Dangerous Game

**"Dangerous Game"** is an episode of *JAG*.

Senator sworn in as SecNav. Comic actor as George W. Bush. Tracy Minetti assigned to JAG per SecNav. SEAL guerrilla war game. Lt. Reynolds disobeys an order, charged with negligent homicide. Defend: Mac, Turner. Prosecute: Harm, Minetti. Roberts is released from Bethesda.

On an exercise in Virginia with SEAL Team Twelve, Lt. Reynolds (Judson Mills) allegedly led local police on a high-speed chase that resulted in the death of a deputy in a flipped over police car.

Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie defends with Commander Sturgis Turner (Scott Lawrence) as second chair. Commander Harmon Rabb defends with newly assigned Lt. Commander Tracy Manetti (Tamlyn Tomita) as second chair.

At the beginning of the episode, Sheriff Denton (Randy Oglesby) is watching Smokey and the Bandit at the police station as one of his deputies tries to pull over Lt. Reynolds and Petty Officer Pittman (Corbin Allred).

A month ago on another exercise, Reynolds mistook a staged medical emergency for an actual medical emergency and was faulted for completing the exercise a half hour late. So this time around, he assumes the traffic stop is bogus and refuses to pull over.

The deputy’s car runs off the road. Reynolds and Pittman stop and try to render aid, but it’s too late, the deputy’s dead. Manetti recommends to Rabb that they file more serious charges against Reynolds.

That terrible day wasn’t the first time the SEALs had tangled with local police. About ten days prior to the accident, SEAL Team Twelve had an altercation with local police at a local bar that almost turned into an all-out brawl.

Sheriff Denton claims he did not receive a fax from the Navy notifying him about the SEALs’ exercise on that day, their fax machine is kind of “hinky.”

This leads the defense to discover that the police department’s only speed gun has not been properly calibrated: it always adds ten miles per hour. In a vivid demonstration in the courtroom, Turner has a deputy on the witness stand point the speed gun at Rabb, who’s sitting at the prosecution table: it clocks him at ten miles per hour.

The case seems to be going well for the defense. But then the dead deputy’s wife testifies that her recently deceased husband served a couple of years in the Navy and tried to become a Navy SEAL. However, he washed out and rang the bell.

This causes Reynolds to feel he has failed as a SEAL, so he decides to accept the prosecution’s offer. He wants to stay in the Navy, though not as a SEAL anymore.

Alexander Nelson (Paul Collins), the former Secretary of the Navy, and Admiral Chegwidden attend the swearing in for Senator Sheffield (Dean Stockwell), the new Secretary of the Navy. President George W. Bush (Steve Bridges) congratulates Sheffield.

Manetti was chosen by Sheffield to join JAG headquarters. She feels it necessary to say to Chegwidden that she doesn’t expect any special treatment because of her relationship to the new Secretary of the Navy. Her father is a tobacco farmer and a big contributor to Sheffield’s PAC, but she’s not.

Also, Lt. Roberts is released from Bethesda. Lt. Simms (Karri Turner) takes him to their new house (the one she bought without telling him while he was on the Seahawk). Roberts still thinks it’s too big and it cost too much, and now they’re too indebted to her parents. There’s a big screen TV in the living room and also a piano. She dodges his question about how much the piano cost.

Most daunting of all for the man who recently lost his right leg is that all the bedrooms are on the second floor. Simms set up a bed for her husband that looks like a boot camp rack in the den. She and their son will sleep upstairs.

Chegwidden and Petty Officer Tiner (Chuck Carrington) bring housewarming gifts. Mac, Rabb and Turner also drop by. Roberts converses with Petty Officer Coates (Zoe McLellan) aboard the Seahawk through an instant messaging program. Coates says Lt. Singer spent her whole first day aboard the carrier looking for a Starbucks.

Also, Rabb gives Prof. Cavanaugh (Isabella Hofmann) a flying lesson in his Steerman biplane Sarah (named after his grandmother, not after Mac). She’s predictably terrible at it.