The Adversaries, April 13, 1999

By Shirley

This episode proved to me once again that I shouldn't pay any attention to previews or advanced blurbs. I speculated and ended up, like Bud, in a mental quagmire. On top of that, my speculations were not even close. For you see, this episode was not really about the court case with Harm and Bud as adversaries. It is in reality a psychological examination of all the characters that we know and love at JAG. The storyline - Bud's father, Big Bud, up on charges of defrauding the Navy - serves as the framework for the psychological drama.

TPTB gave us the clearest indication of the psychological nature of this episode with Bud's statement to Harm, "You're trying to psych me ...". In actual fact, everybody, including TPTB, was trying to psych everybody else out.

Poor Bud. He is situated between the proverbial rock and a hard place when Big Bud came calling. In his typical Bud-way, Bud argues himself into taking the case for the defence. I admit I didn't know what to think when Big Bud began working the contrite father angle. Jeff MacKay is so good as Big Bud. He knows how to play the character so that you're never really sure of his real intentions. And even though this is only his second appearance on JAG, his character has made an indelible impression. Bravo, Mr. MacKay!

Harm as prosecutor is placed in a no-win situation. If he won, then it's poor Bud, he got shafted by his friend and mentor. If he lost, why, it's Lt.Cmdr. Rabb was beaten by a rookie lawyer. Although it may not seem so taken in bits & pieces, when viewed as a whole, in its entirety, this episode shows us a quietly heroic Harm. For although Harm is not featured in that many scenes in this episode, he is on everybody's minds and his presence permeates all the scenes. I know that I kept wondering, along with Bud and everybody else, what he was really up to. We should all just remember that he is "the best", and can be trusted, completely.

What does Harm do when he is given this case? He goes in search of Bud to tell him "... we'll be working this case together."

These words give us the clue to the entire episode and make sense of everything. We should also take note of Harm's demeanor, expression and body language throughout, both at the hearing and outside the courtroom. He does not look like a man who is prosecuting a case with "no holds barred". Rather, he seems to be doing his level best to antagonize everyone with his approach and his courtroom antics, to sway opinion against himself. This was how he had conducted his prosecution of Col. Farrow in The Good of the Service. And there, he did not want to win either. Contrast this with his demeanor in the Season Two episode Heroes, when he was prosecuting in dead earnest and with no holds barred. And his response - "... a murder investigation..." - to the presiding hearing officer's sarcastic question "...more important than this hearing?" is the giveaway as to Harm's opinion of the importance of this case. It's 27 stolen VCR's. It's not a matter of someone's life being snuffed out. That was not what made this case important. To him it is his friend Bud's wellbeing that made this case important. And he was working the case together with Bud from the get go, rousing Bud's fighting spirit with his warning "When I prosecute, it's no holds barred." However, we know better, because we have seen Harm prosecute with complete disregard for winning or losing so long as true justice, not blind justice, was done (Heroes and The Good of the Service). In both instances he literally threw his case away, so that true justice could be served.

There was another little clue, right at the beginning, to Harm's feelings about Bud. At Bud's swearing in ceremony, it is Harm who reaches out to hold Bud's jacket as Harriet proudly helps him on with the one sporting his new rank. A small commonplace gesture, but it said volumes about the depth of Harm's regard for Bud.

Why did the Admiral give the case to Harm, and not to somebody else? Not because he was the only one free to take the case, but because the Admiral knew that no one else could handle this no-win case as prosecutor without hurting Bud. He knew he could rely on his right hand man to get them all out of this potentially destructive situation without metaphorical body bags.

This episode also shows us an extremely introspective Harm. Fair enough, this one is a psychological drama. Harm has in the past iterated his dream of having a wife and family (The Good of the Service). He sees his good friends Bud and Harriet living this dream, and one can just feel his intense longing for a wife and child of his own as he interacts with Harriet, wife and mother personified. His good-natured envy of Bud's good fortune intensifies his desire to help Bud through this case which has the potential to destroy the idyllic family picture. We can see that in Harm's face as he looks at Harriet at the party. That look says that he will do everything within his power to protect and preserve this ideal of ultimate happiness for them. In his heart he must be hoping that perhaps one day he might be as lucky and have a wife and child of his own to love and cherish.

On the distaff side, we have the women trying to psych each other out. Imes mischievously starts the ball rolling by quizzing Jordan on Harm "What's he like?" (Yes, we female fans have all wanted to know that for the longest time, but I guess we'll just have to keep fantasizing. Objection, your honour, TPTB are baiting the fans. LOL). Now we must remember that Jordan is a psychiatrist, and a darn good student of the human mind. Put that together with the natural female desire to probe into the feelings of all past and present associates of one's loved one, and bingo, we have the conversation at Bud's wet down party. What did it prove? Nothing. Why? It left out one very important consideration - Harmon Rabb. He's not a package to be handed around, ladies. The man has a mind of his own. Sorry, TPTB. It was a good try, but I'm not falling for this gambit.

This naturally leads to my observations now about TPTB playing a psychological game with the viewers - the game of seemingly to give some fans what they are asking for, without alienating the rest of the fans. Yes, TPTB are trying to psych out the fans, too. How else to explain all these little fantasy snippets which they seemed to have mined from the fan mailing lists and the fan Web sites? This time, to their credit, they managed to make the girl talk fit into the context of the story, and not merely grafted on uneasily. Well done, TPTB!

So, the question is, who were the adversaries of the title? Not Harm and Bud. Harriet said that Harm could never be Bud's enemy. That is the truth. No, the adversaries were Harm and Big Bud. At stake was Bud's happiness. That prize was what Harm was fighting for. That was what he won.

In the final confrontation between Harm and Big Bud, there are no more psychological games. Harm has seen clearly through to the core of Big Bud's rotten soul. He knows the truth and he states it. He doesn't make any threats. But Big Bud, whose little smirk never faltered at the Admiral's threats, cannot face Harm. All the bluster, the bravado, and the swagger disappeared. Big Bud recognizes and acknowledges the unquestioned superiority of the alpha male, and, like the cur that he is, slinks away, his tail between his legs.
 

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