Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG): JAG is the entity that, within the U.S. Armed Forces, investigates violations of law and/or regulations and exercises military jurisdiction. The officers that work with JAG are lawyers that prosecute or defend the accused military personnel, but at the same time investigate the cases that go to trial. Every part of the Armed Forces has its own JAG corps. The one in question for the JAG TV series is that of the U.S. Navy that also covers jurisdiction concerning the U.S. Marine Corps.
Main Characters:
Commander Harmon ("Harm") Rabb, Jr., U.S. Navy: Initially Harm used to be a fighter pilot, flying F-14 jets (called "Tomcats") off aircraft carriers. Due to an eye-infection that was misdiagnosed as night-blindness, Harm caused a ramp-strike in the course of which he was severely injured and his RIO ("Radar Intercept Officer", the second man onboard a Tomcat) was killed. Harm then lost his active flight status and decided to study the law and transfer to JAG.
Becoming a pilot, Harm followed his father's footsteps. As pilots, father and son even had/have the same call sign (some sort of a nickname that pilots use with each other, normally and in combat): "Hammer". Harm Sr. fought in Vietnam and went MIA ("missing in action") on Christmas Eve of 1969 when he was shot down. Harm was six years old at that time. It is about thirty years later that Harm Jr. discovers that his father had been transferred from Vietnam to a Russian gulag, eventually managed to escape but never made it back to America. He lived in Russia until 1981 and even had a second son there, Sergei Zhukov. Harm's father was shot defending Sergei's mother and never knew his second son. Harm gets to know Sergei when he helps a Russian officer to investigate a case in Chechnya where Sergei serves as a helicopter pilot in the Russian army. At one point, he is captured by the Chechens and is eventually rescued to the States by CIA agent Clayton Webb. He then lives with Harm for some time, waiting to be granted U.S. citizenship, but eventually finds that he feels lonely and out of place. So, to Harm's grief, he finally returns to Russia.
Before Harm finds out about his father's fate, he is obsessed with what might have happened to him. At sixteen, he runs away, makes his way to Vietnam and tries to go looking for him. Harm's mother, Trish, remarried seven years after Harm Sr. went MIA. Harm's stepfather Frank Burnett tries to take the male part in the family without ever wanting to take Harm Sr.'s place, respecting Harm's adoration for his father. But Harm never brings himself to really accept the new man in his mother's life until he is a man in his mid-thirties himself.
Harm still has a passion for flying. He has his own plane, an old yellow Stearman, called "Sarah" after his grandmother, and he uses every opportunity within reach to get on a jet and fly. He is said to be the typical navy pilot - good-looking (6'4/1,94 m), blue-green eyes, dark hair, well-trained body, women-killing smile - and women generally feel attracted to him. Still, being an officer and gentleman with honor and principles, Harm is not the man to cheat on his girlfriend when he is in a relationship. But ever since Diane, his true love back from Naval Academy times, was murdered, he has never shown any true inclination to commit permanently. During his time with JAG he has been involved with Annie Pendry, the wife of a dead pilot comrade to whose son Josh Harm is godfather, with Congresswoman Bobbi Latham, with navy psychologist Lt. Cmdr. Jordan Parker and with Renée Peterson, a TV director. But neither relationship worked out because of Harm's reluctance to open up.
In addition to Diane's death and Harm's general difficulties in expressing any personal feelings to anyone, there is something else that keeps his heart from truly opening itself to anyone: his by far more-than-friendly feelings for Mac, his current partner at JAG, with whom he could never begin a relationship, though, as they are in the same chain of command and would be guilty of fraternization, should they ever get involved.
In private, Harm lives by himself in an old loft that he by himself turned into a beautiful apartment, situated in Washington D.C., north of Union Station. He is a vegetarian, a good cook, a skilled guitar-player and he doesn't own a TV. Harm's mother, who owns an art gallery, and his stepfather, a rich businessman, live in La Jolla, California, where Harm grew up. The home of Harm's grandmother Sarah Rabb is Beallsville, Pennsylvania. Harm uses to spend time with her whenever he needs a break to sort things out for himself like after his crash.
