What happens in the last episode of the TV show, M.A.S.H?

Question

I've heard the ending is sad, but I've never seen it. The couple times I've watched the show it's funny, not serious. Is the last episode sad?

Answer 1

The finale starts during the waning days of the war at an unfamiliar hospital, in Ward D; it is revealed as a mental hospital. Captain Hawkeye Pierce (played by Alda) is inside being treated by Dr. Sidney Freedman (played by longtime recurring guest star Allan Arbus). As time progresses, Freedman is able to force him to recall the events that led up to his breakdown.

In the first memory that Hawkeye recalls, he is on an ill-fated bus ride after a day of partying at the beaches of Inchon, and is drunk and jovial on the bus, and shouting for a bottle of whiskey – to be passed to the back of the bus for someone who "can't wait." However, as time progresses in his treatment, he is able to recall memories which he repressed; in his next recollection of the story, the person who "can't wait" is revealed to be a wounded soldier brought onto the bus, as a frustrated Hawkeye, unable to believe that the atmosphere on the bus is so jovial in light of this soldier's injury, calls frantically for a bottle of plasma.

The bus then picks up a group of Korean refugees, followed later by more wounded soldiers. Then, every person on the bus is in danger of being discovered and executed by a North Korean patrol. Hawkeye scolds the refugees to be quiet but a chicken begins to cluck and its owner responds by smothering it to death to keep it quiet. Hawkeye breaks down crying as he remembers that the chicken was actually a baby, and he had repressed the memory.

Meanwhile, a tank is driven into the 4077th and crushes the latrine. Charles Emerson Winchester, going to use the "ravine latrine," "captures" a rag-tag bunch of Chinese soldiers who happened to be musicians and teaches them to play Mozart's "Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, K. 581". Colonel Potter gets orders not to move the tank.

Charles is also bemoaning the fact that a competitor for an administrative position at Mercy Hospital back in Boston has been pulling strings in an attempt to get the job. Hot Lips tries to help him get the job, and succeeds in doing so, but when Winchester finds out what she has done, he is none too pleased.

The presence of the tank causes the North Koreans to begin mortaring the unit. During the initial mortaring, Father Mulcahy goes out to try to save a group of prisoners of war who have been placed in the camp. While he is doing so, he is knocked out by a mortar round that explodes very near to him, and when he wakes up, finds that he cannot hear what anyone is saying. He makes B.J. promise not to tell anyone about his hearing problem, because it could get him sent home where he wouldn't be able to continue helping the local orphans.

B.J. Hunnicutt, who has received his discharge papers, leaves for home, before Hawkeye returns to the camp to find a fresh batch of wounded waiting for him. With the mortaring of the camp continuing, Hawkeye takes the initiative and drives the tank out of the camp.

Soon after, wildfires started by North Korean incendiary bombs in the surrounding hills forces the 4077th to bug out. (An actual wildfire destroyed the outdoor set and had to be written into the script.) Almost as soon as the new camp has been set up, B.J. returns, his journey home stopped after word reaches him in Guam that his discharge has been rescinded.

Winchester eventually has to say goodbye to his Chinese music students, due to a POW trade with the Koreans. However, shortly thereafter, one of the musicians is brought back to the camp, barely clinging to life, and Charles is stunned to learn that he is the only one of the students still alive. As a result, classical music, his number one solace during the war, becomes unpalatable to him.

The truce has been signed. While in surgery, the hospital staff hears journalist Robert Pierpoint over the PA as the last shots of the war are fired.

A party is given in the mess tent to celebrate (presumably that evening or the evening before the hospital is decommissioned). Each of the main characters – and many minor characters, including ones barely seen during the run of the show – tells what he or she will be doing after the war. Klinger, known throughout the series for constantly seeking a Section 8 discharge, decides to stay in Korea to be with his new wife, Soon Lee, and assist her in her search for her missing parents — even though he, like most of the soldiers, has finally received his release papers.

Most of the enlisted personnel are sent by bus to the 8063rd MASH, a temporary stop, before being sent home. The officers then say goodbye what remains of the camp is torn down by the few remaining soldiers. Each departs one by one.


