Due South: "The Duel"
Sep. 5th, 2008 11:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepenny"The Duel" (DS 2.16)
Original air date: May 2, 1996
Favorite quote:
FRASER: Your assessment.
RAY: This sucks.
FRASER: That's valid.
Spoilers. In particular, among episodes I haven't gotten to yet, "Ladies' Man" and "Burning Down the House."
I: Colm Feore is a creepy son of a bitch when he wants to.
II: A lot of themes in this episode are going to come back in Seasons 3 & 4.
A. Obviously, this question of whether or not Ray Vecchio is a dirty cop. Which, in this episode, is quite distinct from the question of whether he's a lazy cop. This version of the Myth of Ray's Dishonesty is that he's such a good cop that he goes over the line. (I'm using "myth" here in the sense of a fundamental underlying story that we have to keep coming back to, not in the sense of something untrue. Because it's very carefully kept ambiguous in later seasons whether Ray may or may not have done things he shouldn't have.)
B. "Ladies' Man" covers much of the same ground from a different angle. Junior officer set up and betrayed by senior officer whom junior officer idolizes.
RAY: Will Kelly was . . . he was the best. Everybody looked up to him. He was like . . . I don't know. Imagine your dad.
FRASER: I understand.
RAY: For some reason, he thought I could do this job, that I could be really good at it. It's because of him I made detective when I did.
Imagine your dad, is an incredibly fraught comparison in Due South. So on one level, what Ray is trying to say is, "He was like a father to me, he was the ideal of what we think of when we say 'Father.'" But what he's actually saying is either (i.) Imagine Fraser's father, who was a fantastic and idolized cop but about as nurturing as a marble chainsaw, or (ii.) (using the first person singular "you") Imagine Ray' father, who was an abusive drunk. And what I love about this exchange is that it turns out that Will Kelly really is just like Ray's father. It's a beautiful piece of irony, turning as it does on the difference between the general meaning and connotations behind the signifier "father" and the specific examples of fatherhood we have in the show.
C. "Burning Down the House" seems in a lot of ways like a continuation of "The Duel." You've got the vendetta against Ray (and Fraser in "BDtH") and the cat-and-mouse games, with the specific targets of Fraser's apartment building and Ray's car, plus the invasion of Ray's house--which is much more serious in "BDtH" and also, of course, calls up the specter of Victoria, who also violates Ray's house. You have a plunge into Lake Michigan. You have the criminal done in by the need to gloat. Only in "BDtH" the apartment building and the car are actually destroyed
III. Ray's striped pajamas continue to be hideous, but that's an awesome paisley dressing gown.
IV. I'm going to come back to the language of partnership when we get to Season 3, but what I want to point out here is that neither Fraser nor Ray Vecchio uses that language. What Fraser says to the guy from the State's Attorney's office is, "Detective Vecchio is my colleague and my friend." Fraser and Ray are friends, and I don't intend or want to denigrate that. But they aren't partners.
V. Back to gender roles: Frannie is trying EXTREMELY HARD to follow the gender role she thinks she should, with the cooking and the "feminine" redecorating of Fraser's apartment, and the general behaving like June Cleaver. And she's so busy trying to get it right that she completely misses the fact that Fraser doesn't give a damn:
FRANNIE: So, um, what're we going to talk about tonight?
FRASER: Anything you like.
FRANNIE: When I'm with my friends--my girlfriends--we talk about, you know, skin care products and things like that, but, uh--
FRASER: That sounds interesting.
FRANNIE: No, I read enough magazines to know that, you know, with each guy you talk about what he's interested in.
FRASER: I see.
FRANNIE: So, uh, how 'bout that Iditarod, huh?
FRASER: Which Iditarod?
And notice that when Frannie forgets herself and does talk about skin care, Fraser is genuinely interested--until he gets distracted by the fire, but that's a different problem.
(I'm now having visions of Frannie meeting Miss Fraser.)
Original air date: May 2, 1996
Favorite quote:
FRASER: Your assessment.
RAY: This sucks.
FRASER: That's valid.
Spoilers. In particular, among episodes I haven't gotten to yet, "Ladies' Man" and "Burning Down the House."
I: Colm Feore is a creepy son of a bitch when he wants to.
II: A lot of themes in this episode are going to come back in Seasons 3 & 4.
A. Obviously, this question of whether or not Ray Vecchio is a dirty cop. Which, in this episode, is quite distinct from the question of whether he's a lazy cop. This version of the Myth of Ray's Dishonesty is that he's such a good cop that he goes over the line. (I'm using "myth" here in the sense of a fundamental underlying story that we have to keep coming back to, not in the sense of something untrue. Because it's very carefully kept ambiguous in later seasons whether Ray may or may not have done things he shouldn't have.)
B. "Ladies' Man" covers much of the same ground from a different angle. Junior officer set up and betrayed by senior officer whom junior officer idolizes.
RAY: Will Kelly was . . . he was the best. Everybody looked up to him. He was like . . . I don't know. Imagine your dad.
FRASER: I understand.
RAY: For some reason, he thought I could do this job, that I could be really good at it. It's because of him I made detective when I did.
