8. Jackpot

Complete story — includes the ending

The wives are $2,600 short of their goal in collecting donations for a garden/reflecting pool in honor of Claudia Joy. Gloria discovers that Holly is a "human calculator" and used to regularly win at the game of black jack back home, and she convinces the other wives to kick in $500 as a casino stake for Holly. At the casino, Holly does well and is about $400 short of the goal, when the casino manager closes the $20 table, suggests Holly move to a $50 minimum table, and colludes with a waitress to get the naive Holly drunk on "iced tea". Holly's chip stack drops to $1,400 below the goal when Gloria discovers the ploy. Latasha suggests they risk the remaining chip stack at a craps table, and the girls meet the goal. In Afghanistan, Hector sees a letter addressed to Patrick Clarke with Gloria's return address. He wants to confront Lt. Clarke, but Corporal Montclair stops him, and Sgt. Hall---who believes in Hector's capabilities as a soldier---sets up a meeting to clear the air. Later, as the troops set out on an unauthorized patrol to disrupt Afghan rebels who are shelling the base, Hector saves Lt. Clarke and is put in for a Bronze Star, after which he finally tears up his photo of Gloria. Meanwhile, General Holden gives a speech to cadets at The Citadel, after which a female cadet (who turns out to be Colonel Kat Young's daughter) says she dreams of flying Apache helicopters. This would mean changing from the Air Force (which she calls "the family business") to the Army. She asks if Michael could arrange a meeting with her mother, as she is afraid of her mother's reaction. The meeting strains the already tense relationship between Michael and Kat, but also forces Kat to have an honest discussion with her daughter. This leads to rapprochement between mother and daughter---and between Kat and Michael, when they share a table at a dinner and Michael reveals something that may impact Kat's hope for the base to buy a particular land parcel.