People v. Gunny

People v Gunny, February 22, 2000

This episode starts out with a fight in front of a gay bar when Gunny and his friend are going to a Chinese place near the gay bar. The friend and a gay guy start to fight and Gunny tries to break it up when the gay guy throws the first punch. Then who walks out of the gay bar but none other than Tiner. He sees his friend in the fight and ends up in a fight with the Gunny but neither one of them knows who they are fighting to the end. The next day the Admiral sees Tiner's black eye and wants to know what happened, Tiner tells him he was involved in a fight but doesn't tell him anything else.

Harm is going out of town on a case so he goes into Macs office who had been playing with her ring and got it stuck on her left hand and when Harm came in, she put her hand behind her back. She tells him that she will take his cases and he asks her if there is something different about her, she says its her new shampoo. He tells her to try the new shampoo on her hand, that it will take the ring right off. Boy was that line too funny. LOL. He goes back to his office where Bud tells him as best he can with a wired jaw that Renee is on the phone for him. She is on location somewhere shooting a commercial and wants to know if they can get together when she gets back. He tells her he is going out of town but they set up a date for when he gets back. She tells him that he has already stood her up twice, he only gets one more shot and not to stand her up again.

A detective comes in and questions the Gunny about the fight at the bar. She wants to know about his friend and needs his name, etc. Gunny wont tell her anything. She threatens to have him arrested and she asks if she needs to reach him, she can find him at JAG, he says yes. Tiner and Gunny talk outside about getting the whole thing dropped. Tiner tries to explain what Gunny saw but Gunny doesn't want to know anything because the rule is don't ask, don't tell. Tiner could get kicked out of the Navy if it is found out he is gay. The detective comes back later to arrest him, which at that time the Admiral steps in and Tiner tells him that he was one of the other people involved so the Admiral decides there will be a military trial and not a civilian one.

At the military trial, the Gunny is found not guilty but that is not good enough for the State's attorney, a Mr. Stark, who wants the Gunny tried in a civilian trial. He is up for election and he wants more votes and thinks this trial will get him the votes he wants. He tries to pull out all the stops in this trial. Everyone at JAG kind of treats Tiner like a leper now that they think he is gay. A guy makes a phone call late at night to JAG looking for Tiner, he makes it appear that he is Tiner's boyfriend. The guy turns out to be the Gunny's friend who is protecting and who has made his feelings about gays in the military pretty clear. Mac takes the phone call then talks to the Admiral about it who tells her to tell Tiner to leave his personal life out of the office. She speaks with Tiner about how if there are any other indications that he is gay then there will be hearing and he could face discharge. Tiner then tells her he needs to tell her something. We don't really hear what he has to say but we do see Mac call the Admiral to tell him something. The Admiral's face when he takes that phone call does not give anything away. He then puts Tiner back on the stand and asks him if he is gay. Tiner tells him that he is not gay and that the person he was with is his half-brother. Once again, the Gunny is found not guilty. Stark congratulates the Admiral and says even though he lost the case, he won the votes he wanted. You can tell the Admiral thinks he is lower than pond scum in his book.

Renee arrives at the JAG office later that evening only to be told by Mac that Harm is stuck in Iceland in a blizzard and that all planes have been stopped till the storm passes. Renee is not happy and tells her to tell Harm to come up with a better story next time and then asks Tiner if he has plans for the evening and he says no, she says you do now and takes him by the arm and walks out. The final scene of this episode is of Harm looking out a airport window at the snowstorm brewing outside.

By Michele Blackburn

This episode centered mainly around Gunny Galindez and Jason Tiner. It was about one of the most controversial issues in the military: gays and the 'don't ask, don't tell, and as Mac added during the show 'don't harrass' policy.

The Gunny and his friend, Manny, are headed to a Chinese Noodle house to eat dinner when Manny runs into a gay man named Andrew and a fight insues over some derogatory remarks Manny makes. The Gunny intervenes and Tiner ends up fighting with him helping his friend. The Gunny gives Tiner a black eye before he realizes that he's fighting him.

The next day the Admiral sees him and comments on the black eye. "BEEN HANGING OUT WITH COMMANDER RABB?"

Tiner tells him that he got into fight, but he doesn't tell him where or who was involved.

Meanwhile, Mac slips the ring off her right hand onto her left just to see how it looks and it gets stuck. Harm walks in to talk to her and she quickly hides her hand behind her back. He tells her that he's going to Iceland to handle military air space rules and asks if she can take over some of his cases. She says yes and then Harm stares at her.

"YOU LOOK DIFFERENT." He tells her.
"OH, IT'S A NEW SHAMPOO I'M USING. BRINGS OUT THE HIGHLIGHTS IN MY HAIR."
"MAYBE YOU COULD USE SOME OF THAT SHAMPOO TO GET THE RING OFF YOUR FINGER?" He knew what she had done. She tries desperately to pull the ring off her finger.

When the Baltimore Police come to arrest the Gunny for gay bashing, Tiner steps in and tells the Admiral that he was the witness at the gay bar. The Admiral intervenes and a military trial is held first.

By now, everyone knows that Tiner was in a gay bar and the truth comes out about how everyone feels. The Admiral just wants the truth, Mac isn't quite sure, and Bud, clearly, doesn't know what to think The truth comes out about Tiner's sexuality when Mac receives a phone call late one night from one of Tiner's 'lovers'. She tells Tiner and that's when he comes right out and tells her the truth: He's not gay; the man he was trying to help was his half-brother, Andrew, who is gay.

Mac quickly calls the Admiral at court to tell him and he brings it out at the trial. When the Gunny is found innocent of the charges, the states attorney congratulates the Admiral and informs him that even though he didn't win the case he knows that he has the votes from the gay and lesbian community for the next election because he defended them. The Admiral looks at him disgustedly.

That night, Mac is congratulating the Admiral on a case well done when Renée Peterson, Harm's 'friend' walks in looking for Harm. She mentions that she and Mac should have a girl's night out to which Mac reluctantly agrees. (But really she could care less if she ever had a girl's night out with the woman.)

"WHERE'S HARM?"
"HE'S IN ICELAND."
"OH, I THOUGHT HE WAS DUE BACK TO TODAY."
"HE WAS. WEATHER FRONTS. ALL FLIGHTS WERE GROUNDED."
"OKAY. FIRST A SINKING SHIP, THEN HE GOES TO AUSTRALIA AND NOW HE'S STRANDED AT THE NORTH POLE."
"YOU HAD A DATE." Mac gathers from the attitude Renée is displaying.
"WE DID." She looks off in the distance and sees Tiner.
"TINER, DO YOU HAVE A DATE FOR THIS EVENING?"
"NO, MA'AM."
"YOU DO NOW." She grabs his arm and walks with him towards the door.
"MAC, TELL HARM NEXT TIME TO COME UP WITH A BETTER STORY."
Mac stands back flabbergasted at what just happened. The humor in the last few minutes of the show is that as the scene ends Harm is standing in the airport of Keflavic, Iceland watching the snow storm outside.

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