Lieutenant Colonel Sarah ("Mac") Mackenzie, U.S. Marine Corps: After Lieutenant Kate Pike and Lieutenant Meg Austin, Mac is Harm's third working partner at JAG (starting from season 2 of the series). Harm and Mac's partnership holds more than enough potential for disagreement. First: Mac seems to be the physical twin of the murdered Diane, which, with Harm, causes very ambivalent feelings. And second: while Kate and Meg were navy officers and both Harm's inferiors in rank, Mac is a Marine Corps major, Navy and Marines having been "at war" for ever. When she is paired with Harm (a lieutenant commander at that time), she is his equal in rank and inferior only due to his earlier promotion. And even this fact is reversed later on as (at the beginning of season 5) Mac is promoted three months earlier than Harm and is now in the place to order him if she has to.
Mac had a rough childhood, her father being an abusive alcoholic. Her mother left the family on Mac's fifteenth birthday. At sixteen Mac was an alcoholic herself, ran away with her good-for-nothing boyfriend Chris Ragle and married him later on.
Mac's life changes when her best friend Eddie dies in a car accident that leaves her injured but alive. Being drunk himself, Eddie had still not wanted to let her take the wheel in her state of haze. Mac's uncle Matthew O'Hara, a colonel in the Marine Corps and the only person in her family to really care for her, takes her to Red Rock Mesa, Arizona, for a month. With his help she dries out, resolves to go to college and then join the Marine Corps as an officer. From the time she spent with Uncle Matt, looking for dinosaur traces, Mac shows a keen interest in paleontology. She has always been able to tell the exact time without a watch, not erring even when traveling through different time zones. Besides, she is an awesome kick-boxer and she happens to be a beautiful woman: 5'7 / 1,75 m in height, slender, with not too short dark brown hair, huge dark eyes and olive-tanned skin.
Her bad experiences during her childhood and especially her way out of the dark into a successful career left Mac with an iron will and an amazing force to pull through whatever she begins. She carries deep emotional scars under her Marine shell, though, that make it difficult for her to really trust people, especially men. She is unlucky in her choice of companion more than once. After parting with Chris, the next time she gets involved with someone is with her superior officer, John Farrow, in Japan, which is - of course - illegal. Working with JAG in D.C., she gets to know the stylish civilian lawyer Dalton Lowne who talks her into resigning her commission and working with him, but uses her only as decorum to his firm. Mac eventually splits with him and returns to the Corps and to JAG. Her latest personal story has been with the Australian exchange officer Lieutenant Commander Michael ("Mic") Brumby, to whom she was even engaged. But deep inside she knows that she will probably never be able to really commit to any man, for it has always been her working partner and best friend on earth that comes first in her heart: Harm.
Mac has served in Bosnia and Okinawa, Japan, before studying the law and becoming a JAG lawyer. Apart from speaking a little Japanese, she is fluent in Russian and in Farsi, as her grandmother from her mother's side was Iranian (like the actor's - Catherine Bell's - mother is in reality, so from time to time she is even heard speaking Farsi, or Russian, in the series). Mac's great-grandmother from her father's side was a Cherokee Indian. She lives in a nice apartment in Georgetown, D.C., with her old dog, Jingo, an ex-drug-squad dog. And she has a weakness for (by now, i.e. 2002) twelve-year-old Chloe Madison whom she considers her little sister ever since Mac volunteered to be her tutor in the Big Sister Program and helped her find her father.
Rear Admiral Upper Half AJ (Albert Jethro) Chegwidden: AJ is "the" JAG, the Navy's Judge Advocate General. Past fifty, tall, balding with a little white hair around his head and reading glasses on his nose, the ex Navy SEAL for Harm and Mac and their colleagues is more a fatherly friend than their CO ("Commanding Officer"). He tends to hide his kind character behind an ironic, gruff no-nonsense attitude. He knows that he will get into trouble with the Secnav ("Secretary of the Navy"), should his top team of lawyers ever decide to engage in a private relationship. Yet, he seems to second them in secret, and it is likely that he would find a solution for the unwanted situation, like in the case of Harm and Mac's junior officers and best friends, the Lieutenants Bud Roberts (another lawyer), and Harriet Sims (who organizes the office at JAG headquarters). AJ was married when he was stationed at Naples, years ago. His daughter, Francesca Paretti, is a fashion designer who lives in Milan.
