"Trinity" is an episode of JAG that first aired on February 7, 1997. Directed by Alan J Levi. Written by Jack Orman.
Somewhere at a U.S. base in Ireland, the baby of a U.S. Navy Lieutenant is kidnapped from the base.
Back in the United States at JAG Headquarters, Admiral Chegwidden sends Harm and Mac to investigate. When they arrive in the United Kingdom at London Heathrow Airport, after catching a glimpse of Princess Diana of Wales from the British Royal Family in the terminal, Harm and Mac meet up with the constable from the Royal Ulster Constabulary who is overseeing the investigation before heading to Belfast, taking in the chaos resulting from the Irish Republican Army, or IRA, wanting Northern Ireland as a part of Ireland proper and not Great Britain, and the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC). struggling to contain it with their riot police and armored vehicles.
After meeting up with Lieutenant Nivens (Susan Gibney), she and Harm head to a supposed location where the IRA could be holding her child, while Mac stays at the RUC headquarters. However, Nivens and Harm are captured by the IRA, where it is revealed that Nivens's husband, Lorcan Barnes (Harry Van Gorkum), is an IRA operative, and when he learns of his child being kidnapped, he is livid.
However, when hearing the RUC closing in on their position, they flee, and discover that Harm's RUC visitor's pass contained a tracking microchip, allowing the RUC to track their whereabouts. After luring them on a wild goose chase with leaving the tag attached to a dog's collar, Harm, Nivens, her husband, and his fellow IRA troopers flee for a safehouse in the Irish farmlands outside Belfast.
Realizing the RUC must have kidnapped the child as a way to lure Barnes and his fellow IRA operatives into the open to capture or kill them, Harm suggests a bluff to give them an address to where the Barnes' child could be hidden. Mac tells the head RUC constable that the child had been diagnosed with Lyme's disease a couple of days ago, and if not treated soon, could be fatal.
Concerned about the baby, the constable calls the Belfast Hospital, where a covert IRA operative is able to send the address of the baby's whereabouts to the Barnes. Now knowing where the baby is, they prepare to go out to rescue him, but Barnes wants his wife taken to the U.S. consulate for protection, assuring her that if anything happens to him, their child will still have a mother.
However, Harm promises to do what he can to ensure both father and child make it back alive. Back at RUC headquarters, when the constable realizes he's been had, and the IRA are on their way to save the baby, he orders his lieutenant to destroy all evidence of their crimes, including killing the baby.
At the hideout where the baby is, the RUC deputy constable tells the woman who had been caring for the baby that they need to evacuate. As they do, Barnes and two of his fellow IRA operatives breach the house, only for Harm and Mac, waiting in the getaway van, to spot the deputy constable and cut off his escape with the van, forcing him to open fire on them with his sidearm.
Hearing the gunfire, Barnes and his teammates take cover, only to be caught off-guard by another RUC constable that manages to shoot and kill Barnes's fellow IRA operatives with his FN FAL before Barnes shoots him with his M16.
Outside, Harm and Mac move to cover behind the van, where they formulate a plan to have Mac distract the deputy constable so Harm can tackle and disarm him and rescue the Barnes child. Pretending to draw a gun and shout "Freeze!", Mac is able to buy Harm enough time to tackle the deputy constable and disarm him before going to rescue the Barnes child.
However, the constable recovers his weapon, and prepares to shoot Harm and the baby. Harm pleads for him to not do it, but the constable, his voice quivering with guilt, replies he doesn't have a choice, but before he can pull the trigger, he's shot dead by Barnes from behind.
Barnes is relieved to find his child is alright and tries to assure his kid that Daddy's here and it will be okay, but hearing the approach of sirens, meaning one of the RUC armored vehicles is heading their way, Barnes entrusts Harm and Mac with his child, ordering them to head straight for the U.S. consulate, while he draws attention away from them.
Climbing into the getaway van, Barnes drives it head-on with the approaching armored vehicle, but appears to reach for the door handle, intending to bail out before impact. All that is seen is the van colliding head-on with the armored vehicle and erupting into flames. It's unclear if Barnes survived, though it seems unlikely.
Harm and Mac make their way to the U.S. consulate, but are spotted by a RUC patrol car. When the car stops and the constables get out, Rabb and Mac run to the gate and show their JAG I.D.s to the U.S. Marine on sentry duty, before more constables and the one in charge arrive, ordering his constables to open fire if Harm and Mac make it into the consulate (which is technically U. S. soil), as Lt. Nivens comes out and is restrained by the Marine standing watch by the door for her own safety.
As two of the RUC constables raise their revolvers to fire on Harm and Mac, the Marine on sentry duty raises his own M9 or M1911 pistol, and after a few tense seconds, the constables stand down, much to their commander's ire. Seeing the constables won't fire, the Marine holsters his own weapon and unlocks the gate to let Harm and Mac in, placing them safely back in U.S. protection as Harm returns the Barnes child to Lt. Nivens, then gives her the grim news of the fate of her husband, causing her to break down crying at learning of her husband's supposed death.
Some time later, back at London Heathrow, as Harm, Mac, and Nivens prepare to return to the United States, having learned that the RUC head constable that was behind the kidnapping plot is now in custody with Scotland Yard. That constable is now on suicide watch.
At the airport, Nivens recites a poem her husband told her to her baby, it is then that she spots Barnes, still very much alive, but still a wanted fugitive because of his IRA ties, watching over them from a distance before retreating into the airport crowd, leaving her with a smile on her face, while Harm and Mac noticed him as well and have their own reactions to seeing that there was a happy ending after all for the Barnes family.
Tropes
- Heroic Sacrifice, averted: Barnes seems to die in the collision between his car and the armored vehicle, because he wasn't able to bail out in time. But later we see him at the airport, showing he did survive. But he must be a fugitive now, and still won't be able to see his son grow up.
- Human Shield:
- Discussed as a reason why Barnes might want his son.
- Towards the end of the episode, Rabb winds up using Barnes and Nivens' baby as a human shield. It wasn't his intention, of course, but the result is pretty much the same: although he does expose his back to someone who might shoot him, and his body might really shield the baby from a bullet fired at his back, the shooter presumably doesn't want to injure the baby in any way, and if a tall man like David James Elliott gets shot while holding a baby, the baby might not be that much better off than getting shot.
- Shout-Out to the Ghostbusters:Mac: But I thought you said this Barnes was a ghost.Chegwidden: Well, major, I guess that makes you Ghostbusters.
- Once Rabb discovers the Tracking Device on his RUC visitor's pass, he turns it to his advantage by putting the pass on a dog's collar. The dog then leads the RUC on a Wild Goose Chase.
