So the other night I had someone in a dream explain to me a secret theme of the final episode of 'M*A*S*H', "Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen", and when I woke ... it was STILL a good observation, so I'm sharing it with Twitter

(Mild spoilers for the episode, and for 'M*A*S*H')

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I have seen a bit of 'M*A*S*H' in recent years and it holds up better than a lot of old TV.

The laugh track now seems awkward, and the sexual harassment of the nurses is UGH, but the stories and jokes still mostly work if you can get into its groove.

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And a few years back, I accidentally stumbled into seeing the final episode for the first time since it was broadcast when I was thirteen years old. It dazzled me when it was new, but I expected to be disappointed.

I. Was. Not.

It is AMAZING.

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'M*A*S*H' was always a drama about the Vietnam War disguised as a sitcom set in the Korean War.

The final episode magically, seamlessly lifts one of those veils and turns 'M*A*S*H' into a drama. That this works AT ALL is some of the craftiest TV ever done.

And it works WELL.

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"Goodbye, Farewell, and Amen" thoughtfully ties off a story arc for all of the major characters.

The cleverest is the thing it does with Klinger, a one-gag character in most episodes, who gets a beautiful, surprising final act. I'll leave that for all y'all to rediscover.

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The thing my Dream Interlocutor pointed out to me is Hawkeye's story in the final episode. We start with him in a MENTAL HOSPITAL.

(I remember my mother half-joking that it was small wonder, since he had gone through eleven years of war.)

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Hawkeye has had some kind of breakdown, and beloved occasional recurring character Sidney The Shrink is giving him talk therapy.

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This is a style of talk therapy that only exists in plays, TV shows, and movies.

Hawkeye talks through the Key Incident That Broke His Mind, again and again, and we see the story, progressively getting closer and closer to him facing the truth of what happened.

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In the first telling, Hawkeye is on a bus with a bunch of people passing around a bottle of whiskey, everyone having a high old time.

Sidney The Shrink calls BS, and we see the same scene re-staged repeatedly.

Not whiskey, plasma for a wounded soldier.

Not joy, terror.

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I won't tell you what the final truth is that Hawkeye finally remembers. It is brutal.

One of the gutsiest things ever put on broadcast television.

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Here's the thing I realized, 35 years later:

Hawkeye's realization that he wasn't on the party bus, he was on the horror bus?

THAT IS 'M*A*S*H'.

War is not a sitcom.

War is horror.

The show admitted that it had been lying all along, giving us what we could handle.

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'M*A*S*H' knew EXACTLY what it was doing, right to the end, and it only took me half a lifetime to figure out.

The only person I know to thank (and to ask if I'm right) is @KenLevine.

Good work.

Great work.

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