To really understand the romantic side of JAG (which is normally a tough
courtroom drama), it's essential to know the most important facts about Harm
and Mac's relationship.
They meet at the White House Rose Garden where President Clinton awards Harm with his first Distinguished Flying Cross for having saved Harm Sr.'s ex-wingman Tom Boone in a risky flight maneuver. When Harm and Mac are introduced, Harm just stares, seeing Diane come back to life. Mac has been assigned to JAG headquarters because her uncle Matt is involved in the first case that Harm and Mac investigate as a team. To make the nation realize its poor state, Matt O'Hara and his group of Marines have stolen the Declaration of Independence, and it's up to CIA Deputy Director and Undersecretary of State Clayton Webb to retrieve it. He has Mac transferred to investigate in order to get to her uncle. Mac doesn't trust anyone, and it needs quite a bit of energy on Harm's side to convince her that he wants to help her uncle to get a lesser sentence. But eventually they warm to one another. Mac tells Harm about her alcoholism and he hints to Diane.
Harm and Mac grow closer, although Harm at a certain point starts a relationship with Annie. (Some time later Annie breaks up with Harm because Josh wants to join the navy when he grows up and he tends to get in trouble, for which Annie blames Harm.)
Mac and Harm's friendship also survives her relationship with Dalton Lowne that culminates in Dalton's death when a stalker has his mind and eyes fixed on Mac. A little later Harm faces his demons as he gets a hint on Diane's murderer, and it is Mac to stop Harm from killing him. In one of Harriet's navy uniforms she shows up at the pier just as Harm is about to shoot the man. Because of their uncanny resemblance, the murderer mistakes Mac for Diane's ghost, loses his head and dies as he falls into the water and is crushed against the pier by a ship. For a moment Harm, too, sees Diane standing before him, and that is when Harm and Mac share their first kiss, although Mac suspects that Harm is kissing Diane, not her.
The next really trying situation for Mac and Harm's friendship occurs when Harm finds out that his father might be alive in Russia. First, trying to obtain an important document, Harm gets to be the suspect in a murder case. He escapes from prison and Mac lets him hide out at her apartment. She also clears him from the charges. Later on, Mac follows Harm on his quest to Europe and across Siberia and she's there for him when he finally discovers how his father died.
After Russia, Harm and Mac's friendship couldn't be any closer. One could speak of one of the most beautiful and emotional platonic relationships that could ever be witnessed on TV although Harm does have other girlfriends. Mic Brumby arrives and is immediately interested in Mac but she doesn't return his affection. Harm and Mic can't stand each other.
At a certain point, Mac's husband Chris - of whom she never told anything to anyone - shows up and tries to blackmail Mac with the knowledge of her affair with Farrow. By accident, Chris is shot and Mac is accused with murder. Harm defends her. Mac is cleared of the accusations.
When Harriet and Bud's son, little AJ, is born, Harm and Mac's friendship reaches the limit of intimacy. Mac melancholically muses about her biological clock and Harm offers her a deal: if, five years from that point, neither of them would be in a relationship, they'd have a baby together - even though at that time Harm is involved with Jordan. Mac accepts.
Just when things couldn't get better between Harm and Mac, he finds out about his misdiagnosis and undergoes eye surgery. He gets back his full flight status and feels that he needs to lead this part of his life to a closure. So he transfers to carrier flight duty, leaving JAG - and Mac - behind.
Rationally, Mac knows and understands what's driving her friend, but emotionally she can't cope with the situation. She has - once again - been left alone by one of the very few that she trusted and cared about most. A rift breaks open in their friendship that won't really be overcome until a full three years later.
