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days of elaine
I had this peculiar idea that once I started my summer job I would run out of time to do dS watching with commentary; obviously I forgot that after a long day out doing non-intellectual things, I like nothing better than shutting myself up in my room and writing complex sentences about attractive Mounties and Chicago cops.
3x03 I Coulda Been a Defendant
I am a little puzzled by Ray's reaction to guns. I mean, it's technically possible he made a good call arresting Bruce considering the plethora of forged documents, but really? Welsh has a point. A lot of people have guns. But Ray sees a gun and has this Pavlovian "GUN!" reaction. Is this normal? I have no idea, but I do know Vecchio never did it.
The entire little scene in the observation room makes me grin, though. Ray's a poet on the inside! which is one of my favourite Kowalski factoids, because he's the one who says it and I love that he thinks that about himself. (It's kind of true, too; after a while he sort of gets Fraser's weird aesthetic view of the world, and even if he kind of babbles and doesn't always have the right words, just as Fraser always has the right words but often doesn't say anything at all, Ray can have a lot of wrong words and still convey things really well. Hi, there is a very good reason I love writing this man.) It's also the scene where Fraser offers to talk to Bruce and Ray says, "Torture. That might work," which cracks Fraser up, albeit in a mild Fraserish way, and although he says "That's very funny, Ray," in the admonishing voice, he clearly means it; I think they kind of have the same sense of humor? Excuse me while I sit in a corner and draw more hearts around them.
"All women are our sisters." OH FRASER. I'm not entirely sure why Fraser has defaulted back to his s1 treating-of-women assumptions, although it's always a good idea to advise people to think of Frannie as a sister. Of course, it's also possible that, since Fraser has already admitted to finding Ray attractive, he's also making a valiant attempt at laying groundwork to let Ray know that, yes, actually he means it -- but that's probably giving Fraser too much of a specific kind of credit, and I am slightly wary of assigning shippy motivations despite the pseudo-canonicity and acknowledged subtext. Meanwhile Ray is not quite done wondering if Fraser is from another planet, because obviously Frannie is attractive and Fraser is a nut. Except I think Ray gets over the "God no, I have to pretend the hottie is my sister," pretty quickly, because he actually gets to know Frannie and they do end up being kind of sibling-y at each other. Bless.
Ray can be such a child sometimes. He does this sarcastic little imitation of Kevin Spender followed by a very obvious "I don't like him," and hi, when's the last time you saw that in a fourth-grade classroom? Oh Ray. Besides acting like a nine-year-old and disliking being told to go to his room, he also makes a little "woo-hoo!" noise when they're all going to camp out. Such a child. I note this because I think it has a tendency to be forgotten, but it absolutely charms me and is one of my favourite things about Ray.
Things in Ray's apartment: red curtains, lots of decorative stuff on the walls (including neon wall clock), bicycle, two cacti, turtle tank, unfinished 3-D puzzle. I like it because, unlike Vecchio who pretty much just expresses himself via absurd Armani and has just your normal functional living quarters, and unlike Fraser whose personal effects are unsurprising Fraserish things like books and pictures of arctic wilderness, Kowalski has this weird eclectic collection of stuff. He probably rides that bike; he has generally weird taste, see: silly striped boxers and now all the random decorative stuff scattered around the apartment; he likes the idea of puzzles even if he doesn't finish them; he actually has other living creatures in his care, albeit low-maintenance desert flora and fauna. Ray is ... really not straightforward at all, is the awesome thing, even if not all of it gets talked about. And I think I'd like to outright reject the notion that he was just living in the sad remnants of his old life before Fraser came along; the sheer amount of interesting-looking stuff in his place suggests otherwise.
It just occurred to me that, as much as there is this insistence that Ray gets words mixed up a lot of the time because he does once in a while and it's a fun trait to play up, it must be secretly awesome for him to have Frannie and her malapropisms around. He has someone to correct! It's probably also of note that he'll correct her when Fraser won't, but that Fraser doesn't hesitate to correct Ray, and that Ray just kind of pauses, repeats the correction, and moves on. Actually he also gets to do it back at Fraser when Fraser occasionally mangles idioms, although that particular interaction isn't unique to the two of them. I love all the things that aren't said or are said incorrectly or are accidentally said right in this show. (Divorce, undercover work, and word-mangling; way to have seriously weird thematic threads, show!)
