M*A*S*H: Margaret's Marriage

M*A*S*H: Margaret's Marriage
CBS
March 15, 1977
Dramedy
DVD
B

Tired of Frank's needling, Margaret marries Lt. Col. Donald Penobscott (here played by Beeson Carroll).  The Greenbaum & Fritzell story manages to be both funny and touching.  Even Hawkeye and BJ putting a full body cast on a passed-out Donald at the smoker (bachelor party) doesn't seem as cruel as it might've in the first couple seasons.  (Not that they're totally off the hook.  They could say something the next morning.)

Judy Farrell (Able), Roy Goldman (this time as a Corpsman), Kellye Nakahara (Yamato), Patricia Stevens (Baker), and Lynne Marie Stewart (her last appearance, this time as Nurse Clark) return.  This was Linville's last episode.  I don't remember how they explained his departure, although it might've been that he went crazy with jealousy and loss.  The show had evolved beyond the simplistic character of Frank Burns, so that even Klinger seems much more nuanced.

I don't know if this is officially the end of phase two of the series, but it is the end of Season Five.  It's a season that's on a more even keel than in the past, the usual B- average this time representing a range from 2 Cs to 11 Bs.  It's tempting to say that the show has finally found itself, but with six more years to go, it will continue to evolve.