The Life You Save was the 20th and season finale episode of Season 9 of the CBS-TV series M*A*S*H, also the 218th overall series episode. Written by John Rappaport and Alan Alda and directed by Alda, it originally aired on May 4, 1981 and rebroadcast October 12, 1981.
Synopsis[]
Winchester goes on a spiritual journey when he undergoes a near-death experience. Pierce experiences the problems of being the officer in charge of food services.
Full episode summary[]
A batch of wounded arrive late at night, and everyone is out on the compound doing triage. But there's more trouble when a sniper starts firing on the compound. In the midst of the shooting, B.J. and Winchester work on a patient underneath the Evac Bus. The patient technically dies for a 3 minutes, but B.J. and Winchester manage to bring him back.
After the sniper is shot by a nearby patrol, Hawkeye, B.J., and Winchester are in Post Op. B.J. tells Hawkeye what happened, and Winchester notices a bullet hole in his cap - he came within centimeters of taking a bullet in the head, and never realized it. As Hawkeye and B.J. talk, Winchester sits there, stunned at his brush with death.
Col. Potter comes in and assigns all the officers a set of rotating, mundane camp duties - Hawkeye is now in charge of the food, B.J. the laundry, Winchester the motor pool, etc. (The various trials of the officers in their new duties make up most of the sub-plot.)
Later, Winchester starts spending an inordinate amount of time with the patient that came back from the dead, sitting with him in Post Op for long periods of time. When the young man wakes up, Winchester peppers him with questions about what it was like for him to be actually "dead." The young man really can't answer, despite Winchester's pleadings. Winchester reveals that he had a younger brother who passed away, and for a long time afterwards, he couldn't pass by the young boy's room without feeling a deep sense of unease. B.J. finds Winchester hovering over the young man, and (having missed all but the very end of his statements to the man) takes him outside, demanding he leave the young man alone. Winchester accuses B.J. of not wanting to deal with "the harshest reality of all."
Winchester, still haunted by what happened, has Rizzo take apart a jeep, and lay each and every part of it on a sheet. Winchester marvels at the power Rizzo has to reduce a jeep to a pile of inert junk, and then put it all together again and have it "roar back to life." Later that night, Winchester (via an off-hand suggestion by Margaret) decides to head off to Battalion Aid, to see death better up close.
He ends up taking care of a young soldier (Andrew Parks) who is gravely wounded. While laying there, the young man, not able to feel Winchester holding his hand, realizes he's going to die. Charles asks the young man, in his last moments, what he's feeling. He answers, not to anyone in particular, "I smell bread." Winchester doesn't understand, and tries to get him to talk more. But the young soldier passes away. A tearful Winchester then leaves to go back to the 4077th, leaving his bullet-ridden cap behind.
Research notes/Fun facts[]
- This episode was meant to be broadcast on March 30, 1981. However, on that same day, American President Ronald Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt. CBS covered the story until Reagan was safely out of surgery, resuming regular programming at 9 p.m. Eastern time. One of the major plot elements of this episode involved Major Winchester having a close brush with death when a sniper's bullet passes through his hat. Because of the uncomfortable similarity of the plot to the real-life assassination attempt, CBS hastily substituted a re-telecast of “Cementing Relationships” instead, and "The Life You Save" was finally broadcast on May 4th as the ninth season finale.
- The 4077th cook makes his first appearance, here but his name will not be given until we see him again in Season 10 "‘Twas the Day After Christmas". Ironically, that episode is more of a rehash of this episode when Potter get the idea of having the officers switch jobs with the enlisted men for a day.
- This episode also has good shots of seldom-seen areas of the camp, like the kitchen, laundry tent, garbage dump, and motor pool.
- Winchester at a Battalion aide station - apparently The Battle of Pork Chop Hill - is mentioned in "Pressure Points", which meant that this episode probably takes place in mid-1953; the Korean war is winding down.
Guest stars/Recurring cast[]
- Val Bisoglio as the Cook (see Sergeant Salvatore Pernelli)
- Andrew Parks as Dying Soldier
- G.W. Bailey as Sergeant Luther Rizzo
- Jim Knaub as Private Markham
- Arthur Taxier as Surgeon
- Jim Boeke as Sergeant Chiaverini
- Jack Kearney as Soldier
- Paul Ventura as Soldier
- Wayne Morton as Enlisted Man
- Meshach Taylor as Orderly
- Shari Saba as Shari
- Roy Goldman as Roy
- Gwen Farrell as Gwen
- Dennis Troy as Dennis
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