Recap / M*A*S*H S3 E13: Mad Dogs and Servicemen

Radar gets bit by a possibly rabid dog and a soldier with a psychosomatic paralysis arrives at the camp.

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Mad dog! Mad dog! Oh, and these tropes too...

• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Trapper and Henry chase Radar's dog behind the mess tent...they then come back around, with the dog in hot pursuit.
• Bait-and-Switch: A farmer and his wife speaking in Korean tell Henry and Radar they came across the dog the two of them are searching for. A further translation from Rosie reveals that they ate it. Then it turns out that the one they ate wasn't the one that bit Radar after all.
• Bargain with Heaven: Played for laughs. When Radar finds out that the dog that bit him wasn't rabid, he looks towards the sky.
  Radar: A deal's a deal, sir. No more hells, damns, and especially not the big one. No more fibs, and I promise I won't watch my rabbits mess around anymore!
• Berserk Button: Compared to Hawkeye, it is extremely difficult to find one for Trapper. It turns out one of them is using derogatory terms to describe people suffering from psychological trauma.
• Black Comedy: While they are out searching for the dog that bit Radar, a farmer and his wife inform Henry and Radar via Rosie that they ate a dog matching the description. Henry and Radar react appropriately.
• Blatant Lies: Hawkeye swears that vailness is a word during a Scrabble game. He'd swear it on Frank's life.
• Cruel to Be Kind: The method Hawkeye uses to encourage Corporal Travis to walk again.
• Deadpan Snarker: Henry gets very sick and tired of Frank interfering in Corporal Travis' case.
  Frank: So whatever Major Houlihan says is what I feel. Anything I add is of little consequence.
  Henry: I won't argue with you there, Frank.
  • This is, moments later, followed on by Trapper.
    Frank: Keeping that man here defies every medical precept!
    Trapper: So do you, Frank. You're an incredible example of death after life.
  • Henry and Radar go around asking Koreans if they've seen the dog that bit Radar.
    Henry: If I shake hands with one more farmer, I'll probably be elected to office.
• Entertainingly Wrong: Frank Burns wants Corporal Travis shipped to Tokyo as the man is not physically wounded and the 4077 does not have the facilities or time to treat psychologically traumatised patients.^note In real life, most military psychological treatment regimens emphasize treating patients as close to the front as possible, such that the afflicted soldier both returns to duty as soon as possible, and to avoid "baking in" a condition by associating it with the shame of being taken away from your fellow soldiers.
• Foreign Queasine: Two of the Korean locals Henry and Radar run into while searching for the offending dog reveal they ate a dog.
  Henry: Must have been a hell of a bun!
• Friend to All Living Things: Radar O'Reilly
• Foreshadowing: Do you think a guy who copes by screaming into his pillow every night and has three breaking points a day will end up in an asylum by the finale?
• The Ghost: Hawkeye contacts Sidney Freedman for advice about Corporal Travis.
• Good Cop/Bad Cop: Trapper and Hawkeye respectively in regards to the traumatized soldier.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Subverted with Hawkeye in regards to Corporal Travis as he completely regrets being so hard on him but knows that he must keep doing so until Travis recovers.
  Trapper: It's not easy, is it?
  Hawkeye: Did you know Hitler and I have the same answering service?
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Henry claims he needs another drink during the Scrabble game. Trapper points out he hasn't finished the one he's got on the desk. Henry remedies that by drinking down the rest of that glass and then going for another one.
• Jerkass Has a Point: An otherwise interfering Margaret takes Hawkeye aside to inform him Corporal Travis' bed has to be changed around the clock (Hawkeye isn't permitting him to have a bedpan, and he keeps soiling his sheets) and the work involved in that is upsetting the routine in Post-Op.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Margaret rails against Hawkeye's methods of treating Corporal Travis' trauma, believing that it is too hard and callous.

  Hawkeye: Look, Clara, I'm not issuing a bedpan license to anybody who can walk on his own two feet, okay?

  Margaret: That is the most inhumane, degrading thing I've ever heard of. How can you be so cruel?

• The Main Characters Do Everything: Justified. There are going to be times when Sidney Freedman, the 4077's call-to guy in regards to traumatised patients, is going to be unavailable, leaving Hawkeye and the others to handle the case themselves.
• The "Mom" Voice: Maj. Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan begins to show Character Development when she actually dotes on a feverish Radar as he receives shots for potential rabies exposure.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Corporal Travis actually does drag himself from Post-Op to the mess tent n order to get food, which is the first real sign Hawkeye's treatment is working.
• Oh, Crap!: Hawkeye is in the middle of making fun of Radar's ability to understand all the military protocol involved in paperwork when Radar tells him the scratch on his hand is a bite from a dog. Hawkeye gets worried that the dog could be rabid and has Radar search for it so it can be checked for the virus.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Corporal Travis becomes ignorantly unresponsive to him, Hawkeye uses his military rank to get his attention.
  Hawkeye: You're still a U.S. soldier! I expect you to look at me when I address you.
• Out-of-Character Moment: In all episodes involving the issue beforehand, Frank Burns has never believed in psychological trauma. Here he does, but he still palms off the cases to other people rather than have the patient treated at the 4077.
  Frank: Corporal Travis, Richard. To Tokyo. Typical psycho case - shell shock.
  Trapper: Frank, that's straight outta World War One. Nobody thinks "shell shock" anymore.
  Frank: What's the diff? Too much action gets 'em in the old brainbox. Makes even the best soldier gaga.
  Trapper: Frank, I defy you to show me a medical book that lists the word "gaga".
• Pop-Culture Pun Episode Title: From Noël Coward's song "Mad Dogs and Englishmen".
• Present-Day Past: In one scene, Hawkeye says that "Unfortunately, in [Corporal Richard Travis's] eyes, I'm just left of Godzilla." The episode itself aired in December 1974, but this being during the Korean War, it would have been set anywhere from June 1950 to July 1953, the war ending more than six months before the first Godzilla movie was even conceived.
• Product Placement: Henry, Trapper and Hawkeye play a game of Scrabble.
• Shout-Out: Hawkeye believes Travis will never open up to him after their first conversation, thinking the corporal would be comparing him to Godzilla.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Frank Burns quips that anyone who needs psychiatry is sick in the head. Henry tells him to can it.
• Spanner in the Works: Frank and Margaret both try to interfere with Hawkeye's treatment of Corporal Travis, although in Margaret's case, she genuinely and selflessly believes she's doing the right thing.
• There Are No Therapists: Double subverted. There is a therapist and they do call him, but Sidney's unavailable and Hawkeye has to pinch-hit.
• War Is Hell: The main reason Corporal Travis can't walk. He was "stampeded by a herd of tanks," and by all indications froze up so much from the shock and the violence of what was going on that he couldn't move afterwards. It really comes out when Trapper manages to get through to him.
  Travis: And they killed them. And they killed them even after they were dead. And I tried - I really tried - but I just couldn't move! I didn't fire my rifle, I didn't throw my grenade, I didn't do anything! I just laid there like some coward!

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