Due South: Free Willie
Aug. 20th, 2007 05:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyDue South 1.1, "Free Willie"
Original airdate: Sept. 22, 1994
Favorite line:
FRASER: She shot my hat, Ray.
Spoilers behind cut, yadda yadda.
Almost all crimes on Due South are committed for money. At first I thought this was weird, seeing as how it's the last motivation in the world Benton Fraser is likely to understand, but watching "Free Willie" again, I realized what they're up to. The first two seasons of the show are powered by the tension between Fraser's worldview (openly Capra-esque, viz., "One Good Man") and Ray's. "You know what your problem is?" Ray says to Fraser. "You think if you're nice to people, people are going to be nice to you." Fraser does believe this, and the show again is very careful about the tension between pararealism and realism in the responses he gets. Mostly it works, but there are people who can't be reached that way. And appeals to someone's better nature are more effective if there's some folding green (not pink or blue, Fraser) to sweeten the deal.
RAY: You came back.
WILLIE: If I didn't, you'd get in trouble, right?
RAY: Right.
WILLIE: I figure that's worth at least a twenty.
RAY: No question about it.
And for all that Fraser spreads sweetness and light, "romping through the streets of Chicago, rescuing widows and orphans where you may," as Ray says, the show doesn't wear rose-colored glasses. "You are innocent," Fraser tells Willie. "The police have no reason to incarcerate you." And the public defender (a black woman defending a black kid from a bad neighborhood) says tiredly, "Not from around here, are you?" The show is a fairytale--"an urban fable," Paul Gross calls it in interviews--and thus Fraser triumphs, but it's a fairytale with its feet on the ground. Fraser's triumphs are small and temporary and contingent. The show knows that, even if he doesn't.
Like the pilot, this episode is also interested in questions of trust, promises, and betrayal. The thieves betray each other; it's a question throughout whether Willie is going to betray Fraser's trust and whether Fraser's going to be able to keep his promise to Willie. Fraser manages to turn financial transactions into a question of honor: "You see, a bond is more than just a bankable note. It's an instrument of trust between two people, indicating a promise that must be honored. Much like the promise I made to uphold the law." And then there's this conversation between Fraser and Ray:
FRASER: ... And I knew you'd trust me.
RAY: But I didn't.
FRASER: Yes, you did.
RAY: No, I didn't.
FRASER: Yes, you did.
RAY: No, I didn't.
FRASER: Well, of course you did. Maybe you just weren't fully aware of it.
RAY: I was very aware of my feelings toward you, Fraser.
FRASER: Well, if you didn't know what I was planning, why'd you play along?
RAY: I wasn't playing along. I was begging for my life.
FRASER: Oh. Oh. Well. Uh. My mistake.
RAY: Mistake?! You could've gotten me killed.
FRASER: No, no. I'd never allow that. You're my friend. You're my best friend, I'd have to say.
RAY: I am? Hey! Exactly how many best friends have you had?
Which sums up very well, I think, Fraser's simultaneous fallibility and infallibility. He misreads Ray completely, but his plan works anyway. And the sublime confidence with which he says, "I'd never allow that," might be hubris, but it feels like the unadorned truth. Fraser confesses to his friendship for Ray so simply that we understand: it never occurred to him Ray wouldn't trust him, because it would never occur to him not to trust Ray. Fraser believes in reciprocity, that "if you're nice to people, people are going to be nice to you." That if you love someone, they will love you back.
And this is exactly why Victoria Metcalf is going to gut him like a fish.
Original airdate: Sept. 22, 1994
Favorite line:
FRASER: She shot my hat, Ray.
Spoilers behind cut, yadda yadda.
