Weekly Soap Opera Digest:
Last week on JAG, Mac's secret estranged ex-con husband Chris appeared in
her darkened office at JAG HQ after an absence of 12 years. Forgetting all
she had learned about life during these 12 years, Mac instantly returned
to her teenaged victim role, becoming weak, vacuous and smarmy. AJ noticed
her strange behaviour, but she would not confide in him. She went to
Harm's apartment, but he was having a "working dinner" with Bobbi, so Mac
ran away. Back at her apartment, she meets up with the new Aussie Brumby,
who was trying hard to play Sir Galahad by picking up a lady's files but
unable to carry off the act because of his leering hot looks. Mac agreed
to help Chris pay off the loan shark, and even bought him a ticket out of
town. She then lovingly kissed him good-bye, in full view of the airport
crowd. The last we saw of Chris, he was definitely not leaving town.
This week Chris showed his true colours - mean, abusive and just downright
rotten. He's got competition though. Brumby has also entered the rotter
sweepstakes. Meanwhile, poor Harm is given the cold shoulder by everyone
at JAG, including his formerly worshipful aide, Bud. We don't find out why
Mac never divorced her no-good husband. Col. Farrow and Mac are charged
with Chris' murder. They both then proceeded to lie under oath, whether by
commission or omission. When all is sorted out for a pseudo happy ending,
we are faced with some unpalatable facts. Both lovers were guilty: Farrow
of fraternization, and Mac of adultery. Folks, JAG is a latecomer to the
soaps, but it's making up for it in a big way.
Splat! TPTB laid another egg. On the menu this week - scrambled eggs. TPTB
know that JAG's primary audience is female, so were they trying to pander
to us with Mr. Rabb Goes to Washington and People v. Mac? Do they believe
that women prefer surreal soap opera? Duh, TPTB, this particular female
fan does not. I DO NOT WATCH SOAP OPERA. I watch good intelligent drama.
You miscalculated badly with this two-parter. Let's get back on track now,
shall we?
I was willing to give Brumby the benefit of the doubt last week. I
characterized him as "a tad rough". I had originally written down
"common", but deleted it, feeling that I was a mite too harsh. This week,
I'll say it, "Brumby is common". He has no class. I do not buy the feeble
excuse that Australians have a different culture and therefore a different
outlook on life. Class shows. Harm has class. Brumby has no class.
Onto the Harm/Bobbi relationship. Relationship? It was totally
unsatisfactory. Last week we had these lovely scenes in Harm's apartment.
We also got intense and acknowledging looks between the duo at the end.
This week, if you please, we get fluffed off with "Take a message, Tiner,"
and "Friends?" Dear TPTB, if you really and truly want to give female
viewers what they want, pay attention to how you develop and end
relationships. Do not toss one in one week, and then just write it off
carelessly the next. You do everyone a disservice. The fans are a lot more
discriminating than that.
I
have to say that the elevator scene, a spoof of the McDonald's hamburger &
fries commercial, was the final indication of how truly awful these last
two episodes were. I guess I have a higher opinion of Bud, Imes and
Mattoni than TPTB. These people work with Harm. They respect him. They
like him. They would tease him, but I do not believe that they would do it
in such an uncaring manner. It would be warm fuzzies. Cheap laughs? Maybe,
but at what cost to the characters you've worked so long and hard to
develop?
And a final plea to TPTB: please do not debase the characters. We have
grown to care for them very much. These last two weeks you've made Mac
stupid and morally bankrupt; embarrassed and cold-shouldered Harm in a
very inept way; brought Cmdr. Lindsey back, only to give him next to
nothing to do; brought Col. Farrow back to utterly destroy him; and turned
JAG HQ into a sniggering petty office.
I've heard a lot of people who seriously dislike this episode, calling it
soap-opera-esque, talking about how it destroys Mac's character, makes her
too vaucous and weak, etc. I, personally, think it adds dimension. No one
can be a strong, kick-ass jarhead all the time. We've seen moments of
Harm's weakness - almost always involving his father, and other rare
moments when we realize he's not just the confident fighter
pilot-turned-lawyer we all know and love, but that he's deeper than that.
Maybe it's just the part in me that says, like a comical director, "What's
her *motivation*?", but I personally like seeing beyond her usual strength
and trying to figure out what makes her tick, what it is about 'The men
she picks", as Harm said.
Okay, so the basic story of the episode is a continuation of "Mr. Rabb
Goes to Washington." Chris, evidently, did not leave town as we had hoped,
but rather shows up at Mac's apartment. She's in the middle of telling him
to get out when the thugs after him burst in. They rough him up, Mac helps
kick a little six, the guys end up leaving. Chris needs the money he owes
them, and more than that he needs her back in his life. She says no, and
then he brings out the heavy artillery: He saw her in Okinawa and knows
about her affair with Farrow. "Doesn't the military frown on officers
messing around?" he asks. So essentially the slimebag's attempting to
blackmail her into staying with him. Mac goes to see Farrow, let him know
what schist might hit the fan in the near future, and Farrow says he'll go
see Chris.
