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truepenny"White Men Can't Jump to Conclusions" (DS 2.13)
Original air date: April 4, 1996
Favorite quote:
RAY: Oh, and the judge is gonna love this. Your Honor, we have no case because the bang is where the bing should've been.
Spoilers.
I have two favorite things about this episode. One is Leonard Roberts (who is also my favorite thing about several episodes of Season 4 Buffy). The other is the fact that we're going to come back to this story in "Mountie and Soul" (3.7), and the comparison of the two episodes reveals some important things about storytelling and character and how the two can go together or not. For the most part, though, this episode kicks my social embarrassment squid so hard that I have trouble keeping my eyes on the screen. I admire the way that Fraser himself is completely immune to embarrassment, but I'm embarrassed for him. And the last scene is even worse, because it's the show embarrassing itself. I just want to crawl under the couch and die.
(Possibly I would feel differently if I hadn't had to look up Isiah Thomas to figure out why I was supposed to care, and Mr. Thomas gets full points for not making a cake of himself, but seriously, guys, wtf?)
So with those givens, let's talk about what the episode does do.
First of all, we're talking about friendship again. ("Friends protect one another," Fraser says to Reggie, just as in "Some Like It Red," Sister Anne says, "She thinks she's protecting her," and Fraser answers, "That's what friends do for each other.") Tyree and Reggie have a very close and interdependent friendship--"Ain't nothing separates those two," says Tyree's mother," but the need to shut they eyes every night"--but where they differ, crucially, from Celine and Melissa in "Some Like It Red" is that the friendship is equal. Tyree is willing to sacrifice himself for Reggie, but when it comes down to it, Reggie isn't willing to let him do it. (Interestingly, Reggie uses a phrase to describe them that we'll later hear from Ray Kowalski, the one-two punch.) Reggie clearly isn't the brightest porch light on the block, and I think it takes him most of the episode really to understand what Tyree's trying to do for him, but when he does understand, he stands up for himself--and for Tyree. Give and take.
And that's something that--I think--this episode is beginning to suggest Fraser and Ray actually have trouble with:
FRASER: Properly molded boots are a Mountie's prize possession. Well, that and his horse.
RAY: Well, we're not picking up your horse.
FRASER: I don't have a horse. I mean, not here.
RAY: Well, y'know, you oughta think about getting one. Because I'm getting really tired of driving you around.
And Marciano's delivery says Ray means it. He sounds tired. And later, there's another suggestion that Ray has had about as much of Fraser as he can take:
FRASER: Good news, Ray. He didn't do it.
RAY: No. Not this time.
FRASER: Not what this time?
And the long back-and-forth sequence that follows--physically back and forth as Fraser pursues Ray from bullpen to observation room and back--culminates in Ray practically begging Fraser to leave him alone for an hour. Which Fraser does--and in a masterpiece of passive-aggressive asshattery, uses the time to post Tyree's bail. And then is all injured innocence when Ray tries to call him on it. (I'm not suggesting that in fact Fraser is merely using Ray's friendship for his own benefit--"Some Like It Red" has just demonstrated how very much that isn't true--but it's clear that the day to day grind of being Fraser's gofer is wearing Ray down. And Fraser will take advantage of Ray's good nature; he does that pretty consistently.)
Fraser is wearing the Mountie like armor from the moment the episode starts--the little moralizing sermon (which is nicely deflated by the loss of his boots), the discussions with Diefenbaker (I'm wondering suddenly if Fraser's Mountie-ness can be correlated with his need to externalize his Ego's objections onto Dief, as in, the more Fraser is being The Mountie, the more likely Dief's half of the conversation is to be common sense--as for example after the umpteenth person he asks about his boots steals his dictionary, "Well, no matter what you may think, I remain undeterred."), his absolute impenetrable cluelessness when faced with Lou and his thugs--which is, by the by, completely undercut at the end:
FRASER: You're not going to shoot me, either.
LOU: Because I'm not a killer?
FRASER: No, I think you're an evil psychopath.
And then, as if he realizes he's shown too much of himself (and for Fraser on some days, "too much" is apparently "any"), he dives back into the Mountie:
FRASER [cont.]: But if you try, Detective Vecchio will blow your brains off.
RAY: Out.
FRASER: Out. I'm sorry. I stand corrected. He will blow your brains out.
