"JAG TV" is an episode of JAG that first aired on October 31, 2000. Directed by Scott Brazil. Written by Patrick Labyorteaux.
A husband and his wife are found standing over the body of a teenage girl, Misty James (Sofia Karstens). The wife, Ensign Susan Kingsley (Hayley Du Mond) claims that Misty and her husband were having an affair, and had attacked her when she confronted them.
The husband, Lt. Andy Kingsley (Christopher Daniel Barnes), however, claims that Susan was the one who attacked Misty and bludgeoned her to death. Commander Rabb is sympathetic to Susan, while Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie is inclined to believe the husband. Physical evidence seems to corroborate both accounts.
Rabb however, has carrier qualifications coming up to keep his flight status current, so Admiral Chegwidden sends him out to the carrier Seahawk to investigate an alleged suicide, where Ordnanceman Palermo (Ronnie Marmo) ran into the path of a landing F-14 and was fatally struck by it.
Palermo's grandmother (Anna Berger) isn't inclined to believe her grandson was suicidal, as he seemed upbeat and positive in all his letters home to her. His shipmates also said that aside from a girlfriend breaking things off, Palermo was doing quite well, and didn't exhibit any of the warning signs of a suicidal person.
Back at JAG headquarters, Mac is assigned to prosecute Ensign Susan Kingsley and has to contest the case against her old law school professor, Juanita Ressler (Tina Lifford), who has been retained by Ensign Kingsley. To further complicate matters, the trial will be televised, turning the whole thing into a media circus.
Initially, Prof. Ressler, last seen in "Act of Terror", appears to have the upper hand, by spinning a compelling story with a perpetually sobbing client. Mac seems to be getting nowhere, only having rumors of past violent altercations involving Susan Kingsley. Mac is also constantly being pestered by TV reporters to come on air and make her case there, in the absence of which, more rumors and innuendo are flowing around the airwaves about Mac.
Finally, when the military policeman who responded to the murder scene, repeats verbatim Susan's version of events as she stated it on TV, Chegwidden tells Mac that this case will not just be tried in the media, but might even be won in the media, since the other side is being allowed to influence the entire narrative. Mac finally goes on air and makes a plea for anyone to come forward and either substantiate or disprove all those rumors about Ensign Kingsley.
And it looks like that tactic paid off. The next day in court, Mac finally gets to cross examine Susan and baits her into ranting about all the other women in the past who wronged her by ogling her guy. Mac presents a picture of a woman prone to violence with serious impulse control issues, and thereby wins a conviction for murder. A crying Susan Kingsley is taken away.
Back on the ship, after some digging, Rabb discovers what finally killed Ordnanceman Palermo. Turns out, Palermo mailed a lot of letters home to his grandma, and thereby ran out of stamps, causing him to borrow his best buddy's stamps. His friend had a lot of stamps, because he was actually addicted to LSD, and those stamps were dosed with it, thereby licking a stamp to paste it, would result in him taking a hit. Unknowingly, Palermo licked a few stamps, got dosed really bad, hallucinated and ran to his death.
Against his better judgement, Chegwidden lends his car to Danny Walden (Sean Murray), who fails to return it in a timely manner. Later, the police show up at Chegwidden's office to tell his that his car with license plate 259 IPL was found with marijuana in it. Chegwidden deduces that Danny got stoned in the borrowed car. Chegwidden won't tell Dr. Walden: Danny will; he should, but we don't see if he does in this episode.
Lt. j.g. Sims (Karri Turner) is pregnant again, a girl this time. Lt. Roberts asks Mac for permission to name their daughter "Sarah." Mac happily agrees.
Tropes
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Ensign Susan Kingsley.
- Death of the Hypotenuse: Susan brained her rival Misty James.
- It Was His Sled: It was his friend's LSD imbibed stamps rather, that caused Palermo's death.
- Loophole Abuse: After going on TV, Mac gets a lot of information about Susan's bad past behavior, but she can't use any of it except by baiting the defendant. Only then can Mac use the defendant's prior bad acts to impeach the defendant's testimony.
- Pipe Pain: Susan's weapon.
