Responses -- HarmyBoard Reviews

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Date Posted: 21:58:22 11/27/06 Mon
Author: ~
Subject: Responses
In reply to: Araninda 's message, "Episode of the Week Discussion Questions. . . Inside" on 21:42:07 11/27/06 Mon

I'll rate this episode as a three. So many things in ths episode confused me, and you've mentioned most of them. Either Cresswell was a fool - and I don't believe that, or maybe his assessment of Vukovic was given as a test to see how Mac would react to him. I also don't understand why she didn't bring him up on charges. Maybe she was just giving him a second chance. I also never understood the animosity between Harm and Sturgis. They had been so close at one time that Sturgis had bought a top for Harm's 'Vette, a very expensive gift. And even though Harm didn't like the way Sturgis ran JAG as the acting JAG, their hatred of each other seemed to come out of left field for me. The cigar smokimg scene - never understood what that was supposed to mean either. I'll be really interested to see what others think of this episode because it confused the h*** out of me!-- Lee, 22:29:08 09/08/06 Fri

This was a 3.5 for me. It was an emotional rollercoaster. First scene Harm in a flight suit doing what he loves, then he's in the Persian Gulf, and before we know it he's up on charges, filed by none other than his old Academy buddy.... Sturgis? 1) The episode grabbed me because of the way it began, then I couldnt look away because I couldnt believe what I was seeing. 2)I think Creswell saw Vic's 'unconventional' ways of doing things as a 'fire in his belly' but he didnt realize how unconventional those tactics were. I had some preconcieved notions about how Vic might be, and he was beyond my worst nightmare. 3)I have no idea why tptb wrote Mac the way they did opposite Vic. With Harm or with Mic....she'd have handed them their heads on a platter and rightly so. It was completely OOC and one of the main reasons I couldnt have kept watching if HAE wasnt going to be there the next season. I have no idea why Mac wouldnt have brought him up on charges, it was insulting, to think a woman of her rank would allow a sleaze like him one seconds insubondination. GRRRR 4)Another thing that I just couldnt get to make sense. Even though Harm and Sturgis had their differences before, I really hated to see this arguement and total split in their relationship. That arguement nearly came to blows and I dont understand the purpose of it, all it did was isolate Harm even more. I read alot into it at the time, since everyone was talking about how HAE and tptb had come to a parting of the ways...it was kind of symbolic to me then. (sheesh, I'm deep) 5) I dont know why Harm had the cigar....but I loved it. I always liked seeing him with a cigar, it was just so d**n sexy. -- mkim, 23:04:33 09/08/06 Fri

Pod people! That is my only explanation for anything/anyone in this episode/ season. (Thank God we got our ending!) But seriously, Mac would have fed Vik's a** to the crabs. I sometimes wonder if the writers ever bothered to think about the characters they wrote about. I mean the actors had to work with what they had on paper but TPTB...COME ON! (NT) -- LisaJAG......I can only stomach the last 7.5 mins of this season and I haven't watched any ep. since. This was no longer my JAG., 23:10:26 09/08/06 Fri

I rate this a 2, it just was terrible and never made any sense to me. Lee and mlkim pretty well decribed my feelings perfectly. Mac talking the crap from Vic never made sense and Sturgis was unrecognizeable. This is one of the worse eps of a bad season. I kept wondering why CBS didn't step in as they had 2 years before to keep DJE prior to his signing with ABC. (NT) -- Jeanaz8, 23:18:11 09/08/06 Fri

I always figured that they didn't step in to save DJE's contract in S 10 because they knew that the cost of the show had gotten too high for the ads they could sell for it on Friday nights. When they moved to Friday, they lost most of the 18-34 demographic group - and that hadn't been a big part of their viewers anyway. So they couldn't really afford to keep producing the show. My sense was that CBS actually tried to let them know it would be canceled early enough to tie up all the loose ends, but DPB convinced them to let him try to revamp it with Vic. That backfired though - ratings dropped every ep he was in from the time before as I recall. And so the show was canceled - but without time to wrap things up in a way that would have satisfied the long-time fans, to say nothing of giving us this mostly mediocre season. I wonder what extras they'll put on the S10 DVDS to get people to buy them. I know that without something spectacular, I won't.-- Ann, 10:58:56 09/09/06 Sat

