As part of claiming a poker debt, B.J. arranges for Radar to be promoted to second lieutenant. However, Radar soon finds the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the soldier/officer divide.
Attention all personnel! The following tropes are hereby promoted to lieutenant:
- Accidental Pervert: Radar accidentally makes off with one of Margaret's bras in his haste to get out of her tent when she pulls a whip out of the package that Donald sent her and starts whooping and testing it out. He stuffs it into his mail bag for lack of a better thing to do with it, and naturally it falls out when he's talking to Father Mulcahy.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: The nurse Radar is dating loses interest in him once he's an officer like her, and no longer off-limits by virtue of rank.
- Artistic License – Military: After being promoted, Radar wears the insignia of the Army Medical Corps on his collar. This is reserved for medical personnel. As company clerk, he would have worn the insignia for the Adjutant General Corps.
- Comically Small Bribe: Hawkeye considers Woodruff offering to promote him to the rank of Major to cover his poker debts as this trope. B.J. thinks so as well when he's given the same offer, but not quite as much as Hawkeye.
- "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: If Hawkeye and B.J. hadn't been acting goofy and had Radar promoted to Sergeant instead of Second Lieutenant, no one would have thought twice about it. The explanation they give Potter (that Blake must have put Radar in for the promotion before he left and it just took time to process) would likely have been accepted without any further investigation.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: The other enlisted begin to resent Radar for being promoted ahead of them.
- Evil Laugh: B.J. sniggers when he gets the idea to have Radar promoted to second lieutenant and does it again after explaining to Hawkeye and Woodruff why he did it the first time. It's genuinely quite creepy.
- Funny Background Event: When Potter is reading aloud about Radar's promotion, Radar checks his dog tags to confirm the serial number being read really is his.
- Forbidden Fruit: Corporal O'Reilly is this in the eyes of Lt. Baker, who even explicitly mentions the trope name. Lieutenant O'Reilly, not so much...
- I'm Standing Right Here: Potter looks hurt when Hawkeye jokes that if Radar could play tuba, he'd make colonel.
- Is This Thing Still On?: Radar and Klinger have an argument that involves them blowing at each other with the PA still on.
- Kicked Upstairs:
- After Radar is promoted, he can't really hang out with the other enlisted men anymore, and he doesn't fit in at all with the more GI officers.
- Jumping from Corporal, past Sergeant, to Second Lieutenant is not a common thingnote , and it makes multiple people (Potter, Houlihan) suspicious and Hawkeye and B.J. have to direct Potter's investigation to their contact at I-Corps to make sure that the whole thing doesn't get worse.
- Large Ham: Loretta Swit goes all out in the scene where Margaret receives a leather whip as a gift from her fiance Donald and she starts lashing it around with tremendous joy, to Radar's ultimate terror.
- Notary Nonsense: An exasperated Margaret asks Radar if his promotion could have come via a relative in a position of authority, such as a general or an admiral. Radar volunteers that his uncle is a notary public.
- Oblivious to Love: Nurse Baker believes this of Radar when she tries to get him to ask her out. What she doesn't realise is that Radar is such a stickler to rules and regulations that he believes he can't date her until he's of equal to or higher rank than her.Nurse Baker: Radar. How obvious can I be?
- Oh, Crap!:
- Radar, when Margaret starts using her new whip in joyous abandon while he's still in the vicinity.
- Hawkeye and B.J., when Potter says he's going to look into Radar's promotion. Then Master Sergeant Woodruff, when Potter calls him about said promotion.
- Status Quo Is God: By the end of the episode, Radar is back to being a corporal.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: Downplayed with MSGT Woodruff. He owes Hawkeye and B.J. enough money (and is unable to pay them) that they don't want to let him play poker with them anymore. He squares it with them by offering to promote them. Neither of them is particularly interested in being promoted, but they think it'd be hilarious to make Radar an officer.
- Wanting Is Better Than Having: Radar soon finds that being promoted doesn't make him as happy as he thought it would be.