And again, Fraser and Ray understanding one another's humor: Fraser says Turnbull used to own this little bare apartment but that he didn't need something quite so well-appointed, Ray wants to know if he now lives in a cardboard box, Fraser says, "Mm-hm. A very nice one, though," and Ray sort of breathes a laugh in the background. They get really wicked around each other, actually. <3
Apparently Ray is able to function on most cylinders without a morning cup of chocolate-y coffee, considering that he more or less is awake and coherent as fast as I am on a good day; I am thinking this means the constant jitteriness is inborn and doesn't have that much to do with his caffeine intake, although I imagine the coffee still helps.
I adore, possibly more than is strictly reasonable, the fact that Ray actually says, "Fraser, I love you," on screen, although this first time he adds like a brother, as you do when you really want to tell someone something but automatically disguise it with a qualifier. What I really love about it, though, is the fact that it's part of a sentence where Ray's trying to cut off Fraser's story about his first posting to, apparently, a remote community on the edge an ice floe -- because Ray's already heard that story. So not only has Fraser started telling Ray tales of his life previous to Chicago (possibly as a return for the little-Ray-in-a-bank story?) but Ray's remembered it, and I think the interruption was more for Elaine's sake than because he dislikes the story or anything.
And now no more Elaine! I miss her. Does anyone know of good Elaine fic?
3x04 Strange Bedfellows
Okay, the thing about this episode is that actually Ray really sucks at undercover. You're Vecchio; what are you doing introducing Stella as your ex-wife? I suppose it doesn't actually matter as long as no one pays too much attention, but I know that if I ever try to do a coherent breakdown of all the times Ray's cover could be blown, I'd get a headache and somewhere Vecchio would die. On the other hand it's the sort of awkward plot hole that is actually very useful in all sorts of fic, so I am not complaining too much.
Ray and the word association! "Chainsaw." "Massacre." "Closet." "What kinda question is that?" Here's my theory of Ray's internal state: he sees too many dumb horror movies, and also who the hell gets twitchy when someone just asks them to word-associate closet? I know, Ray, let's do that and then go stalking your ex-wife! That should take care of any inappropriate and possibly closet-related feelings you might be having right now. (I apologize, but only a little; when the subtext is acknowledged I'm damn well going to be looking for it, and I am already fond of the use of closets in due South. Although that kind of begs the question of what it means if Bob moves into one ...)
All talk of subtext aside, though, it's important that Ray really is still genuinely in love with Stella. I am absolutely sure it is a habit of twenty-plus years more than real feeling, and that he just hasn't yet learned how to be Ray without having the tag in-love-with-Stella attached. In large part this is because my own definition of being in love includes caring for the other person enough that you're willing to put their happiness before your own, which means that if Ray heard Stella was dating someone seriously, the reasonably sane reaction should be to feel happy for her even if it makes him miserable, not to go all older-brother and suspiciously check up on the guy. But Ray is needy and not selfless and that is (barely) okay because by Stella's admission he never actually went over the line.
As an aside, I bet it drove Ray nuts whenever Stella left in the middle of a fight, because there would never be any sane way for Ray to yell after her. I am pretty sure an old ridiculous frustration about that is at least a small part of why Ray starts beating up his own dashboard. And the look on Fraser's face! I don't think Fraser has ever been quite in the Ray-and-Stella place, but he has been in similar places and also at this point he has absolutely taken Ray on. He says he thinks Ray is acting strangely, but that is absolutely the look of empathetic understanding.
