Father Mulcahy contracts a case of infectious hepatitis, prompting the doctors to step into action to control its spread. The arrival of newspapers from home with stories of a successful classmate aggravate Hawkeye's back pain. B.J. becomes the camp specialist when a patient comes in requiring an operation he just read about in a medical journal.
Attention all personnel! Please examine the following tropes for symptoms of hepatitis:
- Always Someone Better: Hawkeye's "incredibly average" former classmate Vernon Parsons, who is racking up awards and earning research grants back home.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: When Hawkeye comes in claiming he needs to collect a blood sample to test for hepatitis, Margaret assumes it's a way for him to flirt with her.
- Call-Back: Klinger gets KPnote for 30 days for fighting with Sgt. Zale, a reminder of their rivalry.
- Chekhov's Gun: The new operation mentioned in B.J.’s medical journal.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Margaret lambasts Hawkeye's disrespectful attitude towards her. He suggests she try the same with Donald's mother.
- Determinator: Sick as he is, Father Mulcahy's first worry is being able to carry out his duties.
- Everyone Has Standards: While Hawkeye tests his blood, Radar confesses that he sometimes wishes he could hook up with one of the "business girls" at Rosie's Bar, but when he sees his friends flirting with them, he doesn't feel right. Hawkeye tells him he's suffering from "a severe case of decency".
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Klinger works himself up into a frenzy during Hawkeye's examination, throwing produce and dishes around the kitchen.
- Hypochondria: As soon as Frank learns there's a case of hepatitis in the camp, he panics and gives Hawkeye a laundry list of supposed symptoms he's diagnosed in himself.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: As soon as he's completed a delicate operation that nobody at the camp has performed before, B.J. gets drunk in the Officers Club.
- It's All About Me: Hawkeye assumes that "incredibly average" Vernon Parsons is only successful because he's back home while Hawkeye is in Korea.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Justified. B.J. is the only one who has any familiarity with the procedure mentioned in a medical journal a casualty needs due to Hawkeye ignoring it because of his back, and Potter and Frank not having the chance to read it yet. Potter does observe the operation, but Hawkeye is also tasked with helping manage the outbreak.
- My God, You Are Serious!: When Hawkeye comes to Margaret's tent to check if she's showing any signs of hepatitis, she initially blows him off, thinking he just wants to ogle her. When he ignores the jibe and tells her to step outside because the desk lamp is too yellow for him to check if her sclera are discolored, she realizes he's not fooling around.
- One Scene, Two Monologues: B.J. talks about an article in his medical journal while Hawkeye gripes about Vernon Parsons, neither of them listening to each other.
- Poor Man's Porn: Radar suggests Hawkeye read Frank's Popular Mechanics after the former's nudist magazine doesn't show up in the mail, claiming the ads "go pretty far".
- Real Life Writes the Plot:
Written (and directed) by Alan Alda when William Christopher was in danger of being Put on a Bus after a bout with hepatitis. - Sick Episode: Father Mulcahy's hepatitis and Hawkeye's back pain.
- Simple-Minded Wisdom: Hawkeye has many problems throughout the series but one of them is consistently torturing himself for problems out of his control. Potter (written by Alan Alda) sums it up by saying he'll get a medal for tying himself up in knots.
- Stealth Insult: Donald's mother welcomes Margaret to the Penobscot family with a letter chronicling other Houlihans they've known...both of them alcoholic servants.
- Virgin-Shaming: Radar turns it on himself, as most of his enlisted buddies will get drunk and go off with business girls but he opts not to, for reasons he can't quite figure out.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Hawkeye talks Radar through his self-doubt about being a virgin in a heartwarming scene.Hawkeye: [after finishing] I hate to say this now, but could you drop your pants? [holds up a syringe]
- Your Mind Makes It Real: Hawkeye's back pain is suggested to be psychosomatic, inflamed by his irritation with a classmate's success.
