Original Air Date: 1/9/84
Written by: Janis Hirsch
Directed by: Burt Brinckerhoff
Father Mulcahy learns that the V.A. has not yet paid the doctor who performed his ear surgery, restoring his hearing. He goes to Alma Cox to possibly find out why, and she informs him it was because he had the procedure done at a non-V.A. approved hospital.
Mulcahy is sure that's a mistake, so he decides to look into himself, heading down to the records room to look over the V.A.'s regulations. He is overwhelmed by the wall of filing cabinets, all filled with paper, that he has to go wade through.
Meanwhile, the mother (K Callan) of a patient named Bergstrom has arrived, looking for her son. But no one in the hospital seems to remember the boy, or ever having seen him in the hospital. The responsibility moves from the admitting nurse, to a ward nurse, to Klinger, then to Dr. Pfeiffer.
Dr. Pfeiffer manages to fob the search off on Father Mulcahy, who turns to Col. Potter, and he takes up the Bergstrom search.
Col. Potter digs through paperwork, but cannot find any trace of Bergstrom. He goes to his mother, waiting for him in his office. When told the bad news, she begins to cry and lash out, convinced that the Army--and now Col. Potter--are conspiring against her to keep her from her son.
She hands Col. Potter a form she got from the Army--a death certificate. Col. Potter now understands what's going on, and takes Mrs. Bergstrom in his arms. She tearfully restates that her son can't be gone, he just can't.
Fun Facts: Actor Guy Boyd (playing one of the patients) also appeared in a M*A*S*H Season Eleven episode, "Settling Debts."
Favorite Line: Alma Cox rejects Father Mulcahy's forms to have the V.A. pay for his hearing operation on a technicality. He says that isn't fair, and she argues she doesn't concern herself with "fair" or "unfair."
Mulcahy sarcastically offers that her job is to "Observe the technicalities", to which Alma responds, "You have your religion, and I have mine."
1 comment:
Many may have tuned out about now when this spinoff originally aired, but I remember having a lump in my throat when Sherm comforts Bergstrom's mother. Well-played. Morgan proved to still able to summon a subtle gravitas.
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