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(08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2015 4:10 pm
by RJ
Use this thread to discuss 08x03: Guerilla My Dreams.

Re: (08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2015 8:34 pm
by Big Daddy O'Reilly
I was watching this episode again tonight (surprisingly) - I've always hated it, it's a terrible episode from a terrible season, bu ttonight was the first time I really caught sight of a common criticism this episode has garnered for years from the fandom, and it's how naive and idealistic the 4077th is regarding the situation with the enemy guerilla that Mako's character is anxious to take into custody. It starts with Hawkeye disregarding all the petty details about her in favor of simply trying to save her life . . . okay, fair enough, it goes with his character, he's that dedicated to his work as a surgeon, and as Potter said before, he's a sore loser when it comes to death. Everyone else, on the other hand, while they are annoyed with Mako making a pest of himself by hanging around waiting to take her away, act like he's insane and his presence is scaring her to death. Case in point: while Scully tries to get intimate with Margaret, the guerilla gets out of bed, yanks her IV out, stumbles over to another patient, yanks his IV out too, then falls to the floor from lack of strength. When discussing it later in Potter's office, Margaret, Hawkeye, and B.J. are all, "Aww, the poor thing! She must have been delirious with fear and tried to escape!" Really? Did they not even notice that the other patient's IV had been yanked out? Well, I guess they must have, because the guerilla smashed the bottle when she fell . . . I guess they must have figured she tried to grab onto it to keep herself from falling . . . clear across the room from her cot.

Okay, giving them the benefit of the doubt: other than Mako's word, they had no actual proof that she was an enemy guerilla, but it does seem a tad far-fetched that all of her not-so-subtle lashing out at them or pulling away from them when they try to help her off the floor or help her walk again seems to me that those should have been little red flags that she wasn't "just delirious from fear." She exhibited no behavior associated with fear.

And in the end: even though she finally gives them the verbal abuse she had been repressing for the entire episode at Hawkeye and the others before Mako takes her away, despite seeing for themselves that she is, indeed, an enemy guerilla, they're still pissed at Mako for taking her away to presumably torture and kill her, to which even he says to Hawkeye, "Can't you see that her life is more important to you than it is to her?"

It was a very clumsily-written episode (and it was written by someone who only wrote this one episode for the show; looking at his other credits, the only other shows he's apparently written for were BENSON and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL), and the acting was very over the top . . . even Charles's attempts to distract Mako while they play chess seemed forced and overacted.

Re: (08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2015 4:17 am
by Moe_Hawk
I'll add to that...

As far as clumsy writing goes, there's a scene where the guerrilla is walking in the OR on crutches... Like MASH is the type of place where ppl would do that level of rehab

Is very clumsily written

Re: (08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Sun Aug 02, 2015 11:02 pm
by kkt
I figure MASH does that level of rehab every time they have a patient whose execution they want to stall.

Yeah, not a particularly imaginative episode. Did the writers think they owed the Army one after letting Hawkeye and company pull the wool over their eyes in umpteen other episodes? I bet Colonel Flag would be delighted.

Re: (08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Tue Aug 04, 2015 11:43 pm
by Moe_Hawk
I do get that KKT

But that bed is a bed taken away from a wounded person thats unconscious, shot up etc etc requiring a patient not suitable for travel to be further evac'ed... None of Potter, Hawkeye etc will stand for that either

Despite that cheap attempt to justify it... Which the writers did... It doesn't hold up to scrutiny

Re: (08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 1:42 am
by kkt
Were they that crowded with patients during that episode? Compared with, say, holding over a baker so he could bake a cake for Kentucky Derby Day, keeping a patient there to stall her torture and killing is at least a noble motive. Even if it was misguided.

Re: (08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:24 am
by Moe_Hawk
I'm not saying it isn't... It's just not realistic. That's the point.

An injury like that, she's not up and walking over a day or two, or even a week for that matter. We're talking weeks... Weeks. She's not staying there for that duration of time whilst more seriously injured ppl are being moved on in her place.
Granted the exact size/capacity of the MASH hospital is unclear, from what we see, i doubt it has more than say 20-30 beds at most and they're getting wounded in at least 20s and 30s at a time minimum

In the episode they gloss over this with the reason that you've suggested and yes MASH isn't a completely realistic show all the time and compromises realism for the story at times... I get that and can accept it. This is just another example of an instance that doesn't stand up to scrutiny and it's a reason that this isn't a favorite episode of mine.

Re: (08x03) 176 - Guerilla My Dreams

Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2017 4:38 pm
by Ferret Face
I actually liked this one a lot. I've said before that I liked episodes like "Commander Pierce" and "Preventative Medicine," where the writers actually took a critical look at Hawkeye and the types of actions he's taken throughout the series, and I'd say this is right along those lines. I'd say it's a bit closer to "Preventative Medicine," since it also addressed a potentially controversial issue. I actually thought they did a great job of portraying the characters' reactions - at least Hawkey/BJ (the most "preachy" characters) and Potter (disliking the tactics of the Korean soldier, but realizing there wasn't anything he could do). Now that I think about it, after reading Big Daddy O'Reilly's post, I do think it might have been better if they had most of the characters being against the torture initially, in varying ways and degrees, but eventually have some of them come around after seeing more signs of her being a gurilla, with only Hawkeye (and maybe BJ) continuing to go against the soldier. But in either case, I loved the ending, and while I may not have agreed with Hawkeye, I'm actually very happy that he stuck to his guns, since it fits so much with his black-and-white mentality.