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Season 1, Episode 12: “Route 7-11” – Originally Aired 5-4-1979

In which the Dukes’ friend gets took, so they take the takers…

The Dukes take the General Lee over to Cooter, who informs them that the car is going to need $180 worth of repairs. They freak out, as they need the General to be in top shape for the big race that they seem to enter every damn week. They can’t afford that, so Cooter tells them to get a job, and tells them about a job he heard about, driving a semi truck.

Meanwhile, Boss Hogg is drinking mint juleps while talking to Rosco, because how stereotypical can you get? They see a semi drive through, containing one Helen Hogan, who is known to both Boss and Rosco as a swindler extraordinaire. He tells Rosco to tail her.


Bo and Luke convince her to hire them, after Luke pulls some fancy maneuvers with the truck.  On their way home, they run into an old family friend, Dewey Stovall, and invite him over to dinner the next night.

The next morning, Helen Hogan explains that she runs a company that makes shock absorbers, and that all the people piling into the tractor trailer are potential investors wanting to check out the product in action. As they’re driving around, Luke says he doesn’t believe the story about the shocks, and climbs onto the trailer to peek into the vents. He does so, an sees that they're really running an illegal casino out of the trailer. Not only that, they’re running a CROOKED illegal casino! Luke also sees that Dewey is being taken in by Helen Hogan and Co.


Back at the farm, Daisy is talking to Dewey, who has arrived for dinner, and the camera shows us a nice shot of her ass.


Dewey explains that he was gambling his money to fix up his hardware store so he could compete with a chain store that had moved in near him. Luke comes up with a plan to steal back the money that Helen Hogan stole from Dewey, which really isn’t much of a plan.

After a failed attempt to steal the safe from the truck, which was so uneventful I’m not even going to recap it, they go to Uncle Jesse for help, asking him to pose as a high roller gambler. He refuses, as the Dukes don’t hold with no gambling. Luke says that Jesse probably couldn’t pull it off anyway, and he rightly schools everyone with his awesome card-handling abilities. Anyway, he reluctantly agrees to help. Note: According to David Hofstede’s The Dukes of Hazzard: The Unofficial Companion, John Schneider is actually doing Jesse’s card tricks.

So, the next morning, Luke rigs up a switch in the cab of the truck that will override the wheel switch in the trailer. Jesse and Daisy arrive, dressed to the nines, and Daisy is posing as Jesse’s floozy.


Once they’re on the road, Cooter swings by in the General Lee, and Luke jumps into the car, driving off to chase Rosco, who has been tailing the trailer the entire episode. Bo honks the horn of the truck, which gives Jesse the signal to bet on roulette. He wins, because of the switch override Bo is using. Rosco confronts Luke, who tells them where the truck is heading, and they speed away to head it off.

In the truck, Jesse moves to the poker table, where he is seated between the dealer and the house shill. He’s dealt a great hand, but is smart enough to know that the house is making to fuck him over in the next hand. He throws away two cards of his hand, an ace high full house. Helen Hogan gets nervous and tries to dissuade him, but he insists, and so the dealer gives him the cards meant for the shill. Jesse wins!


Everyone convenes at the crossroads, and the casino is busted up. Boss makes to take Jesse’s winnings, but the Dukes say it’s their winnings, and throw the bag into a passing General Lee. Jesse explains that the state police have been alerted to the operation, and that they told the police that Boss deserves all the credit. He’s understandably dismayed.

Luke meets up with Dewey at the county line, who explains that he is going to use the money to try and win at a reputable casino in another county.


As for Helen Hogan, she went on to raise her deceased sister’s children, including her oldest son, Michael Bluth.

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