And as the scene goes on he gets the I'm-not-crying-really look, which is ... kind of amazing, actually. Welcome to the world of Fraser allowing someone into his heart and then empathizing to the point of pain. I think this is really damn important, too: he does it all the time first season, but after Victoria he nearly doesn't do it at all. He still saves the day, but in a particularly duty-bound way; it's not until Bruce Spender this last episode that his ability to connect really gets its resonance back. For the sake of tracking coherent patterns, I want to say it's because Eclipse was also really important; Ray told Fraser things about himself with a pretty startling amount of honesty (and continues to do so here; there's a reason Fraser looks like he's nearly about to cry in this scene, and it's absolutely because Ray's willingly laying himself bare again) and in return Fraser's responding by beginning to really reconnect. I think there are going to be a lot of points during the Kowalski seasons where I figuratively flail my arms wildly and shout happy things about symbiosis, and this is definitely one of those times.
What I really love, though, is that with Ray around not all of Fraser's acts of kindness are full of shiny Good. He wants Ray to feel better about Stella's breakfast date with Orsini; first of all he tries the "maybe nothing happened" route, which is a pretty normal Fraser tactic, but when Ray doesn't buy that one, his second attempt involves hitting Orsini with a car door. The first time I saw it I thought it was just a happy accident, but then I became suspicious, and I can report with certainty that Fraser definitely meant to do it, considering that Ray mutters, "Thank you, Fraser," and before Fraser gets out and apologizes, he half-turns, gives Ray a little glare, and goes, "Shh!" Let's go over this again: the politest Mountie on the planet hit a man with a car door because Ray Kowalski is upset over a woman who won't even give either of them the time of day. Remember what I said about being in love involving caring for the other person enough that you're willing to put their happiness before your own? Yeah. (Not that I would venture to say Fraser is even close to aware of it at this point. He probably still lives in the world where it has to be an Epic Love Story and I doubt he feels like he's known Ray across a thousand lifetimes or any rubbish like that. These things take time.)
Okay, here's the thing: I don't know what to do with Stella. I mean, I don't have to do anything with Stella, but I have a difficult time making a compelling case for actually liking her. The fact that Ray's obviously in love with her should really count in her favor, but considering that he fell for her when he was thirteen, I'm not sure it actually tells us much. A possibly better point in her favor is that she's still good friends with her ex-mother-in-law who, by the way, lives halfway across the country. I don't have a terribly good recollection of anything Barbara Kowalski does in her five minutes of screen-time besides do her best to mother Ray, but I do remember that I really liked her, so if she and Stella get along I imagine it's a good thing. It's a deeply weird dynamic, though -- Stella tells Barbara that she's seriously seeing someone, Barbara reports back to Ray, Ray goes following Stella. Hi, that's all kind of unhealthy.
I'm going to continue trying to figure Stella out, because I want to understand her (and, it generally follows, like her; I wasn't sure what to do with Thatcher but the moment she made sense to me I adored her), but I think my real problem is a very simple one: she doesn't like Fraser. That at least is completely understandable; he's manifestly Ray's best friend and therefore at this point not someone she's necessarily going to give the benefit of the doubt, especially since he keeps trying to intervene on Ray's behalf and no one really enjoys a third party managing one's relationship. Despite, or possibly because, this is the only thing I really get about Stella, I'm not inclined to like her much -- no matter how justified her brushing-off of Fraser, it's Fraser, and a fairly good guiding principle for this show is that if someone responds well to Fraser, at some level they are or will be okay, whereas if someone responds badly, they are probably Bad. (Victoria does break this trend; she loves Fraser, f'rgodsakes, and she is obviously Bad -- so maybe Stella breaks it in the opposite way?) Anyway, despite not being terribly nice to the protagonists whose side we are meant to take, I don't think Stella is even lowercase bad, but it makes her ... difficult, narratively.
