Every Monday, I spotlight a random episode of M*A*S*H, providing a brief review and asking readers to offer their thoughts.
“The More I See You” (#84, 4×22)
Originally Broadcast: Tuesday, February 10th, 1976
Written by Larry Gelbart & Gene Reynolds
Directed by Gene Reynolds
Capsule Summary: An old flame of Hawkeye’s shows up at the 4077th and the two rekindle their romance.
This is not a funny episode. It’s a tragic one in which Hawkeye gets his heart broken again by the only woman he apparently ever truly loved. For some viewers, learning about his history with Carlye helps put his constant womanizing (particularly during the first three seasons) into perspective. Others may consider the episode too mushy.
The timeline of this episode is unclear. During his conversation with B.J. in Radar’s office, Hawkeye says, “I haven’t been home much the past few weeks,” suggesting his affair with Carlye went on for quite some time before Carlye decided to run away. But we don’t see any of it. We’re shown Carlye arriving at the 4077th, running into Hawkeye, talking about their past, working together in the O.R., and finally talking again and kissing.
Suddenly, it’s weeks later. Hawkeye and Carlye have presumably been together the entire time. Hawkeye is happy, Carlye is not. She’s fallen in love with Hawkeye again but being unfaithful to her husband bothers her so much she puts in for a transfer. Hawkeye can’t understand what’s happening. “I’ve always been honest with Doug,” Carlye says. “So don’t stop!” Hawkeye tells her. “He’ll want a divorce,” Carlye responds. That’s fine with Hawkeye. They can finally be together. He even proposes, sort of.
But Carlye knows better. She knows Hawkeye has “just proposed himself into a corner.” She knows Hawkeye is too busy being married to his career and medicine. It’s what broke them up before. Nothing has changed, especially not the way they feel about one another. So, Carlye leaves. Does she stayed married to Doug? Perhaps. Does Hawkeye ever get over Carlye? Doubtful, although she’s never mentioned again.
B.J. makes a big speech about fidelity and how he’ll never cheat on Peg. He doesn’t judge Hawkeye. Later episodes depict his struggle to stay faithful: “Hanky Panky” during Season 5 and “War Co-Respondent” during Season 8.
There are no true subplots in this episode, just short vignettes featuring other characters, included to keep this from focusing too heavily on Hawkeye. B.J. plays a big role in the Hawkeye/Carlyle story with his big speech about staying faithful to Peg. We see Colonel Potter painting, Radar doing his impersonations, and Father Mulcahy worrying about typos in The Bible.
Nurse Becky Anderson has almost not impact on the episode. She jokes around with Carlye about Hawkeye and B.J. and then disappears.
I love the “bored” exchange between Hawkeye and B.J. at the start of the episode:
Hawkeye: “Bored.”
B.J.: “So bored.”
Hawkeye: “So bored, it’s boring.”
B.J.: “Boring-a-ding-ding.”
Hawkeye: “Boronus, boreetus, boreemus. I came, I saw, I bored.”
B.J.: “He bored, she bored, they bored.”
Hawkeye: “All aboard.”
B.J.: “I was gonna say that.”
Hawkeye: “Sure.”
A similiar, but shorter, back-and-forth revolving around “MP” takes place later in Radar’s office:
Hawkeye: “File this under M.P., Medical Profile.”
B.J.: “Or Military Police.”
Hawkeye: “Or Member of Parliament.”
B.J.: “Or Married Person.
I have to believe this was intentional on the part of scriptwriters Gelbart and Reynolds, intended to reinforce the friendship between Hawkeye and B.J.
Larry Gelbart discussed “The More I See You” in a handful of posts to the alt.tv.mast Usenet group. In a June 1998 post, he had this to say about the episode:
Memory Lane Dept.
Half way through writing the script for this episode – “The More I See You” – the whole idea suggesting itself merely by remembering the song of the same title, as sung by Alice Faye in an old Fox movie – the idea of Bythe Danner popped up and from that moment no one else would do.
Only problem was, she didn’t do half hour shows and we didn’t yet have a script to show her.
Gene Reynolds got her on the phone and we both made a very strong pitch to her, promising the part would be worthy of her talent.
She took a chance, not seeing a word on paper.
She was divine on the show.
It’s still a personal favorite of mine.