Almost all crimes on Due South are committed for money. At first I thought this was weird, seeing as how it's the last motivation in the world Benton Fraser is likely to understand, but watching "Free Willie" again, I realized what they're up to. The first two seasons of the show are powered by the tension between Fraser's worldview (openly Capra-esque, viz., "One Good Man") and Ray's. "You know what your problem is?" Ray says to Fraser. "You think if you're nice to people, people are going to be nice to you." Fraser does believe this, and the show again is very careful about the tension between pararealism and realism in the responses he gets. Mostly it works, but there are people who can't be reached that way. And appeals to someone's better nature are more effective if there's some folding green (not pink or blue, Fraser) to sweeten the deal.
RAY: You came back.
WILLIE: If I didn't, you'd get in trouble, right?
RAY: Right.
WILLIE: I figure that's worth at least a twenty.
RAY: No question about it.
And for all that Fraser spreads sweetness and light, "romping through the streets of Chicago, rescuing widows and orphans where you may," as Ray says, the show doesn't wear rose-colored glasses. "You are innocent," Fraser tells Willie. "The police have no reason to incarcerate you." And the public defender (a black woman defending a black kid from a bad neighborhood) says tiredly, "Not from around here, are you?" The show is a fairytale--"an urban fable," Paul Gross calls it in interviews--and thus Fraser triumphs, but it's a fairytale with its feet on the ground. Fraser's triumphs are small and temporary and contingent. The show knows that, even if he doesn't.
Like the pilot, this episode is also interested in questions of trust, promises, and betrayal. The thieves betray each other; it's a question throughout whether Willie is going to betray Fraser's trust and whether Fraser's going to be able to keep his promise to Willie. Fraser manages to turn financial transactions into a question of honor: "You see, a bond is more than just a bankable note. It's an instrument of trust between two people, indicating a promise that must be honored. Much like the promise I made to uphold the law." And then there's this conversation between Fraser and Ray:
FRASER: ... And I knew you'd trust me.
RAY: But I didn't.
FRASER: Yes, you did.
RAY: No, I didn't.
FRASER: Yes, you did.
RAY: No, I didn't.
FRASER: Well, of course you did. Maybe you just weren't fully aware of it.
RAY: I was very aware of my feelings toward you, Fraser.
FRASER: Well, if you didn't know what I was planning, why'd you play along?
RAY: I wasn't playing along. I was begging for my life.
FRASER: Oh. Oh. Well. Uh. My mistake.
RAY: Mistake?! You could've gotten me killed.
FRASER: No, no. I'd never allow that. You're my friend. You're my best friend, I'd have to say.
RAY: I am? Hey! Exactly how many best friends have you had?
Which sums up very well, I think, Fraser's simultaneous fallibility and infallibility. He misreads Ray completely, but his plan works anyway. And the sublime confidence with which he says, "I'd never allow that," might be hubris, but it feels like the unadorned truth. Fraser confesses to his friendship for Ray so simply that we understand: it never occurred to him Ray wouldn't trust him, because it would never occur to him not to trust Ray. Fraser believes in reciprocity, that "if you're nice to people, people are going to be nice to you." That if you love someone, they will love you back.
And this is exactly why Victoria Metcalf is going to gut him like a fish.
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no subject
Date: 2007-08-20 11:29 pm (UTC)I haven't seen this show in far too long. Thank you for reminding me, Sarah. I'm going to run over to Amazon and order the DVDs.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 12:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 01:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 05:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-21 03:24 pm (UTC)I love this show. It did subtext like nobody's business. Like, that whole conversation between ray and fraser, about his hat getting shot? ray's response is a beautiful subtext of "I know what you value. And even though I don't share those values, I value *you*, so I will support your efforts to achieve those values." It's the moment when we knew that, for all ray's cynicism, he himself will never be the one who crushes fraser. And in fact, as is later born out in the show, he'll repeatedly allow himself to be hurt to protect fraser's innocence.
*glows more*
Yes!
Date: 2019-07-08 09:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-09-02 08:26 pm (UTC)I'm reminded of the paired "they'll hunt you to the ends of the earth" of the pilot. Both Bob and Benton love the RCMP and it certainly didn't love them back.