After a particularly rough and lengthy operating session, followed by a thoroughly unappetizing breakfast, Hawkeye seeks refuge at Rosie's. Most of the camp soon follows suit, along with an AWOL foot soldier (who catches Margaret's eye) and the dubious proprietors of a floating crap game.
Attention, all personnel! The following tropes have been declared AWOL at Rosie's Bar:
- Artistic License – Biology: It seems odd that:
- a) A person could drink enough to be placed in a five-week coma without dying of alcohol poisoning;
- b) If that person survived that, he'd survive five weeks in a forgotten corner of a unhygienic dive bar, covered totally in a blanket with no medical care or any indication that anyone even knew he was there at all;
- c) And if he survived THAT, that he survived five weeks without food or water;
- d) and finally that when he came out of the coma, there were no appreciable ill effects (in particular muscle atrophy/lockup). Granted, the whole thing was Played for Laughs, but still...
- However, it seems pretty clear that Dorsett wasn't supposed to be unconscious for the entire time he was missing, just blackout drunk. Rosie even remembered him buying drinks earlier, and says she thought he skipped out without paying.
- Bottle Episode: The entirety of the episode is shot on only two sets — Rosie's tavern room and a back room used for the crap game scenes.
- Bound and Gagged: Hawkeye and the rest of Rosieland's "citizens" tie up Winchester when he demands that Hawkeye take over for him as Officer of the Day. For good measure, Hawkeye gags him with his own OD brassard!
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: The mess tent offers up spam omelets and dried fruit cocktail for breakfast. Hawkeye's alternative is cold cereal in beer.
- Counting to Three: Charles tries this to get Hawkeye and B.J. to break up the party, but it doesn't work; see Bound and Gagged above.
- Dude, Where's My Respect?: Potter reminds Hawkeye and B.J. that he's owed respect, not just because of his rank but because of his status as Reasonable Authority Figure who's willing to let things slide to keep the peace.
- Easily Forgiven:
- Subverted. Potter is clearly still pissed off and seems to not put an end to the party only because he knows it would only make tensions worse. Despite this, he does seem to accept their apology and explanation of what's happened.
- Played straight with Scully. One minute an MP is leading him away from Rosie's, the next he's thanking Scully for helping him with a brawler.
- Escalating Brawl: Klinger objects to Wang Ho using loading dice, and goes after him with a chair leg. Wang Ho bumps into a man at the bar, who stumbles into a third man and causes him to spill his beer. This prompts the third man to punch the man next to him in the face. Immediately after, the entire bar erupts in violence.
- Fixing the Game: The operators of Wang Ho's Floating Crap Game switch the regular dice for loaded dice when passing money back and forth.
- Foreshadowing: The "event room" at Rosie's has a sign by the door: "No fighting at Rosie's". Guess where the fight breaks out.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: Potentially more than four, but the main plotlines can be summed up as:
- Hawkeye (and eventually B.J.) escaping the war and taking the camp with them a little at a time
- Scully going AWOL and catching Margaret's eye
- Klinger, Mulcahy, and the floating crap game
- Radar trying to find out where Dorsett came from
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Scully points out the danger the doctors will get in for hogtying Winchester, even though he is AWOL. Hawkeye points it out.
- Margaret disapproves of Scully going AWOL, even though she and her nurses are technically deserters by leaving the camp without permission.
- Locked Up and Left Behind: An officer from Schofield Barracks who got blind, comatose, drunk and was blacked out for five weeks somehow ending up in the back room at Rosie's tied up. Once found, the denizens of "Rosieland" tied him up in a "saluting" position.
- Oh, Crap!: Rosie and Radar's reaction when the MPs show up, Rosie because of Scully and Radar assuming they'll blame him for Dorsett being there.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Scully walks away from his unit after a fierce battle and vows to live out the rest of the war by selling what he's carrying.
- Hawkeye goes to Rosie's after a grueling all-night operating session is followed by a thoroughly unappetizing breakfast. The rest of the camp gradually finds their way across the road, desiring a break from the war.
- Shout-Out: Hawkeye, B.J., and Scully all sing "Some Enchanted Evening" from South Pacific. When they have trouble hitting the last high note, Hawkeye suggests they sing it in the style of The Andrews Sisters.