Imagine your dad, is an incredibly fraught comparison in Due South. So on one level, what Ray is trying to say is, "He was like a father to me, he was the ideal of what we think of when we say 'Father.'" But what he's actually saying is either (i.) Imagine Fraser's father, who was a fantastic and idolized cop but about as nurturing as a marble chainsaw, or (ii.) (using the first person singular "you") Imagine Ray' father, who was an abusive drunk. And what I love about this exchange is that it turns out that Will Kelly really is just like Ray's father. It's a beautiful piece of irony, turning as it does on the difference between the general meaning and connotations behind the signifier "father" and the specific examples of fatherhood we have in the show.
C. "Burning Down the House" seems in a lot of ways like a continuation of "The Duel." You've got the vendetta against Ray (and Fraser in "BDtH") and the cat-and-mouse games, with the specific targets of Fraser's apartment building and Ray's car, plus the invasion of Ray's house--which is much more serious in "BDtH" and also, of course, calls up the specter of Victoria, who also violates Ray's house. You have a plunge into Lake Michigan. You have the criminal done in by the need to gloat. Only in "BDtH" the apartment building and the car are actually destroyed
III. Ray's striped pajamas continue to be hideous, but that's an awesome paisley dressing gown.
IV. I'm going to come back to the language of partnership when we get to Season 3, but what I want to point out here is that neither Fraser nor Ray Vecchio uses that language. What Fraser says to the guy from the State's Attorney's office is, "Detective Vecchio is my colleague and my friend." Fraser and Ray are friends, and I don't intend or want to denigrate that. But they aren't partners.
V. Back to gender roles: Frannie is trying EXTREMELY HARD to follow the gender role she thinks she should, with the cooking and the "feminine" redecorating of Fraser's apartment, and the general behaving like June Cleaver. And she's so busy trying to get it right that she completely misses the fact that Fraser doesn't give a damn:
FRANNIE: So, um, what're we going to talk about tonight?
FRASER: Anything you like.
FRANNIE: When I'm with my friends--my girlfriends--we talk about, you know, skin care products and things like that, but, uh--
FRASER: That sounds interesting.
FRANNIE: No, I read enough magazines to know that, you know, with each guy you talk about what he's interested in.
FRASER: I see.
FRANNIE: So, uh, how 'bout that Iditarod, huh?
FRASER: Which Iditarod?
And notice that when Frannie forgets herself and does talk about skin care, Fraser is genuinely interested--until he gets distracted by the fire, but that's a different problem.
(I'm now having visions of Frannie meeting Miss Fraser.)
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You realise...
Date: 2008-09-05 06:48 pm (UTC)Re: You realise...
Date: 2008-09-06 04:31 am (UTC)Re: You realise...
Date: 2008-09-06 08:40 am (UTC)not a problem
Date: 2008-09-08 04:55 pm (UTC)Thanks for the recommendation, though. Are there REALLY two characters in this show called Ray, though? That would drive me NUTS.
Re: not a problem
Date: 2008-09-09 12:46 pm (UTC)And yes, there are two Rays. Just not at the same time. :)
Re: aware that they exist, yes...
Date: 2008-09-09 03:35 pm (UTC)Lo siento!
Date: 2008-09-09 03:53 pm (UTC)& because no one is reading these anymore
Date: 2019-07-10 08:58 pm (UTC)PS
Date: 2008-09-06 04:44 am (UTC)Also I find it interesting to compare Ray K's similarly self-defeating interactions with women, particularly Luanne in "A Likely Story" and Maggie Mackenzie in "Hunting Season". For some reason even though Ray V also whined about not getting any, his actual behavior around women he was interested in didn't have that same quality of "I'll make myself into whatever you want to hear" when the target is not trying to play games but wants a real human interaction. It's like Due South is showing us how stereotyped gender roles and patriarchy-dictated mating games are so immature, they're really just ways of hiding your true self, and the brave and mature individuals are the ones who make an honest effort to connect on a human level. I think Ida in "Body Language" and Janet in "Bounty Hunter" displayed the ability to connect on this level.
no subject
Date: 2008-09-07 02:46 pm (UTC)even...
Date: 2009-03-06 05:58 pm (UTC)Regardless, I almost always enjoy an episode that is mostly about Ray. I think Mr. Marciano does an excellent job, adding levels & levels to some pretty standard situations. His little talk w/ Angela- oh that broke my heart....
Riffing on your thoughts about partners & partnerships: Encountering a former PARTNER of Ray made me realise that (ridiculously late in show, of course), unlike Hewey & Louis & most other cops in cop shows, Ray has NO OFFICIAL partner. Obviously the construction of the show sets Fraser to be his partner, but as a Chicago PD cop, I suddenly realised how odd it was that he didn't have anyone CURRENTLY assigned to work with him.
Also found it interesting that this is the rudest I've ever seen Fraser be to Frannie. He certainly has cause, but to have him come right out & say "You're going to find ANYTHING I say interesting, aren't you?" is almost a slap from him.
Re: even...
Date: 2010-11-29 01:41 am (UTC)Fraser has spent so long not being backed.
This ep has some synergy with Juliet Lies Bleeding, where Fraser goes questioning because something in the 'official' story doesn't set right with him.