It’s like another way Margaret is starting to separate herself from basically being an embodiment of the army.
I’m also thinking about how this is yet another episode where people feel entitled to other people’s things. Like, Charles had a personal stash of water, what was he supposed to do – share it with the entire camp? Why would he share it with his tent mates even, it’s not he has his own personal swimming pool of lovely, fresh water.
The way both BJ and Hawkeye feels entitled is really annoying, but also true to character.
I absolutely agree that at this point, Hawkeye’s flirting feels a bit like him holding on the the person he used to be. Earlier, the lecherous flirt was a huge part of his personality, and he still clings to it, but it’s more like a role he slips into now, one he’s expected to play.
I like to think that the change truly began in him in Comrades in Arms. He felt something he didn’t expect, and it helped to calm him down a bit, not constantly treat women as objects. Even thought he still does it. But I really like that thought, that both he and Margaret started to calm down and grow a little after that whole situation.
Hawkeye isn’t very emotionally smart either, and I don’t think it’s something he has consciously put into words, but it still lingers there in the back of his head.
My final note is this. What’s up with the beet slandering? I’m outraged, I live in a country built on root vegetables (and also pickled herring), and I’m deeply offended. I’m sure Inga is too. 😀 😉
Thank’s for a fun episode!
Rob, I want to start by saying that, like ALL of the MASHblr guest hosts this season, Remy was a ringer — funny, insightful, and honestly just a joy to listen to. I know there are probably people who don’t like hearing about the queer reading of the show. As a straight, cisgender white man, I don’t like it when someone says characters that aren’t overtly LGBTQ must be read that way, a la Dr. Frederic Wertham. But I’ve never heard a MASHblr guest do that. They generally acknowledge that the writers didn’t intend a queer reading. As consumers, they read it that way because a) the plot, dialogue, and performances can often support it, and b) they get additional value (representation, depth of meaning, etc.) doing so. They have a right to do so, and it would be both wrong and quite pointless for us to try and stop them.
The most common case of “crossing the line” with a queer reading to me is when someone says these two people of the same gender — especially men — couldn’t be that close unless they had a romantic relationship. Well, one of the many benefits the military still provides is platonic friendships (between and across genders) that really are that close. I’ve cried with comrades in arms and comforted them as they cried with me. Once, when a group of friends and I were in the chow hall at ISAF headquarters in Kabul, I asked a friend in a difficult situation how he was coping with it. He responded (to all of us at the table), “Well, at night, I weep.” And we all laughed loudly because it was unexpected, but we also knew he was telling the truth. You have so much in common, and the emotions can be raw, especially when you’re deployed. I’ve had conversations about bodily functions and marriages and all kinds of things that you just wouldn’t talk about in air-conditioned suburbia. But again, have I ever heard a guest on this podcast say, “Hawkeye and BJ MUST be gay to be this close”? Nope. Not once. And in fact, the guests’ discussion of the queer reading is usually a tiny fraction of their superb commentary.
Is Gail neurodivergent? I’m not qualified to say. Gifted people often pick up emotional intelligence skills later, though this would be very late. The catastrophizing looks like anxiety to me. I’m not qualified to diagnose that, either. Honestly, if I had been Hawkeye, and she said Father Mulcahy must’ve told the whole camp, I’d have been offended on Mulcahy’s behalf. Priests have to confide in someone, too. Hawkeye actually handled it better than I would have.
I think what they said about the nurses’ reactions made perfect sense. If you’re a woman in the fifties, you might feel some responsibility to become a nurse, to be a professional and challenge the status quo. Then a woman comes along who’s trying to become a doctor. It might make you wonder if you’re doing enough, and becoming a nurse — a combat trauma nurse in the Army, no less — was already pretty freakin’ hard. Worse, she’s screwing up the carefully curated relationship with the mildly egomaniacal surgeons. (Okay, Charles’s case isn’t mild.). To me — and the medical professionals on this thread should correct me — nurses and doctors both have to know their patients and the practice of medicine. But the nurses know more about the patients, and the doctors know more about medicine. Sometimes, the nurses have to manipulate the doctors to pay attention to the patients and do what’s best for them — because they (the nurses) actually know better. That is a delicate and sophisticated dance, even more so in 1952, and Gail’s demeanor is not helping. As a support officer dealing with prima dona special operators, I of course have never had a similar experience. But I can see the nurses having some resentment. Of course, Gail doesn’t see all that and isn’t trying to do anything wrong.
Is Father Mulcahy gay? I don’t think so. If anything, he presents as asexual (the “A” in LGBTQIA+). Except there was that time that discussing the nurses’ showering made him visibly uncomfortable. Maybe demisexual? Maybe just so used to being totally “off the market” that he can be clueless when somebody is interested in him? I know some podcast hosts like that.
On that note, regarding his overreaction to her hug: Was that driven by fear of the temptation that Gail presented to him? Maybe I’m projecting why I might overreact in the same situation. Gail is, as we say in the South, “right cute.”
And that brings up the age difference, since I’m way older than that old lech Hawkeye. Alan Alda turned 43 the year this came out, and the actress playing Gail turned 32. They’re both playing younger — maybe 24 and 35? — but they’re also both consenting adults. Of course, there’s the power differential to consider, and the fact that Hawkeye is often directing the nurses’ activity at work. Those are both legitimate concerns, but they are concerns with almost every romantic relationship he’s had on the show. Anyway, I’m not too concerned about it.
In my head canon, that Quonset hut is where the motor pool does maintenance on the jeeps, trucks, and ambulances. That’s the perfect place to have a private conversation as long as Rizzo isn’t around. I agree that the location really helped the scene.
Anyway, terrific discussion of a great episode as usual. Thank you for MASHcast!
Great discussion as usual. I have to admit, I kept waiting for someone to address the plot element that had me distracted the whole time – why is there a water shortage?? I was under the (mistaken) impression that they got their water from the nearby river, boiling or filtering it. I think in “Bug Out,” when Potter is scouting a new location, he says something about there being a building and a river for water supply. I may be misremembering, but thought at the time, wow, they do need a water source. So watching “Nurse Doctor” this time around, I started to wonder why they suddenly couldn’t get water from the river. Dead livestock upstream? A seasonal drought? I saw no one address it here in the comments, so finally i looked up how MASH units got their water. From supply trucks, just like the episode says. I’d like to think it was a good mental exercise to try and figure out their water problem, but I think I just got needlessly distracted. Though, why not get river water for non-medical purposes, like showering and laundry?
I thought the water shortage deserved better than just a subplot played for laughs. A water shortage would have serious repercussions in a medical unit.