The Mountie is a defense for Fraser both because he himself is invisible behind it and because he uses it to encourage people to see him as harmless. (Notice that it doesn't work on Lou at all, because Lou's assessment of what constitutes a threat stops several steps back on the decision tree before the point that Fraser's trying to leverage.) Which may also provide a hint as to why he persists in wearing those godawful white sneakers--it's not like he doesn't have other shoes; he's WEARING them in the first scene. The white sneakers are the maximum possible disjunct with the uniform, and they're a choice. It's relevant that the only time Fraser is discomfitted in the episode is when Thatcher catches him:
THATCHER: Is there a good reason why you're not standing at attention, Constable?
FRASER: I beg your pardon.
THATCHER: You heard me.
FRASER: Yes, I did.
[he moves the wastebasket to hide his feet and stands up]
THATCHER: Why did you do that?
FRASER: Do what?
THATCHER: You moved the garbage can in front of your feet.
FRASER: [astounded] Did I?
THATCHER: Are you hiding something, Constable?
FRASER: [shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!] No! . . . [reassuring] No, no . . . [off her look, abashed] Yes.
THATCHER: You're wearing sneakers.
FRASER: I lost my boots.
THATCHER: They're not yours to lose.
FRASER: I understand that, sir. It was in the process of saving a life.
THATCHER: With your boots?
FRASER: No.
And he's right. In this situation, it might as well be the terrible white sneakers.
One thing the episode is doing that I do like, as with "An Eye for an Eye," is the social commentary. The episode is very clear about what the pressures are on Tyree and Reggie, about why black inner-city Chicago teenagers make the choices they do, and (aside fromGlinda the Good Witch Isiah Thomas there at the end) it's not trying to pretend that things are going to get better. I also like, however, the way Reggie fights back against Tyree's defeatism; maybe it's just that Reggie is too stupid to understand that Tyree's right . . . but maybe it isn't.
And whereas in "An Eye for an Eye," the show suggested that Fraser was meddling in things he couldn't understand, this episode suggests the opposite. Tyree says, "Man, don't try to get into my head. You and me, we ain't nothing alike." But a point of similarity between them is almost immediately revealed (murdered fathers); at the end, Fraser lists Tyree's assets as "loyalty, integrity, and intelligence," which certainly describes Fraser himself. More than that, the insistence with which Tyree refuses likeness--in a show that is interested in parallels and mirrorings--actually suggests the opposite, that Fraser may know more than Tyree could be brought to believe about certain kinds of desperation and the choices you make when you have no choices.
But there I'm wandering off into speculation, which means it's probably time to stop.
Original air date: April 4, 1996
Favorite quote:
RAY: Oh, and the judge is gonna love this. Your Honor, we have no case because the bang is where the bing should've been.
Spoilers.
I have two favorite things about this episode. One is Leonard Roberts (who is also my favorite thing about several episodes of Season 4 Buffy). The other is the fact that we're going to come back to this story in "Mountie and Soul" (3.7), and the comparison of the two episodes reveals some important things about storytelling and character and how the two can go together or not. For the most part, though, this episode kicks my social embarrassment squid so hard that I have trouble keeping my eyes on the screen. I admire the way that Fraser himself is completely immune to embarrassment, but I'm embarrassed for him. And the last scene is even worse, because it's the show embarrassing itself. I just want to crawl under the couch and die.
(Possibly I would feel differently if I hadn't had to look up Isiah Thomas to figure out why I was supposed to care, and Mr. Thomas gets full points for not making a cake of himself, but seriously, guys, wtf?)
So with those givens, let's talk about what the episode does do.
First of all, we're talking about friendship again. ("Friends protect one another," Fraser says to Reggie, just as in "Some Like It Red," Sister Anne says, "She thinks she's protecting her," and Fraser answers, "That's what friends do for each other.") Tyree and Reggie have a very close and interdependent friendship--"Ain't nothing separates those two," says Tyree's mother," but the need to shut they eyes every night"--but where they differ, crucially, from Celine and Melissa in "Some Like It Red" is that the friendship is equal. Tyree is willing to sacrifice himself for Reggie, but when it comes down to it, Reggie isn't willing to let him do it. (Interestingly, Reggie uses a phrase to describe them that we'll later hear from Ray Kowalski, the one-two punch.) Reggie clearly isn't the brightest porch light on the block, and I think it takes him most of the episode really to understand what Tyree's trying to do for him, but when he does understand, he stands up for himself--and for Tyree. Give and take.
And that's something that--I think--this episode is beginning to suggest Fraser and Ray actually have trouble with:
FRASER: Properly molded boots are a Mountie's prize possession. Well, that and his horse.
