"Yesterday's Heroes" is an episode of JAG that first aired on February 24, 1998. Directed by Greg Beeman. Written by Scott Gemmill.
The Navy frigate Bancroft, on a joint operation with the Coast Guard, fires two warning shots at the Tropical Pleasure, an alleged drug-smuggling yacht, but the second warning shot somehow sinks the yacht.
Webb shows up at JAG HQ to inform Chegwidden that Branco Mendoza (Nick Corri), who was rescued from the sinking yacht, is the son of Enrique Mendoza (H. Cannon Lopez), the Minister of Agriculture in Venezuela. Chegwidden dispatches Rabb, Mac and Roberts to Miami, Florida to investigate.
Roberts has so far avoided meeting Sims's parents. Mac learns Sims's parents live in Naples, Florida, and suggests they drive to Miami to meet Roberts.
Chief Porter (Cynthia Ruffin) aboard the Bancroft has determined that the Tropical Pleasure was sunk by a limpet mine with a World War II-era pencil fuse that was stowed away inside the yacht. Rabb visits Jungle Larry's, an Army/Navy surplus store, where Larry (Dennis Burkley) vaguely recalls selling limpet mines to some senior citizens, but Larry asserts he sells them with the detonators removed as required by law.
Then the top suspect is Artemus Sullivan (Ernest Borgnine), since he was in the Navy's Underwater Demolitions Team and his grandson was allegedly killed by Branco Mendoza. Rabb and Mac pay Sullivan a visit at the retirement home and find a frail man too weak to get out of the bathtub by himself, babbling senile incoherence.
Back at the office, Roberts shows Rabb and Mac a a clipping from the Navy Times about Sullivan and two other Navy veterans running in a marathon very recently. After a phone call with Sims, Mac gives Roberts the day off so he can go to Naples to the Sims' mansion.
Rabb and Mac go back to the retirement home. Sullivan's not there, so they wait for him. Sullivan comes back with a briefcase, which he suggests contains adult diapers, thus discouraging his visitors from opening it and finding $250,000 stolen from Mendoza. They do confiscate a limpet mine.
Sullivan and his friends go to Jungle Larry's hoping to buy a boat, but instead Mendoza's henchmen kidnap Sullivan. Rabb and Mac question Sullivan's friends, Wendell Freeman III (Lou Myers) and Harold Green (Dick Bakalyan), who reluctantly cooperate, hoping to rescue their friend.
Mendoza's men trash Sullivan's room at the retirement home, but fail to find the cash, so the money becomes ransom for Sullivan's safe return. The exchange is to take place at the pier. Rabb and Mac pose as random civilians to monitor the exchange and jump in at an opportune moment.
After a confrontation, Mendoza and Sullivan are both taken into police custody. Presumably Mendoza will be expelled from the United States. Sullivan is also taken into police custody, but since Mendoza really can't file charges for the destruction of his father's yacht without also admitting it was a drug-smuggling boat, there is no case against Sullivan. Roberts shows up late, driving a Jaguar borrowed from his potential father-in-law.
Tropes
- The Cavalry Arrives Late: Roberts at the end of the episode, when Rabb and Mac have already rescued Sullivan and apprehended Mendoza.
- Diplomatic Impunity shields Branco Mendoza from prosecution for drug smuggling, but it also prevents him from pressing charges against Sullivan, because he would have to admit he was using his father's yacht to run drugs.
- Doing Research: Roberts puts together a list of World War II Navy veterans living in Miami who might have expertise in underwater explosives, and a motive to want Branco Mendoza dead.
- Fanservice: Maybe Rabb in a white undershirt and white pants, and definitely Mac in a lime green bikini.
- Meet the In-Laws: Roberts had been dreading meeting Sims's parents and had already postponed the meeting more than once. And he would have gotten to postpone it longer still if Mac hadn't learned that Sims's parents live in Florida.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Sullivan pretends to be senile so that Rabb and Mac think he's incapable of doing anything against Branco Mendoza.
- Permission to Speak Freely: A much less serious example than usual in this show. When Roberts gets back to Miami, he finds Rabb dressed plainly as a civilian, and Mac also in civilian clothes but not as plainly. Roberts is stunned seeing Mac in a swimsuit.Lt. Roberts: Permission to speak freely, ma'am?Maj. MacKenzie: Of course.Lt. Roberts: Wow!
- Shout-Out:
- Very subtle to The Golden Girls: When Webb learns Sullivan, Freeman and Green are all senior citizens, he tells Rabb "Have the Golden Boys apprehended before you're accused of withholding evidence."
- To Jack Kevorkian: Branco Mendoza threatens to "pull a Dr. Kevorkian" on Sullivan if he sees anyone who even knows a cop when he exchanges Sullivan for the million dollars.
