A Tangled Webb I - Part 3 - 182

[Follow-up to the previous 'cliff-hanger' type episode - itself a true cliff-hanger leaving H and Ms fate (and contracts) in a state of limbo - there was no 'to be continued' tag at the end of the episode!] Chegwidden notified Harm that Mac and Webb were missing in Paraguay. When C didn't approve Hs request to be sent to find M, nor his request for leave, H resigned his commission. C said "after you've given up your career and risked your life to save M what are you willing to risk to keep her?" H said he hadn't thought it through. H obtained contact with the CIA director through Catharine Gale; and although it was he who sent harm to bureau director Edward Hardy, Hardy still wouldn't help. He told H that "life is cheap, trust no one." Gunny had escaped M and Ws "rescue" battle with Sadik and eventually found H in the city. He took him to where W & M were being tortured by Sadik Fahd. W told M that he had asked specifically for her on this mission; because, he wanted her with him, and that he "wished he could die for us both." Sadik put them in the same cell with a captured missionary couple, Warren and Carla Robinson, who he was trying to use to obtain ransom money from their church. Carla then informed Sadik that M was not pregnant hoping to obtain his favor. After their church finally refused to pay ransom, Sadik shot the couple telling them: "there was Jesus and Judas" and that they had "followed the wrong example." H & Gunny arrived just in time to rescue W & M before M was tortured; but, Sadik escaped to go to the Stinger missiles in a semi-truck on a "Mennonite farm next a river." M kissed W in front of H who seemed very "taken back" by their familiarity. M continued to depict a pregnant woman and helped H rent a biplane from a Mennonite farmer under the pretext of being flown to the hospital. They found Sadik's trucks and dropped dynamite on the one with Stinger missiles which destroyed it in a fireball; but, they were shot at and damaged their plane which then crashed into jungle trees. Gunny took W back to obtain medical help.

Back at JAG, Coats was decompensating over worry. Harriet went around giving advice to everyone and even inflicted herself on Chegwidden by offering for her and Bud to be a "listening ear" (and, basically, a shoulder for him to cry on.) Then when C asked her if she'd "spoken about this to Bud" she said that she had not, and he said "well don't" then dismissed her. She exited telling Tiner that "things are just ducky… good if you're a duck" and went around the corner crying with her feelings hurt.

Pas de Deux - Part 2 - 181

When Garcia got the drop on them both and asked why he shouldn't shoot him W said that he could "make him rich" explaining that he had a "line" on Predator B missiles, van and 4 hellfire war heads. Garcia gave him back his gun and said that he and Mac, his wife, had "earned his trust." Garcia sent Gunny with Sadik's men to test the circuit boards then to bring back the drugs. He asked who would be backup and was told there would be none. Sadik's men kept using vague references to him like "he would be dealt with." W stopped the car to let M "relieve herself" and shot Alvaro Camacho, his driver, who he realized was a "mole" when there passed a look of recognition with Sadik's men. Edward Hardy, the CIA section chief in Paraguay, told W that he was no longer the youngest under secretary or rising star. He would give W help only if he could take credit for it- "your ticket out of her is going to have my name on it too." He was then shown going to a night meeting with some "drug lord looking" Spanish men. When it same time to take out Garcia's hacienda Hardy whined and waffled until M backed him down with full blame for letting a known enemy of the US escape. G was still waiting at Sadik's and saw them start to move the missiles so he used his cell phone to call W. Search lights came on and Sadik came on the line to tell W that "what he was looking for wasn't there." He told G that it would be a "long night for him" then took him to the veranda and had drinks with him. Finally he took him to the torture room where they were getting ready to use shocks when H & W showed up. Hardy had refused to help because "he didn't have intel." During the gunfight many of Sadik's men were killed and gunny escaped from the room but was shot as they were getting into the car. A grenade was thrown under the car and it exploded tipping the vehicle on its side.

Harm was inordinately worried about M and called Catherine Gale, CIA attorney, for some info or help finding W. She slammed him for "thinking the CIA is your own personal information kiosk." He wanted her to make a call and get him "into the loop." "There's no way in, that's why it's called the loop," she told him. She was notified of her mothers imminent demise so H drove her to the hospital. He was sucked into a role play as Gales fiancé by her lies to her mother and her brother's "arm twisting." From her death bead her mother manipulated and pressured H into getting married in her room before she died. H had B perform the ceremony who used a same sex ceremony from Denmark that he got off the internet and pronounced them "partners for life" using Harriet's ring. Then Gale's mother rallied and her condition was upgraded. She finally did put a call in to director Harrison Kershaw who said that even he couldn't get a hold of Webb because he was "on his own on this one." He told H that he'd looked at his service record and "if he ever found himself out of uniform to call him for a job."

Bud called H and said he was at home with Harriet and thanks for his criticism. Chegwidden and Meredith went around the office confirming their engagement.

Lawyers Guns and Money - Part 1 - 180

Webb returned from his 8 mo exile in Tierra De Fuego with a request of Chegwidden for use of Mac. His cover has been that he's a diamond dealer with a absent wife due to her pregnancy. Now he is supposed to make a diamond deal and must produce his "wife." M received training in recognizing diamonds and a "pregnancy suit." An al Qaeda terrorist named Sadik Fahd purchased 100 stinger missiles from a drug lord, Raul Garcia, for a large amount of coke. The stinger missiles were without circuit boards that made them fly straight which W was supplying for diamonds. W was out of his CIA territory and the area station chief told him that the operation was going to belong to both of them so he could get out of Paraguay too. W told M that he wanted her along specifically because there was a mole in the agency and he needed someone he could trust who could speak Farsi. He confessed to her that he "didn't trust himself anymore because he was taking too many chances." Garcia led them into the country and double-crossed them by bringing his and Sadik's henchmen. He tried to cheat on the deal but M discovered the cheap diamonds. Alvaro, their bodyguard, turned out to be acquainted with Sadik's men and dropped his gun; but, W noticed his actions. They also saw Gunny who was undercover inside Garcia's operation. After Garcia had the circuit boards he asked W to give him reasons "not to kill them."

Jeremy Duncan's conviction for stealing navy technology for videogames was being appealed by his civilian attorney, Harlan Bradford, claiming deficient defensy by Turner. B was speaking for the government and, again, was portrayed as bumbling and inadequate. Turner had asked H to "oversee" B so he held a "moot court" to help B prepare. Tiner acted as Bradford and came up with some obscure reasoning that H told B to expect. During the hearing B was flummoxed and basically said that he "acknowledged Ts lack of aggressive defense but that the law only entitled the defendant to 'adequate' defense." T stormed out of the room angry at B and then at H for listening to the "brain farts" of a law student. He told H that no matter what happened the panel would think he was "lazy and incompetent."

H got out of jail and was back in his office torn apart by NCIS. He tried to get close to M but she was already going w/ W. He asked her not to go and she asked him why "he only got like this when she had one foot out the door and couldn't respond?" H had bad dreams about M & W getting betrayed and killed and called Ws mother who said "Clayton is very protective of those he loves." Harriet was having pregnancy related discomforts and ended up talking to H because B wasn't listening. When B gave H excuses for botching Ts appeal, claiming to have "lost confidence," harm blew up at him and told him to "stop making excuses and start paying attention."

C tried several times to give an engagement ring to Meredith but first Tiner screwed up his arrangements causing embarrassment, then Meredith did her scatterbrained routine allowing "damit" to eat the cake the diamond was in. She finally caught on and asked him if he was trying to propose so C just gave her the ring.