Please note the spoiler alert.
In this episode, an Iraqi POW is found dead, executed with a shot to the back of the head. A marine who boasted to a woman in a bar, after being asked if he had killed anyone, told her that he had taken this prisoner and "zapped him." He is court-martialed with Col. McKenzie defending and Bud prosecuting.
As one familiar with JAG could reasonably predict, the marine was found not guilty. As I've noted in reviews of previous episodes, JAG tends to stay away from every criticizing the military as an institution. With scandals such as what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison, JAG wouldn't have been out of line in admitting the fact that members of the military have abused prisoners. But the particular reason for the titling of this review is that the episode ends promptly after the marine is acquitted. Are we supposed to just forget that there was a murdered POW? Just because a prime suspect was acquitted doesn't mean that a murder didn't happen.
The subplot is also pretty silly. A Navy pitcher is investigated for hitting a batter in the head with a pitch. A huge problem is how poorly the incident (or accident) is presented. The director made a poor decision; the pitch was done in slow motion with the batter not moving at all and it appears as though the ball strikes him under the shoulder. This becomes very confusing when what we are told is that the pitch actually hit the batter in the head and was aimed behind his head so that he would back into it.
This makes no sense. If the ball is actually aimed behind his head, it is hard to imagine that the batter's instinctive reaction would be to back up. As well, the pitch was a fastball. The only way such a result seems plausible is if the pitch had movement on it, such as with a curve ball or slider. Some pitchers' fastballs do have movement on them, but not enough for a batter to misjudge it so badly that they move into it. Lastly, it is quite hard to believe that a Navy pitcher with a 95 mile per hour fastball is playing for the Navy baseball team. Someone like that would probably have been drafted, at least into the minor leagues, right out of high school. (Perhaps I am nitpicking here, but it's rare that I feel like the plot of a JAG episode is tight and cohesive. Clearly, this isn't one of those times.)
In this episode, an Iraqi POW is found dead, executed with a shot to the back of the head. A marine who boasted to a woman in a bar, after being asked if he had killed anyone, told her that he had taken this prisoner and "zapped him." He is court-martialed with Col. McKenzie defending and Bud prosecuting.
As one familiar with JAG could reasonably predict, the marine was found not guilty. As I've noted in reviews of previous episodes, JAG tends to stay away from every criticizing the military as an institution. With scandals such as what happened at the Abu Ghraib prison, JAG wouldn't have been out of line in admitting the fact that members of the military have abused prisoners. But the particular reason for the titling of this review is that the episode ends promptly after the marine is acquitted. Are we supposed to just forget that there was a murdered POW? Just because a prime suspect was acquitted doesn't mean that a murder didn't happen.
The subplot is also pretty silly. A Navy pitcher is investigated for hitting a batter in the head with a pitch. A huge problem is how poorly the incident (or accident) is presented. The director made a poor decision; the pitch was done in slow motion with the batter not moving at all and it appears as though the ball strikes him under the shoulder. This becomes very confusing when what we are told is that the pitch actually hit the batter in the head and was aimed behind his head so that he would back into it.
This makes no sense. If the ball is actually aimed behind his head, it is hard to imagine that the batter's instinctive reaction would be to back up. As well, the pitch was a fastball. The only way such a result seems plausible is if the pitch had movement on it, such as with a curve ball or slider. Some pitchers' fastballs do have movement on them, but not enough for a batter to misjudge it so badly that they move into it. Lastly, it is quite hard to believe that a Navy pitcher with a 95 mile per hour fastball is playing for the Navy baseball team. Someone like that would probably have been drafted, at least into the minor leagues, right out of high school. (Perhaps I am nitpicking here, but it's rare that I feel like the plot of a JAG episode is tight and cohesive. Clearly, this isn't one of those times.)
