Tuesday, May 25, 1999

Goodbyes - 85

[This was the seasons cliffhanger as DJE's next year contract not settled.] Charlie Lynch was back and came after Dar-Lin. He killed his old Master Chief, who had gotten him discharged, then a motel owner and Dar-Lin's aunt. He told a bar maid that he was trying to settle some scores and start over again. Harm (H) told Mac (M) that he wanted to see what he had missed by loosing his sight. He said he wanted to start with a clean slate and she observed that "you have anything BUT a clean slate." Lynch impersonated a step-brother, trying to get information from the social worker; but, she was on to him and reported him to NCIS. However, a loose lipped policeman told him everything he wanted to know including Hs name. Before H could move Dar-lin to another safe-house, Lynch got some stationary from the SECNAV and got entry to the base. He shot the sentry and foster mother then kidnapped Dar-Lin. He took her to his old decommissioned ship where H confronted him before agent Holland and backup arrived. Charlie attacked him with an axe so H shot him. Jordan helped Dar-lin but was distant to H.

Baby AJ was christened with H and M as godparents. M said she wanted a "great career, a good man and lots of comfortable shoes." Chegwidden (C) tried several times to talk H out of leaving; but, obtained authorization from SECNAV and orders to Pensacola for him, which he offered to cancel. C told M that he wouldn't take H back if he decided to come back. H said goodbye to everyone. B hugged him uncomfortably, Brum was scoping out his office and M embraced him, weeping, saying that she had "so much she wanted to say but didn't have the words," and "why am I the only one crying." H backed out door with his one box of things and saw everyone watching: M was played out; C disappointed; Tiner and Ht stoic; B raised eyebrows in "good luck"; and, Brum just nodded "yes."

Tuesday, May 18, 1999

Yeah Baby - 84

[An Important episode in JAG history. Harm leaves JAG and they make the "5-year baby promise."] Harm (H) had a dream of his night carrier crash that killed his RIO. Mac (M) had a dream of kissing Brumby (Brum) in an elevator. Jordan came to cook H breakfast and saw his letter of request for change of designator and transfer, which upset her. Harriet (Ht) was grousing at Bud (B) for grimacing when she insisted on talking about "breast pumps" in the middle of JAG. H gave (C) his request. Initially C was pleasant but as H ignored his logic about "backward stepping" he became more agitated and dismissed him. Jordan came to Hs apartment to confront him and said "I've never been dumped for an airplane." She said she fell in love with a lawyer and not a fighter pilot and stormed out saying "call me when you've made up your mind." Chloe was staying with M and talked about her father and M getting married so she could have a mother again. After Jordan left H went to talk to M and she was first upset that he hadn't told her about having surgery and then said "you can't do that" about leaving JAG. After H left Brum came unannounced and M told him "it was a bad time." C talked to the SECNAV about changing Hs designator. The SECNAV said they didn't retrain people past their prime, it was career suicide and he'd "been a thorn in his side since he first heard his name." C said "well it's HIS career," and the SECNAV said he hated to help but it would get him the #$% out of Washington." C told harm that he spoke with the SECNAV, that it was the "stupidest thing he ever seen him do," and he was replacing him with Brum.

Chloe's father Kyle came to take her away to her to grandparents leaving M alone. M talked to C in the kitchen and when C asked if he could help she said "no, you're one of them." When C asked "which one" M said "both of them." Brum persistently pursued M and compared her to his mother while they were stuck in a intermittently broken elevator. B defended lance corporal Edward Carr who's Staff Sergeant, Aileen Morris, had seduced him then distanced him to keep it secret. B asked the pregnant Morris on the stand directly if she had seduced Carr and she wouldn't answer because she had gone into labor. Imes complained that he had badgered her client into labor. Morris had no one to take her to the hospital and Carr volunteered. She admitted that it was his child. Ht also went into abnormal labor and was taken to Cs office. B got himself locked in the elevator, H said he "didn't want to do it again," and Brum offered but was sent packing after admitting he'd only delivered sheep. Tiner's grandmother was a midwife so tried but fainted when he saw the baby crowning. Bs client took Ht's ambulance so amidst confusion C delivered the baby in his office. M told H that just as she put her life together "everyone always leaves and pulls it apart." H missed the reference to himself but said that "if neither of them are in a relationship 5 years from this moment we will go halves on a baby." "don't make promises you can't keep," she warned. "I haven't yet," he said and they shook on it.

Tuesday, May 11, 1999

Soul Searching - 83

Harm's (H) Corvette was stolen and he got hung up in the telephone menus to the police when trying to report it. Brumby (Brum)flippantly told H that it probably had been chopped up so just let it go. Mac (M) finally helped him report it to a detective friend of hers who didn't hold much hope either. Harriet (Ht)drug Bud (B) to car lots in order to buy a minivan for their upcoming baby. She succumbed to a hot shot salesman and wanted a van with all the bells and whistles which cost more than B made in a year.

