Line #22 Recap/MashS2E14HotLipsAndEmptyArms


1	Margaret Houlihan receives a letter from an old friend who describes that she has been doing so well in her personal life that it causes Margaret to realise her choice of a professional career in the army has led her nowhere in hers. This leads her too look at her current lifestyle a second time, and a result, decides to change it around by making a few important choices such as getting a transfer from the 4077.
2
3	----
4	!!Attention, all personnel! The departure of Major Houlihan will be celebrated with ice cream and the following tropes:
5	* ActuallyPrettyFunny: When Margaret calls Henry "nothing but a spineless, mealy-mouthed, fly-fishing impostor", he can't help but laugh at Trapper & Hawkeye's reply:
6	--> '''Trapper''': He's not an imposter.
7	--> '''Hawkeye''': Right. He's a ''genuine'' spineless, mealy-mouthed fly-fisher.
8	--> '''Henry''': ''[chuckling]'' Pierce, you're the limit.
9	* ADayInTheLimelight: You can get this from the title and the episode description, but the main story arc revolves around Margaret Houlihan.
10	* AlcoholInducedIdiocy: Margaret Houlihan, the more the episode goes on.
11	* BaitAndSwitchComment: Frank does not take kindly to his neighborhood being labelled as restricted... because there's still a Catholic family living across the street from him.
12	* BrutalHonesty: When Margaret says she has nothing in her life, Frank takes that to mean he's also nothing to her.
13	--> '''Frank''': Well, am I nothing, Margaret?
14	--> '''Margaret''': You're government issue, Frank. You came with my mess kit and my khaki girdle.
15	--> '''Frank''': ''[insulted]'' Well! So much for Frank Burns.
16	--> '''Margaret''': And when you're home, I'll only be a smile on your face your wife won't understand.
17	* DeadpanSnarker:
18	** Margaret is not too pleased when Frank suddenly comes on to her.
19	---> '''Frank''': What's eating you, Margaret?
20	---> '''Margaret''': At the moment, you are.
21	** Margaret, in an even deeper drunken state than what she has been before, asks Radar if she can see Colonel Blake and she stumbles off in search of him.
22	---> '''Radar''': I wonder if you can too.
23	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Margaret's father is dead. That's clearly not the case later on.
24	* FailedASpotCheck: Frank almost makes a huge mistake in the OR.
25	--> '''Henry''': Gonna do a little cutting, Frank?
26	--> '''Frank''': Well, as long as I'm there, I thought I'd go after the appendix.
27	--> '''Henry''': That's not his appendix, Frank. That's my pinkie, and I'm very fond of it.
28	--> '''Frank''': Oh.
29	* FoeRomanceSubtext: Margaret admits to Trapper in the showers that she'd always been attracted to him, lamenting his un-military demeanor: "...and there you were, unshaven, out-of-uniform."
30	--> '''Hawkeye''': [[HoYay That's when I fell in love with him.]]
31	* FunnyBackgroundEvent: At the beginning of the episode, Radar is distributing mail. The first person he gives a letter to, a soldier named Voskowitz, briefly examines it before tossing it into a burn barrel without opening it.
32	* GreenEyedMonster: Frank goes up in emerald flames when Trapper starts being romantic with Margaret in TheTag.
33	* HeroicBSOD: The source of Margaret's woes are that her old friend from her training days married a doctor Margaret herself had turned down and now she has a $45,000 home with a swimming pool, two children and a two-car garage.
34	* HopeSpot: There is a moment in Henry's office where Margaret seems to reconsider her wanting a transfer out of the unit after the colonel pays her a heartfelt compliment.
35	--> '''Henry''': Whatever was, of course, has been. But uh, we are family, Margaret.
36	--> ''[long pause]''
37	--> '''Radar''': ''[via loudspeaker]'' Attention, all personnel. Effectively immediately, Major Margaret Houlihan is leaving the 4077th. There will be wine with dinner with ice cream and chocolate sauce.
38	--> '''Hawkeye''': Well there are families and there are families.
39	* NoodleIncident:
40	** Hawkeye and Trapper inadvertently reveal to Frank they have been spying on his and Margaret's dates.
41	---> '''Hawkeye''': Wouldn't you miss her, Frank? Those midnight meetings behind the delousing tent?
42	---> '''Trapper''': Soaping each other in the scrub room?
43	---> '''Hawkeye''': Fumbling with the leather aprons in X-ray?
44	** Margaret makes a sardonic toast to Hawkeye and Trapper and their pranks and behaviours, mentioning a few of them in turn.
45	* OhCrap: Radar realises too late that he spoke all too casually with a furious Major Houlihan.
46	--> '''Margaret''': Is Colonel Blake in?
47	--> '''Radar''': Uh yeah, but he's busy right now.
48	--> '''Margaret''': ''[snaps]'' Come to attention! Get to your feet! Put that cigar out! Get rid of that magazine!
49	--> ''Radar's face falls and he does everything Margaret has demanded he do.''
50	* OutOfCharacterAlert:
51	** As strict as she can be, there is usually a limit as to how far Margaret will snap harshly at her nurses in the OR. Hawkeye is quick to notice there is none.
52	** Hawkeye and Trapper badger Frank when he doesn't emotionally react to Margaret leaving.
53	---> '''Hawkeye''': Frank, Margaret's departure is imminent.
54	---> '''Frank''': So?
55	---> '''Hawkeye''': Isn't that unzinging the strings of your heart just a little bit?
56	---> '''Frank''': None of your business, Captain Buttinsky.
57	---> '''Trapper''': Frank, one is a lonely number.
58	---> '''Frank''': I'll thank you to mind your p's and q's.
59	---> '''Trapper''': ''[insulted]'' That hurt.
60	* OutOfCharacterMoment: A drunken Margaret comes by the Swamp to give Frank some things she has of his back to him. Her mood and behaviour triggers an [[OutOfCharacterAlert alert]] with Frank.
61	--> '''Frank''': Margaret, this is so unlike you.
62	--> '''Margaret''': No it's not. If I'd have been more like me, you maybe would have liked me more.
63	--> '''Frank''': You've been ''drinking''!
64	--> '''Margaret''': Correction. I ''am'' drinking.
65	--> '''Frank''': Margaret, that's liquor!
66	--> '''Margaret''': Right, Reverend Davidson.
67	* RunningGag: The first appearance of Col. Blake's correspondence with the "Tabasco Film Company of Havana, Cuba."
68	* ShipTease:
69	** Hawkeye and Margaret. In reply to the latter snapping at her nurses, Hawkeye proclaims something.
70	---> '''Margaret''': I have an announcement. One more stupidity and every nurse goes on report.
71	---> '''Hawkeye''': And I'd like to make an announcement. Major Houlihan and I are getting married. Right, sugar?
72	---> '''Margaret''': [[BigWhat What?!]]
73	---> '''Frank''': [[GreenEyedMonster That's outrageous!]]
74	---> '''Margaret''': We are not.
75	---> '''Hawkeye''': Then go ahead and have the baby alone.
76	---> '''Trapper''': Is it a boy or a girl?
77	---> '''Hawkeye''': Give us a chance. We just met.
78	---> '''Margaret''': Oh!
79	---> '''Hawkeye''': [[{{Troll}} Oh.]]
80	** Trapper and Margaret, towards the episode's conclusion and in TheTag.
81	* TheUnseen: The audience doesn't see any of the dirty movie Henry, Hawkeye and Trapper are watching. All we know is that Hawkeye recognizes one of the performers as a fellow doctor's receptionist, and that Hawkeye says she looks better in balloons than in a uniform.

Context Recap / MashS2E14HotLipsAndEmptyArms