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sometimes you just have to make a leap
I think ... I have actually lost count of how many times I've seen Mountie on the Bounty; this is at least the eighth time but I might be erring on the conservative side. I just thought it should be known that it's demonstratably my favourite episode, and yes, the buddy breathing probably has something to do with it but it's mostly the sheer wealth of character stuff. I take roughly the same amount of analytic joy from it as I do from the Victoria episodes, but this one has the wonderful bonus of a happy ending.
Anyway, my point is that I got some lovely responses to the Victoria meta, which made me very happy; this is another one of those episodes that I actually want to dialogue about instead of just providing joy and screencaps. In the main I am doing these commentaries just so that I will get all the plot threads and thematic things fixed in my head, and comments obviously make me happy but if no one responds I do not mind and cheerfully go on to the next few episodes; I will cheerfully go on to s4 after this also, but I would love to actually talk about these episodes. Your thoughts, tell me them!
3x11 Asylum
This episode becomes a lot more comprehensible to me with the knowledge that it was the first one to be shot for s3 -- it explains a lot about why Ray's acting like he's having a particularly aggressive and snarky day, and also why his hair is making no attempt to defy gravity. This episode is ... oddly difficult, but also one of my favourites despite the fact that it has a Ray who is distinctly un-polished-down into the Kowalski that most of s3 has.
...Wow, I forgot how really incredibly crackling with weird sexual chemistry Ray and Volpe are together. (Really, Ray, I know it is mostly about attitude, but way to feel up the criminal. And kind of enjoy it when the criminal feels you up. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the oddest possible evidence for Ray not being entirely straight.) I really desperately want to know what the context for these two guys is. I have not the faintest clue; any ideas quite welcome.
I love that Ray's first instinct is to run to Fraser when he doesn't know what's going on. And by "love" I mean "holy god the way he enters the Consulate is one of my favourite things ever". Here, have another gif courtesy of![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
roadrunner, this one illustrating Ray's entrance to the Consulate. Sadly it is without sound, so you cannot hear the dramatic accompanying "FRASER!"
This episode is really interestingly shot, in that the angles are more creative than usual; the first scene after the credits, for example, when Fraser dresses Ray's cut and then arrests him, is angled up on Fraser and down on Ray. This is specifically interesting first because the show does nearly identical shots a couple of other times, namely after Fraser gets beaten by the mob (twice, oh, Frase) and either Elaine or Francesca cleans him up. Especially with Elaine but a bit with Frannie also, it's shot a little suggestively, and that they do the same thing here with Fraser and Ray is kind of also suggestive. More than that, though, this is an episode about Ray being pretty helpless and having to completely rely on Fraser, and the way everything's angled makes Ray look smaller and more vulnerable. I want to give him a hug.
Turnbull and Ray both get absolutely priceless looks on their faces when Fraser turns up and announces that he is not empty-trousered. I am mad fond of that line and also with the quick and ready demonstration of how to effectively disrobe a Mountie, and of the way that Turnbull gets distracted by the curling but Ray cannot stop staring. Sometimes I suspect that 'subtext' isn't the most accurate word for what goes on in this show.
Ohhh, once in a while Bob has the most helpful advice possible. His story about helping the Inuit families outsmart their relocation to Ellesmere is absolutely wonderful, and the sort of thing that convinces me that yes, Bob and Benton are very much related, and also people are not exaggerating when they talk about the sort of man Bob was; and I love what he says at the end: "Your heart is where your duty lies, son. Your head is just along to help with the driving." Because ... yes, exactly.
Okay, I'm trying to preemptively understand where the huge messy tangle of issues that is Mountie on the Bounty came from, considering that there's the small quiet scene in this episode where Fraser tells Ray that he trusts him, that he's his partner and his friend and that it wasn't hard to say in the least; and I think weirdly that little scene is part of the problem. Ray, as we know, is massively needy, and hearing Fraser say he trusts him is a good thing. The problem is that usually Ray gets to do something; Fraser does the affirmation and then Ray goes through with the thing he was doubting but Fraser wasn't (like Eclipse, f'rinstance, when he let Ellery go). This time as always Fraser's point is validated, because he was right to trust that Ray didn't commit the murder, but literally all Ray does in this episode is get hit, handcuffed, made to watch curling, abducted and tied up, comforted, and released. It is all passive, Fraser is in charge of the entire ride, and I imagine that if this continued once they were back out working together -- if Fraser kept telling Ray that he was doing right, but then taking all the action, say, making Ray jump into Lake Michigan despite the fact that Ray cannot swim and then retroactively insisting that of course Ray would do that sort of thing and what was the fuss about anyway since they caught the bad guys, for example -- it might become an actual Problem.
