Tuesday, April 27, 1999

Second Sight - 81

[Lots happening in this episode. Joseph MacKenzie, Mac's estranged father and Deanne, her mother, are introduced. Harm has surgery to restore his night vision.] Father Genaro, a priest in a hospice center called to notified Mac (M) that her father, Joseph MacKenzie, was in a hospice dying and wanted her to be there. Harm (H) gave her an eloquent talk about obtaining "closure." He asked "why is it that we think it's a good thing to bury things, pretend they don't matter." She got upset when he told her that much of her life, Marine Corps, alcoholism, and relationships with men, had been influenced by her father. He said unless she got closure "every time a man got close you'll push them away." She arrived just after her father went into a coma and was so upset she retched as she re-lived abusive situations as a child. She pounded on her father saying he couldn't die then attacked a soda pop machine. Genaro tried to break through Ms defenses. She said she was offended by his "wimpy-ness, naiveté, your sanctimony, your presumptions and your thinking you can walk into the middle of a family and heal all wounds." There are scars there, she said, and "what's left of my soul is covered with them." Genaro had a sappy grin and she warned him "don’t turn the other cheek, it just makes me want to smack it." Genaro argued back that he agreed he was a wimp, but he used naiveté to get what he wanted and he preferred the term "sanctified." He told her that her father "hated your boyfriends because they had your respect," then when she ran away went into a downward spiral drinking more. "Abandonment was a recurring theme of his life," he told her. Ms mother arrived, she said to see M not her ex-husband. She had abandoned the family when M was 15 and at a sleep over. Joe came home drunk, held a paring knife to her throat, drew blood and threatened to cut her into little pieces. She got on a bus until it stopped. She tried to call for a month but Joe always picked up the phone then later didn't because she was afraid M would be angry and reject her. Genaro pressured M to go in while he was dying and gave her his wallet to see. It had clippings of all Ms accomplishments that he had followed, proud that she was able to rise above his failure as a father." Her mother refused to go in with M and her father, still in a coma, squeezed her hand just as he died. Genaro quoted a Buddhist verse and said not to tell the monsignor. Her mother told M that "he got to you didn't he?" M, crying, asked to be held then remembered that it was her father who had held her, crying, as a child. She said "he was a confused, miserable drunk but made a home for me in his own pathetic way" which meant more than her mother coming back to see her. Her mother got self-depreciatory and M told her to "stop it" then knelt in front of her and said "I forgive you."

Chegwidden (C) and Bud (B) were trying to do a video-conference call to a ship. Tiner, trying to make it happen, by-passed a faulty fuse that he learned from stealing power in college. He said it wouldn't last long and it eventually blew out the power in the whole building. H nearly crashed in his Stearman during a dusk landing and decided to have an exam from another ophthalmologist. He was told that the original diagnosis was incorrect and that he had retinal scaring from a bout of toxoplasmosis which could probably be corrected. He asked C for time off to have surgery and C asked if it had career implications. H assured him the decision had nothing to do with his feelings about JAG. The surgery went well but H was anxious over the results. He told the doctor that he had destroyed a $55 million aircraft and his RIO was killed. The surgery was probably a "fools errand" if he thought he would ever be let back flying. The doc told him that "no one can fault you for trying to complete your dream." He showed that the surgery had worked by catching Harriet in a dark stairwell when she fell down the stairs.

Tuesday, April 13, 1999

The Adversaries - 80

Harm (H) swore in Bud (B) as Lieutenant and his father Big Bud (BB) appeared unexpectedly, in uniform. He had been ordered back to duty to stand court-martial for stealing VCRs and Televisions from the Navy while he was chief of stores on his base. An owner of Dobie Electronics, Glen Dobie, was caught with stolen electronics having altered serial numbers. He was given immunity when he offered to give them BBs name. All records had disappeared mysteriously. He asked B to defend him and laid it on thick to Chegwidden (C) about being proud of B and wanting to get closer to his kids. C allowed B to defend him and said "God help you both." Dobie said that BB had inspected machines, erroneously claiming that they were faulty. He gave the old machines to Dobie and ordered new. When the new came Dobie switched serial numbers and gave the old machines back to BB, keeping and selling the new machines with the old serial numbers. BB met Dobie in the hall and slugged him. B had to drag him off and told BB that he would defend him as a lawyer and NOT his son. He was to call him sir from now on and not son or Bud. H prosecuted and offered to accept a plea until midnight. BB had to give B a pep talk because H had said that there were no holds barred and was psyching him out. BB told B to use Hs strengths against him- let him think he is better and then "Pow." Mikey (Mk) returned from boot camp all stiff and military, looking for his dad. He said that he was switching to combat ops (radar) instead of the art program that B had spent so long getting him in to. H found 27 units that had altered serial numbers and B had doubts that his dad was innocent so he talked to Mac (M). She said that H "wasn't invincible" and that she would help him. Harriet (Ht) talked with M and said that B didn't have an aggressive bone in his whole body while B was shown ripping into Dobie on the stand calling him a parasite. H offered to drop the larceny charges for 1 year confinement. B turned it down and Mk said "is this where H pulls a rabbit out of his hat." BB forced himself to Bs wetting down party at McMurphys and drunk, started to pick a fight with H. C physically took him away and home. C told H not to underestimate B- "remember who his teachers were." H talked to a sailor who worked for BB who said that she had seen a civilian come by who BB agitatedly hustled away. He was in a "Dopey electronics" van. H got Dobie to tell him the name of the driver of the van- Jerry Kemp; but, he said that only BB knew where he was. H pressured B to help find Kemp and was chastised by M. H said "he can handle it," and M retorted "but can he handle being hurt by a friend." B did get Kemp and H treated him as a "hostile witness" leading him into testifying damning evidence against BB. On cross examination B got Kemp to believe that he was his father. He had Korsakoff's Syndrome and no short term memory. He agreed with H because "he looked honest and figured he must know." The case was dropped and H congratulated him for a "brilliant diversionary tactic." later H confronted BB with selecting B as defense so he could appeal claiming inadequate defense. "He was willing to damage his son's career to get himself off." All BB said was "are you going to tell him?"

Jordie had volunteered to be psychiatrist for Dar Lin, the abused girl. Coulter called H to check on Dar Lin and before hanging up told H to "call her sometime when he didn't want something." Ht apologized to H for hitting him when she saw photos of Dar Lin's twin. H told her that "if everyone resigned who wanted to hit me we would loose half the Navy." NCIS found a match on fingerprints for Charlie Lynch and Dar Lin identified him from photos. He was dishonorably discharged 6 months previously. Jordan and Imes teased M about her relationship with H. M said that "nothing happened" but they didn't believe her. Jordan said that sometimes she thought she and harm "would go on forever" and other times "just until you decide you want him." M told her that "I am not a threat to you Jordan."