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Friendly Fire, February 11, 2003 |
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By Michele Blackburn A friendly fire incident, a book
about judges, a new judge and a quote from Joseph Heller's book Catch-22
make for this interesting and often times funny episode entitled Friendly
Fire. previous episode review//next episode review
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Most titles of JAG episodes stand for more than just the main story. In
this episode, David Ridley was charged with dereliction of duty and
manslaughter when he bombed a group of British soldiers. Also under
friendly fire are Harm and Mac when Harm takes the part of judge and
'fires' upon Mac in his new role. 
Poor Harm! He proved that being a judge just isn't him even though he
wanted to be one so badly. I think it was more to prove a point to Mac.
She was the judge in Ready or Not and I believe Harm wanted to prove that
he could be a better judge than she. Unfortunately, he proved to be very
lax in his court room demeanor. He even went as far as to turn from judge
into defense attorney when he questioned the witness from his place behind
the bench. What made it even worse for him was the whole case was
televised because of the type of case. The commentary show O'Reilly
Factor was a staple throughout the whole show giving its opinion on
everything, even Harm's background and progress as the judge. 
The SecNav took a vested interest in this case because of the bad
publicity the Navy would get because of the incident. He stopped on a
snowy street where Harm was jogging and talked to Harm about the case. 
I loved the scenes in the commissary (we saw more of the commissary in
this episode than ever in the eight years the shows been on) with the gang
of four talking about Coates' book on becoming a judge. Sturgis'
description of the hunter/gatherer was pure Harm. He even made the comment
to the Admiral who eyed him strangely. Who wouldn't? Harm sitting in the
Admiral's office talking about taking down a saber-toothed tiger with
sticks would be enough to warrant another MRI. 
Harm proved that he is better at trying cases than he is ruling over them
as was seen in the end when he and Coates figured out what Ridley thought
was gunfire from the British troops was actually emissions from a British
generator.
Because he figured out the truth while he was judge, he didn't have to
excuse himself from the case. However, he could lead the prosecution (who
was Sturgis) in the truth. He vaguely suggested to Mac and Bud that they
check what the AWACS saw that night. The truth about the electrical
emissions from the generator cleared Ridley, but Harm thought the pilot
needed an evaluation so he ordered Ridley to be examined by a field
evaluation board to see if he should fly again. 
In the end, Harm admitted to not being the judge kind after the Admiral
offered the job to either him or Mac. The Admiral made Mac judge for a
while. In this way, Catherine Bell can still participate on the show and
hide her pregnancy. They did a very good job of hiding her growing stomach
as she stood behind chairs and in front of boxes throughout the show.