Due South: "Spy vs. Spy"
Jan. 13th, 2009 04:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
truepenny"Spy vs. Spy" (DS 3.8)
Original air date: November 2, 1997
Favorite quote:
RAY: I hate this part. I really hate this part.
FRASER: It's all part of life, Ray.
RAY: Look, don't tell me it's a part of life, Fraser. I know it's a part of life. It's the worst part.
FRASER: You know, eternity waits for us all, Ray, and in the knowledge that there's something larger than ourselves, I find a certain peace.
[beat]
RAY: You lick anything, I mean anything, I'm gone.
FRASER: Understood.
Spoilers.
So this is an episode about narrative conventions and expectations. It's also an episode about being old and alone and afraid and possibly crazy.
The thing is, we never know, first to last, whether Albert Hanrahan is or ever was a spy. Certainly, the message he intercepts is not meant for him, and there is no sign that anyone, on any side, is trying to activate Albert Hanrahan back into the Great Game. He may be exactly what he seems: an old man with a delusion. And a plate in his head that picks up taxi calls. Notice that Ruth runs rings around Albert without trying; notice also that Fraser knows at least as much about espionage--or about paranoia--as Albert does. Albert's delusion happens to cross the comic-opera Russian spy game of Nadia and her cohort, and that in turn happens to intersect the primeval struggle between Pike and Nautilus . . . who just happens to be, as part of her cover, Albert's girlfriend. There are also layers of surreality and contrareality slashing through these narratives, most noticeably surrounding Pike, who is the embodiment of a certain strain of American mythology about espionage: middle-aged men in hats and trenchcoats and big black cars, who are simultaneously omniscient and ineffectual. (Also compare Pike with the equally surreal agents in "The Edge.")
Pike is also very useful to this episode for providing exposition. He gives Fraser the information about Nautilus and the Colonels that power the MacGuffin (really, don't think too hard about what the spies are doing), and with Ray, he tells us what Ray Vecchio is doing--information that I'm not sure they could have gotten into the show any other way--and some more about Ray himself:
PIKE: You graduated from high school with a 61% average.
RAY: 62!
PIKE: That's a failing average where I come from! You're 5 foot 10 and a half. You weigh 159 pounds. Your vision is 20/60. You've got . . . no. 20/45.
RAY: Astigmatism! I have astigmatism.
PIKE: You've got a tattoo on your left shoulder of a Champion spark plug.
RAY: That's right shoulder! Right!
PIKE: Satellite photos are often reversed.
This is like the evil mirror version of what Fraser does in "Eclipse," where he gives Ray back to himself by telling him about his record. Pike is browbeating him with details (some of which are wrong), essentially accusing him of being himself. And of course focusing on weak points: the 62 average and the terrible eyesight. Also, Pike doesn't tell Ray about Nautilus, which leads to the lovely metatheatrical moment at the climax:
RAY: Hello, am I the only one here who doesn't know who Nautilus is?
FRASER: Yes, it would appear so, Ray. [to Nautilus] I had my suspicions when I first disarmed you. The way you laid your finger along the trigger. It was very professional.
RAY: Partners means sharing. You ever hear that, Fraser?
FRASER: Yes, I understand that, but we deal with it--
RAY: --partners--
FRASER: --we deal with it later--
RAY: --sharing--
FRASER: --[to Nautilus] and when you strangled Yuri, you used your knitting for the garotte.
This is the same issue that we see in "Mountie and Soul"; the same issue that's going to explode in "Mountie on the Bounty." Fraser is not being Ray's partner.
Otherwise, Fraser and Ray in this episode are doing a very good Fraser-and-Ray-Vecchio impression, from the banter in the beginning--
RAY: Okay, this time when you're talking to the landlord, do not volunteer that he's a wolf, okay?
FRASER: [to Dief, who has protested] You are a wolf--yes, I know, but most people aren't as open-minded as you.
RAY: Don't talk to the dog in public, Fraser. It embarrasses me.
FRASER: Understood.
RAY: Okay.
--to Fraser shamelessly exploiting Ray, both for taxi service and, okay, why is Ray sleeping in the holding cells? Because Fraser gave Albert his bed--to the tracking scene:
FRASER: There's rubber marks here where the tire was flapping . . . these metal scrapes are where he was riding on the rim . . . and this is a gasoline spill. It's low octane, there was dirt in the line.
RAY: Fraser, you think I'm losing my hair?
FRASER: No, it's full-bodied and bushy, Ray. . . . It's this way.
