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3x05 Seeing is Believing
Okay, wacky confession time: I kind of ship Welsh/Frannie, and it is all the cappuccino machine's fault. Although it might also have something to do with the fact that she likes to boss him around and he snaps at her to wear longer shirts and basically I just love both of them and I love the way they interact: therefore, ship.
I wonder how soon after Strange Bedfellows this takes place; if it's the first time Ray and Stella have seen each other after that, Stella's acting ... interestingly. Ray says, "Hi, Stella," and gets in reply a terse, "Back off, Ray." Ray says that their two suspects were standing right there when the victim got a knife in his guts, Stella says, "Cut the sarcasm, Ray." Both times Ray subsides pretty much instantly, but he's doing way less of his normal provoking thing than usual and it's still ticking Stella off. Augh, I want them to be okay around each other ever and it is not going to happen.
Ahaha, oh man. Fraser asks Welsh, "Could you elucidate, sir?" and Welsh replies, "Nah, nah, not since the late Sixties." This would be priceless enough, but then Ray translates, "No, that's Canadian for 'explain'." Ray is becoming bilingual in Fraserspeak! This delights me.
"It is possible for a man and a woman to develop a personal platonic relationship based on friendship, a shared sense of values, and mutual respect!" Thatcher says, which also kind of delights me because I think she and Fraser are still stuck in the post-makeouts still-attracted kind of awkward stage of their relationship and probably always will be; obviously even if Meg doesn't really believe what she's saying, she wants to. And when Ray says, "Yeah, on Mars, maybe," Fraser replies immediately, "Oh no, here on Earth as well, Ray. I think it happens all the time;" since it's Fraser he probably does think it, and so there is hope for him and Thatcher yet, which I say not really because I want them to get over their awkward, but because I think both of them really need friends. Frannie's muttered, "That doesn't sound like much fun to me," followed by a sultry look at Fraser makes me sigh, though; Frannie, I think you and Fraser could actually have a personal platonic relationship based on happy girltalk and other awesome things if only you'd let him! Ah well.
I also want it on record that when Frannie starts going on about Sword of Desire and says that the guy in the book wasn't actually a pool boy, she says, "He was actually --" and Ray interrupts excitedly, "An English lord!" with this dorky little grin because he knows the answer to this one. My pet theory is that Stella has this ridiculous little weakness for paperback romance novels and Ray is really entertained by them; alternately maybe Ray buys them in airports when he has to go to police conferences, although I'm not sure why he wouldn't just buy a sports magazine instead. Anyway, the point is that Ray either knows Frannie's romance novel or the tropes in general, and that charms the hell out of me.
The great thing about this episode is that it tells us fun stuff about how the insides of Thatcher's and Ray's and Welsh's heads work. Thatcher actually has the same kind of Epic Love Story going on in her head as I suspect Fraser does (in another life, they have the same rank, reconcile Thatcher's desire for an urban lifestyle with Fraser's homesickness for the Territories, and have a long adventure-fraught marriage and several beautiful kickass children; I do not need to write this); she wants there to be genuine drama in the world, and for the woman to have as much agency as possible, neither of which are really surprising. That she apparently puts herself in the woman's place and then would rather kill someone than let Fraser be hurt is ... pretty much a fantasy, I think, but it's a fairly touching and powerful one even if it's not true. On the other hand, I am perhaps partial to it because it results in one of my single favourite visual moments on the entire show. (It's the drama of the thing, and maybe the way all the red jumps out, and definitely the fact that Fraser was Scotchguarded at birth or something and really needs to be dirtied up once in a while.)
And then we get the second on-screen "I love you." I completely adore that Ray says it (TWICE) even if really it's not literally but symbolically or something. It's Fraser's "And I you, Ray," that breaks me a little, though, because once Ray does the qualifying again, Fraser says he knows but -- his face. I didn't actually mean to stop for a screencap, but when I paused to be happy for Ray's "I love you," I happened to stop right at the point when Fraser says he knows it's symbolic and the pleased little smile melts off his face. Look at this! Portrait of perfect quiet misery. Embarking upon this portion of the rewatch I did want to see if I could figure out who catches a clue first, and based on the evidence of the last few episodes I think that award goes to Fraser. He is completely aware of what he's starting to feel here, and he's not very happy about it.
