Surface Warfare

Surface Warfare, May 23, 2000

In this episode, Mikey Roberts is put in the brig after supposedly misfiring a weapon almost hitting a vehicle with Marines on it. Bud is called late at night to tell him about his brother when Harriet is going off on how she can't fit in a dress anymore because she is pregnant. The Admiral is supposed to be giving a speech later on in the week and Bud is the one preparing it.

The Admiral sends Bud to investigate the situation with his brother but instead ends up in the brig himself which leads Mac to come down and start investigating. I guess she offends the Navy because she is a Marine and so Harm now comes down.

Before he goes down though he goes out for lunch with Renee who finally meets Lt. Singer. Apparently Renee doesn't like her but she does like Harriet and offers Harriet a dress from Madonna for the party to wear. The Admiral because Bud is not around to work on his speech, tells Tiner and the Gunny to work on it.

Harm, Mac and Bud still can't resolve the situation on board the ship so the SecNav, the Admiral, and Webb show up to try to figure out what is going on. They go through the different situations that happened to bring everyone on board. First Bud, Mac, and then Harm which then leads to the SecNav, the Admiral, and Webb to show up.

They decide to have Mikey walk them through what he did on that day, and it finally leads them find out he left his duty station for five minutes to go to the bathroom and leave someone else in charge that was trained on the weapon. There has been protesters surrounding the boat and doing every thing they can to stop this dual service training mission from happening. Apparently the person Mikey left in charge of the weapon is dating one of the protesters and he is the one that set the weapon to misfire.

The two heads of the different services running the training mission asks everyone to stay and watch the exercise but the Admiral declines stating that they have to get back in a hurry to get to a party on time. The Admiral still has no speech until Bud hands it to them when they are all walking in. Renee, Dr. Walden, and Lt. Singer are all waiting for their dates to arrive at the party. Renee brought the dress for Harriet to change into, apparently Bud had said she couldn't wear the dress from Renee but Renee made it all legal where she can where it. Mac is the only person at the party from JAG without an escort. At the last minute, just as they are about to walk into the party, Mic shows up and asks to escort Mac in. He tells her that he has resigned his commission and moved her again to be with her.

By Michele Blackburn

Confrontations between the Marines and the Navy and a SURFACE WARRIOR party made this season finale of JAG a humorous show.

Michael Bellasario guest starred in this episode as Mikey Roberts now a third class petty officer. During a mission, Mikey set off a gun that came too close to hitting an amtrack full of marines. He was put in the brig.

Bud found out a few nights later when someone called him at his house. He was working on the Admiral's speech for a party and listening to Harriet talk about how fat she's getting as she's trying to fit into a dress for the party. She very angrily lets him know that she will never get pregnant again.

The Admiral gives Bud leave to go down and do an informal investigation. He promises to e-mail the Admiral the speech as he works on it, but when Bud insults the Marines, he ends up in the brig alongside Mikey and can't work on the speech. In a moment of desperation, the Admiral asks Gunny and Tiner for help. When the Admiral finds out what happened, he sends Mac down. The three of them share a cute scene in the brig as they discuss what happened. Mac uses the name Mikey to describe Bud's brother which just shows how close they all are to each other.

Renée meets Lori Singer. RIght off, you can tell they are like Batgirl and Cat woman. Lori is trying to get Harm's attention and Renée knows it. Harm avoids the matter by talking about lunch. As their walking out, they run into Harriet. She tells Renée that she might be wearing her maternity uniform to the party. Renée suggests very sweetly that a dress could accidently fall off the wardrobe truck where she works and that Harriet could use it. TPTB is finally showing us a different side of Renée. This was a genuinely sweet comment. Not like some of the other comments that she has made in the past.

Bud is released and Mac takes him to talk to the Captain of the ship. While there, Mac makes a comment about the Navy messing up the Marine training exercise. The Admiral finds out about this and Harm is flown in.

Harm meets with both the Captain of the Navy ship and the Colonel of the Marine training mission. Neither one of them will come to any kind of agreement over the exercise so Harm goes to Mac and Bud. During their conversation, Harriet calls Bud and tells him about the suggestion Renée made to her about Madonna's maternity dress.

"YOU CAN'T WEAR A STOLEN DRESS FROM MADONNA!" Bud exclaims.
Mac looks over at Harm and says. "WE TAUGHT HIM GOOD." Harm chuckles.

When nothing can get resolved about the training mission, the SecNav and the Admiral along with Webb come aboard.

"SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. PETTY OFFICER ROBERTS SHOOTS AT AN AMTRACK FULL OF MARINES WHICH SENDS HIS BROTHER DOWN. LIEUTENANT ROBERTS BLAMES THE MARINES WHICH GETS THE COLONEL DOWN. THE COLONEL BLAMES THE NAVY WHICH BRINGS THE COMMANDER DOWN AND THE COMMANDER THINKS HE'S GOT THIS WHOLE THING RESOLVED. TELL ME, MR. WEBB, WHY ARE YOU HERE?" The SecNav asks. (This isn't exactly word for word what the SecNav said. I pieced certain parts together because I thought it was a great moment.)

Harm suggests they go make a run through of what happened the day of the shooting. Mikey tells them everything including the part where he left for five minutes leaving the equipment with Officer Scoffield.

Harm talks to Officer Scoffield and finds out that the Officer has a girlfriend he's trying to impress. Scoffield changed the coordinates on the gun so that it fired close to the marines. He also made a point of mentioning to Harm that the Marines weren't on the right path. Fortunately, Harm didn't mention that to the Colonel.

Sydney, Renée and Lori are waiting at the party for their dates. Harriet shows up in her uniform. Renée prods her about the dress until she finally changes into it. The four of them finally show up and the Admiral has a written speech in hand. Mac is in a red low cut dress and the other three in their mess dress.

Bud is a little taken aback by Harriet's dress, but soon comes to like her in it. Everyone has a date for the event except Mac that is until Mic shows up looking gorgeous in his tux. I know that I am offending some people by saying I like Mac and Mic together, but I can't help the way I feel.

Mic tells her he resigned his commission and that he's staying in Washington. The Admiral tells him to talk later. To end the fifth season, in the very last minute of the show as they're walking in, Mac looks over at Harm and he looks back at her.

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