Episode 237 - Trick or Treatment

Season 11, Episode 237: Trick or Treatment
Original Air Date: 11/1/82
Written by: Dennis Keonig
Directed by: Charles S. Dubin

Its Halloween night at the 4077th, and a battalion of visiting Marines are getting hammered over at Rosie's Bar. Hawkeye, B.J., Col. Potter, Margaret, and Klinger are all in costume, planning to head over to the party.

Winchester, wanting nothing to do with any Halloween celebration, has volunteered to be on duty in Post Op. He ends up with first patient almost immediately--a Pvt. Mosconi (George Wendt) who stuck a pool ball in his mouth as a gag, but now can't get it back out. Winchester examines him, torturing the poor guy pretending not to even notice the ball jutting out of his jaw.

Before everyone can make the party, wounded arrive, including one young soldier already toe-tagged. There's so many patients that the doctors don't have time to examine the dead young man closely, so his body is put off to the side while they tend to the living.

During the session in OR, each of the doctors tell ghost stories. Everyone gets spooked, except for Winchester, who doesn't believe any of it.

More wounded arrive, keeping the doctors busy. We see the young dead solider laying on the compound. Except...he's not quite dead. We see his hand move slightly, then stop again. But no one notices.

Graves Registration arrives looking for any dead soldiers. There's still just the one, the young man came in that way. They carry the body onto their truck, but stop to grab a cup of coffee, leaving him there while they rest.

At the end of the night, all the wounded have been taken care of. Father Mulchay returns from a trip to the orphanage, and he runs into Hawkeye, who tells him how busy they were. Father Mulcahy asks if any of them need last rites, and the only one that does is the young man in the truck.

Just before Graves Registration drives off, Father Mulcahy stops them, wanting to give the man last rites. He climbs into the truck, and begins the ritual--then stops. He is shocked to see a tear falling from the man's eye, and he calls out for Hawkeye.

Later, in Post Op, all the doctors huddle around the young man, on his way to recovery now that he's been tended to. B.J. remarks this is the first time being "dead" wasn't terminal, and Hawkeye suggests "This is a ghost story none of us will ever be able to top."


Fun Facts: There's a great, angry speech from Potter to an MP looking to investigate a solider who ran over a chicken coop. He mentions having "A dozen types of blood squishing in my boots", having little time for such a penny ante distraction.

One of the drunken Marines is played by Andrew Dice Clay (here billed as Andrew Clay), of all people. He's not bad in this small role, and pretty funny. Obviously, his career took a very different path.


Favorite Line: Winchester, pretending not to fully comprehend why the Marine has a pool ball in his mouth. He looks at it, and says: "Oh, look, there's a little '6' painted on it! Could that be...how old you are?"