The alternate but not incompatible theory involves both of them beginning to realize their attraction to one another consciously, and reacting in their own special unhealthy ways, but that does not invalidate and possibly just makes worse the fact that the beginning of Mountie on the Bounty is likely to happen if Ray's feeling like he doesn't have much control or weight in their partnership, and is lashing out because Fraser's validation doesn't help his neediness at all anymore. Which in fact brings us to ...
3x12 & 13 Mountie on the Bounty
You know what I love? The fact that the internet has helpful things like due South scripts. I've shuffled through them a couple of times when I want to find scenes more quickly than clicking through an episode will get me, and for the most part they're fairly accurate, but are mostly noted as 'draft' and occasionally have additional lines. Oh do I love those additional lines. For instance, the MotB part 1 script (that's under Boat Show, as you do when you have hilarious working titles) has Ray saying, right before the line where the finished version actually started filming, "There’s more to life than dying, Fraser, and every time I'm with you I think I'm going to die," which -- god I wish they'd kept that line. I wish they'd kept it because it comes up in nearly every Fraser/RayK fic at some point, either metaphorically or because Ray's honestly scared one of them is going to bite it, and maybe the line was cut because it's apparent enough that everyone latched onto it anyway, but I'd love to hear Ray say it.
In the realm of things that actually were said, though, the thing that Ray is apparently upset about (besides the greater and obvious issue that Fraser keeps getting them into danger without consulting him first; this is a perennial problem and one that kind of upset Vecchio too, enough that he kept count) is that Fraser keeps niggling and correcting him. It's the flipside of the affirmations: because Ray is kind of needy, if Fraser tells him what he's doing wrong he's going to take those things as much to heart as what Fraser says he's doing right, and I imagine that makes him raw and defensive pretty quickly. More than that, I am utterly sure that the correcting is something Stella used to do -- I think Stella and Fraser actually have a lot in common, and in the ongoing interest of my Figuring Out How To Like Stella project I should probably map it out at some point -- and so Ray would react worse than he might to a different bad habit.
I do know that Ray wouldn't have punched Stella in the middle of a fight -- in fact I suspect that Stella sometimes dealt with arguments by just storming off and waiting for them to both cool down -- but ... look, Ray wants to do something physical to Fraser and punching him is probably the safer option. I'm not particularly surprised, but I really don't like that Ray did it, and I think it shocked Fraser because it was nowhere in his list of possibilities; all the same, even Ray lashing out like that doesn't actually destroy their friendship. I think partly it's because Fraser keeps wanting to think better of him, and partly (some of you may remember this from back when he was being unhealthy about Victoria hurting him) perhaps he thinks that in some small way Ray had a right to do it, because he was obviously frustrated even if Fraser couldn't understand why. I don't want to think that, but sometimes Fraser doesn't take care of himself and goes about trying to fix the things that involve him personally entirely the wrong way. Ray does most of the breaking and most of the fixing in these episodes, and -- ahh, that is brilliant. It's brilliant first because if it's true that, as I suggested in the previous episode, Ray is having these issues in part because he's been feeling helpless, he does get to take some control back by basically being in control of the emotional arc during this case. Second, this is the one place where Fraser's completely useless; he's incapable of navigating his own emotions and coming out unscathed, and if Ray isn't too good at the unscathed part either, at least he knows how to deal with the issues that are about himself, so when it comes to Fraser-and-Ray, Ray's the one who has to help. I'm sure he'd be a little terrified if he ever actually realized that, because being the custodian of Fraser's emotional health is a ridiculously huge responsibility, but in the main he does it well on the climb back up out of the situation he created by punching Fraser in the first place.
I love the fact that Ray is obviously and quietly miserable and subdued directly afterwards. Hitting Fraser was not premeditated and just in the heat of the moment, and it's possibly the one time when he's really not lived up to Fraser's expectations of him, which probably compounds the awfulness. Of course the real grown-up solution would be to go to Fraser and apologize and ask if they can just take turns talking to try and work out what's gone wrong, but the very notion is slightly hilarious in its absurdity. Instead Ray tries the "punch me too and we'll be even" approach, which doesn't help because it just makes both of them hurt more but at least it's a gesture, and then of course it's time to run away from the problem, because both of them can be pretty good at that. I like that Fraser's "You sure?" isn't about whether he should punch Ray, but about the transfer; I like that he's letting Ray lead on this one, because he understands the fundamental problem with their partnership conceptually if not in quite the right spirit.