When Harm after a few months on the carrier USS Patrick Henry comes back to serve at JAG, he and Mac can't overcome the tension between them. Mac has been promoted to lieutenant colonel, making her his superior until he is promoted to commander, and she has been partnered with Mic Brumby who tries his best to conquer her. Things culminate when Brumby, after having gone back to Australia, requests JAG to defend an American sailor who, during the Vietnam war, killed an Australian sailor. Harm, Bud and Mac go to Sydney.
One evening, as Harm and Mac go out in private to have dinner, Mac gathers all of her courage and tells Harm how she feels. But he feels he first has to get his life back on track in order to make a relationship work. They are on the Sydney harbor ferry. The essentials of their fateful dialogue:
They are talking about Clayton Webb whom they saw with two different foreign
women.
Mac: I didn't know Webb was multilingual.
Harm: Maybe he isn't but the women were smashing.
M: So you say it doesn't matter if a man understands a woman as long as she's beautiful?
H: Honestly, what man will ever understand a woman?
M: (smiles a little seductively) You are referring to me. You don't understand why I went to the beach with Mic. Tell me, what bothered you, that I went to the beach with him or that you thought I was topless?
H: You weren't?
M: (laughs) Harmon Rabb, you are a prude!
H: (a little angry) I'm not!! Mac, you work with the guy! I mean, you wouldn't go topless in front of me, would you?
M: (earnestly) Is that a request?
H: (looks around embarrassedly to avoid her glance, notices that they are crossing under the Harbour Bridge) You know, they wrote 'eternity' on the bridge in lights for New Year.
M: Is that how long we are going to wait?
H: (uneasy) Mac...
M: Harm, we're not in Washington. We're not even on the same continent.
H: (low) Location doesn't change who we are.
M: (low and hurt) Most men would disagree with you.
H: I know. Sometimes I disagree with myself.
M: It's that you just can't let go.
H: (very low) Not yet.
M: (sadly, retreating) You're just this way with me, aren't you?
H: Yeah. (hesitates) Only with you.
M: So... (sighs) I guess I should be flattered.
H: (low and urgent) You should, Sarah.
Mac is now convinced that Harm will never return her love. So, when Mic Brumby
proposes to her the next day, she kind of accepts him, agreeing to wear his
ring on her right hand. Harm is shocked but his honor and sense of duty prevent
him from speaking to Mac about the matter. Instead, he gets involved with
Renée.
Matters get worse when Mic goes into reserves and moves to D.C. as a civilian lawyer about half a year later. Mac is still reluctant to move the ring over to her left hand to make the engagement official, but eventually she does it. Harm hurts a lot when he learns of her decision but, thinking that this is what Mac wants her life to be, he remains silent. Their friendship suffers further damage from his retreat. Harm not even really talks to Mac when Jordan is murdered and he, at one time, is considered a suspect.
The evening of Mac and Mic's engagement party at the admiral's house makes everything still worse. Harm and Mac are out on the front porch, talking about a case. They eventually start to reminisce about the last few years of their teamwork and at a certain point Harm dares to speak from the heart. The most essential part of the dialogue:
They are talking about Sydney.
Harm: Why did you go to him so quickly?
Mac: You pushed me away! What was I supposed to do?
H: (desperate) Wait!
M: (sadly) For how long?
H: (low) As long as it takes...
Petty Officer Jason Tiner, AJ's yeoman, interrupts them. Calling them inside. Silence...
H: You know, we should go in.
M: (reluctantly) Yeah...
H: (takes a deep breath) Mac, you have someone who'll always love you.
M: And you have somebody that loves you.
What is intended by Mac to be a goodbye kiss, quickly gets out of hand. For
several long moments Harm and Mac share a desperate, passionate kiss that
reveals everything that, until now, remained unspoken. But still neither one
dares to act on their true feelings.
The wedding is about to take place. However, Harm has to go away for his annual carrier-landing qualifications just the day before, so he will miss the rehearsal dinner. Mac is angry and doesn't even wish him good luck, although he promises to be back in time for the ceremony.