Something that I do genuinely like about Stella, though, is her ability to stand up for herself (without even the self-consciousness with which Meg Thatcher sometimes does similar! it is oddly refreshing). No fuss is really made about it, but she was brave in a bank when she was a child and she is obviously calm and in control when Dwayne Weston bothers his (in-the-process-of-ex?) wife; in pretty much every situation Ray wants to intervene and protect her, but she doesn't need it. This is good news for Stella and, as I said, I like that about her, but it's terrible news for Ray Kowalski, neediest guy on the planet. I think that also goes some way to explaining why she doesn't like Fraser; aside from the fact that he is With Ray and therefore not really in her good books, Stella obviously hates being told her own business, and -- wow, as someone who solves her own problems, it makes perfect sense that she might resent Fraser a little; who died and made him her savior? I think it's also telling that she turns on Ray and says, "You always have an opinion!" I'm not entirely sure what to make of that, but she clearly doesn't like it much; I have no idea what Stella wanted of Ray, honestly, but what he thought she wanted of him was way off the mark and is probably a large part of why they didn't work out.
All this really begs the question of why the hell she's with Orsini, though. I think ... okay, bear with me, it is time for a Theory of Stella. She starts to be concerned that Orsini didn't put in enough housing units; he efficiently derails her by asking her where she wants to eat, and proposes a place where he loves what the light on the water does to her eyes. I think that means Stella has a grace period; be sufficiently romantic, and you've got her for a little while. Ray got her for longer than just a little while -- I doubt they dated since they were thirteen and ended up getting married, because Stella does not strike me as that ... impractical? that kind of romantic? but I'm sure they were friends, which means that as long as Ray took Stella out dancing and apologized on time, she could overlook whatever things about him she perceived as faults for longer. It even re-works on her from time to time, witness the way she and Ray kind of jerk each other around in this episode and keep on nearly sleeping together -- that is absolutely a mutual fault, because she knows it's not a good idea, but damn, if you had Ray working that hard to love you again, I think you'd have the occasional slip too even if you knew it wasn't going to work. In the end, though, romancing doesn't actually work on Stella, because she seems to be pretty practical and also self-sufficient, and she's going to figure you out. Mm, I don't know if that means I can ever really like Stella, but that definitely has a lot to do with the fact that I have a Ray-shaped blind spot and don't want to imagine willingly giving him up, even though I can imagine it well enough to say I'm glad Stella got out and moved on, and maybe I can bring myself to be genuinely excited about the Stella/Vecchio at the end.
The look Fraser gets on his face watching Ray dance is more or less the look I get on my face watching Ray dance. I am absolutely allowed to take that as evidence. (Also: "Nah, you're the smart one, I'm just pretty." I love that line even though Stella does not respond to it properly. Ray! Ray, go find someone responsive. Like that Mountie with that look on his face.) Heh. Strange Bedfellows, or: Screencaps of Fraser Looking Lovestruck.
Something I did not remember, but is very much worth note: Ray doesn't follow Stella into her apartment the first time, and it's not because he screws up, but because he specifically declines because he knows they might end up sleeping together. After Orsini's out of the picture he's all for it, but while she's actually seeing someone else -- Ray might still want her and maybe follow her around a little, but the point is that he really is just trying to look out for her, and he's still a really decent human being. He might tell himself he sucks, but in fact he doesn't at all.
Welsh and Ray interrogate Orsini's man together! I just want to reiterate how much I adore their relationship. They work well together and it's wonderful, and honestly I feel kind of sorry for Vecchio, because Welsh mostly just sat there and was sarcastic at him instead of being supportive and offering camaraderie. I am sure Welsh and Kowalski know each other from before Ray took the Vecchio job.
Ray says, "Wanna ride?" and both Stella and Fraser say, "Yes, thank you," at the same time. Fraser is absolutely gracious in his understanding that Ray was offering to Stella, but I think I like that little scene -- if Stella still has feelings for Ray, even if they're officially done, she actually has a perfectly valid reason to dislike Fraser. I doubt it's conscious, but I also doubt I manufactured that moment of parallel, and the subtext is kind of through the roof. It's okay, Stella! When it's all over you and Vecchio get each other kind of as consolation prizes. Oh man.
Ray at the end shadow-dancing breaks my heart a little every time. I'd say Thatcher catching Fraser talking to his dad in a closet mends it, but because that scene comes first, the show is obviously just cruel and wants to crush my little Ray-loving soul.
