The Moose (M*A*S*H)

"The Moose" is an episode from the television series M*A*S*H. It was the fifth episode broadcast and aired on October 15, 1972, and repeated May 27, 1973. It was written by Laurence Marks and directed by Hy Averback.

Guest cast is Paul Jenkins as Sergeant Baker, Virginia Ann Lee as Young-Hi, Timothy Brown as Spearchucker Jones, Craig Jue as Benny, Barbara Brownell as Lt. Jones, Patrick Adiarte as Ho-Jon.

Overview

Sergeant Baker stops by the 4077th with his "moose"; a teenage Korean girl named Young Hi whom he "bought". Obsessed with freeing the girl, Hawkeye wins her from Baker in a card game, but now Young Hi thinks she belongs to Hawkeye.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Detailed story

Sergeant Baker stops by the 4077th with his "moose"; a Korean girl named Young-Hi, whom he "bought" from her family for $500.00. Hawkeye Pierce is outraged and tries to convince Baker to let the girl go free. Eventually, he plays poker with Baker (and cheats with a little help from Radar.)

Baker agrees to trade Young-Hi for the debt he runs up. However, he explains to Young-Hi that she now belongs to Hawkeye, rather than that she is free (as was Pierce's intent). Pierce first attempts to get rid of Young-Hi by sending her on a truck to Seoul, but she gets off when the truck stops for gas and hitchhikes back to the 4077th.

Eventually Pierce, Jones and McIntyre decide to "demoosify" Young-Hi and teach her how to be a normal person. They soon meet the head of Young-Hi's family, and discover that he is Young-Hi's little brother Benny and that he immediately plans to sell her again. Initially, Young-Hi agrees with Benny out of loyalty to her family but then returns, having told Benny to "shove off".

In the end, Young-Hi is enrolled in convent school in Seoul. In the last scene of the episode, Pierce, McIntyre and Spearchucker Jones receive a letter from her.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Trivia

• When Benny shows up and says, "You bought Young Hi from Baker. Now you want to dump her. What's the beef? She goofing off?" Pierce replies, "The 'Dead End Kids' in Korea." The "Dead End Kids" were six young actors from New York, New York, who starred in the play and the movie "Dead End".
• Though Larry Linville and Loretta Swit are listed in the opening titles, neither Frank Burns nor Major Houlihan appear in the episode. This is the fewest members of the show's main cast to appear in an episode apart from season 4's "Hawkeye" (in which only Alan Alda appears).
• Another "moose" was seen in the fourth-season episode "Of Moose and Men", though in that episode a "moose" was defined as a Korean girlfriend.
• This episode contains early mentions of Hawkeye Pierce's 'Dear Dad' theme, as he can be heard muttering just after Baker presents him with Young Hi.

Notes

External links

• "The Moose" at the Internet Movie Database