Henry, Please Come Home
Synopsis: It’s another busy stretch in surgery. The surgeons argue as usual, and Frank is angry with Ginger for giving him the wrong type of thread.
Once they get out of surgery, he tells Henry that he wants to charge Ginger with insubordination. Hawkeye, Trapper and Spearchucker argue with him and Henry tells them to lay off Frank. As they cross the compound, Radar arrives with a message from General Hammond – the 4077th has achieved a 90% efficiency rating, thanks to Henry’s excellent administrative skills!
At a special ceremony, Henry is awarded the Special Citation of Merit, 4th Class, by General Hammond. After Henry’s acceptance speech, the General makes the shock announcement that Henry is being reassigned to Tokyo HQ.
Soon afterward, Henry says goodbye to Leslie, Hawkeye, Trapper and Radar before leaving in a jeep for Tokyo.
As he leaves, Frank is moving his things into Henry’s quarters – he is their new commanding officer.
That night, Frank and Radar rearrange Henry’s office. Frank refuses to let Radar go to bed until everything is shipshape, and tells Radar that life will be very different with him in command.
The next morning, the camp is woken up by bugling and everyone is required to attend early-morning callisthenics.
Later that day, Frank makes an inspection of the camp and puts Hawkeye, Trapper and Spearchucker on report for the disgusting state of their tent, and their scruffy appearances. Not only that, but he confiscates the still.
Horrified, the guys decide that they must get rid of Frank. They discuss various ways to do it, but eventually hit on the idea of persuading Henry to come back, and begin to come up with a plan.
Hawkeye and Trapper visit Henry in Tokyo, where he is having a fabulous time – relaxing in baths and massage parlours. They tell him how morale and efficiency are suffering without him, but he refuses to be swayed.
That evening, Leslie calls Henry, and asks to speak to Hawkeye. Once Hawkeye reaches the phone Leslie passes him over to Radar – they have planned this phone call to create the pretence that Radar is very ill. Hawkeye talks about white counts and vomiting, while Radar tells him what he had for lunch.
Once he gets off the phone, Hawkeye tells Trapper that they need to return immediately, that their patient has taken a turn for the worse. Trapper ‘accidentally’ lets slip that the patient is Radar, and Henry insists on going with them to examine Radar himself.
When the three of them arrive back at the 4077th, Radar is in bed in Post-Op. Henry begins to examine him, and Radar gets into his role, faking intense pain.
Frank arrives and insists that Radar isn’t ill, and tells Henry that he cannot examine a patient without filling in a form, since Henry is only a visiting physician. Henry ignores him and decides to operate on Radar to find out what is wrong with him. This isn’t how the plan was supposed to go at all, and everyone protests that operating would be a bad idea, but Henry is adamant. Frank refuses to let Henry operate, and says that if he doesn’t like it, he can call General Hammond. Henry says he will do just that and Radar automatically goes to call the General for Henry. When Henry looks at him in shock, he realises his mistake, but it’s too late – the cat’s out of the bag.
Contrite, the surgeons explain that they just wanted to make Henry feel needed, so that he would come back to run the outfit again. Henry agrees.
Review: This is quite a fun episode, with some very funny moments and quite a touching goodbye scene as Henry leaves the 4077th. Radar’s acting is great. However, still no Margaret! 7/10.
Romance Review: A bit of Henry/Leslie action. Very little else. 2/10.
Quotes: ‘I didn’t come here to be liked.’
‘You certainly came to the right place.’ - Frank and Radar.
‘I could swear I heard a bugle. It is a bugle!’ (pause) ‘Hey, I think we’re in the Army!’ – Hawkeye.
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