Rendezvous - 37

[This episode is where Bud and Harriett's relationship began in earnest; A good storyline although aspects ridiculous to the absurd; contains more 'back-story' about Mac's childhood]
Liz testified that she had been going to sleep with Felker; but, "couldn’t go through with it" so had asked to go swimming. She left when she found Felker dead thinking that the murderer might still be around then found that her husband wasn't home when she got there. When H and Ht were helping her move into the women's shelter she dropped a folder; and, Ht snooping in it found love letters to Liz from PO Carlos. Harm, doing his duty, informed M of the letters and she blew up at him for "trying to sandbag her again." He told her that Holst was "pushing all your daddy buttons" and that her emotions were hurting her case. Later he apologized and she told him that her father would come home drunk and demand that she come and take his shoes off. "Then the yelling would start," she said, "then the slapping… and then the sobbing… his over being sorry." She said she didn't "know which was worse "his hitting or his sobbing that he was sorry." It wasn't long that her mother "left him and me with him." She admitted to starting drinking herself "just to get away." H told her that "once you ID your enemy you can defeat him."

Mac used the information in court to which the CPO exploded and had to be subdued. Bud and Ht were on the beach drinking again and talking about the case. Bud said that "defending western civilization makes people horney" and Ht blew wine out her nose with laughter. They began to kiss again and B saw the same satellite go overhead again so they left with B exclaiming "the satellite"! Liz called M in the middle of the night and asked for her to come over. She then asked if "Freddy was going to loose" and claimed that she had lied before in order to get back at his abuse. She said that the "CPO was really home when I got there and hit me so I was mad at him." On the stand she told the CPO that she hated him but "he doesn't deserve to die." Bud got the satellite photo's and told M that: he had gotten a favor from Webb (?!) who told him that it was really a Russian Satellite which was shooting the base (?!) and that Webb had gotten a favor from his contact (??!!) who had sent him a copy of the photo of the beach on the murder night (????!!!!!!) Under no obligation to inform the prosecution, she ordered B to shred the photo. Bud stormed around and finally exclaimed to Ht that "being a lawyer sucks." Of course she ran right to H to whine that "men are pigs" then feign that she didn't want to talk before she whined some more about B getting cold feet when he saw the satellite over the beach. H calmed her down and said that B was "worth it," then figured out that B must have gotten something from the satellite. The next day he recalled Liz and showed her the copy of the photo (he must also have gotten it from W) and she broke down with the truth. The CPO had been on the beach when she came to investigate, had broken down about being so sorry and they'll kill me, and she mothered him into "it'll be alright, I'll help you."

Mac told H that "you won the case" and H replied that "you won the war." Mac said she "carries her dad's past with me wherever I go"; and, H replied "it's ok if he doesn't weigh to much." Mac said, "he doesn't, not any more." Bud and Ht stayed over to "finish their picnic" and again saw the satellite overhead.

Cowboys and Cossacks - 34

Capt MacNamara of the USS Cayuga & Captain Grinkov of Russian warship Vasiliev have played a 10 year "macho" expensive game of "bumper cars with their ships," ramming each others ships to see who could be first into the Sydney harbor etc. Now in a war game they did the same thing trying to enter the games area and collided. Harm, Mac and Bud were assigned to "observe" the games but found they were to undergo an "officer trade" as observers. H asked MacNamara about the "damage" to his ship and was rebuffed. MacNamara arrogantly told him "you've only been on my ship 3 minutes and have ticked me off, let's hope you do the same to Grinkov." H & B met the second in command, Uri Kretchiak, who H recognized as a former forward on the Soviet Olympic hockey team. The Vasiliev was falling apart and had poor maintenance. Gas masks didn't work when H had to help rescue some men from an explosion in the missile room where they were "loading missiles"- Kretchiak claimed was a drill. Grinkov told H that he had shot down his brother- as a "joke." B got a hangover from the toasts with vodka and apologized just in case he did anything wrong. Grinkov altered course to outside the legal area and when H declared a foul wouldn't let him radio the Cayuga. H saw several sailors being clandestinely put off the boat in a raft at night. When pressed with his attempts to lie, Kretchiak admitted that they were the ones with children. Speaking of the ship, Kretchiak said "the scabbard is rusty but the blade is sharp." Grinkov, he said was at end of his career and the Vasiliev would be destroyed after this voyage. He considered Grinkov unstable and H convinced him that he had to take command. When they got weapons B asked if this would be mutiny and H said "no, they would be terrorists." They attempted to radio the Cayuga but were discovered in the attempt. Kretchiak reversed and captured H & B. They were thrown in the brig as saboteurs.

