Every Monday, I spotlight a random episode of M*A*S*H, providing a brief review and asking readers to offer their thoughts.
“C*A*V*E” (#143, 07×20)
Originally Broadcast: Monday, February 5th, 1979
Written by Larry Balmagia & Ronny Graham
Directed by William Jurgensen
Capsule Summary: The 4077th is forced to evacuate to a nearby cave due to heavy shelling and Hawkeye’s crippling claustrophobia is revealed.
It’s nice every now and then to be reminded that the “M” in M*A*S*H stands for “Mobile” and that the 4077th was often forced to pack up and move due to shifting front lines and artillery fire. The novelty here is that bugging out to a new location wasn’t possible due to shelling from both sides so the 4077th had to go spelunking. Too bad so little of the episode actually takes place in the cave.
I think most fans, when asked about this episode, immediately point out that Hawkeye’s claustrophobia is a blatant plot contrivance. And it is. This was the first and only mention of his fear of enclosed spaces, something you’d would have come up at some point. He had no problem with small or enclosed spaces in earlier episodes–for example he hid in a trunk in “M*A*S*H–The Pilot” and squeezed into a jeep in “Dear Peggy.”
To be honest, I’m not sure the episode needed Hawkeye to be claustrophobic. Aside from a few chuckles, it didn’t actually add much to the story. In fact, it may have been more interesting if Hawkeye had to overcome his fear of leaving the relative safety of the cave to go back to the 4077th to operate on Private Lovett. What if the doctors had to draw straws to decide who operated on Lovett? Or would that be too similar to the scene in “Aid Station” when everyone drew sausages?
Margaret’s fear of loud noises doesn’t feel quite as out of place, in part because it can be traced back to earlier episodes, particularly “Comrades in Arms, Part 1” in Season 6.
Sergeant Bartruff was too much. It’s one thing to depict military incompetence. That’s par for the course with M*A*S*H. But Bartruff wasn’t incompetent. He was smarmy. He seemed happy to hear the 4077th might be in the wrong place and in danger. He didn’t appear concerned at all to learn the Army might be shelling a hospital.
Radar is not in this episode.
I sort of feel like something more should have happened with O’Malley, the wounded soldier who could identify artillery by its sound and thought up the crutch device. I wonder if there was another scene with him written or filmed and then cut.
The cave looked pretty realistic even though I am 99% sure it was made out of 2x4s and papier-mache.
I could have sworn this episode was featured in a spotlight already. Either way, it was apparently this episode which inspired the children’s book series, FRANKLIN: the story goes the original author was nursing her baby one night while watching this episode, and was intrigued by Hawkeye’s comment about, “Can you imagine me as a turtle? Afraid to go in my own shell? All the other turtles laughing at me in my underwear?” This served as the inspiration for one of the books in which Franklin is afraid of his own shell because he’s afraid of small dark places.
The guy who played O’Malley (I forget his name at the moment) was clearly a character actor, as I’ve seen him in a few other things: he was the vet at the pound in the Disney movie HOMEWARD BOUND: THE INCREDIBLE JOURNEY, and he was also the man in the SEINFELD episode “The Hamptons,” who finked on Kramer for poaching lobster traps.
O’Malley was played by actor Mark L. Taylor. I remembered him as soon as you mentioned the lobster traps from Seinfeld. He was a regular on Wayne Rogers’ sitcom “House Calls” as snotty hospital administrator Conrad Peckler. I also saw him at least once on “Home Improvement”, which only stood out to me because he was an actor named Mark [L.] Taylor on a sitcom with a character named Mark Taylor (Tim’s youngest son).
A flat, boring episode in which the only memorable point is the throwaway revelation of Hawkeye’s claustrophobia. I neither like nor dislike this episode as there is nothing there to stir any emotion.
I thought the claustrophobia plot point was another in a long line of let’s give Alan a chance for another Emmy episodes. I think part of the problem with the writing in the show is there are so many different writers who come and go and the tone and content of episodes changes. It seems like many of the people who write for the show didn’t take the time to read through all scripts to find out about the characters. Hawkeye’s issues always seem to derive from some latent mental health issues which is nice foreshadowing for the final episode.
One little thing I noticed is when Father Mulcahy found out about Hawkeye’s claustrophobia he said “I’m working on the other side if you want to talk.” Then he gave an embarrassed look as though he was sorry his “office” was inside the cave. Why on Earth couldn’t he stay there and talk to Hawkeye? I’m thinking it was just to get a few lines out of William Christopher as per his contract.
I can’t believe kernel powder left without Sophie. Where was Sophie and all of this?
Damn speak to text. It should say, Colonel Potter
[Potter to Klinger] “Into the cave with the rest of the bats.”
(I do love how Potter deals with Klinger -and Charles.)
The scenes with Margaret & Hawkeye bonding were well done and great fun to watch.
Charles’ scene as he lists all the doomsday type problems is fun; no really funny lines, just fun.
