"Boomerang" is an episode of JAG that first aired on February 8, 2000. It is Part 1 of 2. Directed by Donald P. Bellisario and Jeannot Szwarc. Written by Donald P. Bellisario.
This episode begins in Sydney Australia's beachfront Luna Park in 1972, where Petty Officer Kevin Lee (Nathan Spencer) of the USS Chicago, is seen gallivanting with an Australian girl, Jenny (Toni Pearen). The two of them are accosted by three Royal Australian Navy sailors, one of which, Seaman Ian Dunsmore (Sam Worthington), accuses Jenny of cheating on him, and the American sailor of stealing her.
After both parties spot shore patrolmen, they go their separate ways, but Ian breaks off from his group to follow the couple. He later confronts them again. The American suggests Good Old Fisticuffs, but Ian pulls a switchblade and rushes the sailor with it. The two struggle, and then Jenny screams as someone got stabbed. The next morning, a body washes up, and based on the uniform, is identified as U. S. Navy Petty Officer Kevin Lee.
In the present day, DC is buried under blizzard conditions, but Lt. Commander Mic Brumby (Trevor Goddard), calls them from Australia. He claims that Royal Australian Navy Seaman Ian Dunsmore had been listed as absent without leave for twenty-eight years, but has finally been tracked down and apprehended.
However, Brumby requests American JAG officers for an odd reason, so Commander Rabb and Lt. Roberts are dispatched. Lt. Colonel MacKenzie seems a little miffed that Brumby didn't ask for her.
When Rabb and Roberts arrive, and interview Ian Dunsmore, he reveals that he is actually the American sailor Kevin Lee (Stephen Markle), and that the Australian sailor Dunsmore was the one who died. Fearing a murder conviction in the Australian justice system, Kevin had swapped identities and ran off with Jenny to the Australian interior heartland. He now wants American naval legal representation.
Since Dunsmore was mistakenly identified and interred in America, his body has to be exhumed and returned to Australia. Although protocol requires only that a non-commissioned officer (NCO), like a corporal or a gunnery sergeant, accompany the body, Mac volunteers, as a senior officer coming along would convey a sense of respect and seriousness to the Australian government.
Jenny (Briony Behets) refuses to talk to Rabb and Roberts. Rabb forces the issue at the restaurant she runs with Kevin Lee. They go outside, and Jenny repeats Kevin Lee's account verbatim. Pressed, Jenny says that what she knows "will hang Kevin."
Also, Roberts mistakenly blurts out on the phone to his wife Lt. Sims (Karri Turner) about all the breasts he has been ogling on the topless beach in Sydney, thinking that Gunnery Sergeant Galindez (Randy Vasquez) is on the other line instead. As Mac reunites with Brumby, he convinces her to take her top off too! With Rabb and Roberts ogling from a distance.
Tropes
- Crazy Jealous Guy: Seaman Dunsmore comes off as this.
- Fanservice: Mac and Brumby on the beach.
- Shout-Out:
- Rabb's not driving a Corvette anymore. "Now I four-wheel through the snow, sip my morning coffee, listening to Jimmy LaFave."
- Impressed by the topless beach in Australia, Roberts says "it's like an R-rated Baywatch out there.
- Title Drop: When Rabb hears that Brumby called, Rabb says "Man's like a boomerang."
- To Be Continued: Not right after Jenny says what she knows will hang Kevin Lee, but after Roberts points to Mac topless.
- Troll: Rabb trolls Brumby in a big way by apparently driving like a maniac due to unfamiliarity with left side driving. Rabb then mentioned that his Chrysler executive stepfather often took the family to the Bahamas on vacation, and Rabb learned to drive there. So he was familiar with left side driving. That, and the fact that he is a top notch fighter pilot meant that he was in full control of the car while "almost causing multiple collisions."
- With All Due Respect: Said by Roberts to Rabb talking about Brumby. However, when Roberts says it, he always means it.Roberts: You must really hate him [Brumby], sir.Rabb: I don't hate him, he just bugs me, he always has. I don't know if it's that smug grin or the Crocodile Dundee accent or the way he—Roberts: Chases after Colonel MacKenzie, sir? Sir, with all due respect, I think there's some validity to what Commander Brumby said.
