Potter's Retirement was the 23rd episode of Season 6 of the M*A*S*H TV series, also the 145th overall series episode. The episode, which was written by Laurence Marks, was directed by William Jurgensen. The episode originally aired on CBS-TV on February 20, 1978.
Plot synopsis[]
Potter is (understandably) upset when he hears about negative reports of his command coming from inside the camp.
Full summary[]
Potter has a meeting in Seoul with his friend General Waldo Kent, who tries to dance around some bad news he has to deliver: he's been receiving negative reports about the 4077th, specifically about Potter's leadership. Initially, Potter is not concerned, but when Kent tells him that the bad reports are coming from inside his camp, Potter is stunned, as he considers the 4077th his family, and he is hurt that one of his own people has been saying bad things about him behind his back.
Later that afternoon, an embittered Potter returns to camp to find the Kentucky Derby Party, which he had already approved, is off to an early start. He barges into the Mess Tent, barking at everyone including Radar, demands to see the duty roster, and orders everyone back to work. Back in his office, he's greeted by Charles, who barks at him for "personally ruining" his career, and demands a transfer which Potter abruptly denies. Radar then gives Potter more bad news: a memo from I-Corps about a surprise inspection in a few days. Radar delicately asks Potter what's wrong, but he quietly refuses to say.
That night, just as the race is about to begin, Potter walks in and grimly tells everyone about the surprise inspection, and then about the bad reports, though he withholds that they came from inside the camp. He says he is determined to show "those pencil-pushers" that the 4077th is "not only the best damned MASH unit in the Army, but the best unit, period!", eliciting a loud cheer from the unit. But then Potter drops a bombshell: right after the inspection, he's transferring home to spend his remaining military time stateside. He then withdraws, leaving everyone in the Mess Tent in stunned silence.
The next day, after Potter sternly gives instructions to Klinger, Zale, and Corporal Joe Benson, a new corpsman in camp, on preparing for the inspection, Hawkeye and B.J. enter Potter's office demanding an explanation. At first, he refuses to oblige, but when they persist, Potter finally reveals that the bad reports are coming from inside the camp. Leaving them alone in his office with Radar, the doctors resolve to find the snitch; Radar suggests Klinger, but Hawkeye and B.J. come up with another more plausible candidate: Charles.
Back in the Swamp, Hawkeye and B.J. search Charles' foot locker for incriminating material, but Charles catches them in the act and angrily protests his innocence, saying that, "Winchesters do not spy! We do, on occasion, hire them." Although outraged, he advises Hawkeye and B.J. that they'll have a better chance of finding the culprit if they look in the outgoing mail for any letter addressed to the Inspector General.
The doctors enlist an initially reluctant Radar's help to rifle through the outgoing mail and eventually find a letter addressed to I-Corps from Benson; Radar thinks it can't be him, but when B.J. points out that nobody writes home to I-Corps, Radar opens the letter and, to his shock and disgust, they find that Benson is indeed the mole, but before they can act on the new information, another batch of wounded arrives in camp.
After surgery, Hawkeye and B.J. confront Benson and present him to Potter. After some harsh words, Benson, who is actually a Lieutenant, reveals he was assigned by the Inspector General to work undercover at the 4077th; a Colonel Frank Webster from the 3rd Armored Division was wounded and treated at the 4077th and then filed a complaint with the IG over the poor quality care he claimed to receive. Neither Hawkeye nor B.J. remember Webster, but Potter recalls that Webster "came through triage with a tiny piece of shrapnel in his tush and a big chip on his shoulder", and was angered because he had to wait until after the more serious cases were treated. That, along with Webster's observation that military discipline was exceptionally loose at the 4077th, was why Benson was assigned there to dig up dirt on Potter. Disgusted with the whole situation, Potter tells Benson, "I'd trade your shoeshines and snappy salutes for a good surgeon any day", and then orders Benson out of the camp with a warning to Webster that, "if he ever gets in my way again, I'm gonna put that shrapnel back where I found it."
Later, Potter calls General Kent and persuades him to call off the inspection. But when Kent asks if Potter will be staying on at the 4077th, Potter forestalls his answer and says he'll get back to him. Still pondering his decision, Potter says "It's been a long war, and I passed my prime about 10 squares back." Hawkeye. quietly addressing the Colonel by his first name, says, "you can give me a hundred good reasons to leave, and I can't give you one good reason to stay. Stay anyway"; Radar and B.J. both put their support behind Hawkeye's words. Potter thinks for a moment, and agrees to stay. Right at that moment, Radar hears choppers coming, and as they all run out, Potter quietly mutters to himself, "I hate this place."
Epilogue[]
Later, the gang surprise Potter in his office with the leftover Kentucky Derby cake, with one candle in it to commemorate his "first day back." Potter apologizes to them for being so surly, and admits they're the best bunch he's ever worked with. When asked to make a wish before he blows the candle out, he tells them he'll make a wish for all of them: peace.
Guest stars/Recurring cast[]
- Peter Hobbs as General Waldo Kent
- Johnny Haymer as Sergeant Zelmo Zale
- Kenneth White as Corporal Denning (as Ken White)
- George Wyner as Corporal (Lieutenant) Joe Benson
- Uncredited appearances:
- Enid Kent - see (Nurse Bigelow)
- Kellye Nakahara
Research notes/Fun facts[]
- This episode is the only time Hawkeye addresses Potter by his first name (Sherman), when he gently persuades him to stay on at the 4077th.
- Anachronisms (aplenty): The Kentucky Derby is in May. As Potter came to MASH 4077 on Sept 19, 1952 in the real timeline, this would have been May 1953 - Charles would only have had to stay in this cesspool for another month and a half (he would, of course, have had no way of knowing that). Continuity error is Charles claiming he been at MASH 4077 for 6 months; in "The Most Unforgettable Characters," Radar's morning report is June 11 - using Potter's real arrival at MASH 4077 Sept 25, 1952; this would mean June 1953...and the whining Charles would only have been in MASH 4077 for 1 month {July 1953}
- Also, Radar says that Benson has been at the camp since June. Since the Kentucky Derby is in May, that means Benson has been there almost a year.
- Charles also complains he missed open heart surgery in Boston. In actual fact..."The first successful intracardiac correction of a congenital heart defect using hypothermia was performed by Drs. C. Walton Lillehei and F. John Lewis at the University of Minnesota on 2 September 1952. In 1953, Alexander Alexandrovich Vishnevsky conducted the first cardiac surgery under local anesthesia. In 1956, Dr. John Carter Callaghan performed the first documented open-heart surgery in Canada." [Wikipedia note: Vishnevsky conducted surgery in USSR...thus, no real open heart surgery in Boston in 1953.]
- The 3rd Armored was never in the Korean conflict.
- Early in the episode, the soldier making the Kentucky Derby cake refuses to put green icing on a chocolate cake, insisting on white instead. Later, when they serve the leftover cake to Potter, we see it's a white layer cake with some type of chocolate filling between the layers.
- During the scene where Charles catches Hawkeye and B.J. going through his things, B.J. is wearing one of Charles's white scarves. It goes back and forth between just hanging around his neck and being wrapped around his neck between shots.
- George Wyner (Benson) would later go on to play Colonel Sandurz in the Mel Brooks comedy Spaceballs (1987).
- This episode has Klinger enacting his latest scheme to get out of the Army: being transferred to the MPs so he can escort prisoners back to the States.
- During the pre-Derby party party, Hawkeye is sitting on a tossed-together fake horse named "Whirlway". Whirlaway was a famous race horse who won the Triple Crown (which includes the Kentucky Derby) in 1941. The stallion passed away in 1953.