Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Recap / JAGS01E05DejaVu

Go To

1The title of this episode is given on screen as '''"Déjà Vu"''' in all-caps. The episode first aired on October 21, 1995. Directed by Creator/DougLefler. Written by Creator/EvanKatz.
2
3The investigation of three dead Navy lieutenants over the span of a year lead Lt. Harmon Rabb, Jr. and Lt. j.g. Meg Austin to suspect Angelique Sonsiri (Creator/VivianWu), the wife of the Thai ambassador (Creator/MichaelPaulChan).
4
5At Arlington National Cemetery, Detective Axelrad (Lawrence Monoson) arrogantly tells Rabb and Austin that he's got jurisdiction. The two Navy lawyers also run afoul of the State Department, annoyed by a complaint from the Thai embassy.
6
7Commander Lindsey (W. K. Stratton) orders Rabb and Austin to back off from the investigation. But Rabb plays Lindsey by saying that Admiral Brovo wouldn't tell them to back off: instead Brovo would order them to comply with the request from State but keep investigating while giving him plausible deniability. Lindsey revises his order accordingly.
8
9The evidence points to Colonel Patano (Creator/DomMagwili), an old military buddy of the ambassador who now provides security services. But Austin discovers that Patano is actually covering for Angelique, he's in love with her.
10
11Rabb goes to dinner with Angelique. Afterwards, they go to Arlington, where she tries to kill him. Fortunately, though, Austin shows up just in the nick of time.
12
13!! Tropes
14* AsHerself: In the episode, Bree Walker is a local news anchor who gives the news of an earthquake in Los Angeles and the expulsion of the Thai ambassador. In real life, she's a talk show host but she did work as a local news anchor long ago.
15* BadassInDistress: Rabb in the climax.
16* BigDamnHeroes: Austin [[ThemeMusicPowerUp and the Theme Song]] show up just in time to save Harm's life.
17* ChekhovsGun: Angelique says she is addicted to chocolate. This is mentioned early on in the episode. It might seem like she was just making small talk, or that the "addiction" is just a quirk to try to give the character a little depth. But it turns out to be significant later on because she has some chocolates [[spoiler: laced with some kind of sedative]], and she [[spoiler: gives Rabb one of those]] after dinner.
18* ColonelBadass: Colonel Patano. It's made clear that the only reason Rabb isn't dead is because Patano never intended to kill him.
19* DarkAndTroubledPast: Plenty to go around in this episode from multiple characters, including Rabb.
20* DesignatedGirlFight: Austin vs Angelique [[spoiler: after Angelique drugged Rabb and tried to murder him.]]
21* FireForgedFriends: Colonel Patano and Ambassador Sonsiri are old war buddies, and the Colonel will do quite a bit for his friend [[spoiler: and for his friend's wife, Angelique, who he is in love with.]]
22* FlashBack: Harm gets one fleshing out a bit of his BackStory, where he went on foot into Vietnam trying to find his father, [[DisappearedDad who went MIA]]. He met a girl his age who ended up being shot dead while he watched, unable to help.
23* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: Angelique]]'s reason for the killings. [[spoiler: Her father]] was a Navy lieutenant who left [[spoiler: her and her mother behind when Saigon fell. The North Vietnamese raped and murdered her mother when they found out she had an American officer]] for a lover.
24* GenreBlind: {{Discussed}}. Rabb is blindsided due to his own emotional baggage.
25-->'''Rabb:''' There's a lot of things you're blind to. But you don't realize it until it's too late.
26* JurisdictionFriction: Made worse by the fact that the civilian cop is entirely correct in his interpretation of the jurisdiction. Meg decides to use [[DistractedByTheSexy her human approach]] to persuade the cop to help, but the cop [[GenreSavvy sees right through it]], telling her not to waste his time [[SubvertedTrope before giving her a copy of his notes anyways]] on the case to help the Navy's investigation.
27* MarriageOfConvenience: Ambassador Sonsiri tells Austin he's never felt jealousy, that his marriage to Angelique is beneficial to him because she's the kind of woman an ambassador is supposed to have for a wife.
28* PocketProtector: Colonel Patano's life is saved by a metal plate in his chest that stops a bullet. The plate itself was the result of an old war wound.
29* SerialKiller: Harm and Meg suspect the murders of multiple Navy lieutenants in Arlington National Cemetery are related. A local cop points out it could just be statistics: Washington D.C. has both an unusually high murder rate and an unusually high Navy lieutenant rate compared to other cities. [[spoiler: Obviously, it's a serial killer.]]
30* ShellShockedVeteran: The only witness to the latest murder is a retired Navy SEAL who works as a groundskeeper at Arlington National Cemetery, and who spends much of his time [[DrowningMySorrows drinking.]]
31* ShoutOut to TabletopGame/{{Clue}}: After talking to the ambassador and his wife, Rabb allows some photos to fall to the floor so that Patano can see them. Austin knows Rabb did this on purpose. "We just played Clue with Colonel Mustard in the study," Austin says.
32* SuicideByCop: Attempted by Patano, who opens up a gunfight with Rabb with the intent of letting Rabb win in order to cover up for the killer.
33* StockFootage: UsefulNotes/BillClinton playing saxophone during the embassy dinner.
34* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: The murder victims are drugged before they are murdered, so they can't put up a fight. Rabb avoids drinking the champagne when he thinks he's AloneWithThePsycho. [[spoiler: But he did eat the chocolate she gave him.]]
35* RevealingCoverUp: Colonel Patano bribes a witness into telling the cops that he didn't see anything. Which is entirely true he really didn't see anything. He does decide to tell Rabb about the bribe.
36* ThemeMusicPowerUp: When Austin shows up to save Rabb from the knife-wielding [[spoiler: Angelique]].
37* YouLookLikeYouveSeenAGhost: Non-literal example. Angelique reminds Rabb of a girl he watched die when he was sixteen. She [[LampshadeHanging lampshades this trope]], before presenting the alternate possibility that Rabb stares at ''all'' women like that.
38
39----
40[[{{Recap/JAG}} As you were...]]\

Top