End of Memorygram.
In a September 2004 post, he answered a question about Hawkeye’s “regical surgency” line at the beginning of the episode:
As 1 [sic] recall that was written as a deliberate spoonerism that was meant to show how thrown Hawkeye was, having Carlye pop up in his life after so long an absence.
The song this episode is named after, “The More I See You,” starts playing in the Swamp shortly after Carlye and Becky get out of their jeep. Harry Warren composed the song while Mack Gordon wrote the lyrics. During Radar’s impersonation of Al Jolson, he mentions Harry Warren.
Speaking of impersonations, Radar as a turtle is hilarious. I wonder if Gelbart and Reynolds, while writing the script, asked Gary Burghoff what animal he could convincingly impersonate, or if they decided on a turtle and Burghoff had to figure out how to pull off the impersonation.
Mary Jo Catlett, who plays Nurse Becky Anderson in this episode, resurfaced in “The Nurses” during Season 5 as Nurse Walsh. She also co-starred in an unsold 1977 CBS pilot called “Handle With Care,” about two nurses during the Korean War.
This is the first episode in which Colonel Potter is seen painting. He finishes two paintings: one of Radar and one of Klinger.
Margaret and Frank do not appear in this episode.
I consider this a lukewarm episode – not really one I go out of my way to see, but not exactly one that I avoid either. This episode is an example of how the last few episodes of Season 4 tried becoming more solemn and serious before the series did an about-face with Season 5 and went back to being more lighthearted and humorous.
The one thing that does bother me about this episode was how Blythe Danner kept sounding like she was losing her voice the entire time.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t Hawkeye and Carlye actually engaged at some point?
Yes, they were. As for Blythe Danner’s voice, I believe she actually sounds husky naturally.
My opinion of this episode is that it’s an OK episode, if only because Blythe Danner is in it.
Blythe Danner is a fine actress and the mother of Gwyneth Paltrow.
They were living together during medical school, if I recall.
Her voice was part of the reason I just can’t stand that episode: the other one, feeling sorry for her off-stage husband, Doug. Maybe I’m old fassioned. Just that my heart usually goes out to the one being cheated on.
And wasn’t Hawkeye being a selfish jerk, in those lines about her leaving Doug? My dislike of Hawkeye, or maybe Alda, springs from the episode of ‘Hawkeye, as well as this one.
Spoiler Alert: This is my worst episode of Season 4.
Good episode except there are two lines I don’t understand. The first line is Pierce saying that “only creeps get sent to a mash.” What does he mean? Was he being sarcastic?
And secondly I don’t understand why hawk said if people asked to say that he turned her down. Why? Was this a joke or was it because he didn’t want it to hurt his ego?
The creeps line, I think he was just joking about himself, since lets face it, he pretty much is a creep for most of the shows run when it comes to women. That’s how I took the line anyways.
And yes the “if anyone asks, I turned you down” was just egotistical Hawkeye making a statement that could be seen as a joke, but which also has some truth to it because he didn’t want to hurt his image amongst the other ladies of the camp. Sort of a half joke/half image saver line.
You see that alot from Hawkeye, especially in Episodes that Alda wrote.
The creeps line is in regards to: the roll of toilet paper, referred to as stationary and handy for writing a lawyer because “obvious you’ve struck an officer or embezzled the company’s funds or ravaged a corpsman.” because “Only creeps get sent to a MASH.” -There is no hidden meaning, just jokingly referring to why one might be unlucky enough to be sent to a MASH unit.
“If anybody asks, I turned you down.”
Ego? Maybe.
But, mostly it’s the episode coming full circle and a reference to lines from the first scene …
[BJ] “You left her.” [Hawkeye] “The minute after she left me.”
Creative lines near the end are often tied directly to things said in first scenes, just M*A*S*H fun, part of what makes them great to watch over and over.
A couple of points: BJ doesn’t say he won’t cheat on Peg. He says, “I simply don’t want to,” which changes (or does it, given his guilt) in Season 5.
And the Bible typo Father Mulcahy mentions is “Thou shalt commit adultery,” so it relates to the main plot.
Actually one of my favorite episodes. Blythe is amazing and strong — nice chemistry between them. Great writing!
