A mumps epidemic downs Colonel Potter and Charles, who swiftly find each other unbearable as roommates. Their replacement is Captain Steve Newsome (Edward Herrmann), a Tokyo-assigned hotshot surgeon who isn't all he appears.
Attention, all personnel! Captain Newsome has witnessed the following tropes on his tour:
- The Ace: Captain Newsome...at first.
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Winchester claims he will never get the mumps because he's been around people who have gotten it and he's emerged unscathed, B.J. cracks, "His butler got them for him," at which Winchester chuckles.
- All Men Are Perverts: Newsome admits during his time serving at an army hospital in Tokyo, he's become known as "an arm and leg man", and adds, "I specialize in geisha girls myself."
- Anything but That!: Colonel Potter despises Enrico Caruso.
- Berserk Button: Colonel Potter hates opera, as Charles finds out the hard way.
- Break the Haughty: Once again, Charles, who calls the mumps a "childish disease", mocks Col. Potter for getting them, and brags his own genes are good enough he won't get them.
- Character Development: Unlike the last time Col. Potter was told the camp was doing just fine without him when he was ill, when he's told it this time, he takes it in stride. (Although unlike that episode, he's sick with a highly communicable disease instead of laid up with a painful but temporary condition that he can self treat. At least he's able to kick Margaret out of his tent when she's trying to care for him this time)
- Deadpan Snarker: Captain Newsome...at first.Newsome: (when he sees Klinger spraying the office) Keep firing, soldier, commies are everywhere!
- The Easy Way or the Hard Way: As Margaret is trying to put Col. Potter to bed:Margaret: We can do this easy or we can do this hard.
Col. Potter: Why do we have to do it at all? - Exact Words: Winchester tells Hawkeye to put the bed down. So, he does - by dropping it to the ground, and walking out (B.J. drops the beddings on the floor and joins Hawkeye).
- Heroic BSoD: Captain Newsome ends up having one after the continued sessions in the OR. Unfortunately, everyone else is too busy in those endless sessions in the OR to notice.
- Hidden Depths: Captain Newsome came in from being a doctor in the comfortable environment of Tokyo, but turns out to have served in a combat unit before with horror stories such that the 4077 are duly impressed.
- Hypocritical Humor: When Captain Newsome says to B.J. and Hawkeye they must be here on the American Plan, Hawkeye gets upset at him for slandering the Army - mostly because he wishes he had thought of saying that.
- I Drank WHAT?!: Once again, this is the reaction to a newcomer to the swamp drinking from Hawkeye and B.J.'s still.Newsome: Now I know what the corporal was spraying the office with.
- Innocuously Important Episode: Hawkeye (already sanity slipping) and BJ are scared they'll snap like Newsome did, Hawkeye does in the finale. And Winchester desperately needs to play music as it's a respite for him, it won't be after the musicians get killed. There's even a funny record shatter.
- It's All My Fault: Father Mulcahy thinks it's his fault Potter, Winchester and the others in the camp came down with the mumps, as they caught it from the kids in the orphanage the doctors visited.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even Charles is overcome when he sees what's happened to Newsome.
- Knew It All Along: Once again, Charles acts as if anyone from somewhere he considers inferior - Newsome is from Chicago - is inferior, until he finds out Newsome studied medicine at Johns Hopkinsnote , at which point he acts as if he always knew Newsome was a man of quality.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Pusan Perimeter that Newsome served in before his Tokyo posting.note
- Noodle Incident: How Klinger managed to get Newsome to the camp so quickly:Klinger: It's a secret, but if he (Newsome) asks you where the beach is, change the subject.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Both B.J. and Hawkeye are afraid they might snap like Newsome did:B.J.: He was as strong as any of us.
Hawkeye: That's what scares me. - Pet the Dog: As much as Col. Potter and Winchester snipe at each other throughout the episode, when Winchester worries that getting the mumps as an adult will mean he won't be able to father and children and continue the family name, Col. Potter assures him since he's been taking medicine and getting rest, he probably won't be affected when it comes to that.
- Properly Paranoid: Klinger immediately takes the threat of the mumps seriously, requesting Col. Potter command him at a distance, and spraying the office for germs. Unfortunately, it does him no good.Klinger: If you get them as a kid, you don't get them as an adult. But if you get them as an adult, you don't get kids!
- Sadistic Choice: What with an overrun OR, and Newsome's Heroic BSoD (though no one is aware of it as of yet), Hawkeye has to choose between operating on an injured leg and ignoring a badly injured patient who nonetheless can be still saved, or operating on that other patient and being forced to amputate the first one's leg. He chooses the latter.Hawkeye: If I save this leg I lose that life!
- Scrubbing Off the Trauma: One of the most heartbreaking examples of this trope. Newsome breaks down after his traumatic days trying to patch up the injured and dying men who come back from battle.Newsome: (looking at his hands) The blood won't come off. No matter what I do, it just stays there.
B.J.: (whispering) Steve, just take it easy.
Newsome: See what I mean? Look at that. It's never gonna go away. No matter how hard I...scrub, or...how much I wash...it's gonna stay there. (Beat) Where do they come from? (Beat) What do they...what do they expect me to do? I...I can't. I can't. - Sophisticated as Hell: Potter while Winchester annoys him while he's painting:Potter: Winchester, the artistic temperament is a delicate thing. So clam up, you yahoo!
- Special Guest: Edward Herrmann appears as Newsome.
- The Tag: Now that Col. Potter has cotton in his ears so Charles can listen to his music all he wants, they seem to be getting along...and then Klinger, who has the mumps, walks in.
- There Are No Therapists: Averted; Col. Potter tells Hawkeye and B.J. to call Sidney Freedman to ask him what they can do to treat Newsome.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Newsome does this in Potter's tent, at the climax of his Heroic BSoD.
- Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Discussed - when Margaret tells Col. Potter he doesn't have to shout at her, he responds he does, because he would never hit a woman.
