Season 8, Episode 23: War Co-Respondent
Special Guest Star: Shannon
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Great discussion. Aggie’s demeanor kind of reminded me of the Margot Kidder version of Lois Lane. Given that Aggie was a famous journalist, I’m surprised they didn’t put her in the VIP tent. Margaret said there was an extra bunk in her tent, which she has never had before. I was thinking this is another MASH continuity glitch, but maybe they meant that a bunk was added to Margaret’s tent especially for Aggie.
I frankly would have appreciated a B-plot as a break from the BJ-Aggie drama. (I know I’m probably in the minority, but I kind of like having a lighter B-plot, except for format-busting episodes.) But I do give Mike Farrell a lot of credit for writing, directing, and having the lead role in the episode. As far as I know, he’s the only cast member other than Alan Alda to wear all three hats at once, and he did a really nice job.
They had to have them bunk together so they could have a “girls chat” but it doesn’t make sense she wasn’t in the VIP tent. The old hag stripper stayed with her when the USO tour was there but I think someone else was in the VIP tent.
Whew! Shannon really brought the A-game to this discussion. Delightful all the way. I almost hurt my neck nodding along with every point you both made. A great podcast for a great episode.
Now we’re talking. In season 8 this is about the only good episode after Levine left (Old Soldiers is also good). And how can you not love Susan St James?! She and Jane Curtin were the reasons I watched “Kate and Allie” even though the scripts were weak.
It was interesting to hear the interpretation of Aggie saying “. . makes me love you all the more”. I never saw the negative connotation that you and your guest saw. It was obvious that Aggie loved BJ. Have you ever heard of love at first sight? And during her stay she saw the care that BJ took in both his work and his personal relations. Also I see nothing wrong with one person telling another that they love them. It’s a great thing to hear. I’m no Romeo (far from it) but I have had several women tell me that even though I did not have reciprocal feelings. And I have spoke it a couple of times too without it being said back. In this case they both feel it even though it’s been a short time (remember BJ says “I can’t go . . . to I love you because of the damn war” and also tells her that the love is mutual).but BJ’s strong morality overshadows this feeling of love.
I enjoyed the discussion but not a fan of the character. My wife used to say there is a word for a woman who brazenly pursues a married man and it’s not a nice word. Hawkeye was a letch but he drew the line at infidelity. I wonder how many other marriages she tried to destroy when she encountered a lonely man far from home.
Flip the script and a male correspondent hitting on a vulnerable nurse wouldn’t be praised as a wonderful person.
Loved the story of young Shannon demanding BJ, that was just so sweet! Lovely conversation too, I just love when a guest gets to dig into their favorite character, and cut them up into delicious little pieces 🙂 This is, however, one of the times where I will write “loved the podcast-episode, don’t love the MASH-episode.”
I bet Susan Saint James is a tremendous actress, I haven’t seen her in anything else, but I get a coldness and distance from her as Aggie. So many people out there see something I don’t in her, obviously, and I love that for all of you. I am completely aware that my opinion is colored by the fact that I just find Aggie to be wasted as a character, by being a love interest. I bet she has such a fascinating history and backstory, and we never get to know anything about her, sadly, other that that she apparently loves BJ. She only reacts to BJ and the other characters, and I really wish she would have had more of an agenda except to flirt with BJ.
Going after a married man isn’t right, of course, but I have no problem with characters doing the morally wrong thing, but since it’s Aggie’s only character trait that we see, it just feels bland. It’s like how I feel about Henry and Trapper, to be honest, in the early seasons they flirt and cheat because they like it, we never feel like they do it because they’re scared or lonely or horrified by what they see every day, it’s just something they do because they can. It’s see, want, take, and I feel the same was about Aggie.
And because of this, when they proclaim their love for each other, even though Aggies is the only one who says it out loud, it doesn’t feel earned, the characters haven’t made me feel this deep connection. Its like throwing in an evil twin at the end of an murder mystery, like, oh, where did that come from? Again, had we known Aggie as a character, this might have worked, and I agree with Shannon – I would actually have liked to see her again, maybe this could have been a two parter, and we would have gotten to know her more.
