Template:Infobox M*A*S*H episode V2 Hawkeye Get Your Gun is the 108th episode of M*A*S*H, the ninth in the fifth season of the show, which originally aired on CBS-TV on November 30, 1976. It was directed by William Jurgensen, and written by Gene Reynolds and Jay Folb.
Storyline
Hawkeye and Potter provide assistance at a Korean clinic, and run into an enemy attack on the way home. Meanwhile, Klinger begins posing as a Gypsy to help get his discharge papers.
Full episode summary
During a long, grueling session in O.R., Frank keeps making less-than-subtle comments about Col. Potter's age, and how he might not be as capable as his three younger surgeons. Potter is, of course, insulted.
Later on, the 4077th gets a message from a Korean hospital, asking for help - two doctors, and all the medical supplies a jeep can carry. While trying to decide who will go, Frank puts his foot in his mouth again, suggesting that Potter is too old to go on this mission. Potter uses a deck of cards to decide who's going to go - and it ends up being Hawkeye and...Col. Potter.
As they climb into the jeep, Potter notices Hawkeye does not have his standard issue sidearm. Hawkeye argues he doesn't want to bring it, but Potter insists.
Soon, they arrive at the Korean hospital, but it's not quite a hospital - its more of a dilapidated hut. The commander, Major Choi (Mako), greets them, and immediately puts them to work. Hawkeye is dismayed (and more than a little snide) at the lack of sterile conditions, but Major Choi reminds him they are making do with what they have.
Its a marathon session, with the added feature of shelling going on outside. Eventually, Hawkeye and Col. Potter try to catch some sleep in a side room, resting on a wooden crate. Hawkeye boasts he can put Potter to sleep, and tries to pseudo-hypnotize him into doing so. It works, but in reverse - its Hawkeye who passes out, leaving Potter to go back to work.
Surgery goes on all night, eventually ending in the morning. Major Choi commends them on their work, and they head home.
On the way back, Hawkeye and Potter drink liberally from a canteen of booze Klinger packed in their jeep. They both get hammered and silly, but things get serious when bombs start to fall on the road they're driving on, getting so close they stop the jeep and hide in a nearby ditch.
A shell hits their jeep, blowing it up ("The case will be in court for years!", Hawkeye comments). Then bullets start to fly, and Potter, refusing to be "dragged off to some Chinese prison camp", empties his gun firing back.
He insists Hawkeye do the same, but he adamantly refuses. Potter flat out orders him to, yet Hawkeye still refuses. He lets Potter know it is simply not in him to shoot anyone, for any reason.
Finally Potter talks Hawkeye into it, telling him to think of the gun as "The biggest noise-maker in all of Korea." Hawkeye relents, but only partially - he shoots straight into the air, warning everyone within earshot to take cover. Now that he's used up all his bullets, he reasons, can he go home now? Potter is amazed at the extent of Hawkeye's refusal to play along - simultaneously angry and impressed. But since he's also drunk, he finds it very funny. They both end up giggling in the ditch, just as the bullets stop flying.
They wander back, running across a platoon of U.S. soldiers. Told that the North Koreans have moved out, Hawkeye and Col. Potter are safe to walk home, staggering drunkenly as they do it.
That night, Frank visits Col. Potter to say goodnight, amazed that the old man is still standing, let alone awake. Potter says he's about to do fifty push-ups, would Frank like to join him? Frank begs off, leaving Potter to crawl into his bed, finally going to sleep after a very long day.
Guest stars/Recurring cast
- Mako as Major Choi
- Richard Doyle as M.P.
- Thomas Botosan as Sergeant
- Jeff Maxwell as Igor Straminsky
- Phyllis Katz as Nurse Able
- Jae Woo Lee as Korean Guard
Fun Facts
Hawkeye with his feet on desk
One of Potter's paintings is crafted, Hawkeye with his feet on desk. The finished version first appears in Exorcism.
Trivia
- The title is based on the musical "Annie Get your Gun"
- While Hawkeye's name is in the title, the episode centers more around Sherman T. Potter.
- Hawkeye asks a nurse for Metzenbaum scissors, but the instrument he receives and uses are Kelly hemostatic forceps.
Memorable Quotes
- Hawkeye: Look Colonel, I'll heal their wounds, treat their wounds, bind their wounds, but I will not inflict their wounds.
- Col. Potter: Confidentially, Hawkeye, I couldn't hit a bullet with the side of a barn.