3x03 I Coulda Been a Defendant
I am a little puzzled by Ray's reaction to guns. I mean, it's technically possible he made a good call arresting Bruce considering the plethora of forged documents, but really? Welsh has a point. A lot of people have guns. But Ray sees a gun and has this Pavlovian "GUN!" reaction. Is this normal? I have no idea, but I do know Vecchio never did it.
The entire little scene in the observation room makes me grin, though. Ray's a poet on the inside! which is one of my favourite Kowalski factoids, because he's the one who says it and I love that he thinks that about himself. (It's kind of true, too; after a while he sort of gets Fraser's weird aesthetic view of the world, and even if he kind of babbles and doesn't always have the right words, just as Fraser always has the right words but often doesn't say anything at all, Ray can have a lot of wrong words and still convey things really well. Hi, there is a very good reason I love writing this man.) It's also the scene where Fraser offers to talk to Bruce and Ray says, "Torture. That might work," which cracks Fraser up, albeit in a mild Fraserish way, and although he says "That's very funny, Ray," in the admonishing voice, he clearly means it; I think they kind of have the same sense of humor? Excuse me while I sit in a corner and draw more hearts around them.
"All women are our sisters." OH FRASER. I'm not entirely sure why Fraser has defaulted back to his s1 treating-of-women assumptions, although it's always a good idea to advise people to think of Frannie as a sister. Of course, it's also possible that, since Fraser has already admitted to finding Ray attractive, he's also making a valiant attempt at laying groundwork to let Ray know that, yes, actually he means it -- but that's probably giving Fraser too much of a specific kind of credit, and I am slightly wary of assigning shippy motivations despite the pseudo-canonicity and acknowledged subtext. Meanwhile Ray is not quite done wondering if Fraser is from another planet, because obviously Frannie is attractive and Fraser is a nut. Except I think Ray gets over the "God no, I have to pretend the hottie is my sister," pretty quickly, because he actually gets to know Frannie and they do end up being kind of sibling-y at each other. Bless.
Ray can be such a child sometimes. He does this sarcastic little imitation of Kevin Spender followed by a very obvious "I don't like him," and hi, when's the last time you saw that in a fourth-grade classroom? Oh Ray. Besides acting like a nine-year-old and disliking being told to go to his room, he also makes a little "woo-hoo!" noise when they're all going to camp out. Such a child. I note this because I think it has a tendency to be forgotten, but it absolutely charms me and is one of my favourite things about Ray.
Things in Ray's apartment: red curtains, lots of decorative stuff on the walls (including neon wall clock), bicycle, two cacti, turtle tank, unfinished 3-D puzzle. I like it because, unlike Vecchio who pretty much just expresses himself via absurd Armani and has just your normal functional living quarters, and unlike Fraser whose personal effects are unsurprising Fraserish things like books and pictures of arctic wilderness, Kowalski has this weird eclectic collection of stuff. He probably rides that bike; he has generally weird taste, see: silly striped boxers and now all the random decorative stuff scattered around the apartment; he likes the idea of puzzles even if he doesn't finish them; he actually has other living creatures in his care, albeit low-maintenance desert flora and fauna. Ray is ... really not straightforward at all, is the awesome thing, even if not all of it gets talked about. And I think I'd like to outright reject the notion that he was just living in the sad remnants of his old life before Fraser came along; the sheer amount of interesting-looking stuff in his place suggests otherwise.
It just occurred to me that, as much as there is this insistence that Ray gets words mixed up a lot of the time because he does once in a while and it's a fun trait to play up, it must be secretly awesome for him to have Frannie and her malapropisms around. He has someone to correct! It's probably also of note that he'll correct her when Fraser won't, but that Fraser doesn't hesitate to correct Ray, and that Ray just kind of pauses, repeats the correction, and moves on. Actually he also gets to do it back at Fraser when Fraser occasionally mangles idioms, although that particular interaction isn't unique to the two of them. I love all the things that aren't said or are said incorrectly or are accidentally said right in this show. (Divorce, undercover work, and word-mangling; way to have seriously weird thematic threads, show!)