Interesting episode. We learn more about Hawkeye’s past and see how truly dedicated he is to his work. For me, this was the start of the more mature Hawkeye we saw in later seasons. BJ makes a great nonjudgmental friend. Note: Carlye is another female character with a decidedly non-1950s hairstyle.
LOVED this episode! Blythe Danner was, as she usually is, just wonderful and her and Alan Alda were terrific together, that goodbye scene made me teary, not gonna lie.
Watching this episode for the first time as an adult, I’m struck by how much more intense it feels now that I’ve been in relationships. The last time I saw this episode I was maybe 8 years old. It was just a bunch of adults talking and drama and Hawkeye looking sad.
I love re-watching these episodes because I can really feel the characters much more than I ever could as a kid. People are writing about how they found this episode disappointing, but to me this episode shows us a side of Hawkeye that we rarely get to see: Vulnerable, morally confused, selfish, scared, in love, hurt.
I loved watching Alan Alda portray all of these tumultuous feelings so effortlessly. Great episode, and one that I appreciate more now than ever before.
Alda’s delivery of Hawkeye’s raw emotions in this episode ARE exceptional. And the struggling with his feelings we see here are usually hidden behind humor (he tries to here), so makes for an interesting twist.
I think this is a very fine episode – well acted, well directed and especially well written. It also paints Hawkeye in an unflattering light and that is something to be commended when a TV show (especially a comedy) paints its leading character unflatteringly. He is also very vulnerable and it is a great examination of his character.
Great point above about the typos in the Bible being relevant to the plot. I wonder if Radar impersonating a turtle was also a subtly relevant thing, insofar as Hawkeye was coming out of his shell emotionally in this episode, like a turtle, looked around, and then retreated again? … maybe I am reading too much into it.
Whilst the episode was mainly about the relationship between Hawkeye and carlye, it also has key scenes showing the developing relationship between Hawkeye and BJ. This episode also develops their relationship very well, including bookending the episode with humorous (and quotable) scenes between them in the Swamp.
Up to this point in season 4, most of their scenes in the Swamp have involved Frank, so it is good to see them by themselves.
Three quibbles however:
Firstly, during the episode carlye talks to virtually nobody except Hawkeye. A brief introductory scene with BJ, a brief scene wit hate other new nurse, but in the main she only talks t oHawkeye, either in the Swamp, in her tent, even in OR, it is only those two. It probably does not matter much, but it does seem that the episode is very intent on showing Carlye and Hawkeye and nobody else interacting with them – not even in OR!
Secondly, Carlye puts in a transfer to leave so soon after arriving and also asks for it to be expedited, yet this does not generate any scene involving Potter or Margaret (Nurses transfers it has been well established are the domain of Margaret Houlihan). All that Potter does is paint, without a care in the world, seemingly. Potter must have signed it off, because Carlye is gone by the end of the episode, so when how and why did Potter sign it off without talking to Hawkeye about it?
Thirdly, where are Frank and Margaret? Frank is admittedly superfluous to the plot, but it is hard to believe he is never in the Swamp, given the number of scenes in the Swamp in this episode.
Margaret is nowhere to be seen, * despite * the episode being about the arrival and controversial rapid departure of a new nurse!! (Controversial because it is about Hawkeye and Carlye being unable to work together professionally in the OR – I am sure this has come up in other episodes with other nurses?)
I am aware that Loretta Swit was otherwise busy during the end of season 4, but there is not even any mention in the script of where Margaret is or why she is not there. Frank and Margaret (especially Margaret) should have been referred to somehow, but they simply weren’t. Looked at in isolation, you would be forgiven for thinking when watching this episode that a head nurse never existed.
Brian L, I believe your quibbles are all explained by the fact there isn’t time for anything else, it simply takes the entire 24 minutes to develop the Hawkeye/Carlyle story (backstory and current).
One of the great things about M*A*S*H is how wisely (and creativity) they used their minutes, they excelled at getting in all the information needed (we often had to be on our toes).
In regards to, “All that Potter does is paint . . .”:
Those short (and silly) painting scenes are essential to the story, a big part of showing the passing of time (and they carry the humor).
Good point on the Hawkeye/B.J. relationship; those scenes also help move the Hawkeye/Carlyle story along.
I agree, it is a well acted, well directed, and well written episode.