As the JAG family is assembled for dinner, word reaches the congregation that Harm's Tomcat went down at sea in the storm that is raging outside, because he insisted on taking the last flight out in order to make it back before the wedding. The weather keeps getting worse and the rescue teams are ordered back to the carrier without Harm being recovered. It is then that Mac is unable to hide her true feelings from Mic. The wedding is first postponed, then eventually canceled.
A few years back, Mac had been able to find Chloe when she was lost in the woods, with the help of a psychic ability she denies having and doesn't want to face. But being desperate knowing that Harm is right now dying in the middle of the Atlantic, she tries to locate him and finally comes up with the right coordinates. The rescue teams resume the search as soon as the weather calms and they find Harm who is suffering from severe hypothermia.
He recovers and is eager to finally talk to Mac and get everything right between them. Mac calls him from the airport, crying, telling him that Mic just left to go back to Australia.
Harm: Come to me.
Mac: Why?
H: So we can talk.
M: We already talk.
H: (smiling) Don't argue with me.
M: I... I need a better reason.
H: (softly) You know the reason.
Mac is silent.
Harm: Mac?
M: I'm... I'm here.
H: I'm waiting...
But when she shows up at his apartment he tells her that, just a few minutes
before, Renée showed up, really upset because her father died. They can't talk
now. Mac understands but the whole situation starts to get the better of her.
She decides to escape her private life. So, when Harm returns to work, he
learns that Mac is thousands of miles away, serving as carrier JAG on the USS
Guadalcanal in the Indonesian sea. Harm tries to talk to her when he flies out
to the Guadalcanal for a case, but she avoids him best as she can.
Shortly after Mac gets back to D.C., a charity ten-miles run ("JAG-a-thon") is held for the victims of 9/11. Harm has been dumped by Renée but doesn't tell Mac about it. She learns the news from Commander Sturgis Turner, JAG lawyer, former submariner and Harm's friend and roommate at the Academy who has been transferred to JAG headquarters. Harm and Mac's relationship gets more tense every day. They argue a lot and make the run a personal battle between them. They cross the finish line together and Mac finally asks Harm what has been on her mind for so long.
Mac: Tell me, why couldn't we work things out between us?
Harm: I don't know, Mac.
M: So, where does that leave us?
H: (defeated) At the end, I guess.
M: (thinks, then smiles tentatively) How about back at the beginning?
Harm looks at her, and slowly a smile begins to spread on his face.
From that point, Harm and Mac resume their initial friendship. They start
getting comfortable around each other again, share more of their free time and
resume their friendly banter that always made their friendship special. At one
time, Mac accidentally lets slip to Sturgis that she is in love with Harm. She
makes him promise that he won't tell anyone.
Together with Clayton Webb, Gunnery Sergeant Victor Galindez (a former JAG coworker) and Lt Cmdr. Teresa Coulter (a forensic pathologist, played by country singer Trisha Yearwood) they go to Afghanistan to prevent an imminent terrorist attack against the U.S. fleet in the Indian Ocean. The assignment draws them closer still as Mac saves Harm's life when he steps on a landmine and he, with the help of Sturgis, saves hers and those of thousands on the USS Seahawk as he prevents a dirty nuclear missile to hit the battle group with one of his risky flight manoeuvres.
A few months earlier Bud Roberts took an assignment as carrier JAG on the USS Seahawk. When he and his legalman Petty Officer Jennifer Coates go to the Afghan mainland to reopen a school that was destroyed during U.S. bombings, Bud, in an attempt to save a little boy from a minefield, steps on a landmine and loses his right leg. Receiving the news of their friend's dreadful accident, Harm and Mac seek comfort with each other. Bud is saved and now depends on his friends' help to deal with the aftermath.
When Harm and Mac's ex-colleague, Lt. Lauren Singer, is found murdered, six months pregnant, Harm suspects his brother Sergei to be the father of her child, knowing Sergei and Lauren had been out together before Sergei went back to Russia. Harm wants to protect his brother and, being further incriminated by false evidence, is accused to have murdered the lieutenant. (This is the double episode "Meltdown"/"Ice Queen" that served as spin-off for the new TV show "NCIS".) Harm is cleared.
