User reviews

There are two unrelated plots here. The more serious has to do with a young war hero, the son of a General, who has risked his life in the face of grave danger. He is on the brink from the moment he arrives. John Anderson plays the blood and guts two star general who brings a trailer to camp so he can do his thing while his son is trying to recover. There is a tender moment between Hawkeye and the General, that looks at the realities of war. The second has to do with Margaret and her fascination with a famous doctor who is going to be at a conference. On the eve of that event, she gets laryngitis and is embarrassed to try to call the guy. He later shows up at the camp to see her because of her heartfelt letter.

This to me was one of the best MASH episodes...well done juxtapositions of serious plot issues and the comedic banter between Winchester(who can't stand Margaret's worship of the surgeon she's dying to meet, yet he's reluctantly helping her make it happen with his voice, not hers!) and the serious tone in the scenario of the badly wounded soldier and his Two-Star General Dad, skillfully played by John Anderson. The son in the episode played his part very well---you could feel the pain he was experiencing with his wounds and the desire to have that approval from his father to know that he, the son had "given his all".

What struck me to make this episode one of the best was the fact that Hawkeye showed humility and respect for the General---not at the beginning, but near the end, which was refreshing since many of the episodes had him mostly over-the-top disrespectful and sarcastic to military authority figures he would encounter who had an impossible job to do.

They end up at the end having respect for each other, even though they come from two different worlds...if only for a moment, sharing a drink in honor of the fallen one's that they never get to know...then back to their respective worlds of tragedy and the horrors of war.