43. The Chosen People

January 26, 1974 (K-419)

Written by: Laurence Marks, Sheldon Keller and Larry Gelbart
Directed by: Jackie Cooper
Guest Stars: Clare Nono as Choon Hi, Dennis Robertson as 1st Lt Michael Harper, Jay Jay Jue as the boy, Jerry Fujikawa as the father.
Semi-regulars: Pat Morita as Captain Sam Pak, William Christopher as Father Mulcahy, Bobbie Mitchell as Nurse Lyons.

Plot: A Korean family start a farm in the middle of the compound. Seems that the 4077th was plonked down on their land. At the same time, Choon Hi, a local woman shows up with her baby son. A son she says was fathered by a 4077 doctor! ('Pierce and/or McIntyre,' as Henry puts it, 'committed parentood.') It soon turns out it was none of the doctors, as she fingers Radar of all people as the responsible party. Radar denies it. First Lieutenant Harper of the JAG arrives to check Radar's story. Meanwhile, despite the major there hitting on him, Burns gets Civilian Affairs in to deal with the farmers. A bloodtest clears Radar of fatherly culpability. The real soldier-father had left Choon Hi, and her family turned their back on her in turn. She just wanted Radar, whom she already knew, to fill that gap. She goes with the farming family, relocated by Civilian Affairs. As they leave, Radar explains that he liked the feeling of being thought of as a father. It certainly seems to make him popular with the nurses!

Glitches: While Henry's brushing up to shave, his brush goes from his chin to his cheek between shots.
Major Burns says that the family in the camp are poachers. No, poachers take stuff, often by illegally hunting it. These guys are just trespassers (at least to Burns they are).
Picking on DVD subtitles isn't usually much of an endeavour, but when Pak says that Choon Hi is now ostracized by her family, the subtitles say that she's 'not ostracized'. Subtle yet significant difference!
Henry counts off five people in the farming family when he's on the phone. Later, though, Burns counts off six as he's packing them into the truck. (It's not Choon Hi. She's in Henry's office.)
At the very end, Nurse Lyons asks Radar who he's taking to the movies and then wanders off without an answer. That's dreadfully bad manners.

AWOL: Hot Lips must be washing her hair this week. Though for once, her boyfriend's used well even without her.

Great Lines: Burns: 'I speak American. And I can go anyplace in the world.' It's funny and sad because these days it's becoming so true...
Henry: 'What do you want to do, Frank? Start a military incident in the middle of a war?'
Choon Hi: 'His father is GI Joe.' Oh, you've really got to hear it, but it's such a cute way to get the fact across.
Choon Hi: 'His father speak nice to me, like wind song.' Henry: (gritted smile) 'Well, some of our guys can really shovel the ol' wind song.'
Burns: 'If we were in the Navy, I'd have you flogged.'

Continuity is for Wimps: Someone throws an egg at Radar while he's playing the bugle at the start of the episode. It looks like a real, proper egg out of a chicken. Later, though, we'll find out that the men and women of the 4077th have to make do with powdered eggs and that genuine chicken ova are valued and prized things. So they shouldn't have had that egg, and even if they did, they shouldn't have thrown it at Radar!

They All Look the Same to Me: Well, it's hard to tell because of different make-up and what-have-you, but shall we say that Jerry Fujikawa was in fact here a few weeks ago, billed as 'Jarry Fujikawa', and playing Whiplash Hwang? (See 37. Deal Me Out.) Plus we get another appearance from our ol' friend Pat Morita as Captain Pak. Clare Nono and Jay Jay Jue are also here.

Je ne parle Korean...do I? Hawkeye thinks that the Korean for 'your uncle has gas from eating cabbage' means 'your presence is welcome in our camp'. Fortunately Captain Pak's on hand to help him. Mind you, the sounds Hawkeye was making sounded more like wonkily speaking Italian than Korean. (Not that it meant anything in Italian, though.) Hawk doesn't do much better as he goes on. At least, unlike Burns, he's trying. Henry and Radar soon find that the Korean for 'go home' isn't 'go-ey home-ey'!

Notes: Captain Pak's father-in-law is called Quak. (He also says his mother's family is called Pish-Posh, but he's likely joking by this point.)
Radar is blood type B. Trapper says he is as well, but may be just joking.

Comments: This episode is fairly average - an interesting plot but most of the detail little to write home about. Still pretty good, though. One part that stands out is Radar's hilarious attempt to make himself out as a wild troublemaker looking for action in the local village. All of two beers! Watch out, ladies! What's interesting here is the lack of a bizarre scheme to keep the farmers happy. While Hawkeye speaks at great length about the plight of these people (wherever they were all this time, but then, there's a war on), nonetheless they're taken away in the relocation truck at the end. The positive spin is that Choon Hi gets to go with them. Not everything's going to be a happy-clappy ending from left field, but when they go, they're gone, just as the system dictates. In fact, now that I think about it, despite everything else that happens, Burns goes out to do something, and gets it done exactly as he intends! With his colonel's blessing, no less! Wow.

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