"All Ye Faithful" is an episode of JAG that first aired on December 17, 2002. Directed by Kenneth Johnson. Written by Dana Coen.
Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie is assigned to three visiting Kuwaitis who are for some preposterous reason interested in observing the American system of military justice.
Admiral Chegwidden agrees to let a recently evicted Marine named Jason and his pregnant wife stay in his office while their housing situation is sorted out. Jason was evicted due to a misunderstanding about when he could practice the drums.
Lt. Bud Roberts and his wife Lt. Harriet Sims (Karri Turner) are suffering from a glitch that's delaying their paychecks and Warrant Officer Scoggins (Tom Virtue) is less than sympathetic. The two of them are officers worried about looking like bad hosts at a dinner party, rather than enlisted personnel fighting for their very survival.
Meanwhile, Commander Rabb and Admiral Boone (Terry O'Quinn), a former Seahawk CAG, are aboard the USS Coral Sea looking for a way to get back to the East Coast in time for Bud and Harriet's Christmas party. The current Coral Sea CAG refuses to let Rabb pilot a Tomcat that's due back at Lakehurst until a surprise inspection forces him to let Rabb do it, with the dire warning that he do nothing beyond the assignment.
Each of the storylines turns out to be a thinly disguised parallel to various well-known Christmas stories, with the three Kuwaitis becoming three kings who deliver gifts to Jason's child, Scoggins is a sort of Scrooge, and Rabb and the old CAG make it to terra firma while guiding a C-130 as "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" plays on the soundtrack.
Tropes
- 555: A Marine officer gives Turner the phone number for his son, whose band has trouble holding the beat: 555-0174.
- Christmas Episode: The episode draws very labored parallels between the story of Christ's birth and what's going on at JAG headquarters in the present day.
- Continuity Nod to 'Critical Condition': Chegwidden and Mac thank Coates for everything she did for Roberts after the unfortunate man lost his leg to a land mine.
- Due to the Dead: As is his custom, Harmon Rabb, Jr. visits the Vietnam Memorial on Christmas, commemorating his father, who was shot down over Vietnam on Christmas 1969.
- Exact Words: Rabb promises two aviators the chance to meet Jennifer Lopez, his dental hygienist, though he lets them believe he means singer and actress Jennifer Lopez.
- Homage: In addition to the Nativity, Christmas Carol and Rudolph stories, a more subtle one comes at the end of the episode where Rabb and Boone encounter a newly-graduated naval aviator at the Vietnam Memorial. He couldn't attend his passing-out ceremony, where he'd normally get his wings, because he was watching over a suicidal friend. Rabb insists on giving him his own wings, and as he does so, a bell rings.
- Screaming Birth: Chegwidden delivers another baby in his office (the previous one was his namesake, little A. J., in 'Yeah Baby').
- The Scrooge: Warrant Officer Scoggins, though technically the money belongs to the taxpayers, not to him. When he finds everyone else in the disbursing office has left early for the holiday, he starts shouting.Kohler, fax this over to... Where is everyone!? We have never secured early for the Christmas holiday! Who authorized this!? Marley!?
- Shout-Out to Rice Krispies: Little A. J. points out the Robertses still have the breakfast cereal.
- Yet Another Christmas Carol: Scoggins, who by name and role is a thin Scroope Expy, although his encounter with unspecified Ghosts of Christmas Etc. in his office is merely teased. And Bud, at the end, holds his walking stick aloft and declares "God bless us, every one!".