Susan Coyne as Penny Morton the cynical public defender cracks me up. I am used to Anna Conroy, World's Nicest Person! Seeing her casually think the kid has to be guilty is a lot weirder than the occasional Unexpected James Allodi. (By the way, I think Anna and Fraser would really like each other. Meanwhile Penny Morton would probably just think Geoffrey was guilty of something. Bless.)
Oh Ray, Ray, Ray. Ray's version of events is not even trying a little bit to not just be projection. (I'm sure it doesn't help that Judy Cates looks a lot like Stella probably did in college.) Mostly though I love that Ray wants to have lots of kids. He'd be the world's most neurotic father but I think he might be kind of good at it too. And this is the part where I stop talking about it, because in a minute I'll either start talking about how much I want heaps of due South kidfic or I'll go hunting down adorable pictures of Leoben and Kacey to use as evidence, and no one wants that.
Wait no that's a lie.
OKAY SORRY I'M DONE NOW WE WILL NEVER SPEAK OF THIS AGAIN.
Instead we are going to speak of Fraser hypnotizing everyone! He is kind of sneaky, isn't he? He doesn't mean to hypnotize everyone, but once he has, he takes a surprisingly opportunistic advantage of it. He doesn't make anyone do anything actually mean or embarrassing, but on the other hand he has them act out a few of his minor desires, which is ... new. He wants to stay at the station with Ray, and post-hypnotically suggests Inspector Thatcher to make it so; he wants Ray to occasionally exercise a little courtesy around him, and also makes it so. It doesn't hurt anyone, but it's still the same sort of backwards passive-aggressive assertiveness he usually employs taken up a couple notches. It isn't creepy because it's Fraser, and he gets a little harmless pleasure out of it without wanting anything more, but there is a certain amount of lurking potential unpleasantness. (A while ago
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feverbeats saw this episode with me and told me that there absolutely needs to be fic where Fraser creepily hypnotizes people for his own ends; a little while after that, I found dira's fic Relax, which is suitably creepy and even makes good use of the abducted by aliens line. DS fandom: a fic for every occasion!)"On the ground. ...I will beat you to death with this empty gun." Argh, this is why Ray is my favourite. The spontaneous badass absurdity! I am also very fond of him saying that he wishes Fraser had a gun so that he could say things like "Rack that bad boy and cover me," but that's either here nor there and also fills me with the irrational desire to see Fraser use a gun instead of talking people down or outsmarting them, but I guess fulfilling that particular desire is what Mountie on the Bounty is for.
No, actually Ray is my favourite because he internalizes the fact that his personal projections onto the crime could've gotten the wrong people locked away. This is something I knew about him already, see: the Beth Botrelle episode, but it's nice to see that Ray's sense of personal responsibility is always alive and well.
3x06 Bounty Hunter
The thing about Janet: she is pretty much tailored to Fraser. She's competent and professional but she still has an edge of vulnerability and obviously needs help; she comes from what's probably about the same class background and wears the same sort of clothes as Fraser's civvies; she knows how to talk to him without making him uncomfortable, and seems genuinely interested in him (him, not the Mountie); she even has suspiciously Victoria-esque hair. And Fraser seems to genuinely enjoy spending time in the back seat with her badly-behaved children, which is kind of lovely.
Fraser is also able to guilt Ray extremely effectively just by saying he understands that Ray can't break ranks, and again he's just done that thing where he genuinely means what he's saying but he still manages to lay the guilt on good. Ray Kowalski is particularly susceptible, though; Fraser doesn't have to make a particularly great effort.
HEE, Ray with Janet's children. I may be glowing a little because the kids are kind of hell-children but Fraser is very good with them and actually Ray is quite good with them too until they manage to sneakily handcuff him, but seriously, that is a hell-child thing to do; put Ray with your garden-variety misbehaving child who is not also a secret criminal mastermind, and I think he'd do quite well. OR MAYBE I JUST STILL WANT KIDFIC. It is like some sort of horrible disease. Of fluffiness. Also, since I have already somewhat creepily subjected you to CKR and a child, I think it is only fair to also include a screencap of Fraser watching Janet's children sleep. The peace and contentment on his face! Someone get Fraser a child or two, stat.
Ahaha. "Listen to you two! You need professional help!" Ray snaps. "Psychiatric help?" Fraser ventures. "No, cop help," Ray replies. Yes, Fraser, of course psychiatric help! Of course considering that Ray's observation came on the heels of Fraser and Janet insistently apologizing at each other (tailored! tailored, it is ridiculous) perhaps that wasn't a ridiculous assumption to make.