I almost wonder if some of this episode is actually cannibalized from a Vecchio episode that never got filmed, because while Ray Kowalski worrying about his hairline is funny, Ray Vecchio is funnier (and in character: see "A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby" and the discussion of Ray's je ne sais quoi)--and Fraser's response doubly so. Also, Fraser apartment hunting has continuity in early Season 1, whereas in Season 3, apparently he just gives up or something. On the other hand, Callum Keith Rennie certainly makes Ray's dialogue his own (notice particularly the lead up to "Fraser, you think I'm losing my hair?" as Ray is checking himself out in the side mirror while Fracer does his Great Canadian Tracker routine), and other parts of the episode could only have been written for Ray Kowalski, particularly his interactions with Welsh and, of course, the scene in the morgue. And while Fraser was mostly stuck as Ray Vecchio's annoying little brother, with Ray Kowalski, the dynamic is reversed:
FRASER: No peeking.
RAY: Wasn't.
FRASER: You were.
RAY: Wasn't.
FRASER: Liar.
But my point is that they have a groove going. They're friends enough to tease each other (FRASER: You know, Ray, it's sad. It's sad and pathetic to watch a grown man gloat over beating a dog. RAY: You have your hobbies, I have mine.) and to work together as a team. The fault lines in their relationship--the places where Ray isn't satisfied to do a Ray Vecchio impression--haven't gotten deep yet.
Original air date: November 2, 1997
Favorite quote:
RAY: I hate this part. I really hate this part.
FRASER: It's all part of life, Ray.
RAY: Look, don't tell me it's a part of life, Fraser. I know it's a part of life. It's the worst part.
FRASER: You know, eternity waits for us all, Ray, and in the knowledge that there's something larger than ourselves, I find a certain peace.
[beat]
RAY: You lick anything, I mean anything, I'm gone.
FRASER: Understood.
Spoilers.
So this is an episode about narrative conventions and expectations. It's also an episode about being old and alone and afraid and possibly crazy.
The thing is, we never know, first to last, whether Albert Hanrahan is or ever was a spy. Certainly, the message he intercepts is not meant for him, and there is no sign that anyone, on any side, is trying to activate Albert Hanrahan back into the Great Game. He may be exactly what he seems: an old man with a delusion. And a plate in his head that picks up taxi calls. Notice that Ruth runs rings around Albert without trying; notice also that Fraser knows at least as much about espionage--or about paranoia--as Albert does. Albert's delusion happens to cross the comic-opera Russian spy game of Nadia and her cohort, and that in turn happens to intersect the primeval struggle between Pike and Nautilus . . . who just happens to be, as part of her cover, Albert's girlfriend. There are also layers of surreality and contrareality slashing through these narratives, most noticeably surrounding Pike, who is the embodiment of a certain strain of American mythology about espionage: middle-aged men in hats and trenchcoats and big black cars, who are simultaneously omniscient and ineffectual. (Also compare Pike with the equally surreal agents in "The Edge.")
Pike is also very useful to this episode for providing exposition. He gives Fraser the information about Nautilus and the Colonels that power the MacGuffin (really, don't think too hard about what the spies are doing), and with Ray, he tells us what Ray Vecchio is doing--information that I'm not sure they could have gotten into the show any other way--and some more about Ray himself:
PIKE: You graduated from high school with a 61% average.
RAY: 62!
PIKE: That's a failing average where I come from! You're 5 foot 10 and a half. You weigh 159 pounds. Your vision is 20/60. You've got . . . no. 20/45.
RAY: Astigmatism! I have astigmatism.
PIKE: You've got a tattoo on your left shoulder of a Champion spark plug.
RAY: That's right shoulder! Right!
PIKE: Satellite photos are often reversed.
This is like the evil mirror version of what Fraser does in "Eclipse," where he gives Ray back to himself by telling him about his record. Pike is browbeating him with details (some of which are wrong), essentially accusing him of being himself. And of course focusing on weak points: the 62 average and the terrible eyesight. Also, Pike doesn't tell Ray about Nautilus, which leads to the lovely metatheatrical moment at the climax:
RAY: Hello, am I the only one here who doesn't know who Nautilus is?
FRASER: Yes, it would appear so, Ray. [to Nautilus] I had my suspicions when I first disarmed you. The way you laid your finger along the trigger. It was very professional.
RAY: Partners means sharing. You ever hear that, Fraser?
FRASER: Yes, I understand that, but we deal with it--
RAY: --partners--
FRASER: --we deal with it later--
RAY: --sharing--
FRASER: --[to Nautilus] and when you strangled Yuri, you used your knitting for the garotte.
This is the same issue that we see in "Mountie and Soul"; the same issue that's going to explode in "Mountie on the Bounty." Fraser is not being Ray's partner.
