The title of this episode is given on screen as "Déjà Vu" in all-caps. The episode first aired on October 21, 1995. Directed by Doug Lefler. Written by Evan Katz.
The investigation of three dead Navy lieutenants over the span of a year lead Lt. Harmon Rabb, Jr. and Lt. j.g. Meg Austin to suspect Angelique Sonsiri (Vivian Wu), the wife of the Thai ambassador (Michael Paul Chan).
At Arlington National Cemetery, Detective Axelrad (Lawrence Monoson) arrogantly tells Rabb and Austin that he's got jurisdiction. The two Navy lawyers also run afoul of the State Department, annoyed by a complaint from the Thai embassy.
Commander Lindsey (W. K. Stratton) orders Rabb and Austin to back off from the investigation. But Rabb plays Lindsey by saying that Admiral Brovo wouldn't tell them to back off: instead Brovo would order them to comply with the request from State but keep investigating while giving him plausible deniability. Lindsey revises his order accordingly.
The evidence points to Colonel Patano (Dom Magwili), an old military buddy of the ambassador who now provides security services. But Austin discovers that Patano is actually covering for Angelique, he's in love with her.
Rabb goes to dinner with Angelique. Afterwards, they go to Arlington, where she tries to kill him. Fortunately, though, Austin shows up just in the nick of time.
Tropes
- As Herself: In the episode, Bree Walker is a local news anchor who gives the news of an earthquake in Los Angeles and the expulsion of the Thai ambassador. In real life, she's a talk show host but she did work as a local news anchor long ago.
- Badass in Distress: Rabb in the climax.
- Big Damn Heroes: Austin and the Theme Song show up just in time to save Harm's life.
- Chekhov's Gun: Angelique says she is addicted to chocolate. This is mentioned early on in the episode. It might seem like she was just making small talk, or that the "addiction" is just a quirk to try to give the character a little depth. But it turns out to be significant later on because she has some chocolates laced with some kind of sedative, and she gives Rabb one of those after dinner.
- Colonel Badass: Colonel Patano. It's made clear that the only reason Rabb isn't dead is because Patano never intended to kill him.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Plenty to go around in this episode from multiple characters, including Rabb.
- Designated Girl Fight: Austin vs Angelique after Angelique drugged Rabb and tried to murder him.
- Fire-Forged Friends: Colonel Patano and Ambassador Sonsiri are old war buddies, and the Colonel will do quite a bit for his friend and for his friend's wife, Angelique, who he is in love with.
- Flash Back: Harm gets one fleshing out a bit of his Back Story, where he went on foot into Vietnam trying to find his father, who went MIA. He met a girl his age who ended up being shot dead while he watched, unable to help.
- Freudian Excuse: Angelique's reason for the killings. Her father was a Navy lieutenant who left her and her mother behind when Saigon fell. The North Vietnamese raped and murdered her mother when they found out she had an American officer for a lover.
- Genre Blind: Discussed. Rabb is blindsided due to his own emotional baggage.Rabb: There's a lot of things you're blind to. But you don't realize it until it's too late.
- Jurisdiction Friction: Made worse by the fact that the civilian cop is entirely correct in his interpretation of the jurisdiction. Meg decides to use her human approach to persuade the cop to help, but the cop sees right through it, telling her not to waste his time before giving her a copy of his notes anyways on the case to help the Navy's investigation.
- Marriage of Convenience: Ambassador Sonsiri tells Austin he's never felt jealousy, that his marriage to Angelique is beneficial to him because she's the kind of woman an ambassador is supposed to have for a wife.
- Pocket Protector: Colonel Patano's life is saved by a metal plate in his chest that stops a bullet. The plate itself was the result of an old war wound.
- Serial Killer: Harm and Meg suspect the murders of multiple Navy lieutenants in Arlington National Cemetery are related. A local cop points out it could just be statistics: Washington D.C. has both an unusually high murder rate and an unusually high Navy lieutenant rate compared to other cities. Obviously, it's a serial killer.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: The only witness to the latest murder is a retired Navy SEAL who works as a groundskeeper at Arlington National Cemetery, and who spends much of his time drinking.
- Shout-Out to Clue: After talking to the ambassador and his wife, Rabb allows some photos to fall to the floor so that Patano can see them. Austin knows Rabb did this on purpose. "We just played Clue with Colonel Mustard in the study," Austin says.
- Suicide by Cop: Attempted by Patano, who opens up a gunfight with Rabb with the intent of letting Rabb win in order to cover up for the killer.
- Stock Footage: Bill Clinton playing saxophone during the embassy dinner.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: The murder victims are drugged before they are murdered, so they can't put up a fight. Rabb avoids drinking the champagne when he thinks he's Alone with the Psycho. But he did eat the chocolate she gave him.
- Revealing Cover Up: Colonel Patano bribes a witness into telling the cops that he didn't see anything. Which is entirely true he really didn't see anything. He does decide to tell Rabb about the bribe.
- Theme Music Power-Up: When Austin shows up to save Rabb from the knife-wielding Angelique.
- You Look Like You've Seen a Ghost: Non-literal example. Angelique reminds Rabb of a girl he watched die when he was sixteen. She lampshades this trope, before presenting the alternate possibility that Rabb stares at all women like that.
As you were...
Dismissed.