And really ... if they hadn't had another case thrown at them it might have been the best solution: Fraser would at least be back in the right country if still in a city, Ray would stop having to be Vecchio, and that ... would have sucked, actually, because Ray's already at the point where having Fraser around helps him know who he is, Fraser would be miserable in a city without a friend, and both of them would hate being apart from one another. I don't know if they'd ever be smart enough to contact one another again, though. Say thank you to the pirates for stabbing Billy Butler and dumping him on the hood of Ray's car! Because of course being forced into close quarters on very little sleep to solve a major crime is actually exactly what they need.
To Fraser's credit, after he tells Ray how ridiculous it is to assume that Billy Butler's a pirate, once Frannie tells them Butler's rap sheet, Fraser immediately concedes the point. He is trying, he's just not very good at it. And I think here's a good time to point out that this episode is, weirdly, one of the examples of how they can be good for each other. Because ... okay, as I said, by throwing Fraser off and putting him in a weird vulnerable emotional position, Ray's the one who's enough in touch with his own emotions to actually deal with the fallout and bring them both back to a place where they can continue to trust one another and be partners; Ray can identify the problems and try to change things, helping Fraser through that weird blind spot he has about himself.
More than that, though, he's good at getting under Fraser's skin -- this is the first episode where he really snaps at Fraser, and Fraser snaps back. Vecchio would complain nearly all the time, but Fraser pretty much never lost his cool except that time he had the head injury. Kowalski, on the other hand -- he sees Fraser get pretty snippy the first day of knowing him, and while I don't think that set the tone, I do think it means Ray got a valuable glimpse at Fraser there under the Mountie. Then he opens up to Fraser without prompting, without any of the small tactics Fraser employs to draw people out, and keeps on responding to Fraser, and Fraser responds back. I think Vecchio more or less got to know what Fraser was really like through sheer exposure, although even then I'm inclined to believe he has a kind of rose-tinted-glasses view (which ... still strikes me as odd, considering Victoria, but it's entirely possible that Vecchio figures love just makes people nuts and he moves on) but Kowalski ... makes Fraser be genuine with him, draws it out and prods it out and argues and shouts it out. And I think that is really healthy, that Fraser can be genuinely in-himself honest with Ray in a way that he's usually only honest with a half-wolf and a dead man. I suspect that means MotB is the painful growing-pains stage, and it's only the sheer dumb luck of getting a case at the critical moment that gets them through it, but they do manage to. I'll be sure to test the theory of Fraser's ability to be himself around Ray in s4, but I really hope it holds water because that would be a serious relief.
Oh lord, I dearly hope Ray and Fraser slept between getting their information about the Wailing Yankee from Lew and asking around the docks after Calhoun, because if they did not sleep, then they went from an afternoon chasing three guys on the FBI's most wanted list through a night finding Billy, another day asking after the Wailing Yankee, another night driving from Chicago to Sault Ste. Marie, a day aboard the Henry Allen, a night trying not to drown, and a day tracking down the criminals and arresting them all. If they didn't sleep, that's -- assuming they woke up at a reasonable hour on the first day -- about seventy-eight hours straight without sleep. If they got an extra night it's still somewhere in the realm of sixty-six, although if Fraser napped on the drive from Chicago it's at least vaguely plausible he'd be able to shoot straight at the end of it all. (I just want to know how Ray managed it without any caffeine. Damn, it's amazing he didn't yell at Fraser more.)
Hey look, the perfect encapsulation of what's going on! Ray wants to continue questioning Gilbert Wallace; Fraser cuts him off; Ray's angry because he was going on his gut and Fraser missed his cue after a brief moment of being back in touch. And of course the thing here is that Ray is absolutely right, Wallace is guilty, and Ray's instincts are right on the mark. Directly after this, Ray storms off in the wrong direction, Fraser tells him the car's the other way, and Ray follows, ticked off that Fraser's corrected him again. Oh the insecurities and trust issues they need to work out.
