SO6E19: What's Up Doc
In this episode, the A and the B plot take off from the same moment in OR, and go in very different directions. The A plot is, Hawkeye noting that Margaret seems unusually irritatable in OR - BJ is trying to operate on Lieutenant Tom Martinson, he's shoving the mask away, going "No!" and Margaret moves in and positions the mask to the man goes under, telling the nurse off for not doing her job right.
BJ says: "Don't start a fight, or we'll be sent to the principal's office."
While Margaret is holding the mask over Martinson's face, BJ's helpful response is "Hey, Margaret, take it easy. She just doesn't like a guy who grabs."
Margaret tells the nurse off, and BJ tells Margaret "As an officer and a gentleman, you should forgive and forget."
Hawkeye's move is to follow Margaret and check in with her, find out why she's so irritable, and this is all good stuff, but let's follow the Martinson plot while Hawkeye is focussing on Margaret.
BJ and Charles are sharing post-off duty: BJ is examining the patient he was operating on when Margaret lost her temper: Lieutenant Tom Martinson.
"How's that shoulder feel, Martinson? I think I did a bang-up job on your bang-up even if I do say so myself."
Martinson asks unhappily "You're gonna send me back up there, aren't ya, Doc?"
BJ says "You're ambulatory now. *checks wristwatch* You'll be out of here by noon Thursday."
BJ adds "You're lucky. That's when our rates change."
Hawkeye isn't there. Hawkeye is focussing his entire attention on Margaret. BJ - I think - is trying to be Hawkeye. Hawkeye would crack a joke to cheer up a depressed patient in post-op: so BJ does. And when the patient doesn't laugh, BJ laughs for him: a very forced laugh.
Martinson rolls his eyes at BJ.
What would Hawkeye's reaction have been to a patient rolling his eyes at a joke?
BJ's reaction is: "I don't remember. Did I remove your sense of humor?"
Martinson's response to BJ? "
"Knock it off, Doc. This morning I was leading and retreated smack into a minefield. That shrapnel you removed from my shoulder is what's left of my sergeant's helmet. He was right next to me when the mine went up."
BJ reacts:
Martinson says "I am not going back. I won't go back."
BJ says: "I know how you must feel."
BJ, apparently realising that Hawkeye-style jokes aren't going to work, sticks his hands in his pockets, and Martinson says: "You think it's because I'm scared, don't you?"
BJ, attempting to be sympathetic: If you are, you're not alone, soldier."
BJ sits down. Martinson says "I am not a soldier. I never was a soldier. I thought R.O.T. C.would keep me out of active duty."
BJ's answer is "Should've read the fine print."
Martinson points out he's an art history major, and when he was drafted, he assumed the army would put him somewhere relevant - just as they did BJ.
BJ quips "I think the marines are the only ones with an art history division."
This DOES NOT HELP. Martinson points out that an art history degree taught him nothing about leading men into action, and his inexperience got his sergeant killed.
BJ: "Look, Martinson, you can't blame yourself for that."
And Martinson, quite reasonably, says "Get out of here, will you? Just leave me alone."
So BJ does.
Charles cannot resist a little prodding, but the fact is, Charles' is right: "Bedside manner failing you, Hunnicutt?"
- "Lay off, Winchester."
"What's this, "Attila the Pun" has lost his sense of good humor? "
BJ goes back later to try again.
"Look, Tom. I hate this place, this war, just as much as you do. But there really isn't a whole hell of a lot we can do about it except cope with the situation as best we can."
BJ adds "That or rent a room in Leavenworth."
That look on Martinson's face.
BJ's solution isn't a bad one. Hawkeye would likely have come to the same conclusion and made the same suggestion. But not in that form and not with that kind of visible reluctance - BJ literally coughs and raises his fist to his mouth before suggesting:
"I can recommend you be sent to Tokyo for psychiatric observation."
To which Martinson responds - irrationally, but BJ's way of introducing it wasn't great either - "I'm not letting headhunters get ahold of me and put in my records that I'm nuts.'This is to certify that Tom Martinson, Associate Professor of Art History - went bonkers in Korea'?"
BJ: "They're not there to brand you. They're there to help you."
"Will you slow down?"
Charles steps in, evidently believing that as a fellow Ivy Leaguer - Martinson graduated from Yale - he can better help a patient BJ has managed to antagonise. BJ gives up. "Be my guest."
Charles instructs BJ: "Don't - Don't go away. I think it's important you observe this."
The expression on BJ's face. It's fairly clear he has emotionally signed off on Martinson and now just wants to see Charles fail, too.
Charles Emerson Winchester III, Harvard graduate, is speaking to Tom Martinson, Yale graduate, and BJ is only amused.
"I could tell at once that you were a man of education and breeding. I guess the army is no place for a couple of - Ivy Leaguers like us Is it, Lieutenant?"
Charles is the one who hands Martinson the backpack with his gun, and who nearly gets shot, but BJ is - having attempted to be Hawkeye without Hawkeye's unshakeable concern - primarily responsible for goading Martinson to the point where he decides taking a hostage to get out is the only option. Charles is only the last straw: BJ loaded it on.
Tom Martinson: "I'll shoot this man if I have to."
BJ: "Okay. Not that okay."
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