It’s just so different when we know a character – Margaret, for example, gets engaged to someone she has known a weekend, gives her heart away to this dude she doesn’t know, because she’s frustrated in her current situation with Frank that’s going nowhere, she craves someone in her life that’s just hers. So it’s a horrible idea, Margaret my girl, but it makes sense. It’s not true love, it’s the longing of finding true love, so she just takes it where she can make herself believe she has found it.
It’s like, I get everything this episode tries to do, but I think it’s too much for this short format, and honestly I think it ends right when it could be interesting. BJ feels things he would never have guessed he would, he sees a person he could spend his life with other than Peg. I would have loved to see what that knowledge does to him, see him reflect over how much he has changed, who he is now, who he will be when he gets back home. We just saw Peg being led away by unknown men i Dreams, while BJ fell into his doctor role, and here he was almost led away by someone he tells us he has real emotions for. If Hawkeye hadn’t been there to talk him down, what would he have done? BJ almost lost the last sliver of who he used to be, he is grabbing onto his lifeline with sweaty, slippery hands, and that has got to do something to him, that I for one would have liked to seen him tackle.
Okay, done being negative now, there are still some things I like about the episode!
I really like that the patient says that his chest feels funny – just like BJ’s.
I very much like Hawkeye’s and Margaret’s energy throughout the episode, they have this teasing sibling-vibe going on, and I think it’s sweet. It’s gonna come back in a later episode, where a famous person comes to camp and Margaret is the smitten one, and the roles are reversed. It’s just so nice to see these different sides of their relationship.
I also like that Aggie going after BJ so aggressively mirrors Hawke’es flirting with her, they both dial their interest up to 200. I think Hawkeye is more putting on a show to amuse himself, really. He knows he’s not getting anywhere with Aggie, well, fine, then he can just be super over the top and annoy her instead while entertaining himself.
Love that Margaret has such high thoughts of BJ, he represents the type of man she wants to be with some day, a man who is dedicated and faithful, and she just sees this kind of idealized version of him, she sees the man she wants to see. Like she has a tendency to do with people. Also – it’s a nice little detail that Margaret and Aggie talk about different levels of camaradeire, when there was a similar discussion about people turning to each other and so on in Comrades in Arms, where there also was a certain type of camaraderie going on.
The drawing BJ receives at the end – maybe Aggie thought the situation over after she left, got annoyed, and decided to draw a charicature version of him as a tiny revenge. Like, I wish you well, but I’m also gonna make you look a little stupid.
Thank you both for this episode, I had such a great time listening!
Great discussion.
Even I, at a very young age, was rather charmed by Susan St. James and Aggie in this episode. So it is easy to see how BJ would be intrigued/attracted. What I don’t quite get is Aggie’s immediate attraction to BJ. It doesn’t seem to be what he is that attracts her; it is what he isn’t. He isn’t always hitting on her, a big city guy, a blowhard. ‘That makes me love you more’ is again from a negation. I really don’t like ‘in love’ after 24 hours. I can allows ‘I can see myself falling in love with you’ a bit easier if there is a big early attraction.
Lastly, I always thought that Margaret does indeed know about BJ’s prior dalliance and how it impacted him. So her saying ‘BJ … never’ was her way of trying to dissuade Aggie from hitting on BJ, fearing he might succumb again and how devastating that would be for him.
Great episode discussion!
My favorite line is BJ saying “But what about Berkeley, Stanford, Cal Tech?” and Charles replying “Oh, they’re fine institutions
teeming with frontier spirit.” I just think it’s funny that when Mike Farrell wrote this episode, he decided to include a throwaway line defending California’s universities.
And I also like “What I want is to be sent to Tokyo” because of the pay-off later when Charles turns down the transfer to Tokyo.
I see it as a throwback to when Charles was writing his letter home and said BJ was a good doctor despite being educated in California.
I think Aggie’s problem was she, like Margaret, was married to her job. Traveling the globe doesn’t leave much time to find a spouse.
Fun episode! The recording of the table read for it is hilarious, especially with everybody making fun of Mike Farrell for how little they all have to do in it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7vV_5BB9UM&t=1s). So glad to hear Rob’s starting to SEE THROUGH the many many lies of BJ… There is no Aunt Shirley. Speaking of, isn’t it crazy that when he’s prompted to list things he likes, he starts with Hawkeye? And the fact that Aggie is like, a female version of Hawkeye? Anything close to the heart is dangerous or so they say. Another fabulous discussion!! Can’t believe we’re almost at the end of season 8!!