Due South: "The Promise"
Jan. 21st, 2008 04:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepennyDue South 2.5, "The Promise"
Original air date: January 11, 1996
Favorite quote:
FRASER: [to Diefenbaker] You're babying yourself. You know that. Now it's only going to make the situation worse.
RAY: Ah, leave him alone. He's sick.
FRASER: Ray, he is my wolf; I believe I know what's best for him.
RAY: How would you know what's best for him? You've never been sick a day in your life.
FRASER: [deeply offended] I most certainly have.
RAY: With what?
FRASER: Various . . . childhood . . . illnesses.
RAY: Such as?
FRASER: The usual.
RAY: Could you be a little more specific?
FRASER: Pink-eye. Both of 'em. Swelled up like watermelons.
Spoilers.
1. Again with the echoes of Season One: DS 1.5 is, of course "Pizza and Promises," and Fraser's carriage ride with Andy reflects, in a much gentler mood, the carriage/car chase in "Free Willie" (DS 1.1).
2. Women in authority continuing to be problematic. Thatcher continues to use her professional authority for personal concerns, not to mention the Jekyll and Hyde whipsaw at the end, and Commander O'Neill seems, in this episode, to be determined to prove her cojones are made of brass, just like all the other guys'--much to Welsh's discomfiture. I want to be clear: the show is not saying women shouldn't have authority; it's pointing out that neither women nor men quite know how to interact with each other when it's the woman in charge. And that this isn't anyone's fault. We'll see in later episodes just why Thatcher might be the way she is.
3. This episode has some of the same problem as "A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby" (DS 1.9) in that Sid, like Vinnie, is supposed to be both a blocking figure and a sympathetic protagonist. And again, mostly what we get is an asshole with an only semi-plausible conversion in the fourth act. I fully appreciate that Sid's in a rotten situation, but I also fully appreciate that he's a jerk. (ANDY: Sid says it's a waste of money. FRASER: Sid's not paying.) And the episode doesn't ever really explain why it's more important for Sid and Andy to stay together than it is for Andy to have proper nutrition and education and a chance to be something other than a pickpocket. Certainly, their social worker is corrupt, and certainly Andy (unlike Jamie, the baby in 1.9) can express her own opinion, but still. The problem wherein Sid has been lying to her and exploiting her is not magically solved by Sid falling off a building in lame-ass action hero fashion to protect her. As with 1.9, the "family gotta stick together!" card is being played as if it trumps everything else, and it really kind of doesn't.
4. My favorite moment (aside from Ray and Fraser under the streets of Chicago) is the story from Fraser's childhood:
RAY: Look. You spend your day picking other people's pockets, you're gonna tick somebody off.
FRASER: Well, that's hardly comfort to a fourteen-year-old, now is it?
RAY: Well, what do you care so much about this kid for? [off Fraser's inarticulate noise] All right. Please tell me this doesn't involve sub-zero temperatures or Inuit legends.
FRASER: No, it does not.
RAY: Aaah, of course it does. It always does.
FRASER: Ray-- All right. Listen. When I was little, my grandparents took me on vacation to Aklavik.
RAY: What, for a little sun and sand?
FRASER: Well, hardly. It's a thriving urban center. Anyway, one day I . . . I wandered off alone when they were window shopping. There I was, all alone in a big city. The point is, Ray . . . I became hungry. . . . Very hungry. And I knew no one. I had no money. I . . . I was desperate.
RAY: So you ate a polar bear.
FRASER: Well, don't be ridiculous, Ray. I boiled my shoes. My--my Oxfords. My left Oxford, to be exact. Boy, did my grandmother ever tan my hide for that one.
RAY: Oh, that's a good one. So what's the point?
FRASER: The point is, Ray, that to be young and alone is frightening. Without proper guidance, we . . . we'll do things that are out of character.