Webb froze and didn't fire when his mentor Tim Fawkes was kidnapped in Italy by Teresa Marcello of the Red Brigade. She was "freelancing" for the Serbs in order to work a "trade" but the "company" wouldn't even acknowledge Fawkes. W attempted a rescue, without "company" authorization, which failed, to the hurt of Italian police who were helping him, because they seemed to be warned beforehand. W came to request Chegwidden (C) for his help knowing that Fawkes had saved Cs life in Vietnam. C said "he saved my soul." They needed Enrico Amati, a mafia don, to tell them were Fawkes was being held. It turned out that C had killed Amati's nephew while rescuing his daughter Francesca. C acknowledged that Amati needed to fulfill his obligation to his families vendetta but got Amati to delay notifying his sister for 24 hours. They obtained some satellite surveillance time and found that Marcello was moving Fawkes and kept looking up to the sky. They realized that the terrorist had been told they were being photographed by George Decker (CIA station chief) who was in charge of the CIA's "non-response." Actually he had been paying some money each month as "option" until he could get the million dollars authorized that they wanted. C coerced him into helping them "pretend" to pay ransom. C told W that many years previously he had been assigned to take out a person who was using drugs to interrogate captive US soldiers and obtain intelligence. Fawkes had been the "spotter" who was to call his shot using a baseball analogy code. Fawkes realized the person was a nun and didn't call the shot so C didn't need to shoot her. They decided to use the same analogy to rescue Fawkes. Decker was wired so his conversation could be heard by W and C stationed around the money drop point. When Fawkes called the shots they took the two terrorists out before they could detonate the radio controlled explosive vest they made Fawkes wear for the money transfer.

While C was gone, H was acting JAG and attended the budget hearings. He and B decided to put the money needed to repair the courtroom ceiling and roof from the bullet holes he made, into the building health budget. The police found only the frame of Hs Vet in a chop shop after the rest had been stripped and sold. M, who was with him, retrieved Hs gear shift knob for him to put in his new car. He decided to get an off-road vehicle, emotionally unable to replace his vet. Ht forced B to accept her fathers money to buy the minivan and M bought a red vet, much to Hs dismay.

Tuesday, May 4, 1999

Wilderness of Mirrors - 82

Chegwidden (C)was going to argue a case before the supreme court having to do with a sailor who developed aids, thereby earning his "silver quill pen." He decided to hold a Moot court on a Saturday in order to prepare and asked everyone to come be judges. Harm (H) had planed to go sailing with Jordan but didn't say anything about it so Mac (M)spoke up for him. C gave M, Bud (B) and Brumby (Brum) robes for the occasion and made B "chief justice." The SECNAV came to try and get C to let a "justice weenie" argue the case. C told accused him of not trusting him and said that arguing before the supreme court for a lawyer was like planting the flag on Sarabachi and he not only was capable but intended to win. B agreed with one of Cs arguments one time and was roundly chastised and told to be "aggressive." B was shown making several very technical points and eventually got so carried away that he became belligerent and abusive to C, telling him to sit down. M jumped in and extended the time so C could make his argument and was able to "win" his point. However, M came to Cs house after she was relieved from watch to inform him that the sailor in question had resigned his commission thereby canceling the case. C couldn't be comforted and told her that "the other side retreated, there's no satisfaction in that!" When B apologized for his belligerence C told him that he could be a great lawyer, to just let his style develop naturally and not to fire any weapons in the courtroom.

H began seeing his father. First at JAG then at his apartment. He got phone calls with his fathers voice. Jordan was staying at his apartment for the weekend and was interrupted by a patient who was seeing his dead partner and feeling guilty over missing a shot. Because H was having his own "visions" he went to talk to M instead of Jordan telling her that she had always humored his occasional metaphysical moments. M told him that he should be speaking to Jordan so he did with his anticipated results. She immediately jumped to hallucinations and wanted to do a CT scan to rule organic brain disease. He eventually realized that the phone calls were exactly what his father had said in his letter tapes, and found that his tapes were out of order so someone had been in his apartment. Of course he thought of Clark Palmer, and was correct. H traced a phone call back to a hotel where a Harmon Rabb Sr was registered. H said he could be the hunted or hunter so, over Jordan's objections, went to confront Palmer. It was a ruse, however, in order to get Jordan alone so Palmer could take her hostage. He gagged and bound her to a chair and placed her behind a Mylar mirror angled so H would see Palmer sitting in a chair from the door. When H returned Palmer had the lights off and flashed lights into Hs eyes while he talked to him. H pulled his gun while they argued and finally Palmer pulled his gun to force H to fire. Jordan tapped the mirror with her foot but H realized the image of Palmer was drawing his gun with the reverse hand so he fired to the side of the mirror. Jordan capitulated that H wasn't unstable and didn't need therapy. H accompanied Palmer to Leavenworth so he made it to jail this time. Palmer faked a trip and was shown picking up a paper clip and secreting it in his sling.