It what had to be a shocker for TV fans of that era, it turns out that the person the hero was trying to save was the ruthless killer an enemy military general said she was. When she arrives amidst the chaos of incoming casualties, one of whom is Scully, Margaret's latest boyfriend, the medics do their best to attend to everyone. As Hawkeye is attending to Guerilla Woman, Lt. Park, played with great skill by M*A*S*H semi regular Mako, stands over him, watching intently. After Hawkeye expresses his displeasure, Mako explains why he is there and his intentions. Lt. Park is so intent on questioning her, he orders his soldiers to try and remove her when the doctors backs are turned.
Lt. Park cannot understand why Hawkeye rebuffs his attempts, and Hawkeye views Park as just part of the killing machine of war. Once Scully, who knows Park's reputation, if not the man himself, explains that Park intends of killing her once he's done questioning her, Hawkeye and B.J. scheme for a way to get her out alive. Not even her attempts to murder a wounded soldier in post-op tells the doctors that they may be misguided. They just pass it off as her attempt to flee certain death. Even Charles volunteers to help, by challenging Park to a game of chess when Park lets it slip that he enjoys the game. Saying to B.J. and Hawkeye that the game would provide the perfect 'distraction.' While B.J. and Hawkeye load her onto an ambulance that night, Charles engages Park in a chess match, playing rather badly on purpose in order to keep Park distracted. However, it fails as Park and his men (who'd been duped by Klinger into drinking wine and leaving their post) quickly spring to their feet and stop the ambulance before it can leave. He removes the Guerilla woman from the ambulance and attempts to leave with her, saying that since the doctors did their job, it was time for him to his, prompting an angry Hawkeye to call him a SOB and advance on him, only for Park's men to draw their weapons on Hawkeye. A brief, a very tense stand off begins, before Park and his men retreat to the waiting jeep, with their prisoner aboard, and drive off. And we are left with Hawkeye, B.J. Potter, Klinger and Charles mulling about the complex, resigned to the fate of the woman.
The story presents a complex dilemma. Even though the true intentions of the woman are made clear in the end, one can see that once even the doctors see this as well, they remain conflicted. Though they know she's a killer, she themselves don't want to see her put to death.
Overall, this is one of the stronger episodes and the story works better because she is the killer she is considered to be. It would have been too clichéd to have her be innocent. And as for Hawkeye, who saw the world through a prism of right and wrong, he is once again reminded that's not always the case.
Lt. Park cannot understand why Hawkeye rebuffs his attempts, and Hawkeye views Park as just part of the killing machine of war. Once Scully, who knows Park's reputation, if not the man himself, explains that Park intends of killing her once he's done questioning her, Hawkeye and B.J. scheme for a way to get her out alive. Not even her attempts to murder a wounded soldier in post-op tells the doctors that they may be misguided. They just pass it off as her attempt to flee certain death. Even Charles volunteers to help, by challenging Park to a game of chess when Park lets it slip that he enjoys the game. Saying to B.J. and Hawkeye that the game would provide the perfect 'distraction.' While B.J. and Hawkeye load her onto an ambulance that night, Charles engages Park in a chess match, playing rather badly on purpose in order to keep Park distracted. However, it fails as Park and his men (who'd been duped by Klinger into drinking wine and leaving their post) quickly spring to their feet and stop the ambulance before it can leave. He removes the Guerilla woman from the ambulance and attempts to leave with her, saying that since the doctors did their job, it was time for him to his, prompting an angry Hawkeye to call him a SOB and advance on him, only for Park's men to draw their weapons on Hawkeye. A brief, a very tense stand off begins, before Park and his men retreat to the waiting jeep, with their prisoner aboard, and drive off. And we are left with Hawkeye, B.J. Potter, Klinger and Charles mulling about the complex, resigned to the fate of the woman.
The story presents a complex dilemma. Even though the true intentions of the woman are made clear in the end, one can see that once even the doctors see this as well, they remain conflicted. Though they know she's a killer, she themselves don't want to see her put to death.
Overall, this is one of the stronger episodes and the story works better because she is the killer she is considered to be. It would have been too clichéd to have her be innocent. And as for Hawkeye, who saw the world through a prism of right and wrong, he is once again reminded that's not always the case.