I like the way "out of character" for Fraser is boiling his shoe, not resorting to petty theft, and I find the inadvertent window into his childhood rather poignant. I also think there's a semi-subterranean parallel being drawn between Andy, Fraser-as-child-in-Aklavik, and Fraser-in-Chicago. Of course, if Fraser considers Aklavik a big city, it's amazing he can deal with Chicago at all, and I suspect that it's because Chicago is so big, so far outside his frame of reference, he doesn't even really see it.
5. There are also parallels with "Chicago Holiday" (DS 1.7-8), with the girl and the MacGuffin (the "book" that isn't a book); I like Andy a lot better than Christina, though, mostly because she's not stupid. Also Christina's touristy desire to see the "bad" parts of Chicago is commented on, not entirely kindly, by Andy's intimate knowledge of the sewers.
6. Another reminder that most of Fraser's past, like an iceberg, is below the surface:
ANDY: You ever been to Wyoming?
FRASER: As a matter of fact, I have. I arrested a man in Wyoming.
And one just sits and wonders.
7. Nice, if obvious, symbolism in Ray catching Fraser just as he loses his grip on the ladder at the end. This episode shows Fraser and Ray's friendship at its best, with them taking the piss out of each other ("Don't be a sap, Ray.") and Ray following Fraser into the sewers, complaining all the way.
7a. Fraser's Batman-voice, as I have said before, shows up when most of his mind is somewhere else, and that's the only time we hear it in this episode.
8. I can't identify Fraser's Latin quote. Anybody tracked it down?
9. I like the various changes they begin to ring on the chain of command, and how Fraser with utmost politeness and respect circumvents and undermines it, once Thatcher shows up. I talked about the verbal duel in "The Witness" (DS 2.3), and I love Fraser as reluctant chauffeur:
THATCHER: You need to stop.
FRASER: Well, that would appear to be prohibited.
THATCHER: Stop anyway.
FRASER: Certainly.
THATCHER: You're not stopping.
FRASER: No, sir, I'm not.
I particularly love that it's impossible to tell whether Fraser is applying the "if you have to dry the dishes and you drop one on the floor" strategy or whether he is, in fact, simply being Fraser.
Original air date: January 11, 1996
Favorite quote:
FRASER: [to Diefenbaker] You're babying yourself. You know that. Now it's only going to make the situation worse.
RAY: Ah, leave him alone. He's sick.
FRASER: Ray, he is my wolf; I believe I know what's best for him.
RAY: How would you know what's best for him? You've never been sick a day in your life.
FRASER: [deeply offended] I most certainly have.
RAY: With what?
FRASER: Various . . . childhood . . . illnesses.
RAY: Such as?
FRASER: The usual.
RAY: Could you be a little more specific?
FRASER: Pink-eye. Both of 'em. Swelled up like watermelons.
Spoilers.
1. Again with the echoes of Season One: DS 1.5 is, of course "Pizza and Promises," and Fraser's carriage ride with Andy reflects, in a much gentler mood, the carriage/car chase in "Free Willie" (DS 1.1).
2. Women in authority continuing to be problematic. Thatcher continues to use her professional authority for personal concerns, not to mention the Jekyll and Hyde whipsaw at the end, and Commander O'Neill seems, in this episode, to be determined to prove her cojones are made of brass, just like all the other guys'--much to Welsh's discomfiture. I want to be clear: the show is not saying women shouldn't have authority; it's pointing out that neither women nor men quite know how to interact with each other when it's the woman in charge. And that this isn't anyone's fault. We'll see in later episodes just why Thatcher might be the way she is.
3. This episode has some of the same problem as "A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby" (DS 1.9) in that Sid, like Vinnie, is supposed to be both a blocking figure and a sympathetic protagonist. And again, mostly what we get is an asshole with an only semi-plausible conversion in the fourth act. I fully appreciate that Sid's in a rotten situation, but I also fully appreciate that he's a jerk. (ANDY: Sid says it's a waste of money. FRASER: Sid's not paying.) And the episode doesn't ever really explain why it's more important for Sid and Andy to stay together than it is for Andy to have proper nutrition and education and a chance to be something other than a pickpocket. Certainly, their social worker is corrupt, and certainly Andy (unlike Jamie, the baby in 1.9) can express her own opinion, but still. The problem wherein Sid has been lying to her and exploiting her is not magically solved by Sid falling off a building in lame-ass action hero fashion to protect her. As with 1.9, the "family gotta stick together!" card is being played as if it trumps everything else, and it really kind of doesn't.
