Episode 242 - Settling Debts

Season 11, Episode 242: Settling Debts
Original Air Date: 12/6/82
Written by: Thad Mumford & Dan Wilcox
Directed by: Michael Switzer

Col. Potter notices that Hawkeye gets a letter from...Mrs. Potter?

He demands to know what it says, but Hawkeye refuses to say anything. This drives Col. Potter crazy, and he starts to think it involves his wife Mildred buying a houseboat, something he is dead-set against.

But its not a house-boat--Mildred wrote to Hawkeye to tell him that she has scrimped and saved, and managed to pay the mortgage off early. She's telling Hawkeye and the rest this so they can throw him a mortgage-burning party at the 4077th.

Everyone gets involved in the surprise party, and they try to keep Col. Potter busy and in the dark long enough to get it ready in his tent--cake, fake picket fence, and all. Being in the dark gets Potter furious, and his imagination runs away with him--he's convinced he's going to spend his retirement years on a damned houseboat!

He tries to place a call into Mildred, so Klinger has to keep stalling to keep the call from going through. Margaret comes up with a complicated plan for a new nurse shift rotation, which she shoves in Potter's face trying to keep him busy.

To Margaret's surprise, though, Potter likes the plan, and heads back to his tent. Then Father Mulcahy steps in, and gets Potter to go a few rounds with his punching bag, to relieve some stress.

Potter has finally had enough, and goes to his tent, where everyone is waiting for him. They explain what all the secrecy was about, and Potter is moved to tears over his friends efforts, and the idea that he and Mildred now own their home, lock, stock, and barrel.

Hawkeye and the rest give him a gift: an engraved lighter, which he uses to burn the mortgage.


Fun Facts: There's a B-plot in this episode a brave young lieutenant (Jeff East) who is gravely wounded by a North Korean sniper. Some of the lieutenant's men, who respect him immensely, plan to shoot the sniper in cold blood if their commander ends up paralyzed. The lieutenant, post-surgery, wakes up long enough to tell his men to stand down.


Favorite Line: Potter, enraged over the fact that Mildred bought the houseboat, starts throwing papers all over his office. In his rage, he grabs the framed portrait of Mildred--then Klinger stops him.

Klinger: "Don't do that, sir! You'll never forgive yourself!"

Potter, talking to the picture: "Lucky for you, he was here."