The Harm/Mac Relationship

Shipper, Shipper ... NOT!
In which Shirley presents the case for the Non-Shipper

By Shirley

Dateline: at the Christmas break in Season Four

Shirley:

Your honour, I would like to begin by informing the court that a shipper is someone who believes that, come hell or high water, it is inevitable that Harm and Mac will be together at the end. A shipper clings to the conviction that everything that Harm and Mac do or say until that penultimate moment when they declare their undying love for each other is either denial or they don't know that they are in love.

Your honour, I am not a shipper. With due respect to the court, I say balderdash! I have seen absolutely no evidence, overt or subliminal, that Harm is in love with Mac. There is evidence that Mac is in love with Harm. But that would make it unrequited love, and unrequited love does not a relationship make. Your honour, with the indulgence of the court, I will now proceed with the evidence.

Exhibit A. I would like to submit to the court the Season Two episodes. At no time in these episodes did Harm say or do anything to suggest that he had romantic feelings for Mac.

Shipper:

Your honour, I object. What about The Game of Go? Surely Shirley is not about to dismiss that episode out of hand? Or are the non-shippers going to conveniently bury their collective heads in the sand when they see evidence that contradicts their very dull theories?

Shirley:

Your honour, my respected colleague the Shipper is quite mistaken. We have no intention of ignoring anything or dismissing any evidence. At the same time, we don't do what the Shippers do, that is, manufacture non-existent evidence on no more than a friendly look or a throwaway line.

Judge:

Order, order! This is a courtroom. Both counsellors will conduct themselves accordingly. I will not tolerate any unfounded accusations, from either side.

Shirley:

Yes, your honour. No, your honour.

Shipper:

Of course, your honour. My apologies.

Shirley:

If I may continue, your honour... I concede that there is some flimsy support for the shipper theory in The Game of Go. However, we must take this within the proper context. The Game of Go was shown out of sequence. It was obviously filmed so early in the season that TPTB had not yet settled on the long term relationship between the two partners. They therefore were playing with the various possibilities, one of which was the standard romantic flirtation one. TPTB never followed up on this, and we can draw only one conclusion from it. It was not a desirable option. They never intended Harm and Mac to have a romantic relationship.

Shipper:

Your honour, I can't believe what I'm hearing. In Washington Holiday, Harm expressly told Mac that he did not regard her as his sister. I really don't see how much clearer it needed to be than that.

Shirley:

Your honour, now I can't believe what I'm hearing. Of course Harm does not regard Mac as his sister. He's a man. She's a beautiful woman. Of course there would be some kind of sexual energy in their daily interactions. That does not necessarily mean that he was in love with her. It's just a natural male-female thing.

Shipper:

So is love, your honour.

Shirley:

May I remind my friend the Shipper that I have already conceded that Mac was in love with Harm. We saw evidence of this as early on as Full Engagement, ...

Shipper:

Where we find out that Harm had named his beloved aircraft 'Sarah'...

Shirley:

Your honour, these interruptions!

Judge:

The Shipper will restrain herself. And you, Ms. Shirley, will stop wasting the court's time. Get on with it!

Shirley:

Yes, your honour. In Full Engagement Harm's sole objective was to get Mac to safety. Mac, on the other hand, was tickled pink to discover that he had named his Stearman 'Sarah', her name, and was really curious as to who this 'Sarah' might be. But we must also note very carefully that Harm never called Mac 'Sarah'.

Shipper:

Wait a minute, Shirley! He called her Sarah in Impact.

Judge:

Ms. Shipper! You must address your remarks to me.

Shipper:

Sorry, your honour. It won't happen again.

Shirley:

Yes he did, your honour, when he was saying good-bye to her. And that is precisely the point I am trying to make. Mac was in love with Harm, but Harm was not in love with Mac. We have already seen that Harm is a sensitive and perceptive man. He would know that Mac had tender feelings for him, but since he did not return these feelings, he would do his best to keep their partnership on an even keel emotionally. He would not do anything that would force her into a situation that would hurt or shame her. That was why he encouraged her to go out with Falcon. And when he realized that Falcon was a rat, he tried to vet the next candidate for Mac's affections, Dalton, - hence his interest in the creep, and his attempts to talk to Mac about Dalton and her wish to leave JAG.

