After Margaret pulls a practical joke on Hawkeye and B.J., Charles manipulates them into a full-blown prank war. The camp is visited by heroic chopper pilot Captain Toby Hill and his dummy "Little Mac," whom he uses as a counterweight when he needs to pick up a single patient. Father Mulcahy is passed over for a promotion.
Attention, all personnel! The next prank will involve the following tropes:
- Escalating War: The prank war, with a little help from Charles.
- Glory Hound: Captain Hill worries he is this, only serving for the commendations and promotions.
- Gone Swimming, Clothes Stolen: As part of the prank war, Margaret steals Hawkeye and B.J.'s clothes while they're in the showers.Hawkeye: [to B.J.] You're gonna look awfully silly running home to get my clothes.
- Innocently Insensitive: Captain Hill gets a two-for-one in the shower when he first asks Mulcahy if he knows any nurses he can seduce, then follows it up with discussing his rapid promotions in front of the just passed over Mulcahy.
- Literary Allusion Title: From Matthew 5:38 ("Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth")
- My God, What Have I Done?: The culmination of the prank war happens when Margaret declares that she's just written and sent a letter to Peg Hunnicutt "confessing" that she and BJ have had a long love affair. This hits both Beej and Hawk's berserk buttons, and prompts BJ to attack Margaret in a blind rage. Winchester, watching with increasing horror over what was just meant to be his harmless pranks on all of them escalating into people actually being hurt, pleads with BJ to stop and confesses that it was all his fault. That's when the three drop the charade and declare they were acting — it was THEIR prank back on him as revenge for his manipulations.
- Passed-Over Promotion: Father Mulcahy is obviously disappointed about it but tries to brush it off as nothing.
- Playing Both Sides: Charles does this in the prank war. Eventually, Hawkeye, B.J., and Margaret get wise to it and pull a prank on him.
- Pie in the Face: Margaret throws a pie at Hawkeye and B.J., but it hits Father Mulcahy instead.Father Mulcahy: This just isn't my day.