Mac goes to South America with Clayton Webb as his pregnant wife in an undercover op. Their cover is eventually blown and they are captured. When Harm finds out but isn't allowed to go to her rescue, he resigns his commission and sets off to save Mac. . Harm finds them and rescues them - yet, he and Mac fail to set things straight. Mac is waiting for "the words" which she doesn't get from him, Harm is hurt because she and Webb have come very close during the mission. Harm sees them kiss - and draws back in defeat. Mac tells Harm that a relationship between them will never work. Even their friendship seems to be broken for good.
Back in D.C., the admiral holds a grudge against Harm and doesn't take him back to JAG, saying he must take the responsibility for his actions. Harm has lost everything - Mac and the Navy. So he agrees to join the CIA as a pilot and disconnects completely from his JAG friends.
Harm does very different missions, even gets to fly the Aurora once, a highly experimental mach-6 plane. On a mission rescuing a Libyan who works for the CIA, Harm's plane, a C-130, takes fire and there's no safe place to land. So Harm decides to contact the Seahawk and land on the flight deck - with a huge wingspan, a brake malfunction and no tailhook. He succeeds but as a TV team is on board, his face is broadcast nationwide. So the secrecy of a CIA agent has been compromised - and the Agency fires Harm.
He ends up crop-dusting for a 14-year-old girl who now owns the hangar where Harm keeps his Stearman. Meanwhile, Commander Carolyn Imes, a former JAG colleague (seasons 2 to 5) has been ordered to take Harm's place. But it turns out she lied about ever having passed a bar exam. She never was a lawyer legally allowed to practice. So all her cases have to be reviewed. At JAG everyone is swamped - so finally, the admiral seeks Harm out and offers him to come back to JAG. Harm promises Mattie, his "boss", that he'll try to become appointed her legal guardian so she won't get in trouble with social services and child care.
At Christmas, just in time for Mattie's and Harm's hearing in court, Mattie's dad turns up, claiming to have reformed and wanting Mattie back. Before, Harm has told Mac about his plans, asking her to testify to his aptness as a parent. She's very upset that he hasn't told her anything about the important change his life's about to undergo, feels shut out of his life, and Harm, angry, tells her to leave it be. ("This is too important for you to screw up!") Mac, however, comes to the hearing, telling the surprised judge (Harm listening thunderstruck...) that if she ever were to have children, Harm would be the kind of man she'd want to be the father, although she and Webb are dating. However, the judge temporarily places Mattie in a foster family, and it is Mac's private intervention that makes the alcoholic father step back and open the way for Harm to take care of his daughter. Mattie moves into an apartment in Harm's building, together with Petty Officer Jennifer Coates, Chegwidden's yeoman, and Harm suddenly finds himself in the position of playing dad for two new daughters, sort of...
After the admiral's wedding is cancelled, he seems to draw back and lose interest in JAG - which ultimately leads to his retirement in the season-9 finale. Major changes affect the lives of our dynamic duo, too. Harm's and Mac's relationship finally seems to have a future. First, at the celebration of Coates's promotion, Harm ponders what his life might be, had he confessed his feelings to Mac in Sydney and subsequently married her - and he comes to the conclusion that this was a road not taken... "yet". Then, Mattie manages to weasel a confession out of him. She asks him point blank if he loves Mac - and he answers, "Yes."
In the meantime, Mac's and Webb's relationship has grown serious for real, but in the season-9 finale, Clay dies in a mission. Mac receives devastating health news (that we don't yet know the nature of) - and ultimately, she and Harm manage to move their friendship back to the place it once held in their lives, the other being the most important person in their lives.
The day the admiral retires happens to be the week of little AJ's fifth birthday: the time has come to address their deal as agreed upon five years ago. Harm and Mac are once again out on a porch - apparently the only place they can be completely honest to each other.
The essentials of a dialogue that made all shippers' hearts race:
Harm (shyly looking at her): You know this week is an anniversary of sorts.
Mac (looks at him, confused)
Harm: Five years ago...
