High Ground, April 3, 1996

As Reviewed by Rosepetal

As Reviewed by Shirley

Harm and Meg are sent to defend Gunnery Sergeant Ray Crockett as a favor to Admiral Chegwidden, the new head of JAG. Seems that Crockett once saved Chegwidden's life.  Well anyways, Crockett is a sniper for the Marines but for the past few years he has been training other snipers at Quantico and has this deal with his past CO's that he wouldn't have to go back to combat duty.  He is sick of the killing.  He just wants to bide the rest of his time in the Marines teaching others how to survive and do their job properly. 

Well there is now a new CO who wants to transfer him back to combat duty in Bosnia.  He will not listen to Crockett where he can explain to him what his deal with the his past CO was because there is no proof of it anywhere's.  So Crockett takes things into his own hands to get the CO's attention.  As the CO is driving away, Crockett shoots at him, hitting the drivers side mirror.  Harm and Meg must come to the defense of Crockett now where he is not discharged from the Marines for trying to kill a Senior officer. 

Crockett instead of waiting for his trial to defend himself, escapes and heads for the hills.  The men he has been training are sent in after him.  Harm goes with them to try to get Crocket to come out.  Crockett gets the better of his men and they go out in body bags to cover their nudeness.  Harm is the only one in still in the hills trying to get Crockett. 

After being in their overnight, Harm is able to get the jump on Crockett and catch him by surprise and gets him to come out.  He has a plan that will prove that Crockett didn't try to kill the CO, only get his attention because as he is a sniper if he really wanted to kill the CO, he would be dead.  Harm wants to recreate the shooting with him in the vehicle this time instead of the CO.  Again, Crockett hits the drivers side mirror not the person.  He will be able to serve his time out at Quantico, and not be sent to Bosnia. 

I love how in this episode, Crockett after being in the hills with Harm, offers to teach him to be a sniper because he has what it takes.  A wonderful episode in my opinion.

By Shirley

Ah the wonders of television! In the previous episode (Hemlock), Meg had been shot in the head, and was making an almost miraculous recovery considering that she had been at death's door. Here we are, the next episode, one week later, and Meg is fully recovered. I need not have worried about her. <G>

This particular investigation by Harm and Meg is in the nature of a personal favour for the Admiral. The gunnery sergeant, Ray Crockett, had saved the Admiral's life in Vietnam many years ago and Chegwidden owes him, big time. The Admiral's instructions to Harm - do all you can to save Crockett.

This was not as easy as it sounded, mainly because Crockett was one unusual marine. He was the sniper who would not be. Crockett was tired of killing, and just wanted to serve out his time peacefully. He had managed a deal with his previous commanding officers, a deal that would allow him to stay at Quantico until his time came to be honourably discharged. Unfortunately for Crockett, the present CO was unaware of the deal, and too impatient to pay him any mind. So Crockett had to get the Colonel's attention. He shot at him.

That's right, he shot at him, he did not shoot him. As Harm pointed out, if Crockett had aimed to shoot Col. Gordon, he would be dead. TPTB didn't name the guy Crockett for nothing you know. Crockett's unusual abilities as a sniper form the basis for the story. "I know things", he said mysteriously. Stephen McHattie gave a quite menacing performance as Crockett. Of course, part of that may be that I had a preconceived picture in my mind of him as being menacing. This was due to his 1995 Gemini award-winning turn (the Canadian equivalent of the American Emmy) as the abusive husband who drove his wife to murder in the film Life With Billy. Be that as it may, it was truly unnerving to listen to Crockett describe his kills. Looking at his eyes, one wondered whether he was still entirely sane. And one also wondered what the US Marines had done to this man to turn him into this fearsome killing machine. The final redeeming wonder is that he himself has sickened of the killing and in his own simple way has bargained for peace.

It was amusing to have Crockett sniff the air like a bloodhound, and mysteriously pronounce that Harm was either a cross dresser (funny!) or worked very closely with a woman. "Chanel No.5," he intoned solemnly to a bemused Harm. The next scene has our sweet-smelling hero walking into the temporary office assigned to them. Then what did he do? He leaned over Meg to stare into the computer and stood close enough to her that he's touching her hair. Obviously Lt. Cmdr. Rabb isn't too worried about smelling of Chanel No.5 at all! On subsequent viewing, I discovered that there was a lot more going on in the scene with Meg than I had first noticed. Meg was drinking coffee when Harm came in. She set her cup down on the table by her computer. Harm absently picked it up, and drank from her cup. She took no notice of it, and neither did he as they both continued with their discussion about Crockett. To me, this would seem to be a normal occurrence for them, that they were so close neither one thought anything of his drinking out of her cup. Interesting, no?

Then there is Krennick, dear Commander Krennick, who wanted to go with Harm to Quantico. It was quite unsporting of the Admiral to quash that. But she found another way. I liked the scene of Krennick playfully forcing Harm to ask for her help. Then what did she do? She showed up in person, to help. And to inform Harm that she expected him to finish with his investigation before the weekend, as she had plans for just the two of them at the Admiral's beach house. Again, the Admiral played spoiler. Tut, tut.

This episode gave us a more complex Harm. He was able to keep step with Crockett where the marines could not. He could also have pulled rank when these same marines were making fun of him "Where's your gun, Commander? ... He's a lawyer. He's going to talk Crockett back." But he didn't. He allowed them to rag him, and then he showed them how to go after the best sniper in the Marine Corps. And Harm got the Crockett seal of approval - an offer to train him as a sniper extraordinaire. He had what it took.

Indeed, what other nut would volunteer to be the target for Crockett in the re-creation of the shooting incident?

This was a most enjoyable episode, and I enjoyed it to the fullest.

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