Your honour, Harm was doing what any good friend would do in the same circumstances. He was worried about his good friend and partner, Mac, and he tried to make sure that her choices, both of man and job, were the correct choices for her. He was not jealous of Dalton Lowne because of Mac. He was envious of Dalton's wealth, status and prestige. If he weren't a JAG lawyer, he would have all that.

Shipper:

Your honour, I would like to submit that in Vanished, Harm obviously was all set for 'a Hallmark moment', when he revealed the full extent of his worry that he might lose Mac. He wanted to declare his feelings for Mac, and couldn't.

Shirley:

Ha ha ha! Oh, I apologize to the court for laughing, your honour. I, ah, just couldn't control myself. My esteemed colleague is quite right about the fact that Harm was worried that he might lose Mac. But we must all remember that Harmon Rabb is a man who takes his friendships very very seriously. He will go to any lengths for a friend, male or female. We have seen that time and time again. He regarded Mac as his very good friend and partner. A double whammy. We have seen him risk his life and career before for a partner, for Meg. This is normal behaviour for him.

As for his inability to 'declare his feelings', I submit that there are no feelings for him to declare. He realized that she was taking his innocent question "What do you want out of life?" into a dangerous area, and backed them both out as gracefully as possible. I think that Mac came to that same realization, hence her babbling about her tattoo. She was so embarrassed that she started to babble.

If Harmon Rabb had romantic feelings for Mac, he would be doing something about the situation. He would not be a tongue-tied schoolboy. He would deal with it.

Shipper:

Your honour, my friend Shirley has not explained 'the Kiss'.

Shirley:

Your honour, I would be happy to explain 'the Kiss' to my learned friend the Shipper. We are, of course, talking about the Death Watch kiss, when Harm kissed Diane good-bye. He was kissing Diane; he was not kissing Mac. TPTB had spent the entire episode on Diane's murder and its effect on Harm. Harm had just seen justice done when Holbarth flung himself off the dock to get away from Diane's ghost. Does it make sense, your honour, that Harm, who had been about to execute Diane's murderer then immediately says to himself, here is Mac, whom I secretly love, and proceeds to kiss her? I submit that the only sensible interpretation is that Harm too saw Diane's ghost, and he was kissing Diane good-bye.

Shipper:

Your honour, in The Black Jet Harm clearly showed that he had stronger feelings for Mac than those of 'friendship'. One only had to look at him when he said "I'm not leaving you behind." And the way he hugged her, not once but twice!

Shirley:

Your honour, I commend my dear friend's ingenuity and imagination. I would like to point out that Harm also hugged Keeter twice, once in Smoked and again in The Black Jet. Surely my romantic friend is not tempted to make something out of that as well?

Shipper:

Your honour, these sarcastic remarks ...

Judge:

Ms. Shirley, you will restrict your observations to the case itself. I am getting quite tired of these tirades, from both of you!

Shirley:

Yes, your honour. Sorry, your honour. I believe that Harm as the super protective male has a cultural problem with women in the military. He supports the idea of equality for women in the military, but when it comes down to the crunch of either having to kill a woman, or letting a woman face danger, he has a difficult time dealing with it. This is true of most men raised in our culture as I have already stated. This was the reason he was so vehement in his objection to Mac's staying behind, and yet could accept with equanimity the fact that Keeter had to stay too. Keeter was a man; it's the male thing to do.

Then too, we must see that the relationships that Harm enjoyed with other women conclusively prove that he could not possibly be harbouring secret yearnings for Mac.

Shipper:

Your honour, the UCMJ made it impossible for them to make their real feelings public, so they had to suppress them.

Shirley:

Your honour, I admit that the UCMJ could be a problem if there should be a romantic relationship between Harm and Mac. But since there isn't one, there is no problem. I have proven conclusively that Mac is in love with Harm. She showed that beyond a shadow of a doubt in To Russia With Love. We see absolutely no evidence that Harm feels more for Mac than the strongest and warmest of friendships. I think that is the only possible verdict.

Judge:

I will decide the verdict. This court is now in recess.