I�ve only seen this ep once, and my feelings at the time were colored by all the rumors and gossip we were hearing about what was going on behind the scenes. So, I can�t for the life of me figure out what rating to give this ep! LOL! 2) I spent all of season 10 trying to figure out the General and never did. I don�t think TPTB did either! LOL! As to what Cresswell really thought of Vic, I could make an argument either way. 3) I would have loved to have seen another crab-feeding threat, but I had to wait all the way until the finale for it. We should have seen one every week! LOL! 4) I have a question about this and I�m too tired and too lazy to dig out my DVD. Isn�t this ep the one where Sturgis says that Harm should go so that he could get some flying time? If it is, then where was that nice and generous friend later in the ep? 5) I honestly don�t remember a cigar scene. When was it?-- JAG Junkie (Ronda), 23:30:52 09/08/06 Fri

I love to see Harm flying. Harm looked hot. That was all that was good about this episode. I felt Harm was being pushed out of the way. Sturgis turned on him and he and Harm were hating each other. Mac was getting cozy with Vic. It just seemed to me the way was being cleared to get rid of Harm so that JAG STD could launch it's sleezyness. Every Mac and Vic scene made me cringe and reach for the anti-bacterial gel. What in the heck was up with him standing 3 inches from her in every scene? (NT) -- Shell, 00:59:49 09/09/06 Sat

Were we meant to think Mac liked Vic invading her personal space? That it was romantic that it turned her on? That as a Senior Officer she would tolerate that kind of behaviour? (NT) -- Shell, 01:01:43 09/09/06 Sat

Yeah, Shell, I think in the EP's mind that was exactly what we were supposed to believe - yuuuuck. It made me want to knee Vic-ick, and I'm not even in the service. A real female officer would have eviscerated him. They were confusing Mac with a bimbo.....clueless, moronic...ok, don't get me started - lol ! (NT) -- Sunny, who proudly claims credit for orginally renaming the pending new & improved show as JAG:STD :), 09:34:23 09/09/06 Sat

See I didn't see that at all. I had a Vic-head kind of guy at work. Really very much like the character. He made comments to me all the time, and I didn't make a huge stink about it because everyone knew he was being an idiot and trying to get a rise out of me. She could have fed his ass to the crabs, but that would mean she'd give a damn about anything he says. He's just not worth energy. He's a nobody. Mac could never stand him. (NT) -- Theresa, 01:04:00 09/10/06 Sun

JAG STD??? LOL! Thats about right, that's exactly what I thought was happening to characters that I believed were honorable. They were being sleazed up for ratings. (NT) -- mkim, 06:54:37 09/09/06 Sat

I agree with you JJ, I couldn't get past what they were trying to do with the show.The V storyline was so silly, it was embarrassing and it must have been to the actors too. They did make a mistake though by bringing in V in an ep where Harm is flying and is in his element. Not only is it fun but he looks so sexy in a flight suit. (NT) -- judi, 15:12:18 09/09/06 Sat

1) I give the ep. 3 because is early in the morning and my cells brain are sleeping yet. 2) I don't understand Cresswell because they present him like by the book Marine and I don't think the Vuk behavior start in HQ so or Creswell didn't read his file or the General has different moral for man and woman. Truly I don't know. 3)First at all I didn't reconize Mac in this ep. but I thought she was in a bad place at that time and thinking in her youth mistakes so she wanted to give the LT other opportunity. But the writers overstepped the Vuk character wanting to show him cocky (like young Harm) but sounding stupid, disrespectful and a person without values. 4)All of us are humans, jelousy and envy are bad conselors, Sturgis was always by the book and always an step back to Harm. He was a unnoticed Jag, acting like a clerck, Harm was always a Golden boy (still in his fall)so in this ep. Sturgis saw the opportunity to show how bad Harm was and at the end we saw an incomplete and biased investigation and unkown Sturgis. 5)I don't kown but I see a tired Harm and sometimes when you are tired that bad things cross your path you cant' think about health and bad habit, you need a break.-- GRa, 08:54:27 09/09/06 Sat

