Directed by Scott Brazil
Teleplay by Dana Coen, based on a story by J. Jetsyn Tache
In this episode of JAG, titled "JAGATHON" (given as "JAG-a-thon" in some TV listings), the entire JAG headquarters staff participate in the charity 10k run called the “JAG-athon”.
This episode is told with constant switching between two plot threads, one on the day before the race, the other day of the race. Here it will be retold more or less in a straight line. The episode takes place after 9/11, and there are more overt references to that tragedy than in this season's previous episodes.
While impersonating a lieutenant, Signalman Second Class Ramsey Dill (Paul Scherrer) saves the life of a Marine in a traffic accident. Commander Sturgis Turner (Scott Lawrence) defends, Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie prosecutes Dill for impersonating a commissioned officer. Turner insists that since Dill saved a life, he should get a very good deal on the impersonation charge, Mac rejects that premise.
Admiral Chegwidden and Lt. Sims (Karri Turner) announce the JAG-a-thon, a 10K run (approximately 6.2 miles) to benefit the Pentagon 9/11 victims' fund. Women will get a 3-minute headstart. The winner of the race will have highest rank privileges for a day.
Lt. Singer (Nanci Chambers) objects, asserting the headstart is unnecessary. Sims says Singer can start with the men if she prefers. Commander Rabb then jokes he'd like to start with the women. However, he makes a bet with Mac that he'll beat her even if he starts 3 minutes behind the men.
As for Turner, he's reluctant to enter the race. He's confident he would win, but he feels the winner should be someone with more seniority at JAG headquarters. And Lt. Roberts is reluctant to enter the race because he worries he won't be able to finish the race at all (naval officers are required to run a mile and a half as part of the basic physical fitness requirements, but that's less than a quarter the length of a 10K run).
Singer starts taking bets on the race, ignoring Roberts's objection. Gunnery Sergeant Galindez (Randy Vasquez) and Petty Officer Tiner (Chuck Carrington) each bet the other won't finish the race.
A sudden arraignment in another case Turner is handling comes up, Turner hands the Dill defense to Rabb, who now takes the same position on leniency as Turner despite having indicated otherwise earlier. Turner notices the sexual tension between Mac and Rabb, leading Rabb to say to Turner something offensive about Mac's ex-boyfriends which Mac happens to overhear.
In court, Rabb has a little bit of trouble keeping Dill on point on the witness stand. Mac's expert witness doesn't seem to help the case one way or the other as Rabb suggests that the psychiatrist has an unprofessional interest in seeking out patients with "identity disorder."
Rabb successfully gets the members (the jury) to identify with Dill, resulting a guilty verdict but no punishment awarded. Dill probably won't make it to officer candidate school now, but at least he gets to continue serving in the Navy as an enlisted man. Dill declares to Rabb that he has a gift for medicine, and maybe that's the direction his life should take now.
After a conversation with Chegwidden convincing him that he's a part of the JAG family, Turner decides to enter the JAG-a-thon after all. Also, Chegwidden tells Rabb that Mac has been seriously preparing for the race with a lot more than casual jogging (note that the basic fitness requirement for Marines includes a 3-mile run, which is almost half a 10K run).
On the day of the race, Roberts is surprised to see that he's not dead last: Rabb is behind him. But that was to give Mac a 6-minute headstart. Rabb quickly catches up to Roberts, and one by one catches up to almost everyone else.
Galindez and Tiner are distracted by a beautiful woman jogger who's not participating in the JAG-a-thon. Tiner wants to woo the woman but he also wants to beat Galindez, causing him to fall down. Galindez gets a few yards ahead of Tiner but pulls a muscle. Now both Galindez and Tiner are out of the race, so technically they've both won their bets.
Roberts is thinking of dropping out. Singer told him that everyone else, including his own wife, bet that he wouldn't even finish the race. Singer is much ahead of Roberts. It's not clear if she actually started with the men, but it won't matter; she won't win, she's in tears but not because she won't win.
Both Chegwidden and Sims become concerned that Rabb is pushing himself too hard and might collapse. A Marine sergeant stops Rabb and asserts the commander must be checked out by a corpsman before being allowed to continue the race. But as soon as Rabb sees that the corpsman is Signalman Dill, he orders the sergeant to get Dill off the course.
Chegwidden has to drop out of the race because the daughter of some VIP wanted a tour of JAG headquarters that very day, even though that tour had been scheduled for another day. Chegwidden tells the guard at the gate to allow the guest to come in and park. When Chegwidden gets back to the building, the VIP is gone, she got tired of waiting.
Rabb resumes the race, and catches up to Mac. They finish together, tied for second. Turner came in first. Mac learns that Renee dumped Rabb. Rather than let this personal discussion continue, Turner exercises his highest rank privilege and orders Rabb and Mac to go back and encourage Roberts to finish the race.
Tropes
- The Bet:
- It's announced that whoever in the office finishes first will have highest rank privilege for a day.
- Singer starts a pool going on where people will place, who’d beat whom etc. Galindez and Tiner wager that they can defeat the other, while Singer herself wagers that Roberts won’t even finish (and suggests that everyone else also made that bet).
- The Big Race: A 10 kilometer (6 miles) race to raise money for victims of the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon.
- Continuity Nod: Rabb says "all of Mac's exes are either dead or wish they were dead." Although imprecise, this can be supported by previous episodes.
- "People v. Mac": Her estranged husband Chris Ragle is allegedly murdered, and suspicion falls on Mac and another ex of Mac's, Lt. Colonel John Farrow. Though there's nothing to suggest that Farrow actually wishes he was dead. And technically, since Mac never started the divorce proceedings with Ragle and he died, he's not an ex-husband. Even so, this suggests that getting into a romantic relationship with Mac is not likely to end well.
- "The Stalker": Mac's ex-boyfriend Dalton Lowne is murdered by an NCIS agent with a crush on Mac.
- "Adrift, Part II": Although it is doubtful that Brumby would confide in Rabb about Mac, it's not a stretch for Rabb to think that Brumby's very unhappy about Mac's unwillingness to prioritize the wedding.
- Event Title: The title of the episode is the name of the event, the 10k run.
- Imposter Forgot One Detail: Petty Officer Dill did a good job in dressing like a lieutenant. Except that officers who get a Surface Warfare pin get a gold pin, not a silver pin (here silver is actually "junior" to gold). So Dill probably put the same silver Surface Warfare pin on on his lieutenant's jacket that he puts on his enlisted uniform. Having a military consultant in the show paid off here.
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The only reason Dill got caught is because he witnessed a traffic accident and stopped to help an injured Marine. That delayed him long enough for an officer who knew him to pass by and detain him.
- Nurse with Good Intentions: Dill turns into one at the end of the episode, “diagnosing” Rabb to stop the race. Rabb is actually physically well enough to finish the race at the same time as Mac despite the 6-minute handicap.
- Right Behind Me: The elevator opens behind Rabb just as he's saying that "all of Mac's exes are either dead or wish they were dead." And of course Mac is on that elevator.
- Walk and Talk: Most of the conversations the day before the race. The conversations on the day of the race are of course mostly run and talk.
- Whip Pan: Several times to switch between the two time frames, more so early on in the episode, not so much later.
- Will They or Won't They?: Given that Renee dumped Rabb and Mr. Brumby completely cancelled his wedding to Mac, monogamy is no longer an obstacle for Rabb and Mac to become a couple. But Rabb's insulting elevator remark might be too big of a new obstacle.