Mac (understanding, surprised): We're already there? I know it was this year but...
Harm: I just want you to know that the offer still stands, and that when you're ready, we can do it as we planned.
Mac (looks down, pained, probably because of her yet undisclosed diagnosis)
Harm (misinterpreting and angry at himself): I... I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up.
Mac (thoughtful, sad, looks at him): You know, men just seem to be passing through my life. Except for you. Will you always be there?
Harm (very sincere): Yes.
Mac: Then you need to know what the doctor told me.
In the season-10 opener, it turns out Webb isn't dead but faked his death for security reasons. Harm helps Mac to find out what happened, and she tells Clay it's over. Still, she doesn't go to Harm yet as she needs time to sort out things for herself. We learn she has endometriosis which isn't life-threatening, but might be child-threatening.
In 'A Whole New Ballgame' (10x4), the new JAG is introduced: Marine Major General Gordon Cresswell.
Once again, Christmas works wonders for our heroes: Mac has a car accident and while being transported to the hospital, she drifts in and out and unconsciously recalls a session with a Navy psychologist whom she turned to after Clay had left for good. In the course of this session, we learn how the cliffhanger's conversation mentioned above continues, and the lines that made every shipper's heart skip several beats are Harm actually offering to make the biggest commitment of all:
Harm: (leans in front and tenderly takes Mac's hand) Mac, no pressure - let me look into things. There are other ways - in-vitro fertilization, surrogate mothers...
Mac: (aghast) It doesn't matter to you how it happens?
Harm: (visibly swallowing) It matters that it happens... between the two of us. I'm tired of looking in on your life, Mac. I want to be a part of it.
Mac: (helpless, shakes her head, sad) I can't...
With the help of the psychologist, Mac works through her tragic diagnosis that the chance of her ever carrying a child is less than five percent. The psychologist finally makes her see that it's her who always chooses to be alone, and Mac can finally admit to herself that it's Harm she's been hoping to be together with for all her life.
Meanwhile, as Mac kept muttering Harm's name in her semi-conscious state, the hospital has informed Harm of her accident, and he rushes to be at her side, even skipping his traditional Christmas visit at the Wall. When she awakes, he's sitting in her room, and the following conversation unfolds:
Harm: I'm gonna stay here tonight.
Mac: (confused) Have you been to the Wall yet?
Harm: (smiles) I can go to the Wall next year.
Mac: (sad, apologetic) I've been pushing you away.
Harm: Yeah, you have.
Mac: I'm sorry...
Harm: (moves closer, takes her hand just like in the flashback scene) Hey, that's understandable. Mac, nothing's changed. I'm still here. Let's just concentrate on the good news and be happy! You're alive!
Mac: (tenderly closes her hand around his fingers and smiles) And you know what makes the news even better? We both are.
The episode ends with both just sitting there, looking into each other's eyes, their gazes speaking volumes, and the camera then closes up on their tightly clasped hands.
After Christmas (as always...) the show goes on as if nothing had happened. Harm and Mac even grow further apart again as Harm withdraws to himself when Mattie has a flying accident that will probably leave her handicapped, if not paralysed for ever. At least she wakes from the coma, and as her father couldn't hold it together, started drinking again and disappeared, it seems only a matter of weeks now for Harm to regain guardianship.
Relationship-wise, it's only in the last episode but one that something happens that will have the biggest consequences imaginable on Harm's and Mac's lives: they are being transferred. Harm is promoted to Captain and will leave for Europe - to be in command of JAG headquarters Europe in London. Mac will be in command of a new joint Navy and Marine JAG centre, preparing JAG lawyers for operating in country - which will lead her to San Diego. The two have just about 72 hours to get packed and on the road - and to resolve their nine years of history, once and for all.
They seek each other out several times during those days, never getting to talk from the heart, but always reminiscing the same scenes from their past and realising what's binding them together. So Mac finally goes to Harm and suggests they talk about the two of them. Here is what follows (and no faithful shipper would have thought possible...):
Mac: Let's talk about... you and me.
