Deal Me Out

"Deal Me Out" was the 37th episode of the M*A*S*H television series and the thirteenth of season two. The episode aired on December 8, 1973.

Plot

Captain Sam Pak (Pat Morita) and Dr. Sidney Freedman (Allan Arbus) arrive at the 4077th for the "conference"—a marathon poker game in the Swamp, with Henry Blake, Hawkeye, Trapper, and Klinger. The game is subject to several interruptions.

A wounded soldier is brought into the hospital and Frank Burns refuses to operate on him as he's an intelligence officer, and according to protocol he cannot be anesthetised unless another intelligence officer is present. Hawkeye and Trapper decide to operate immediately due to the serious nature of the man's injuries. CID officer Captain Halloran (Edward Winter) eventually arrives from headquarters, some time after surgery is over. After being assured by Hawkeye that the wounded officer's only words upon being anesthetized were "honey, you're the greatest", Halloran joins the poker game.

Radar, driving a jeep, hits a local man, who turns out to be a con artist who pretends to be hit by army vehicles in order to extort money. A soldier (John Ritter) recovering in Post-Op grows increasingly antagonistic towards the medical staff, eventually taking Major Burns hostage in the showers before Dr. Freedman talks to him and Capt. MacIntire disarms him.

Notes

This episode marks the first of Edward Winter's eight appearances on the show. In all subsequent appearances, he portrayed Intelligence Officer Colonel Flagg. This first appearance—as Captain Halloran—is sometimes cited by fans as the same character, with Halloran being one of Flagg's many aliases. In the fourth season episode Quo Vadis, Captain Chandler?, Flagg's and Dr. Freedman's conversation refers to a previous poker game that the two had attended.

In "What's Up, Doc?" it is Major Winchester who is taken hostage by an unstable patient, although Klinger soon trades places with Winchester.

External links

• "Deal Me Out" at the Internet Movie Database