1)I'd give it a 2. 2) Maybe V had been terrific in his previous job. Remember the old Peter Principle, that everyone rises to his/her level of incompetence? Maybe V was great at his previous job, but the new one was too far too fast. 3)IMHO, and having had the experience of knowing some higher ranking female officers, in some ways, they are still playing in a boys club. It's a fine line between making sure you are getting the respect you deserve, and being what "the boys" would consider a "b*ll busting b*tch." V was a problem, but one I can't seriously say most I knew would handle by charging him with anything. They would have handled it in their own time, in their own way. Charges would be like killing a fly with a nuke. Mac is further handicapped in a way because she is down right gorgeous. A lot of men, even if they gave credence to her complaints ("The Lieutenant keeps looking at my legs!") are going to think, "Hey, I look at your legs too, I just try to keep it under wraps." There is a line between being PC and just being practical. If she pushed, yeah, she could maybe make a case. That however is usually not the way to win friends and influence people. Sexual innuendos (especially vague things like this that could have an 'explination') from a junior officer would be something she should be able to handle on her own, most superiors would think. Now, do I think this is "right?" No way. Until things got really blatant (something that in NO WAY could be misinterpreted as anything but unprofessional disrespect for her position), I can see her either ignoring him or vaguely putting him down (cutting look and �It�s neoprene"). Also, remember, her new boss, who she has some trepidation about "likes" the guy. IMHO, she was somewhat between a rock and a hard place. 4)I think the pod people got him, along with S8 AJ. I couldn't really figure out a rational reason for Sturgis acting as he did. The "stuff" that happened to him didn't seem "extreme" enough for his reactions, imho. If his work life wasn't the best, his personal life seemed to be going well, so I really just don't get it. Here's a theory. In ancient drama, we had the chorus to tell us what was really going on. Maybe Sturgis was TD's "voice," since he seemed to pick on Harm the most. Your Secondbanananess, feel free to chime in on this theory since you are the expert in these matters. I just shrink heads, lol. 5)Ah, �cause he wanted to? He fell off the 'no smoking' wagon?-- CM>^.,.^<, 10:18:30 09/09/06 Sat

I suppose that's what I meant by saying she would have handed Vic his head on a platter. She didnt charge Harm or Mic when they got out of line, but she sure as h*** made sure they knew they were overstepping, and what she did was intimidating enough to keep them from doing it again.(grin) (NT) -- mkim, 11:11:50 09/09/06 Sat

But mkim, it wasn't. Harm backed off when asked, heck he even ran away (see post-Paraguay). But Mic kept coming back, he never took 'NO' for an answer. Vic is just Mic made sleazer, pusher, more insistant & flagrant. See my grade school analogy down below. (NT) -- doc, 12:19:55 09/09/06 Sat

I agree completely CM. I rather enjoyed Vic being an idiot because Mac seemed to cut him down every time he made any comment that really made any difference. She did glare and say "It's neoprene! And what the hell are you doing here?" He was being some moony eyed kid, to his absolutely beautiful CO and she was blowing him off and cutting him down. I never understood why more people didn't see that in this episode. If she cut into Harm like that, glaring at him, people would have been all over her. Mac could handle herself, she never liked Vic and she showed it. (NT) -- Theresa, 01:00:36 09/10/06 Sun

1) At best a 2 - and only because Harm in it. As for the plot - blech! It was stupid to have Harm facing charges again. It was ridiculous to have Sturgis acting the way he acted toward Harm. And it was predictable, even for S10 JAG writers, to have the politician already dead - kidnapped by terrorists. As for the parts with Vukovic and Mac, double blech. 2)I think Cresswell thought Vukovic might have potential. I think he saw his faults and thought that Mac would straighten him out. 3)I think that Mac didn't bring him up on charges because she felt that she should be able to handle him - not unlike Harm with Krennick in S1. I don't think she wanted to admit to the General that Vic had been disrespectful to her or that she had initially failed to figure out what he was doing re: the lie. What I really didn't understand was why she didn't deal with him the way she did with the guys on the submarine in Silent Service. I kept wishing she'd tell him to straighten up and fly right or she'd "feed his ass to the crabs." I also had a niggling suspicion that she was slightly flattered by his flirting, and again, didn't want to have to admit that to anyone, not even herself. As I recall, at the end, he tells her that she isn't reporting him because she "likes it." At that point, I wish she had decked him. 4)I have never understood the reason for the animosity between Sturgis and Harm. In seasons 7-9, they seemed to be very good friends. Sturgis even mentions that when AJ tells him to move into Harm's old office - that he feels uncomfortable doing it because Harm is one of his oldest, best friends. I think that DPB concocted the falling out between Sturgis and Harm to further his plan of isolating and marginalizing Harm in order to get him out of the show in his ill-conceived plan for "JAG San Diego." Yes, Sturgis seemed eager to file charges. I was left with the idea that he resented Harm, but it never made any sense to me at all. 5) My guess is that DJE wanted to do it.-- Ann, 10:52:44 09/09/06 Sat

