Name: Sarah Mackenzie (Catherine Bell)
Rank: Lt. Colonel, USMC
Current Station: Chief of Staff, JAG Headquarters, Falls Church, VA.
Sarah Mackenzie, or Mac as she is called, first appeared in the second season opener, “We the People.” A Marine major and fellow lawyer, she was pulled off another case in order to partner with Harm on the investigation into the theft of the Declaration of Independence. It later became clear that she was assigned to the case because the perpetrator, Colonel Matthew O’Hara, was her uncle. He had helped her overcome a drinking problem as a teenager, and we later learned that her alcoholism was a result of abuse from her father, which drove her mother to leave the family on Mac’s fifteenth birthday (“Rendevous”). Mac told Harm about a drunk-driving accident that killed her best friend in the episode “Full Engagement.” She was commissioned through OCS (“Ghosts”), and served in Bosnia (“We the People,” “Force Recon”) and Okinawa (“The Good of the Service”) before coming to JAG.
Initially, Mac was a very straight-laced officer, and Harm’s unorthodox tactics annoyed and angered her. A few close calls, however, quickly brought them closer and allowed them to depend on each other. In the third season, Mac had a romance with high-powered attorney Dalton Lowne, who convinced her to leave JAG and join his law firm (“Impact”). While defending Harm against a bogus murder charge, she realized that this decision was a mistake, and the admiral grudgingly accepted her back (“People v. Rabb”), having never officially filed her separation papers. Mac and Dalton broke up after he used her to obtain information about a case (“Chains of Command”). After the breakup, she was stalked by an unknown person, and after confronting Dalton about it, she saw him shot and killed right before her eyes. Dalton’s death, added to the stalker’s presence, drove her to start drinking again, but it was only a momentary lapse. Harm eventually rescued her from the stalker – Detective Frank Coster, the man who was supposed to be investigating her stalking case (“The Stalker”). Mac and Admiral Chegwidden almost shared a kiss (“The Stalker”), which made for some awkward moments in the third season. She did share a real kiss with Harm (“Death Watch”), but attributed it to her resemblance to his murdered girlfriend, Diane.
Season four sent Mac’s personal life into a tailspin. Her husband Chris appeared out of nowhere, deep in debt and desperate to get back into her life (“Mr. Rabb Goes to Washington”). Apparently, she and Chris were married when she was eighteen and still drinking, and when he went to jail, she never filed for divorce. He attempted to extort money from her by threatening to reveal her affair with a superior officer while stationed in Okinawa. Chris ended up dead, and Harm had to defend Mac against a murder charge (“People v. Mac”). At that point, Lieutenant Commander Mic Brumby, exchange officer from the Royal Australian Navy, came into the picture. Chris’s death was eventually deemed accidental, but she faced an Admiral’s Mast for perjuring herself during her trial.
Mac faced a personal crisis when she learned that her father was dying (“Second Sight”). She went to see him in a California hospice, only to find that he had slipped into a coma. While attempting to come to terms with the abuse he had shown her, she was startled to meet up with her mother again after so many years. Eventually, Mac realized that her father had tried to care for her in his own way, and while she couldn’t entirely forgive her mother for abandoning her, she managed to forgive her father just before his death.
Meanwhile, Brumby wasted no time in trying to pursue Mac. She rebuffed him at first, but began to feel something for him as time passed. In “Jaggle Bells,” we met Chloe, a precocious, strong-willed little girl that Mac mentored through a Big Sister program. Mac helped track down Chloe’s father and reunite the two, but not before Chloe could offer her opinion that Mac loves Harm, and vice versa (“Yeah, Baby”).
When the fifth season began, Mac had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, after the admiral reinstated his recommendation for her accelerated promotion (“King of the Greenie Board”). During Harm’s tour at sea, she continued to hesitate about her attraction to Mic Brumby. She also acquired a dog, Jingo, recently retired from his drug-sniffing duty with the Customs Department (“Front and Center”), and struggled with a difficult case when appealing the death-row conviction of a Marine (“Life or Death”).
In “Boomerang,” Mac made an overt advance to her partner for the first time, and was hurt when Harm turned her down. Brumby then proposed to her, and she tentatively agreed to wear the ring on her right hand until she could make up her mind. Her career took a blow when questions were raised about her conduct in a trial (“Drop Zone”), and she went to Brumby for comfort. Brumby later surprised her and the entire JAG crew by reserving his commission and moving to Washington to be near her (“Surface Warfare”).
The sixth season brought new challenges for Mac, including a televised trial that gave her unwanted attention (“JAG TV”), and the death of her goddaughter and namesake, baby Sarah Roberts (“The Princess and the Petty Officer”). When Brumby left his civilian law firm after refusing to defend Harriet’s obstetrician, he considered moving back to Australia, and Mac decided to move the ring over and agree to marry him (“Family Secrets”). The wedding plans progressed, despite her doubts about Brumby and her conflicting feelings for Harm (“Lifeline,” “Mutiny”). Then, on the night before the ceremony, Harm’s plane crashed in a storm off the coast, and Mac decided to postpone the wedding. She and Brumby never completely reconciled after that, and he returned to Australia (“Adrift, Part Two”).
Needing to put her life back in order, Mac asked for and received a TAD assignment to the USS Guadalcanal for three months (“New Gun in Town”). During that tour, she helped evacuate an embassy under siege (“Guilt”) and received a medal for meritorious service because of her actions (“Mixed Messages”). She was given an opportunity to preside over her first case during the eighth season, with Harm acting as defense counsel (“Ready or Not”).
We know that Mac has some unique talents, such as speaking Farsi (“Code Blue”), Japanese (“Innocence”), and Russian (“To Russia With Love”). She also has an uncanny knack for telling time down to the second, in Eastern, local, or Zulu time. She attended Duke Law School (“Act of Terror”), and is an amateur paleontologist (“We the People”). Her heritage is Persian (“Code Blue”) and Cherokee Indian (“The Return of Jimmy Blackhorse”).
(Biography used by permission by AeroGirl)