Otherwise, Fraser and Ray in this episode are doing a very good Fraser-and-Ray-Vecchio impression, from the banter in the beginning--
RAY: Okay, this time when you're talking to the landlord, do not volunteer that he's a wolf, okay?
FRASER: [to Dief, who has protested] You are a wolf--yes, I know, but most people aren't as open-minded as you.
RAY: Don't talk to the dog in public, Fraser. It embarrasses me.
FRASER: Understood.
RAY: Okay.
--to Fraser shamelessly exploiting Ray, both for taxi service and, okay, why is Ray sleeping in the holding cells? Because Fraser gave Albert his bed--to the tracking scene:
FRASER: There's rubber marks here where the tire was flapping . . . these metal scrapes are where he was riding on the rim . . . and this is a gasoline spill. It's low octane, there was dirt in the line.
RAY: Fraser, you think I'm losing my hair?
FRASER: No, it's full-bodied and bushy, Ray. . . . It's this way.
I almost wonder if some of this episode is actually cannibalized from a Vecchio episode that never got filmed, because while Ray Kowalski worrying about his hairline is funny, Ray Vecchio is funnier (and in character: see "A Cop, a Mountie, and a Baby" and the discussion of Ray's je ne sais quoi)--and Fraser's response doubly so. Also, Fraser apartment hunting has continuity in early Season 1, whereas in Season 3, apparently he just gives up or something. On the other hand, Callum Keith Rennie certainly makes Ray's dialogue his own (notice particularly the lead up to "Fraser, you think I'm losing my hair?" as Ray is checking himself out in the side mirror while Fracer does his Great Canadian Tracker routine), and other parts of the episode could only have been written for Ray Kowalski, particularly his interactions with Welsh and, of course, the scene in the morgue. And while Fraser was mostly stuck as Ray Vecchio's annoying little brother, with Ray Kowalski, the dynamic is reversed:
FRASER: No peeking.
RAY: Wasn't.
FRASER: You were.
RAY: Wasn't.
FRASER: Liar.
But my point is that they have a groove going. They're friends enough to tease each other (FRASER: You know, Ray, it's sad. It's sad and pathetic to watch a grown man gloat over beating a dog. RAY: You have your hobbies, I have mine.) and to work together as a team. The fault lines in their relationship--the places where Ray isn't satisfied to do a Ray Vecchio impression--haven't gotten deep yet.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-14 01:43 am (UTC)They're also utterly fascinating, and I can't wait to see the entire work completed. It's a tour de force...and an incredible resource for fandom, to boot. Thank you for sharing it.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-14 05:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-14 07:43 pm (UTC)Yes! I love that about this season of the show. RayK is not content to let Fraser get away with the crap he pulled on RayV. He pushes and pushes until Fraser changes.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-15 06:00 am (UTC)This whole episode plays to me like an unholy cross between Looney Tunes and The Pink Panther. I'm not sure whether it's a successful episode, in general: I get blinded by things like Fraser's debut in ballet, or the crates full of rubber duckies. I do definitely think you're right that it shows signs of being recycled in places from a Vecchio-era script.
Though I will never stop loving it for providing us with chessplayer!Ray Kowalski. And the little wolf-vs.-turtle hand gesture and "grr!"ing.
(I'm not sure how to take the fact that Fraser's mother bore an uncanny resemblance to a Russian spy, either. I suppose it's as fair as Pike looking like a few other characters, and yet. o_O)
)
In conclusion: Ray is totally right about Fraser not licking things in the morgue. (1) That's a pretty major health risk; (2) Can you say DNA trails and not contaminating evidence?; (3) Eeww.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 12:33 pm (UTC)And the little wolf-vs.-turtle hand gesture and "grr!"ing. And the sniff of his pit when Fraser calls him on calling the old people smelly.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-06 05:53 pm (UTC)It's also an episode about being old and alone and afraid and possibly crazy.
This is the part of the show that strikes me every time I watch it. I love how Albert's possible senility is never clarified, because I think that is pretty much how most of us go through life, without knowing our real status; and to me, Albert represents exactly who Fraser will become if left to his own (read: loner/lonely) devices. Because that is almost where Fraser is now, in some ways, with seeing his father's ghost and just not acting like a functioning member of society (IMHO: he functions within society, but not OF it) and, yes, distancing himself from a partnership with Ray.
Thanks for the brain food, I enjoy reading your analysis of the series a lot.
Don't talk to the dog in public Fraser.
Date: 2019-07-11 08:34 pm (UTC)Just sayin'...
no subject
Date: 2020-10-28 03:31 am (UTC)