Ah, but Ann, you just answered your own question about Mac & Vukovic�Harm & Krennick. We all hated the overt sexual innuendos that Krennick threw at Harm. How did he deal with it? He darted, danced, occasionally flirted back, anything to throw her off. He knew if he reported her, he would look weak; like as a male, he couldn�t handle himself against a female. Granted he was a junior officer, but if in the future, Krennick were reported by someone else & Harm�s name came up in the investigation, he would be thoroughly questioned/chastised because the behavior was dismissed�especially since he was a JAG officer & knew the law. I think Mac was in the same conundrum. She knew Vic�s behavior was wrong, but she needed to figure out how to deal with it herself. She was still to some degree unsure about Cresswell�s feelings toward her. Cresswell had already been through one fraternization case with her, & I�m sure she didn�t want to go anywhere near the General with any allegation regarding inappropriate sexual innuendo/advances/harassment/etc. It would just bring to mind her previous liaison with Farrow. So, Mac needed to deal with the issue on her own. Plus, Cresswell seemed to like Vic, �he had fire in his belly� & thought Vic was just what JAG HQ needed. How was Mac supposed to tell Cresswell he was wrong, especially after only one case. Mac needed to show the General that she was capable of handling a junior officer under her command�that wouldn�t have happened if she whined/complained after one court case. A second thought, after this originally aired & all the Mac/Vic stuff kept being thrown around, I suggested a possible way of dealing with Vic based on grade school playground dynamics. Let�s face it; Vic acted like a spoiled, over-indulged kid. Remember back when you were in school & a boy liked you? The boy acted one of 2 ways. The first boy, he teased you, followed you around, but if you shut him down, told him to back off, he did. Boy #1 (Harm) walked away & gave you space�or left you alone all together (see post Paraguay�after �NEVER�). Now let�s look at Boy #2 (Vic). He teased you, you told him to leave you alone. That encouraged him because he got a rise out of you, so next he pulled your pigtails & knocked the books out of your arms. You told the teacher, who either did nothing (Cresswell) or issued a mild warning & told you to work it out among yourselves. Boy #2 is emboldened & keeps upping the ante because you keep reacting. And even if you�re NOT say that you like him, you are at least interacting with him. The best way to deal this boy is just ignore him & walk away. He may try an additional time or two, but eventually he gets tired & gives up. Mac had to figure out a way to deal with Vic, her career depended on it. She couldn�t run to the teacher (Cresswell) without looking foolish & like she was incapable of handling a subordinate. If she had �fed his a** to the crabs,� I think that would have just encouraged someone like Vic. He would have stepped it up a notch & tried harder to get under her skin. Clearly Vic thought he was �God�s Gift� & couldn�t fathom someone not jumping at the chance. For the most part Mac just ignored him. She lectured him when the opportunity arose. Sometimes, she baited him & let him hang himself. And finally, she told him off in the finale. If you paid attention to his expression in the finale, I think he was shocked she didn�t want him. I also think if we could have paged forward 2-3 months & followed Mac to San Diego (that�s if Harm lost the toss), Vic would have found a way to maneuver a transfer to San Diego. Vic didn�t like to lose. I think it would have taken a 6�-4� husband to pound him into shape!!!-- doc, 12:04:24 09/09/06 Sat

Agree with your theories, doc. Also, though I hated the pod-Sturgis and the nastiness that suddenly developed in this season between Harm and him, I think the scene between DJE & SL was superb....am not sure that Harm was ever allowed to be that explosive as a character. Can't think of another time when he literally got in someone's face with that degree of anger & resentment. Harm was absolutely on the verge of blowing....HAE did a tremendous job. (NT) -- judy52sa, 14:27:28 09/09/06 Sat

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