48. A Smattering of Intelligence

March 2, 1974 (K-424)

Written by: Larry Gelbart and Laurence Marks
Directed by: Larry Gelbart
Guest Stars: Bill Fletcher as Captain Pratt
Semi-regulars: Edward Winter as Colonel Flagg

Plot: Colonel Flagg from CIA crashes in a helicopter near the compound. He's actually on a top-secret mission, infiltrating the 4077th. So, too, is an old friend of Trapper's - Captain Pratt from G2, Army Intelligence. Both agents are working against each other, with codes and secret identities flying everywhere. The boys get sick rather quickly of all the cloak and dagger, so they drop hints and set up fake files about Burns. By the end, Flagg thinks he's a communist and Pratt thinks he's a fascist. After Hawkeye and Trapper reveal their prank to the spies, the spies reveal to us that in fact they aren't rivals at all. This joint operation concludes that the 4077th MASH is right for continued observation.

Glitches: Why is the company clerk doing X-rays?
Radar would be able to hear a lot more through the wall if he actually touched it with the stethoscope. No wonder he thought Flagg was a CPA.
How long are these people around? Hawkeye says he can't give Flagg a medical excuse to stay around because he did such a good job on his arm. No way is his arm better already, set and cast or no.
We know Flagg is a crazy spy man, but how does he expect Henry to make paperwork without writing?
Pratt refers to the 'undercover' Flagg as Major Carter, but when Henry reads his ID cards, they include Lieutenant Carter. So why doesn't he change his insignia? Pratt did.
Burns apparently loves this country more than Hawkeye and Trapper put together. Well, that's fine - Hawk 'n' Trap don't like Korea much at all! (Some patriotism there, Frank.)
If I wanted to make sure that someone was asleep, I wouldn't shine a torch right in their face.
Pratt calls KKK the 'Klu' Klux Klan.

Great Lines: Radar: 'Helicopter crash. There's a broken arm in OR.' Hawkeye: 'Let's hope there's a patient attached.'
When Flagg wants Radar to leave for privacy's sake, Henry tells him, 'Oh, you can say anything you want in front of him.' Flagg responds, 'OK, I will: get out.'
Flagg arrests Burns: 'I've got enough pictures of your file to have you executed for the rest of your life.'

They All Look the Same to Me: Colonel Flagg looks just like the Captain Halloran who came to camp in 37. Deal Me Out. But that's OK, one's yet another identity of the other, as we'll later discover.

Notes: Colonel Flagg's other identities include Major Brooks, Lieutenant Carter, Ensign Troy and Captain Louise Klein. Pratt's include Captain Stone, engineer and Martinez (and the codename Mary).
Henry was fooling around in his marriage even before he got to Korea. Pratt has files on him with other women in June 1948 (at the Happy Hour Motel in Elkhart, Indiana) and 1949 (in Houston for an AMA convention with one Linda Collins).

Comments: Poor Henry's complete inability to cope with the various spy movements is great. In some ways, I wish a short thread of story had come out of the 'continued observation', but then, the show isn't really like that. Not at this stage, at least. Flagg is nutty and irritating but funny, so he can come back. Pratt is less nutty, more irritating and not as funny, so he didn't. Mind you, Flagg will get more annoying and less funny as time goes on, but for the moment he's just an amusing diversion.

Previous episode
Next episode
Back to the Virgin's Guide to M*A*S*H main page
Back to episode listings