And again, Fraser and Ray understanding one another's humor: Fraser says Turnbull used to own this little bare apartment but that he didn't need something quite so well-appointed, Ray wants to know if he now lives in a cardboard box, Fraser says, "Mm-hm. A very nice one, though," and Ray sort of breathes a laugh in the background. They get really wicked around each other, actually. <3
Apparently Ray is able to function on most cylinders without a morning cup of chocolate-y coffee, considering that he more or less is awake and coherent as fast as I am on a good day; I am thinking this means the constant jitteriness is inborn and doesn't have that much to do with his caffeine intake, although I imagine the coffee still helps.
I adore, possibly more than is strictly reasonable, the fact that Ray actually says, "Fraser, I love you," on screen, although this first time he adds like a brother, as you do when you really want to tell someone something but automatically disguise it with a qualifier. What I really love about it, though, is the fact that it's part of a sentence where Ray's trying to cut off Fraser's story about his first posting to, apparently, a remote community on the edge an ice floe -- because Ray's already heard that story. So not only has Fraser started telling Ray tales of his life previous to Chicago (possibly as a return for the little-Ray-in-a-bank story?) but Ray's remembered it, and I think the interruption was more for Elaine's sake than because he dislikes the story or anything.
And now no more Elaine! I miss her. Does anyone know of good Elaine fic?
3x04 Strange Bedfellows
Okay, the thing about this episode is that actually Ray really sucks at undercover. You're Vecchio; what are you doing introducing Stella as your ex-wife? I suppose it doesn't actually matter as long as no one pays too much attention, but I know that if I ever try to do a coherent breakdown of all the times Ray's cover could be blown, I'd get a headache and somewhere Vecchio would die. On the other hand it's the sort of awkward plot hole that is actually very useful in all sorts of fic, so I am not complaining too much.
Ray and the word association! "Chainsaw." "Massacre." "Closet." "What kinda question is that?" Here's my theory of Ray's internal state: he sees too many dumb horror movies, and also who the hell gets twitchy when someone just asks them to word-associate closet? I know, Ray, let's do that and then go stalking your ex-wife! That should take care of any inappropriate and possibly closet-related feelings you might be having right now. (I apologize, but only a little; when the subtext is acknowledged I'm damn well going to be looking for it, and I am already fond of the use of closets in due South. Although that kind of begs the question of what it means if Bob moves into one ...)
All talk of subtext aside, though, it's important that Ray really is still genuinely in love with Stella. I am absolutely sure it is a habit of twenty-plus years more than real feeling, and that he just hasn't yet learned how to be Ray without having the tag in-love-with-Stella attached. In large part this is because my own definition of being in love includes caring for the other person enough that you're willing to put their happiness before your own, which means that if Ray heard Stella was dating someone seriously, the reasonably sane reaction should be to feel happy for her even if it makes him miserable, not to go all older-brother and suspiciously check up on the guy. But Ray is needy and not selfless and that is (barely) okay because by Stella's admission he never actually went over the line.
As an aside, I bet it drove Ray nuts whenever Stella left in the middle of a fight, because there would never be any sane way for Ray to yell after her. I am pretty sure an old ridiculous frustration about that is at least a small part of why Ray starts beating up his own dashboard. And the look on Fraser's face! I don't think Fraser has ever been quite in the Ray-and-Stella place, but he has been in similar places and also at this point he has absolutely taken Ray on. He says he thinks Ray is acting strangely, but that is absolutely the look of empathetic understanding.
And as the scene goes on he gets the I'm-not-crying-really look, which is ... kind of amazing, actually. Welcome to the world of Fraser allowing someone into his heart and then empathizing to the point of pain. I think this is really damn important, too: he does it all the time first season, but after Victoria he nearly doesn't do it at all. He still saves the day, but in a particularly duty-bound way; it's not until Bruce Spender this last episode that his ability to connect really gets its resonance back. For the sake of tracking coherent patterns, I want to say it's because Eclipse was also really important; Ray told Fraser things about himself with a pretty startling amount of honesty (and continues to do so here; there's a reason Fraser looks like he's nearly about to cry in this scene, and it's absolutely because Ray's willingly laying himself bare again) and in return Fraser's responding by beginning to really reconnect. I think there are going to be a lot of points during the Kowalski seasons where I figuratively flail my arms wildly and shout happy things about symbiosis, and this is definitely one of those times.
