"With Intent to Die" is an episode of JAG that first aired on January 6, 1998. Directed by Winrich Kolbe. Written by Larry Moskowitz.
This JAG episode begins with Admiral Chegwidden having a nightmare about being in a casket at his own funeral. Later during the day, he finds out that his good friend and mentor of sorts, Vice Admiral Bill Clancy is dead of a gunshot wound while on a hunting trip. It is reported as suicide, but Chegwidden is unconvinced. He assigns Harm and Mac to investigate.
They find out a lot of signs that point to suicide. Clancy was despondent over quite a few Real Life and in show scandals plaguing the Navy at that time, his pet frigate project was cancelled, the other admirals seemed to have turned against him, and he seems to have been taking some sort of antidepressant. Later, they find out that his wife was cheating on him with a Defense Department Undersecretary. Suicide seems highly likely. And then another admiral — one who was with Clancy on that fateful hunting trip, and was once his Second In Command when Clancy captained a ship — is found stabbed to death, Harm and Mac dig deeper. And uncover not only a motive for murder based on a serious miscarriage of justice years ago, but discover that Admiral Chegwidden may be the next victim.
Tropes
- Karma Houdini: The guy who killed the two admirals, destroyed enough evidence that it appears he may completely skate. All they can get him for, is assault for attacking the admiral.
- Mis-blamed: Years ago, a fire broke out aboard the ship that Clancy skippered. A rather dim witted Seaman was found responsible, court martialed, convicted and imprisoned. Then a similar fire broke out on a different ship, and an investigation found a design flaw.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: See the Mis-blamed entry for how the dog became shaggy. However, by the time a design flaw revealed exculpatory evidence that would have cleared a wrongly accused sailor, he had already died in prison of pneumonia.
- Speak Ill of the Dead: One of the guests at Clancy's funeral, earning a "shut up" from Chegwidden.
