The 4077th is getting heavy business from a colonel who insists on retrieving the bodies of dead soldiers, regardless of the consequences for those still alive. Meanwhile, Radar bonds with one of the wounded after helping B.J. get his IV line reconnected, Frank proposes selling the camp's garbage to local villagers, and Hawkeye has trouble "making change".
Attention all personnel. Major Burns will be auctioning off the following tropes:
- Acquired Situational Narcissism: Radar, after B.J. tells him that he probably saved Private Phelan's life — he even takes credit for the act of reconnecting the IV line when telling the story to Klinger.
- Blatant Lies: Col. Potter's reaction to watching Hawkeye's garbage prank take place.Potter: I didn't see any of it. But I loved it.
- Buffy Speak: When Radar informs B.J. of Phelan's loose IV line:Radar: I was just walking by, and I noticed this gizmo came disconnected from the thingamabob, and it wasn't dripping into the doohickey right.B.J.: You lost me with all the technical terms, Radar, but I get the picture.
- Funny Background Event: When Col. Coner is getting covered in garbage, three enlisted men standing behind him laugh and then run away.
- I Was Never Here: Col. Potter's reaction to Col. Coner getting garbage dumped on him:Potter: I didn't see any of it. But I loved it.
- The Loins Sleep Tonight: Hawkeye has trouble performing with a nurse.
- Poor Man's Porn: The Jane Russell puzzle that Radar and Private Phelan were putting together apparently qualified before Major Houlihan confiscated some of the pieces.
- Pun-Based Title: As well as a Double-Meaning Title, referring both to the 38th parallel (the latitude marking the boundary between North and South Korea) and the fact that the episode's plotlines run parallel to one another.
- Recurring Dreams: Frank was apparently a victim of dreams where he's covered in garbage.Frank: (whimpering) I had dreams like this all through puberty.
- Sanity Slippage: In the background, as it's the first time Hawkeye's body craps out on him, and it's attributed to all the trauma he's gone through.
- Single-Issue Wonk: Frank is obsessed with the fact that the Koreans are scavenging the unit's garbage, claiming that it's still government property despite being useless to them now.
- Stealth Insult: Potter does this to Frank twice, when the latter is complaining about the camp's garbage situation.Potter: I guess I just don't have your head for garbage, Burns.Frank: The late Colonel Blake said I was the best rubbish officer we'd ever had.Potter: The man knew talent when he saw it.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Radar, after the soldier he helped save ends up dying anyway. He still has it at the end of the episode's Tag.
- Unusual Euphemism: Hawkeye's revelation that he can perform again is described as being able to "make change".
- We Have Reserves: At first it seems like its averted, because Col. Coner sends men behind enemy lines to take American soldiers who died and didn't have their bodies recovered. However, it turns out Colonel Coner doesn't care about the men he loses on those missions, especially when his troops end up killing more Communists than they lose men.