Promotional photograph of the iconic final scene of the episode.The final scene involves just B.J. and Hawkeye. B.J. is unable to say goodbye and Hawkeye mocks him for this failure. Both men lament that they will be on opposite sides of the country after they go home and conclude that they will probably never see each other again, though Hunnicutt promises they will. They tearfully embrace for the last time, then Hawkeye boards a helicopter and prepares to lift off. Hunnicutt rides off on a motorcycle and, as the helicopter ascends, Hawkeye sees a final message from his long-time friend spelled out with stones on the sandy soil: "GOODBYE." The message, of course, serves a dual purpose: it was also a message from the creators of the series to its fans, saying "goodbye" after 11 years. As such, it is the last image shown on the screen before the final credits, apart from a quick shot of Hawkeye's helicopter flying into the distance.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

M.A.S.H. is the greatest classic TV show of all time. I love it. And the end to the final episode is the greatest ending of any TV show ever. If you get the chance, watch it.
I'd say it is pretty sad. If you've ever been in the military, you know the tight bond & camaraderie that can form. I realize they weren't in the military on the show, but you get that same feeling.

Answer 4

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
What happens in the last episode of the TV show, M.A.S.H?
I've heard the ending is sad, but I've never seen it. The couple times I've watched the show it's funny, not serious. Is the last episode sad?

Answer 5

Kattsia
for some reason I was just thinking of that scene.. I will never forget it.. ever since I have seen the last episode of The Sopranos, I thought that the best finale of all time was that one.. but no.. if I really think of it . it was the last episode of MASH. What an incredible show that was.. still brings tears to my eyes when I think of that scene and how that poor woman on the bus had to smother her baby to save all the people.. now that's incredible writing!!..Hope you see this .Kattisa,. You wrote your comment so long ago

Answer 6

It was very sad. Hawkeye is meeting with a psychiatrist, talking about the war, and it keeps going back and forth with the psychiatrist and his memories. I don't remember everything that happened as I watched it many years ago. But one vivid part I do remember was where Hawkeye is travelling on a bus with a lot of people, trying to quietly get past some kind of checkpoint without detection. He keeps saying that there was a woman with a chicken or rooster on her lap and it wouldn't stop clucking. He keeps pleading with the woman to quiet the bird, and so the woman hysterically ends killing the bird. At the end though, you find out that it wasn't a bird, but a crying baby. She ended up killing it so the bus would be silent and they would get to safety. Very sad.

Answer 7

The problem was that the writers refused to allow BURNS to grow unlike the rest as he was the punching bag for everybody there.LINVILLE said that his mental gears were stripped reffering to the character and LINVILLE should won an emmy for it as it was a tough task MIKE FARREL said that it was no fun to humiliate a crazy person-I agree the funny went out when Linville left I pretty much quit watchuing the post burns episodes.

Answer 8

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The circumstances surrounding his departure from the 4077th (and thus from M*A*S*H itself) are depicted in the Season Six premiere episode, "Fade Out, Fade In". During Margaret's honeymoon with Donald, Burns was sent on leave to Seoul. While there, he suffered a breakdown and started running wild throughout the city with the Military Police in pursuit until he accosted a General's wife (whom he mistakenly thought was Houlihan) in a public bath. As a result of a psychiatric examination after his capture, he was sent back stateside. Potter, Radar, Pierce and B.J. have one last toast in Frank's honor. Hawkeye's last words on the matter are: "Goodbye, Ferret Face!" However, Burns has the proverbial "last laugh": to Hawkeye and B.J.'s disgust, and which caused Hawkeye to throw the portable phone out the door in a savage fury, he is promoted to lieutenant colonel with all the charges against him being dropped, and posted to a VA Hospital in Indiana. (Hawkeye sarcastically referred to this as a decision made by "the army in its infinite wisdom", and what was worse, was that he was cleared of all charges of accosting the General and his wife.) Burns was replaced with Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester III, who by contrast, was considered an excellent surgeon even by the people who disliked him. Winchester also had a relatively more bearable personality and unlike Burns, Winchester actually has compassion for others. Burns was mentioned one last time when the 4077th was creating a time capsule, in which various items were put into the capsule to show what went on there. Winchester asked why nothing was put in from Burns' remaining possessions to which Hawkeye replied that he thought of putting Frank's scalpel in, but they didn't want to include "dangerous weapons," referring to Burns' inferior medical skills. Burns was written out of the series at the request of Linville. Linville (who once commented that there was actually a very dark aura hovering over Frank, that Frank was not all that stable, yet still operating on patients) felt that the character of Frank Burns had gone as far as it possibly could, with the way the series had developed. Burns' leaving is generally seen as the last straw in the "funny" years of the show, with latter storylines mainly focusing on the horrors of war. :o)

Answer 9

Hawkeye Mash

Answer 10

Mash Finale

Answer 11

yes it is vary sad . hawkeye go's to a mental clinic. charles finds some koreans that plays music and later thay die. and father mokhahe loses his hearing by a bomb.