Oh Bob and his ongoing quest for grandchildren. I feel kind of sorry for Bob because that particular effort is never going to pan out. I do however like that when Fraser is interested in someone he at least makes the effort: before Victoria was manifestly nuts, he was supportive; he's been supportive about Thatcher in the past and will be again; he approves of Janet; he even gives occasional pieces of input on Ray, although those particular comments are more mixed. (Interestingly enough he never has a thing to say about Frannie.) I think he probably could reconcile himself to Ray after a certain amount of bluster, though; not a lot seems to really fuss him now he's dead.
Although this begs the question of exactly why Bob pops up behind Fraser and goes "Resist!" when he's about to kiss her that first time. Part of me wants to suggest that it's because sometimes Bob is Bob, but sometimes he's also just the slightly nutso duty and rationality that keeps Fraser Fraser. I mean, he's still Bob even then, but mostly he's the functional physical embodiment of a particular metaphor. On the other hand, Bob also gets to actually be Fraser's dad sometimes, which is great -- in this case, he's been hanging around Fraser long enough to understand Fraser's particular vulnerability around Janet, and his speech about building a house starting from the foundations instead of the roof sounds nuts, but it makes sense. If you want to make a family, you don't start with an exhausted woman who already has three children, no matter how much you have in common and how much initial physical attraction there is; you start with one other person, mutual support, and go from there.
I am, by the way, very fond of the way Ray and Janet really dislike one another. Yes, Ray has been kind of refusing to help her on the grounds of a strike, and in return Janet isn't being particularly polite to him, but I think Ray's dislike is also in large part because Fraser's obviously interested in her. Ray, do I need to hit you with the Clue Bat?
Meanwhile I have detected an unfortunate pattern in Fraser's relationships! He really absolutely does tell stories to himself. I already knew Fortitude Pass and Victoria was a story; when he's in hospital and trying to deal with the aftermath, he keeps going back over the nicer parts of his few days in Chicago with Victoria, which is also a (fairly inaccurate) story. After he kisses Meg on the train, he dwells on it and goes over it in his head; that's another story, and even if it's truer it doesn't help. Here he goes back over the details of his day with Janet, and nearly continues the story to the point where he does give in and kiss her before Thatcher interrupts him. I don't think any of this is actually weird (and it might even be common; I've sure as hell done it a couple of times) but it is important: again it's Fraser telling himself something about the world, because if he believes it enough then maybe he can convince other people it's true -- which is probably a doomed experiment in any personal relationship. I don't know if he ever figures out not to do it. Maybe he does with Ray -- because the story there, at the end, is a quest-for-the-Hand-of-Franklin story, not a this-is-what-my-relationship-with-Ray-is story. Perhaps there is hope.
I also think there still honestly is hope for Fraser and Thatcher to be sane around one another, because Thatcher's reaction to Janet and the children, although very Thatcher, is not really all that bad. She goes through the motions of telling Fraser off, but besides the requisite slip about animal needs and unmentionable underwear, she actually does quite well. In fact I think they have turned weird Freudian slips and all the yes, sirs into a sort of code language; they have made a slightly awkward groove but they have it now and they're comfortable in it.
Janet is sort of Fraser's Suzanne Chapin, isn't she? (Suzanne Chapin the undercover agent from You Must Remember This, I mean.) Like, somewhere sometime they might be Meant To Be but here now is not their time. Vecchio is a lot more philosophical about that sort of thing, though. This is the first time Fraser's romance isn't an Epic Love Story, which is important, but he ... doesn't know what to do with it yet. He hasn't actually been really wounded or confused by it this time, so he's able to actually recognize just the loneliness all by itself, and that's hard.
What I love, though, is that Fraser has this moment to feel absolutely alone and then Ray appears, offers to buy him dinner, puts an arm over his shoulder and tells him it'll be all right. That's -- yeah. <3
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Me too! \o/ Have you read An Officer and a Gentleman?
I'll be back later to, you know, actually read the rest of your post and comment on things. I just got so excited about the Frannie/Welsh sentences that I had to link a fic!
Okay, back to packing. *sigh*
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Good luck with your packing!
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YES YOU DO. <3 <3
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What is it about Fraser/Thatcher and epic fic ideas? It must be their desires for an Epic Love Story spilling over into fandom.
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And I think the desire for an Epic Love Story is part of it, but part of it is also just that ... dS fic likes to be epic. (And that is at least in part because it takes a minimum of 15000 words to coax Fraser into bed. Or something.)