When trying to solve what kind of an infection a patient has, Hawkeye and Trapper take a biological sample and send it off for analysis, only to learn that it will take three days to do so. Horrified that a wait that long could lead to a lot of deaths, the two inquire why a MASH unit can't have an incubator of its own. Prepare for obstructive bureaucracy, double-dealing selfish profiteers and just plain dumb Army regulations.
Let's see what the tropes page says:
- Brutal Honesty: It is Captain Sloane's job to say no bluntly.
- Call-Back: To the pilot, where General Hammond wants Hawkeye and Trapper arrested but relents on it after witnessing their skills as top-rate surgeons. By the end of the episode, General Mitchell wants to arrest them as well. Henry has to convince him otherwise.
- Corrupt Quartermaster: Colonel Lambert prefers the Black Market over a regular army life.Trapper: You sell incubators?Lambert: Oh yes. Sterilizers, ice cream makers, pontoon bridges, Jeeps and, with a week's notice, the odd B-52. Crew is extra of course. If you're looking for a real bargain, I can let you have a half million rolls of toilet paper which I happen to be sitting on.
- Dirty Old Man: Colonel Lambert has a geisha call him "daddy", and outwardly leers at Hawkeye, deciding that Trapper's the one with a "nasty sense of morality".
- Fun with Acronyms:
- Captain Sloane prefers to explain the department where he's from in this way rather than just using the word 'supply'.Sloane: More accurately, I'm with the 375th QMHQ ComSEPAC SeoulSec ReqDep.note
- Also, BEL = Basic Equipment List
- Captain Sloane prefers to explain the department where he's from in this way rather than just using the word 'supply'.
- Hangover Sensitivity: When the episode starts, it is abundantly clear that Hawkeye and Trapper have had a wild night. The Running Gag here is everyone else in camp remembers it but they don't.Hawkeye: Trapper?Trapper: I'm not gonna talk unless you stop screaming.Hawkeye: Sorry. I'll be better after I shave my tongue.Trapper: [groans] Does your head hurt?Hawkeye: From the ankles up. Everything above that I leave to science. I think one of us should try breathing on a mirror.Trapper: Okay, but do it quietly.Hawkeye: I need a doctor.Trapper: You're a doctor.Hawkeye: Then I'm the last thing I need.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Hawkeye's reaction to encountering Captain Sloane. This after only a few minutes ago pledging to take a break from alcohol for a while.
- Lampshade Hanging: Hawkeye does this with Captain Sloane's fondness for using Fun with Acronyms.Sloane: Let's see what the good book says.Hawkeye: The good book?Sloane: The Manual of Supply and Requisition.Hawkeye: ManSupReq.
- Media Scrum: Where Hawkeye and Trapper meet General Mitchell.
- Noodle Incident:
- While drunk, Hawkeye and Trapper apparently woke Radar up early in the morning as they wanted to sacrifice a virgin.
- Whatever had the nurse in the second scene eyeing Trapper approvingly.
- Out-of-Character Alert: Frank Burns comes into the Swamp, which is a complete mess. Hawkeye and Trapper are flabbergasted when he has nothing to say about it.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Dr. Klein isn't dead, just passed out drunk.
- The Reveal: At the end of the episode, Radar succeeds in getting an incubator. The Tag explains what he traded to get it.
- Skewed Priorities:
- Another Running Gag of the episode, starting with Henry complaining about pestering the army with a requisition for an incubator, right after getting a barbecue from them.
- Quartermasters Corp considers supplying the 4077th with an incubator as giving them a luxury, but they can give them a pizza oven or a jukebox. And apparently all they have to do is file a standard ordnance request form and write "pizza" where it says "machine gun."
- Speak in Unison: Radar and Henry are at it again, this time while setting up the colonel's new barbecue.
- The Stoic: Captain Sloane from Quartermaster Corps
- Sure, Let's Go with That: General Mitchell suggests to Hawkeye to drop the questions regarding incubators but struggles to find a reason why.Hawkeye: For security reasons?Gen. Mitchell: Exactly.
- Take That!: In-universe, again to the army.Trapper: Why don't we have an incubator here so we can do our own tests?Nurse: Because it would save time and effort and it would make sense.Hawkeye: Can't have that in the army.
- The Tease: A random nurse vies for Trapper's attention.
- Villain Has a Point: When Frank finally bothers to tell Hawkeye and Trapper off for their excessive partying, and wondering what happened to "those bright-eyed, bushy-tailed surgeons [he] once knew," they are convinced to give sobriety a whirl. For a while, at least.
- Virgin Sacrifice: Hawkeye and Trapper appear to have tried to do this to Radar during their drunken antics, but he was too sleepy to participate.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Hawkeye and Trapper start the episode by trying to piece together what they did at the party held the night before.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Basically, Hawkeye and Trapper fail to procure an incubator for the 4077, but drum up a lot of trouble for themselves and for Henry.Henry: Holy cow! Insubordination, conduct unbecoming officers, violations of Articles 13 through 27, with a repeat on 26!Hawkeye: Oh, that must be "altering salute by placing thumb on nose".Trapper: Henry, there's something you should know about those charges.Hawkeye: Yeah. We're guilty.
I see. These all make sense, but TV Tropes cannot have an incubator.
