Now I’m going to miss Spearchucker (I read he got 86ed for reality’s sake–no black surgeons in the Korean War). He’s a nice third wheel to Hawkeye and Trapper and, in an episode about indentured servitude, he’s somewhat necessary.
This episode comes real close. Real, real, real close. But then it goes soft at the end. I’m watching it with the laugh track (I know I shouldn’t be) and that soft ending feels like a laugh track ending.
But it’s still excellent, otherwise. Fifth episode in to a series is still quite a while to find a stride though. Even though it’s a soft ending, it’s not goofy, which is what–the second episode clearly showed–“M*A*S*H” should never be. This episode balances everything quite nicely… but, like I said… I’m going to miss Spearchucker. Ugly John, not so much (he’s only around for card games it seems). But at this point, Spearchucker’s more of a character than Henry.
3.5
1 response so far ↓
1 Marionette // Mar 20, 2008 at 10:28 pm
I thought Spearchucker should have been way more proactive in this one. He suffers from being number 3 on the team, which means he mostly gets to agree with Hawkeye and Trapper and occasionally say things like “but what can we do?”
The episode was good, but imagine how much more poignant it would have been if Spearchucker had been given Hawkeye’s part. Particularly when he found himself owning a devoted servant.
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