My heart always breaks a little at Ray's "I may be damaged, Fraser, but I'm not stupid." Because, well, it's true, and go Ray for the self-awareness, but also ow. On the other hand it is mended a little by Bob popping up with his first in a series of "partnership = marriage" speeches, which I adore in part for the subtext but also because I love Bob for basically coaching Fraser through being a dumbass and managing to keep Ray. I find it interesting that Bob specifically tells Fraser, "You need the Yank. Swallow the pride," because of all Fraser's various sins ... yes, pride is the big one, but I'm always surprised when it's pointed out to me. It remains that Fraser is terrible at admitting that he's wrong when it's a personal matter rather than a professional one, and I don't even know if he ever admits it in as many words in the course of the episode. What he concedes to Ray is pretty small, actually.
As a little character note, I like that Ray is quietly freaked out by all the talk of ghosts. I guess that's sort of the same thing as his intense dislike of the morgue.
Of course I have been going on happily about how Ray gets to be in charge of the emotional arc this episode, but we still do have the same pattern of Fraser being in charge of the physical one. (Which is a potentially awesome thing to remember if you want to write them in a romantic relationship, actually.) Ray gets handcuffed, Ray nearly drowns, Ray doesn't even get to drive the damn submersible -- although in the last case he does have some control over the situation. The point is, pretty much as is par the course his life is fairly constantly in Fraser's hands; so a lot of the episode is about them getting their rhythm back, learning to cue each other with just a single gesture so that when Fraser inevitably risks Ray's life in some wildly bizarre way, Ray can trust that they're on the same page. As Ray says, their communication has "Gotta be more like instinct, like -- like breathing," which for some reason on the last eight or so watches I missed; basically the buddy breathing is brilliant on a lot of levels, starting around the massive amounts of subtext and going through the fact that Fraser saves Ray's life and the communication is literal breathing.
I do not-so-secretly hate that the actual buddy-breathing part is so terribly lit that it's not even possible to take a good screenshot and lighten it. I've seen a few animated gifs that lighten it up well, but ... listen, if you have the guts to basically have Fraser and Ray kiss on screen, light it properly. On the other hand the subtext is nearly blinding. After the buddy breathing we have the additional bonus of Ray, in a checking sort of way, wanting to know if anything's changed, and the really wonderful bit where Fraser says, "Don't worry, Mr. Instinct, I'm not excited," followed by a shower of sparks. I mean, really.
By the way, I need to take a moment to adore Frannie's interview techniques. (Remember what I said about there being a due South fic for every occasion? Here's Secret Weapon, a story about Frannie interrogating suspects. <3)
It breaks my heart a little that Fraser really does make only one concession to Ray the entire episode, and agrees to go a different direction on Ray's hunch -- and that only because Bob convinces him he should. Fraser still has a long way to go, I think; but it's enough to get Ray more or less back into the right groove, because apparently even the one solitary concession is important. I'm not sure if that means Stella never gave way and the fact that Fraser has means the world, or just that Ray desperately wants things to be okay so the one act of capitulation was enough to renew his faith, but either way I think Ray gets more hugs for pushing and for keeping things together.
I have absolutely no idea to do with the weird little bit on the Bounty when Bob starts going on about romance and suddenly Fraser and Thatcher are kissing without provocation and Ray is making out with some blonde Mountie and Turnbull is busy doing some seriously-this-isn't-even-subtext arm-wrestling, and I think it is all some ridiculous elaborate fantasy Bob is concocting but whatever it is it just basically bewilders me. Why is it there.
Also, I think it should be said: epic battle between a Great Lakes freighter and the HMS Bounty? Kind of cracky and ridiculous, but also really genuinely awesome.
And then we have a moment where Fraser updates Ray on the situation, Ray says, "Right behind you," Fraser asks, "Ready?" and waits for confirmation, and after that it's smooth and easy, they're good to go, they're doing their little hand-gesture communications thatI will never be able to fathom I have now actually seen enough that I understand, wow, and I think the turning point was the submarine but really the turning point is a slow process from the moment Ray agreed to drive all night to Sault Ste. Marie. Somehow this time through the way they're able to work together at the end is particularly warming and satisfying. (Possibly we like to call this 'emotional over-investment' but we liked to call it that when the Victoria episodes tore my heart up this time through also, so that's old news.)
