Directed by Terrence O'Hara
Written by Dana Coen and Don Mc Gill
Lt. Stephanie Donato (Lana Parrilla) goes to a café in Saudi Arabia without wearing an abaya and without a man to escort her. This is a violation of standing orders for American military personnel in Saudi Arabia.
An Article 32 hearing is convened to determine if the case will proceed to court-martial. Commander Harmon Rabb, Jr. and Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie defend, Lt. Colonel Sara Coffey (Michele Greene) prosecutes.
Donato reads an apology prepared by Coffey to a Muslim cleric (Marshall Manesh). This might be enough to set everything right. But the cleric is a jerk: instead of gracefully accepting the apology, he takes the opportunity to throw shade on all American women. Donato responds frankly.
It looks like she's going to be court-martialed after all. At the Article 32 hearing, Coffey shows other women had no problem obeying the orders. The case for the defense doesn't seem to be going well.
Coffey asks Rabb and Mac to meet her out in town. Mac dresses in an appropriate abaya, but forgets that she can't drive and has to sit in the back seat of the car. In the lobby of the place they go to, they have trouble finding Coffey, she has to call out to them. That meeting produces nothing besides convincing Mac that an abaya with a veil makes a woman invisible.
Donato is in command of a C-130 crew that has been flying into Afghanistan to drop off food, clothes and medicine. Hopefully the Taliban doesn't intercept those drops.
Coming back from a night drop, Donato's C-130 suffers engine trouble. They're forced to make an emergency landing on a dirt strip. Soon a patrol arrives and demands Donato cover herself up. Lt. Alex Zahar (Anthony Azizi), Donato's co-pilot and translator, tries to smooth things over, explaining that they don't have an abaya on board.
One of the patrolmen tries to forcefully put what looks like a potato sack on Donato. She elbows him, causing the other patrolmen to point their rifles at the C-130 crew.
When Rabb and Mac go bail out the C-130 crew, Zahar suggests a defense strategy: present the airmen's perspective on the story. On the stand, Zahar testifies that the regulation erodes unit cohesion. In the air, Donato is a leader. On the ground, under an abaya, she's a non-entity.
The judge determines there isn't cause for a court-martial. However, General Sawyer (Bruce Gray) wants Donato out of his command.
Meanwhile, Congresswoman Bobbi Latham (Anne Marie Johnson) and Commander Sturgis Turner (Scott Lawrence) go on a date to an Afghan restaurant. Latham mostly talks shop as Turner tries to get her to open up about her personal life.
A late babysitter caused Lt. Roberts and Lt. Sims (Karri Turner) to lose their reservation at another restaurant, so they wind up dining at the same table as Latham and Turner.
The next day, Turner tells Roberts and Sims that he didn't really hit it off with Latham. The suggestion that a second date will go better leads to an idea: Latham and Turner will babysit for the Robertses.
Tropes
- Bad Date: Latham and Turner's first date. It might have been even worse if Roberts and Sims hadn't shown up.
- No Woman's Land: When Mac is subjected to the poor treatment of women in Saudi Arabia she sides with the defendant.
- Plea Bargain: Offered, but turns out to be in vain.
- Product Placement: In Saudi Arabia, Rabb looks some stuff up using a Dell laptop.
- Protocol Peril: American women stationed in Saudi Arabia are forbidden from doing many things they take for granted in America, like driving a car.
- Ripped from the Headlines: This episode is based partially on a case litigated against the US Department of Defense by pioneering A-10 pilot and former Senator Martha McSally.
- Title Card: At the end, a title card informs us that on January 22, 2002, the Department of Defense eased some restrictions on women serving in Saudi Arabia (this episode first aired February 5, 2002).
- Whip Pan: Just before Lt. Zahar testifies.