Cut to Chris's hotel late at night. He opens the door, wearing a robe, and
says "I've been expecting you", lets in whoever is at the door (we don't
see who)...next thing we know, Mac calls Harm late at night. After
mistaking her for Bobbi for a moment, he asks "What time is it?" "I don't
know," Mac answers. Never a good sign, when Mac doesn't know what time it
is. "Where are you?" She's been arrested...for murdering her husband.
Dum-dum-DUM!
Mac and Farrow are being charged with murder and conspiracy to commit
murder. Teddy Lindsey is prosecuting; Mic and Bud are defending Farrow,
and Harm (despite objection from Brumby about Harm being too close to be
objective) is defending Mac. Mic starts trying to pin the murder on Mac
and only Mac, leading Harm to try to get separate trials. His motion is
denied, and it goes forward.
Farrow takes the stand and claims that he went to Chris's room to pay him
off; he gave him $20,000 and Chris pulled a gun on him. Farrow got the
gun, they struggled, and the gun went off. The money subsequently
disappeared.
Mac, however, told a different story. She claimed that she went to Chris's
room to try to reason with him, he pulled out his gun and said if she
didn't love him she should just shoot him now because he would come after
her, kill her boyfriends, her children, ruin the rest of her life because
he can't live without her. He presses the gun into her hand, its barrel
against his chest. Harm stops her testimony right there, but Teddy asks
"What did you do then?"
"I shot him," Mac answers.
Well. That's never good.
But gotta give Harm credit - he's not going to let it end like that. So he
and Bud track down who else was in the room that night - Benny Turrpin,
the loan shark. He had gone to Chris's room but hid in the closet
throughout the entire scene, so he saw what happened. Mac came to the room
to reason with him, and he started to rough her up a little before telling
her to kill him if she wouldn't be with him. Then Farrow came in, left the
money on the bed, and Chris pointed the gun at Farrow. Mac grabbed the
gun, there was a struggle, and the gun went off. Farrow gently took the
gun from her as she stepped back, in shock. The two of them went down to
Mac's car to call the police, and Benny took the money and left. He,
however, returned the money to Harm, which he submitted as evidence to
show that Benny was indeed there and thus a legitimate witness.
Up until this point I have no huge problems with Mac - actually, if you
look at it the right way, she didn't quite lie. She sort of lied by
omission, but she didn't say precisely WHEN she shot him - she said she
shot him. Which, as you could tell by watching her, she felt guilty about
it, and felt more that she had done it than "it was an accident, and no
one's fault." I think Farrow's a better guy than I gave him credit for in
the last episode we saw him in - he was watching Mac's six, trying to
protect her, saying there was not to be any more testimony that hurt
her...
But
then there's the issue of Brumby. He didn't bother me too much last week -
I didn't like his comment to Mac about "Doesn't mean your company has to
be sober", but it was excuseable in my mind because he didn't realize why
she doesn't drink. This episode, though...he was downright rotten, trying
to pin the murder on Mac to get off his client instead of working in
tandem with Harm to get them both off. I was thoroughly glad when Mac
slapped him. And then at the end he has the nerve to ask her out to
dinner...AND SHE SAID YES! I gotta go with Harm on this. "He just tried to
pin a murder on you, you're gonna go to dinner with him?" "Give him a
chance to apologize," she answers. Harm sighs and shakes his head. "The
men you pick..."
All in all, not a bad episode, contrary to what many people have said. I
actually liked it - and no, I don't like regular soap operas. I liked the
episode because I don't think it was like some sort of soap, and because I
think it added a different facet to Mac, something beyond what we see most
of the time. Part of her that's more afraid than she lets on, part of her
past that makes her tick.
Or maybe that's just the fanfic writer in me speaking.
Onto the Harm/Bobbi relationship. Relationship? It was totally
unsatisfactory. Last week we had these lovely scenes in Harm's apartment.
We also got intense and acknowledging looks between the duo at the end.
This week, if you please, we get fluffed off with "Take a message, Tiner,"
and "Friends?" Dear TPTB, if you really and truly want to give female
viewers what they want, pay attention to how you develop and end
relationships. Do not toss one in one week, and then just write it off
carelessly the next. You do everyone a disservice. The fans are a lot more
discriminating than that. 
I
have to say that the elevator scene, a spoof of the McDonald's hamburger &
fries commercial, was the final indication of how truly awful these last
two episodes were. I guess I have a higher opinion of Bud, Imes and
Mattoni than TPTB. These people work with Harm. They respect him. They
like him. They would tease him, but I do not believe that they would do it
in such an uncaring manner. It would be warm fuzzies. Cheap laughs? Maybe,
but at what cost to the characters you've worked so long and hard to
develop? 
But
then there's the issue of Brumby. He didn't bother me too much last week -
I didn't like his comment to Mac about "Doesn't mean your company has to
be sober", but it was excuseable in my mind because he didn't realize why
she doesn't drink. This episode, though...he was downright rotten, trying
to pin the murder on Mac to get off his client instead of working in
tandem with Harm to get them both off. I was thoroughly glad when Mac
slapped him. And then at the end he has the nerve to ask her out to
dinner...AND SHE SAID YES! I gotta go with Harm on this. "He just tried to
pin a murder on you, you're gonna go to dinner with him?" "Give him a
chance to apologize," she answers. Harm sighs and shakes his head. "The
men you pick..."