Original Air Date: 11/14/83
Written by: Dennis Koenig
Directed by: Nick Havinga
Everyone is on hand for Father Mulcahy's Sunday Sermon, and its going on so long even Col. Potter is bored.
After it ends, everyone heads outside for a Visitor's Day Brunch, and several of the patients are met by Rev. Purvis Gentry (Geoffrey Lewis), a "freelance preacher" and used auto salesman. He's slick and fast-talking, and the minute Col. Potter sees him, he tells him in no uncertain terms to leave the premises.
Mike D'Angelo takes a real shine to Mildred Potter's niece Charlotte (Miriam Byrd-Netherly) and offers to personally show her around the hospital, much to Alma Cox's displeasure.
One of the patients doesn't have any one visiting him, so he's easy pickings for Rev. Gentry, who, despite Potter's admonition, has made his way into General General. He convinces one paraplegic patient he can walk if he just "believes" enough, which horrifies Father Mulcahy. He tells Purvis he's giving the young man false hope, but Purvis is unmoved, snidely insisting that Mulcahy is not a true man of God.
Despite all this, the young man tries to walk, and immediately crumbles to the floor. Mulcahy is there to help him up, trying to convince him that just because he will never walk again, he still has much to live for--"Not long ago, a man who couldn't walk was President of the United States! Do you think he had a reason to live?"
Mike D'Angelo really tries to get Charlotte to have a relationship with him, but she's recently widowed and just isn't ready. She departs, and D'Angelo is clearly very hurt.
After a patient determined to be admitted for being crazy smashes his car into the front door of the hospital (therefore "proving" he's crazy), Mike D'Angelo is being comforted back in his office by Alma Cox, who promises to take care of all the paperwork. Mike D'Angelo remarks how lucky he is to have her--"Now, if I could only find a woman."
Fun Facts: This episode features a nice debate which would later be framed in terms of Red States/Blue States--Rev. Gentry insists Mulcahy isn't a true religious man because he's from Philadelphia.
Soon-Lee does not appear in this episode.
Favorite Line: Mike D'Angelo tries to woo Charlotte, and he mentions his life since his divorce: "In the six years since my marriage fell apart, and I have had many opportunities for amorous escapades. But I have remained, in all but the most technical sense, pure."
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