[Klinger, to the patient he’s giving his blood to] “Father Mulcahy and Major Winchester have the same type blood as me, except one’s a little purer and one’s a little bluer.”
Fun scene when Potter is sitting at the desk with his hand in the air (like he’s holding a phone):
[Potter] “Shut up, both of you, I’m trying to raise I-Corps.”
[Hawkeye] “Should we tell him he doesn’t have a phone in his hand?”
[B.J.] “Colonel, you don’t have a phone in your hand.”
Since I enjoy each M*A*S*H episode as a stand-alone, I have no problem with this being the only mention of Hawkeye being Claustrophobia; or Margaret being afraid of loud noises ….
They get friendly fire in “As You Were”, they are shelled in “Bombed”, “It Happened One Night”, and “Bug Out”, in “Aid Station” she goes to the front line, in “Baby It’s Cold Outside” mines are blowing up. IMO she is afraid of the shelling itself (not just the noise) and dying in “Comrades in Arms” (as she was in “BugOut”). What she describes here in “C*A*V*E” is not what she does any other time … I just think if you are going to point out one, you should maybe point out both.
I personally think when you try to put episodes together it takes away from the amazing talent each episode presents.
A unique episode with superb acting.
Speaking as someone with mild claustrophobia as well as a fear of loud noises (among several other completely irrational fears like the dark, spiders, wasps, and walking down steep wet hills), the fact that Hawkeye’s claustrophobia nor Margaret’s fear of loud noises are dwelt on in other episodes really didn’t bother me at all. Speaking purely for myself, there are significant periods of time that I can control my fears and there are periods of time when I just can’t. Stress and tiredness seem to be the most common factors – the more stressed/tired I am, the worse my phobias get. I’m not saying that if I’m not stressed/tired the phobias disappear entirely, just that it’s easier to control and subdue them for longer periods of time before my brain goes into “fight or flight” mode and I begin truly panicking. So I can believe that a relatively non-stressed Hawkeye could allow himself to be briefly pulled into a crowded jeep for a matter of minutes in order for a photograph to be taken, or hide out in a trunk (again, presumably not for very long), but dealing with the situation of being shelled from all sides plus some heavily wounded patients meant that he just couldn’t devote much energy to subduing his claustrophobia; just as I can believe that Margaret can more often than not be so focused on her duties as Head Nurse and setting an example plus her status as an army brat that it regularly helps her to subdue her fear of loud noises until occasionally the stress of an individual situation becomes too much for her to bear. Let’s be honest here, M*A*S*H as a series was riddled with basic continuity errors from the very beginning (the ever-changing number of relatives each character had being the most obvious) and I seem to remember reading somewhere one of the other producers admitting that they had nothing in terms of a “continuity bible” like most long-running series have nowadays. This I genuinely don’t see as a glaring continuity error, however; at least not in the same way as, say, Henry only having daughters until his son is born and then in another episode apparently suddenly gaining an older son out of nowhere. Starting from Season 7, a major theme of the show started to be how the war was taking its toll on everyone and how a lot of their previous coping mechanisms just weren’t working so well anymore. To me, both Hawkeye’s pronounced claustrophobia and Margaret almost buckling under her fear of loud noises in this episode is more just character development (both of them actually feeling able to open up to each other about their respective fears, for starters) and seeing how they react in a specific situation.
Also, I just have to highlight this little exchange between Klinger and Charles because David Ogden Stiers’ utterly deadpan delivery absolutely never fails to crack me up:
Klinger: Ironic, huh? Us two, brothers under the skin…
Charles: That’s as demoralising a thought as I’ve ever encountered.
I can go with the idea the stress of the situation brought the fears front and center, so just now surfacing.
Either way, IMO, the claustrophobia plot is too well done to be dismissed as not believable because it’s never been mentioned. His gradually increase to panic is masterfully done; from the moment we hear Hawkeye’s feeble objection (to going to the cave) to his panic of going into the cave. And Margaret and Hawkeye’s scenes when they are opening up about their fears, then helping each other through it, are also well done.
Yes, Charles’ delivery of that fun line was absolutely great!
Fun exchange.
One of my favorite Season 7 episodes. Great collection of quotes throughout, right down to”20 Questions” while Hawkeye and Margaret operated under fire. And BJ’s comment when everyone returned: ” I don’t know about them, but he’s OK “
Funny, when Potter first suggests the cave, Charles is the first one who wants to go. But inside the cave, he’s the one yammering all about the dangers of the same cave.
Does any M*A*S*H expert know why this episode is called C*A*V*E? Not Cave, or The Cave, or something else, but C*A*V*E with the M*A*S*H style asterisks, as if CAVE is some kind of acronym?
I have aways wondered …
If it was up to me I would have given it a pun title working on the fact that the word cave backwards is Evac e.g. episode title “Cave Evac” or “Evac Cave” …