4. My favorite moment (aside from Ray and Fraser under the streets of Chicago) is the story from Fraser's childhood:
RAY: Look. You spend your day picking other people's pockets, you're gonna tick somebody off.
FRASER: Well, that's hardly comfort to a fourteen-year-old, now is it?
RAY: Well, what do you care so much about this kid for? [off Fraser's inarticulate noise] All right. Please tell me this doesn't involve sub-zero temperatures or Inuit legends.
FRASER: No, it does not.
RAY: Aaah, of course it does. It always does.
FRASER: Ray-- All right. Listen. When I was little, my grandparents took me on vacation to Aklavik.
RAY: What, for a little sun and sand?
FRASER: Well, hardly. It's a thriving urban center. Anyway, one day I . . . I wandered off alone when they were window shopping. There I was, all alone in a big city. The point is, Ray . . . I became hungry. . . . Very hungry. And I knew no one. I had no money. I . . . I was desperate.
RAY: So you ate a polar bear.
FRASER: Well, don't be ridiculous, Ray. I boiled my shoes. My--my Oxfords. My left Oxford, to be exact. Boy, did my grandmother ever tan my hide for that one.
RAY: Oh, that's a good one. So what's the point?
FRASER: The point is, Ray, that to be young and alone is frightening. Without proper guidance, we . . . we'll do things that are out of character.
I like the way "out of character" for Fraser is boiling his shoe, not resorting to petty theft, and I find the inadvertent window into his childhood rather poignant. I also think there's a semi-subterranean parallel being drawn between Andy, Fraser-as-child-in-Aklavik, and Fraser-in-Chicago. Of course, if Fraser considers Aklavik a big city, it's amazing he can deal with Chicago at all, and I suspect that it's because Chicago is so big, so far outside his frame of reference, he doesn't even really see it.
5. There are also parallels with "Chicago Holiday" (DS 1.7-8), with the girl and the MacGuffin (the "book" that isn't a book); I like Andy a lot better than Christina, though, mostly because she's not stupid. Also Christina's touristy desire to see the "bad" parts of Chicago is commented on, not entirely kindly, by Andy's intimate knowledge of the sewers.
6. Another reminder that most of Fraser's past, like an iceberg, is below the surface:
ANDY: You ever been to Wyoming?
FRASER: As a matter of fact, I have. I arrested a man in Wyoming.
And one just sits and wonders.
7. Nice, if obvious, symbolism in Ray catching Fraser just as he loses his grip on the ladder at the end. This episode shows Fraser and Ray's friendship at its best, with them taking the piss out of each other ("Don't be a sap, Ray.") and Ray following Fraser into the sewers, complaining all the way.
7a. Fraser's Batman-voice, as I have said before, shows up when most of his mind is somewhere else, and that's the only time we hear it in this episode.
8. I can't identify Fraser's Latin quote. Anybody tracked it down?
9. I like the various changes they begin to ring on the chain of command, and how Fraser with utmost politeness and respect circumvents and undermines it, once Thatcher shows up. I talked about the verbal duel in "The Witness" (DS 2.3), and I love Fraser as reluctant chauffeur:
THATCHER: You need to stop.
FRASER: Well, that would appear to be prohibited.
THATCHER: Stop anyway.
FRASER: Certainly.
THATCHER: You're not stopping.
FRASER: No, sir, I'm not.
I particularly love that it's impossible to tell whether Fraser is applying the "if you have to dry the dishes and you drop one on the floor" strategy or whether he is, in fact, simply being Fraser.