Harm: (cites) Neither one of us...
Mac: ...wants to be the first to say goodbye. Yeah, I know the song. We've been singing it for years.
Harm: Mac, I don't think that I'll ever feel about anyone else the way I feel about you.
Mac: That's very flattering... One piece of advice: don't share that with your wife, whoever she might be. She might not understand.
Harm: Do you understand?
Mac: Why we can't make it work? Why we've let fate decide our futures? No, I don't.
Harm: Let me ask you a personal question: of all the men in your life, what was it about them that attracted you?
Mac: (sits down, sighs) Well, they wanted me - and they let me know it.
Harm: (sits down next to her) I wanted you. You knew that.
Mac: (slightly exasperated) Harm, no woman wants to be a mind reader. And with you, there was always complications. Another woman, work, searching for your father...
Harm: That's all past...
Mac: Is it?
Harm: (moves closer and takes her hand) Mac, we have twelve hours...
Mac: We've had nine years.
Harm: Yes. Maybe I just needed a deadline.
Mac: (smiles expectantly) Well, you got one, sailor...
Harm: (slowly leans in and kisses her)
The kiss gets more passionate as it becomes clear that they both want this.
Mac: (breaks for air, rests her forehead to his, slightly panting) What are you proposing? And that's not a Freudian slip.
Harm: I'm proposing. Let's get married. (They kiss again.)
Mac: (incredulous chuckle) In London?
Harm: (laughs with her) Well, London works for me.
Mac: (stays close but halts her movements somehow) Well... San Diego works for me.
Harm: (still holding her close and resting his forehead against hers) This has always been the 500-pound gorilla in the room.
Mac: If we get married, one of us needs to give up their Navy careers.
Harm: (grins, eyebrows up high) We could wait till I retire.
Mac: (laughs) Yeah. That's like another decade or so, huh?
Harm: (sobers) I love you, Mac. But I don't want to give up my Navy career and you don't want to give up the Marine Corps.
Mac: (slightly disillusioned) So we're right back where we started.
Harm: (moves closer again) Mac, do you believe in fate?
Mac: Well, fate sort of put us together.
Harm: Then fate can also bind us together forever.
Mac: (leans in and reprises the kiss, overwhelmed)
The last scene sees Harm in Captain's mess dress at McMurphy's Tavern, waiting for Mac who appears in a breathtaking burgundy dress, their welcoming kiss making it clear that they are indeed engaged. Harriet and Bud appear, and also Sturgis and Coates who even conned the general into coming. Except for the Roberts', everyone is clueless.
When General Cresswell refers to Coates wanting to go with Mac to San Diego, Harm interjects that it's not even sure if she'll go there. He and Mac then rise and announce their engagement to their stunned friends. Upon Harm's request, Bud has brought the JAG coin Admiral Chegwidden gave him when he retired. Mac calls Tails, Harm calls Heads: the coin, tossed by Bud, is to decide who is to leave the military and where their road will lead - London or San Diego.
The camera sees Harm and Mac from above, firmly embracing each other as they tensely observe the coin on its way up in the air...
***FADE TO BLACK - END OF A GORGEOUS TEN-YEARS RIDE***
At the end of this crash course, a little JAG talk for you to understand:
squid - nickname that the Marines call Navy personnel
jarhead - nickname that the Navy has for a Marine
ZULU - military time code, Greenwich Mean Time in winter
ALPHA - Central European Time (winter)
ROMEO - Eastern Standard Time
ASAP - "as soon as possible"
CAG - "Commander Air Group" - commands the fighter squadrons on a carrier
CENTCOM - "Central Command" - coalition forces headquarters in a war zone
CIC - "Combat Information Center"
CNO - "Chief of Naval Operations"
TAD - "Temporary Abroad Duty"
UCMJ - "Uniform Code of Military Justice"
CO - "commanding officer"
XO - "executive officer" - second in rank on board a ship
DDO - "disobedience of a direct order"
AWOL - "absent without ordinary leave"
six - navy term for back/butt, derives from pilot talk, a person's six o'clock
= backside