What I really love, though, is that with Ray around not all of Fraser's acts of kindness are full of shiny Good. He wants Ray to feel better about Stella's breakfast date with Orsini; first of all he tries the "maybe nothing happened" route, which is a pretty normal Fraser tactic, but when Ray doesn't buy that one, his second attempt involves hitting Orsini with a car door. The first time I saw it I thought it was just a happy accident, but then I became suspicious, and I can report with certainty that Fraser definitely meant to do it, considering that Ray mutters, "Thank you, Fraser," and before Fraser gets out and apologizes, he half-turns, gives Ray a little glare, and goes, "Shh!" Let's go over this again: the politest Mountie on the planet hit a man with a car door because Ray Kowalski is upset over a woman who won't even give either of them the time of day. Remember what I said about being in love involving caring for the other person enough that you're willing to put their happiness before your own? Yeah. (Not that I would venture to say Fraser is even close to aware of it at this point. He probably still lives in the world where it has to be an Epic Love Story and I doubt he feels like he's known Ray across a thousand lifetimes or any rubbish like that. These things take time.)
Okay, here's the thing: I don't know what to do with Stella. I mean, I don't have to do anything with Stella, but I have a difficult time making a compelling case for actually liking her. The fact that Ray's obviously in love with her should really count in her favor, but considering that he fell for her when he was thirteen, I'm not sure it actually tells us much. A possibly better point in her favor is that she's still good friends with her ex-mother-in-law who, by the way, lives halfway across the country. I don't have a terribly good recollection of anything Barbara Kowalski does in her five minutes of screen-time besides do her best to mother Ray, but I do remember that I really liked her, so if she and Stella get along I imagine it's a good thing. It's a deeply weird dynamic, though -- Stella tells Barbara that she's seriously seeing someone, Barbara reports back to Ray, Ray goes following Stella. Hi, that's all kind of unhealthy.
I'm going to continue trying to figure Stella out, because I want to understand her (and, it generally follows, like her; I wasn't sure what to do with Thatcher but the moment she made sense to me I adored her), but I think my real problem is a very simple one: she doesn't like Fraser. That at least is completely understandable; he's manifestly Ray's best friend and therefore at this point not someone she's necessarily going to give the benefit of the doubt, especially since he keeps trying to intervene on Ray's behalf and no one really enjoys a third party managing one's relationship. Despite, or possibly because, this is the only thing I really get about Stella, I'm not inclined to like her much -- no matter how justified her brushing-off of Fraser, it's Fraser, and a fairly good guiding principle for this show is that if someone responds well to Fraser, at some level they are or will be okay, whereas if someone responds badly, they are probably Bad. (Victoria does break this trend; she loves Fraser, f'rgodsakes, and she is obviously Bad -- so maybe Stella breaks it in the opposite way?) Anyway, despite not being terribly nice to the protagonists whose side we are meant to take, I don't think Stella is even lowercase bad, but it makes her ... difficult, narratively.
Something that I do genuinely like about Stella, though, is her ability to stand up for herself (without even the self-consciousness with which Meg Thatcher sometimes does similar! it is oddly refreshing). No fuss is really made about it, but she was brave in a bank when she was a child and she is obviously calm and in control when Dwayne Weston bothers his (in-the-process-of-ex?) wife; in pretty much every situation Ray wants to intervene and protect her, but she doesn't need it. This is good news for Stella and, as I said, I like that about her, but it's terrible news for Ray Kowalski, neediest guy on the planet. I think that also goes some way to explaining why she doesn't like Fraser; aside from the fact that he is With Ray and therefore not really in her good books, Stella obviously hates being told her own business, and -- wow, as someone who solves her own problems, it makes perfect sense that she might resent Fraser a little; who died and made him her savior? I think it's also telling that she turns on Ray and says, "You always have an opinion!" I'm not entirely sure what to make of that, but she clearly doesn't like it much; I have no idea what Stella wanted of Ray, honestly, but what he thought she wanted of him was way off the mark and is probably a large part of why they didn't work out.
