More JAG talk! I've been rewatching a bunch of different episodes and seasons which bring me joy and sadness. I have some assorted Mac thoughts.
Recently, I rewatched both the "Four Percent Solution" (S10E10) and "Second Sight" (S4E20). I believe Second Sight was the better of the two in terms of understanding Mac. The tense relationship with her father and how those scars shaped Mac as a person, the dynamic with the priest who wanted so desperately to help Mac through her trauma and hatred to find forgiveness. Mac's mother strolled back in, and the sad realization that both of her parents had failed her horribly. It was beautifully tragic in a way that made Mac understand her father was more than what she remembered and that her mother was less than. There was no real resolution to her trauma for either parent, but it was enough of an experience that she was able to let go of her past finally.
It was a hefty episode that really allowed Mac to feel and live in her anger in a way that made you understand how her abandonment issues, her drinking, and her personal relationships came to be. The back and forth with the poor priest who wanted so badly for Mac to see her father had changed in his final hour, and that it's not too late for her to find comfort in forgiveness. Mac is trying to get the Priest to understand that a lifetime of scars and trauma cannot be overcome with a silent "I'm sorry" said by a dying man looking for absolution.
This is one of my top episodes in the whole series.
Mac is my absolute favorite character on the show with Harm being an extremely close second. But throughout the series, I felt like the exploration of her character was nonexistent if it was not related to her romantic relationships. I think Season 4 was her best season because we had the Russia arc in the premiere, the death of her father, meeting her mother, and the priest, the introduction of Chloe, the whole Chris & John thing, and her facing career consequences for the Chris & John thing. After that, we didn't get to have a lot of personal stories with her and we really never got to see her create her own professional relationships like Harm did with Bobbie, Adm.Boone, Skates, and pretty much every other recurring character he met. Hell, we got at least 5 different stories about his old military buddies and Sturgis was brought in as his bestie from the Academy.
Mac got two episodes of John, her Duke law professor who hated her, and much, much later, the CIA director and Rogue agent, but only because she knew Webb!
I really think they dropped the ball with Mac a lot, but seasons 9 and 10 were her worst for me. I found her unlikable, childish, and undeservingly arrogant, and petulant. It mostly came across through flippant comments to friends or clients, sometimes through her demeanor. It wasn't like she was walking around angry like the Incredible Hulk, but she noticeably lacked a lot of the empathy and perspective she had in previous seasons. There was no real explanation given as to why her behavior, we could trace it to her relationship fallout with Harm in Paraguay, but even that is not a satisfactory reason. Mac pushed Harm away at the end of that adventure.
**I'm still angry about the S9 Christmas episode. I don't care that she made it right in the end; I hate that she made Harm's plea for guardianship over Mattie about herself. She had been pushing Harm away for months; he had to deal with that and still be an adult, and he found someone who genuinely needed his help because they were an unprotected child (like Mac was), but Mac had the nerve to get upset that Harm never mentioned Mattie to her before. Like, what did she expect? She put the strain on their relationship - Harm was keeping his distance because she wanted it that way. Mac had no right to be angry that Harm found a shelter with someone when she left him out in the cold. But I digress**
Even the Sadik arc in S9 was kinda "eh" it didn't do or say much for Mac's character. If anything it showed that Mac probably would have made a good spy or NCIS agent.
Mac not having a solid support system or other non-romantic relationships to fall back on was glaring in season 9. We didn't understand her. We didn't understand where her emotional and mental state were coming from nor where they were going. Season 10 was slightly better as they added some new characters (at the eleventh hour) to give her a social life, so we can see her as a whole person again.
In rewatching, The Four Percent Solution, I felt unsatisfied by the narrative. It was basically a chance to unpack Mac's anger with Webb and her distance from Harm and her life choices, but unlike with "Second Sight", this episode felt as though it was holding its punches. It didn't want Mac to verbally address what we noticed throughout the last season and the first half of season 10, Mac was actually angry and ashamed of her behavior over the last year, and she didn't know how to stop.
Mac didn't love Webb but stayed with him out of spite of herself (and Harm), but by the time she realized that - Harm had continued his life without her (but still waiting for her to let him in), and she was determined to stay with the guy who made his intentions known. Basically, a poorly done redux of Mic & Mac. The anger with Webb was because he lied to her about his death when he said he loved her and that hurt her pride more than anything. He chose to leave her. She then felt ashamed for treating Harm the way that she did because he confirmed (at the Admiral's retirement party) that he was always the one that she wanted and that truly wanted her back. But she was too embarrassed and ashamed to apologize to Harm for building a wall between them. Mac wasted that year, that time, on Webb, and she knew it, and now "time" had run out.
I wish that the psychologist had pushed that issue more once she clocked what Harm meant to Mac during their conversation. I wanted Mac to verbalize her realization of what she had been going through that year and her loneliness. The breaking down and crying and the bratty remarks fell flat for me. Mac was a better communicator than that. I didn't like that she never talked to Harm about it properly at the end of the episode or the episodes after it. It was a cheap way to get them back to a good place without having to do the work.
I love JAG to pieces, I always will, and Mac will always be one of my top 5 female TV characters, but I do wish JAG treated her character journey a little bit better. I wish that therapy session was better than it was.
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