Line #45 Recap/MashS1E12DearDad


1	The first VoiceoverLetter episode in the series, as well as its first ChristmasEpisode.
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3	As Christmas approaches at the 4077, Hawkeye writes home describing his first holiday in Korea: The good Father Mulcahy is giving the camp a Yuletide look... and also helping Klinger make one of his first fashion statements. Trapper is delivering smiles, lollipops, and a bouncing baby calf; Radar is mailing a jeep (and a gigantic "retroactive hernia") back home, one piece at a time. Henry is a much superior friend than a superior officer; his lectures on sex are legendary because, even with diagrams, no one can figure out how Part A inserts into Person B. The Captains inject Major romantic chaos into "date night" while Hawkeye gets Major bliss from free samples. Trapper has the heart of Santa Claus, but Hawkeye has the red suit. A helicopter is like a noisy sleigh without reindeer... Swinging from a rough, rope ladder, [=SantaHawk=] and his medical bag are a sight for a pair of sore [=GIs=]...
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5	----
6	!!Dear Dad, these tropes also happened...
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8	* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Margaret's stunned and amorous reaction to being given a Christmas kiss by Hawkeye clearly proves, despite their regular animosity, that she holds an attraction for the unmilitary wisecracker.
9	--> '''Frank''': Margaret, are...are you alright?
10	--> '''Margaret''': I'm fine, Frank. ''Fine''.
11	--> '''Frank''': Oh, the man's a beast! An animal!
12	--> '''Margaret''': ''(sighing)'' Yeah. Every bit of him.
13	* AmusingInjuries: In trying to stop a fight between Frank Burns and Klinger, Father Mulcahy is tackled to the floor and headbutted in the stomach.
14	* BlatantLies: Frank telling Trapper he's going out just to stretch his legs. ''cough''[=DatewithMargaret=]''cough''
15	* BrickJoke: Radar is mailing a Jeep home to Iowa, piece by piece.
16	* CanNotSpitItOut: Henry struggles this way with the monthly lecture.
17	* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Klinger is portrayed as being genuinely mentally unstable, with his threat to suicide bomb the camp over his bandana being treated with dead seriousness. It's quite jarring with his later portrayal as entirely faking his SanitySlippage. Then again, his hothead tendencies do carry on throughout the series.
18	* TheCasanova: Hawkeye
19	* ChristmasEpisode
20	* DeadpanSnarker:
21	** Trapper, to Frank saying he's trying to concentrate.
22	---> '''Trapper''': Try the library.
23	** Henry gets a snarking reply each from Hawkeye and Trapper at his lecture when he says that only enlisted personnel are required to attend and officers are not.
24	---> '''Hawkeye''': Why should they know more than we do?\
25	'''Trapper''': Yeah, I got a date tonight. I wanna learn as much as I can.
26	** Frank tells Hawkeye to shave. Even Hawkeye found it funny, for a brief moment.
27	---> '''Frank''': Well, whatever you do, I want to see you shaved next time I see you.\
28	'''Hawkeye''': I shaved this morning.\
29	'''Frank''': Well, shave again. And this time take one step closer to the razor.
30	** Trapper again, when Frank tells him the cologne is French.
31	---> '''Trapper''': No wonder you smell like a snail.
32	* DisproportionateRetribution: Attempted by Klinger. After his altercation with Frank in the post-op ward, he wants to blow the major to kingdom come with a grenade. Father Mulcahy manages to talk him down.
33	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: This is one of those episodes where Hawkeye says his home is in Vermont before it is firmly established in the series continuity that it is in Crabapple Cove, Maine.
34	* FightScene: Frank and Klinger go for the GoodOldFisticuffs variation in the post-op.
35	* FriendToAllChildren: Trapper
36	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: The situation in the foreground of Klinger threatening to blow a grenade? Not so funny. An extra opening a door, seeing the grenade and darting back inside? Hilarious.
37	** Another extra walks by, stops in fright, and dives fro cover behind a tent.
38	** Two more are shown once the situation is resolved; one is cowering behind a stack of crates, and the other had jumped underneath a stationary ambulance.
39	** Radar passes in the background several times carrying various parts of the jeep.
40	* GoodSamaritan: Trapper
41	* HiddenDepths: Fr. Mulcahy not only talks Klinger out of giving Frank a grenade in the ear, he is able to convince the MP to let him take care of the situation, without involving military law:
42	---> '''Fr. Mulcahy:''' (to the MP) Please, let me take care of it.
43	---> '''MP:''' Ah, jeez, Father, I'm not even Catholic.
44	---> '''Fr. Mulcahy:''' Would you like to be?
45	* IllKillYou: Frank swears revenge on Hawkeye and Trapper for ruining his and Margaret's romantic evening.
46	* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: As the episode ends, Hawkeye wishes his dad (and the audience) Merry Christmas, and as each character is named, the actor's name appears on-screen.
47	* NarratingThePresent: Hawkeye writes about the events as they happen.
48	* NeverMyFault: Frank grips Klinger hard by the shoulder while trying to reprimand him for being out of uniform, which causes Klinger to drop some medical equipment he was taking to a nurse. Frank immediately blames it on him.
49	* RandomEventsPlot: As with all of the VoiceoverLetter episodes, this one depicts various unrelated doings at the 4077 as related by the letter-writer (Hawkeye, in this case).
50	* RetroactiveRecognition: William Katt, later star of ''Series/TheGreatestAmericanHero'', among other things, is the only speaking soldier in the foxhole when Santa!Hawkeye flies in for emergency surgery.
51	* ShipTease: Hawkeye shares a [[TheBigDamnKiss Christmas kiss]] with Margaret.
52	* ShoutOut: Hawkeye compares the way Henry runs the outfit as follows:
53	--> '''Hawkeye''': As a commanding officer, it's like being on a sinking liner, running to the bridge and finding out the captain is WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck.
54	* SubbingForSanta: Hawkeye intends to do this at a party thrown for the local Korean kids. It's too bad he doesn't get to do it for them when he is called for emergency surgery at the front...in full costume. This leads to the sight of Santa doing a rope descent into a battlefield while one soldier tells the wounded man, "And you said there was no Santa Claus!"
55	* TheTalk: Henry awkwardly attempts to deliver a lecture on "marital sex and the family", much to the amusement of the staff. (Save for Radar, who's keenly interested in learning all he can.)
56	* {{Troll}}: Hawkeye and Trapper go out of their way to humiliate Henry at the lecture.
57	* VoiceoverLetter
58	* WhenAllYouHaveIsAHammer:
59	** There aren't any appropriate decorations for the Christmas tree. Father Mulcahy makes do with medical equipment and supplies.
60	** He does this again in the post-op ward by decorating the room with strings of popcorn in place of tinsel.

Context Recap / MashS1E12DearDad