RAY: Well, we're not picking up your horse.
FRASER: I don't have a horse. I mean, not here.
RAY: Well, y'know, you oughta think about getting one. Because I'm getting really tired of driving you around.
And Marciano's delivery says Ray means it. He sounds tired. And later, there's another suggestion that Ray has had about as much of Fraser as he can take:
FRASER: Good news, Ray. He didn't do it.
RAY: No. Not this time.
FRASER: Not what this time?
And the long back-and-forth sequence that follows--physically back and forth as Fraser pursues Ray from bullpen to observation room and back--culminates in Ray practically begging Fraser to leave him alone for an hour. Which Fraser does--and in a masterpiece of passive-aggressive asshattery, uses the time to post Tyree's bail. And then is all injured innocence when Ray tries to call him on it. (I'm not suggesting that in fact Fraser is merely using Ray's friendship for his own benefit--"Some Like It Red" has just demonstrated how very much that isn't true--but it's clear that the day to day grind of being Fraser's gofer is wearing Ray down. And Fraser will take advantage of Ray's good nature; he does that pretty consistently.)
Fraser is wearing the Mountie like armor from the moment the episode starts--the little moralizing sermon (which is nicely deflated by the loss of his boots), the discussions with Diefenbaker (I'm wondering suddenly if Fraser's Mountie-ness can be correlated with his need to externalize his Ego's objections onto Dief, as in, the more Fraser is being The Mountie, the more likely Dief's half of the conversation is to be common sense--as for example after the umpteenth person he asks about his boots steals his dictionary, "Well, no matter what you may think, I remain undeterred."), his absolute impenetrable cluelessness when faced with Lou and his thugs--which is, by the by, completely undercut at the end:
FRASER: You're not going to shoot me, either.
LOU: Because I'm not a killer?
FRASER: No, I think you're an evil psychopath.
And then, as if he realizes he's shown too much of himself (and for Fraser on some days, "too much" is apparently "any"), he dives back into the Mountie:
FRASER [cont.]: But if you try, Detective Vecchio will blow your brains off.
RAY: Out.
FRASER: Out. I'm sorry. I stand corrected. He will blow your brains out.
The Mountie is a defense for Fraser both because he himself is invisible behind it and because he uses it to encourage people to see him as harmless. (Notice that it doesn't work on Lou at all, because Lou's assessment of what constitutes a threat stops several steps back on the decision tree before the point that Fraser's trying to leverage.) Which may also provide a hint as to why he persists in wearing those godawful white sneakers--it's not like he doesn't have other shoes; he's WEARING them in the first scene. The white sneakers are the maximum possible disjunct with the uniform, and they're a choice. It's relevant that the only time Fraser is discomfitted in the episode is when Thatcher catches him:
THATCHER: Is there a good reason why you're not standing at attention, Constable?
FRASER: I beg your pardon.
THATCHER: You heard me.
FRASER: Yes, I did.
[he moves the wastebasket to hide his feet and stands up]
THATCHER: Why did you do that?
FRASER: Do what?
THATCHER: You moved the garbage can in front of your feet.
FRASER: [astounded] Did I?
THATCHER: Are you hiding something, Constable?
FRASER: [shocked, SHOCKED I tell you!] No! . . . [reassuring] No, no . . . [off her look, abashed] Yes.
THATCHER: You're wearing sneakers.
FRASER: I lost my boots.
THATCHER: They're not yours to lose.
FRASER: I understand that, sir. It was in the process of saving a life.
THATCHER: With your boots?
FRASER: No.
And he's right. In this situation, it might as well be the terrible white sneakers.
One thing the episode is doing that I do like, as with "An Eye for an Eye," is the social commentary. The episode is very clear about what the pressures are on Tyree and Reggie, about why black inner-city Chicago teenagers make the choices they do, and (aside from
And whereas in "An Eye for an Eye," the show suggested that Fraser was meddling in things he couldn't understand, this episode suggests the opposite. Tyree says, "Man, don't try to get into my head. You and me, we ain't nothing alike." But a point of similarity between them is almost immediately revealed (murdered fathers); at the end, Fraser lists Tyree's assets as "loyalty, integrity, and intelligence," which certainly describes Fraser himself. More than that, the insistence with which Tyree refuses likeness--in a show that is interested in parallels and mirrorings--actually suggests the opposite, that Fraser may know more than Tyree could be brought to believe about certain kinds of desperation and the choices you make when you have no choices.
But there I'm wandering off into speculation, which means it's probably time to stop.