MacNamara treated M abusively when she advised him that they should abandon the Vasiliev when it went out of bounds and rejoin his own fleet. He obsessively said he was going to take down the "cheater" Grinkov. Then when she pointed out his inappropriate behavior he banned her from the bridge. MacNamara was refusing to pick up the survivors in the raft, even when M was getting more forceful, until he was shamed into relenting. The Russian men wouldn't talk about Grinkov or the ship. Finally one of the Russian exchange officers began taking a fancy to M while she was working out. Playfully, she told him "are you going to tell me about the raft and the men or am I going to have to beat it out of you?" They sparred and she was wiping the floor with him. Eventually, bruised, he told her that Grinkov was showing signs of dementia and the men mutinied. MacNamara still wouldn't listen to her to back off and went ahead with his simulated "kill" even though it was out of bounds. Then Grinkov launched two real missiles at the Cayuga which they were able to neutralize with their defensive weapons. MacNamara declared this "war" and retaliated with a missile despite Ms warnings and pleas about H & B. The Vasiliev was severely damaged and H & B were drowning in the brig. They were able to escape just at Kretchiak arrived to let them out. H again convinced him to take command, and abandon ship was ordered. H finally radioed the Cayuga and went alone to the missile room where Grinkov had armed the missiles. Grinkov told H that a sailors first duty in war was to "fight with honor, compassion and conviction. If one does that, even if he doesn't win, his death is noble." H talked him into waiting until his men were able to escape the ship because they didn't deserve to die. When H convinced Grinkov that he wasn't going to try and stop him from going down with his ship he let H go as well. "Tell MacNamara," he asked H, "that I will miss the battles. We were never friends, but we were the best of enemies." MacNamara had his ships company salute during the Vasiliev's sinking. Seeing that, M told H that she was surprised. H told her that "some people value their enemies more than friends." "Including you?" she asked. H replied, "need you ask?"

Code Blue -36

Mac met Harm during his morning jog and baited him into a competition. When a car bore down on them crossing the road H pushed M out of the way and was thrown up over the car. He was admitted for observation of lacerations and head injury by a doctor who "wanted to see him walking around in a hospital gown." When he asked where the head was the nurse handed him a urinal. The Israeli minister of west bank security, Semadar Barruch, was rushed to the same hospital for a heart transplant that he had been on the waiting list for. While M was in the cafeteria Hamas terrorists took over the hospital and herded most personnel into the cafeteria. H was in his third floor hospital room with retired Chief Walter Hume, who was in for a hip replacement, and who claimed to have "sank four U-boats during the Big One" and who wouldn't stop talking. The terrorists planted bombs on stairwell entrances, took over the operating room where the transplant was being performed, and demanded the release of Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook who the US was holding. Mustapha Ben Kessar was the groups leader and full of himself. He negotiated with special agent Lang and demanded to speak with Marzook or he would kill a patient.

H took his IV stand and went to investigate the gunshots but accosted by a pregnant woman in labor pains on the wrong floor. He put on scrubs and was mistaken for a doctor by Tamir, a terrorist who found him discovering the bomb on the door. A terrorist, Zacki, came to look for H and was shown to have a conscience. He was upset at finding a dead patient in ICU and when Mustapha ordered him to kill a hostage H saw him choose the one already dead. H found someone's cell phone in a purse and called Lang who tried to help him disarm the bomb and deliver the woman's baby. The OB wanted H to check how far dilated the woman was. When he was uncomfortable the woman said "I haven't got anything you haven't already seen." After he had checked, H said "I haven't seen that before." The replacement heart arrived on the roof and they chose M to be the one to retrieve it which now put her in the OR with Mustapha. Tamir found Hs name on his abandoned IV bag and interrogated Walter who told him that H was a SEAL and he had better not let him find him. Tamir said "I fear no man," and Walter replied, that "makes you stupid as well as annoying."

Zacki, a photography student at NYU, was in the "gang" only trying to avenge the death of his brother, RaFat who blew himself up planting a bomb in London. He found another dead patient in the ICU and H, who was watching, talked him into disarming a door. Tamir shot him in the head but H escaped. H loaded a syringe with a sedative and "took down" Tamir and got his gun. Walther helped H put Zacki on a bed with oxygen. Not being able to raise either Zacki or Tamir, Mustapha took the replacement heart case and went to Hs floor. He pushed the heart case into the middle of the corridor to bargain with H over giving up his gun. Meanwhile M suggested that they fill the OR with anesthetic gas to disable the non-English speaking guard. She took him down and called Mustapha on his phone to give him the chance to give up the heart. Mustapha went after H first, who had flooded the floor with water from the fire hose then threw in the cardioversion paddles when Mustapha stepped in it. As he was electrocuted, Mustapha's gun fired putting holes in the replacement heart.

The next scene showed M discussing how the chief Palestinian negotiator had secured the mother's written permission to harvest the heart from brain dead Zacki because he would "welcome the chance to negotiate with an Israeli with a Palestinian heart." The pregnant woman finally delivered a boy who she suggested naming Harmon Walter but the baby cried. When M suggested "Mac" the baby cooed.