All this really begs the question of why the hell she's with Orsini, though. I think ... okay, bear with me, it is time for a Theory of Stella. She starts to be concerned that Orsini didn't put in enough housing units; he efficiently derails her by asking her where she wants to eat, and proposes a place where he loves what the light on the water does to her eyes. I think that means Stella has a grace period; be sufficiently romantic, and you've got her for a little while. Ray got her for longer than just a little while -- I doubt they dated since they were thirteen and ended up getting married, because Stella does not strike me as that ... impractical? that kind of romantic? but I'm sure they were friends, which means that as long as Ray took Stella out dancing and apologized on time, she could overlook whatever things about him she perceived as faults for longer. It even re-works on her from time to time, witness the way she and Ray kind of jerk each other around in this episode and keep on nearly sleeping together -- that is absolutely a mutual fault, because she knows it's not a good idea, but damn, if you had Ray working that hard to love you again, I think you'd have the occasional slip too even if you knew it wasn't going to work. In the end, though, romancing doesn't actually work on Stella, because she seems to be pretty practical and also self-sufficient, and she's going to figure you out. Mm, I don't know if that means I can ever really like Stella, but that definitely has a lot to do with the fact that I have a Ray-shaped blind spot and don't want to imagine willingly giving him up, even though I can imagine it well enough to say I'm glad Stella got out and moved on, and maybe I can bring myself to be genuinely excited about the Stella/Vecchio at the end.
The look Fraser gets on his face watching Ray dance is more or less the look I get on my face watching Ray dance. I am absolutely allowed to take that as evidence. (Also: "Nah, you're the smart one, I'm just pretty." I love that line even though Stella does not respond to it properly. Ray! Ray, go find someone responsive. Like that Mountie with that look on his face.) Heh. Strange Bedfellows, or: Screencaps of Fraser Looking Lovestruck.
Something I did not remember, but is very much worth note: Ray doesn't follow Stella into her apartment the first time, and it's not because he screws up, but because he specifically declines because he knows they might end up sleeping together. After Orsini's out of the picture he's all for it, but while she's actually seeing someone else -- Ray might still want her and maybe follow her around a little, but the point is that he really is just trying to look out for her, and he's still a really decent human being. He might tell himself he sucks, but in fact he doesn't at all.
Welsh and Ray interrogate Orsini's man together! I just want to reiterate how much I adore their relationship. They work well together and it's wonderful, and honestly I feel kind of sorry for Vecchio, because Welsh mostly just sat there and was sarcastic at him instead of being supportive and offering camaraderie. I am sure Welsh and Kowalski know each other from before Ray took the Vecchio job.
Ray says, "Wanna ride?" and both Stella and Fraser say, "Yes, thank you," at the same time. Fraser is absolutely gracious in his understanding that Ray was offering to Stella, but I think I like that little scene -- if Stella still has feelings for Ray, even if they're officially done, she actually has a perfectly valid reason to dislike Fraser. I doubt it's conscious, but I also doubt I manufactured that moment of parallel, and the subtext is kind of through the roof. It's okay, Stella! When it's all over you and Vecchio get each other kind of as consolation prizes. Oh man.
Ray at the end shadow-dancing breaks my heart a little every time. I'd say Thatcher catching Fraser talking to his dad in a closet mends it, but because that scene comes first, the show is obviously just cruel and wants to crush my little Ray-loving soul.
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Hmm. I respect Stella, but I find it hard to identify with her. Still trying to puzzle out why.
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I dunno, man. I love Ray bunches, but in this episode - maybe I still have hang-ups from my utter HATE of Pete in SG-1, but stalking is just not cute. :-///
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I wish I had a Theory of Stella for you, but I don't. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!
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Ahhh, Stella. I think with time I will understand her pretty fully! And I am perfectly capable of writing her/about her sympathetically. But I just. don't. like. her.