What I really adore, though, is their last bit of conversation. Their complete inability to articulate their feelings, oh, it's wonderfully typical and also wonderfully all right, because they communicate well despite the complete non-articulation. The very best bit, though, is the little glance they share and then their mutual brilliant smiles of pure relief -- barring Fraser's face when they touch down in the Territories, and possibly Ray's face when Fraser asks him to dinner at the end of the first episode (but maybe not even those times) those are the biggest happiest smiles they wear during the whole course of the show, and it's because -- Fraser doesn't get Canada back, and Ray doesn't get his life, and that doesn't matter because they have one another and that's everything and I am completely unrepentant for being a total sap about the whole thing.
...That was later than I meant to stay up. This is how much I love that episode; I will happily burn the midnight oil, whatever that actually means.
Anyway, my point is that I got some lovely responses to the Victoria meta, which made me very happy; this is another one of those episodes that I actually want to dialogue about instead of just providing joy and screencaps. In the main I am doing these commentaries just so that I will get all the plot threads and thematic things fixed in my head, and comments obviously make me happy but if no one responds I do not mind and cheerfully go on to the next few episodes; I will cheerfully go on to s4 after this also, but I would love to actually talk about these episodes. Your thoughts, tell me them!
3x11 Asylum
This episode becomes a lot more comprehensible to me with the knowledge that it was the first one to be shot for s3 -- it explains a lot about why Ray's acting like he's having a particularly aggressive and snarky day, and also why his hair is making no attempt to defy gravity. This episode is ... oddly difficult, but also one of my favourites despite the fact that it has a Ray who is distinctly un-polished-down into the Kowalski that most of s3 has.
...Wow, I forgot how really incredibly crackling with weird sexual chemistry Ray and Volpe are together. (Really, Ray, I know it is mostly about attitude, but way to feel up the criminal. And kind of enjoy it when the criminal feels you up. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the oddest possible evidence for Ray not being entirely straight.) I really desperately want to know what the context for these two guys is. I have not the faintest clue; any ideas quite welcome.
I love that Ray's first instinct is to run to Fraser when he doesn't know what's going on. And by "love" I mean "holy god the way he enters the Consulate is one of my favourite things ever". Here, have another gif courtesy of
roadrunner, this one illustrating Ray's entrance to the Consulate. Sadly it is without sound, so you cannot hear the dramatic accompanying "FRASER!"This episode is really interestingly shot, in that the angles are more creative than usual; the first scene after the credits, for example, when Fraser dresses Ray's cut and then arrests him, is angled up on Fraser and down on Ray. This is specifically interesting first because the show does nearly identical shots a couple of other times, namely after Fraser gets beaten by the mob (twice, oh, Frase) and either Elaine or Francesca cleans him up. Especially with Elaine but a bit with Frannie also, it's shot a little suggestively, and that they do the same thing here with Fraser and Ray is kind of also suggestive. More than that, though, this is an episode about Ray being pretty helpless and having to completely rely on Fraser, and the way everything's angled makes Ray look smaller and more vulnerable. I want to give him a hug.
Turnbull and Ray both get absolutely priceless looks on their faces when Fraser turns up and announces that he is not empty-trousered. I am mad fond of that line and also with the quick and ready demonstration of how to effectively disrobe a Mountie, and of the way that Turnbull gets distracted by the curling but Ray cannot stop staring. Sometimes I suspect that 'subtext' isn't the most accurate word for what goes on in this show.
Ohhh, once in a while Bob has the most helpful advice possible. His story about helping the Inuit families outsmart their relocation to Ellesmere is absolutely wonderful, and the sort of thing that convinces me that yes, Bob and Benton are very much related, and also people are not exaggerating when they talk about the sort of man Bob was; and I love what he says at the end: "Your heart is where your duty lies, son. Your head is just along to help with the driving." Because ... yes, exactly.
Okay, I'm trying to preemptively understand where the huge messy tangle of issues that is Mountie on the Bounty came from, considering that there's the small quiet scene in this episode where Fraser tells Ray that he trusts him, that he's his partner and his friend and that it wasn't hard to say in the least; and I think weirdly that little scene is part of the problem. Ray, as we know, is massively needy, and hearing Fraser say he trusts him is a good thing. The problem is that usually Ray gets to do something; Fraser does the affirmation and then Ray goes through with the thing he was doubting but Fraser wasn't (like Eclipse, f'rinstance, when he let Ellery go). This time as always Fraser's point is validated, because he was right to trust that Ray didn't commit the murder, but literally all Ray does in this episode is get hit, handcuffed, made to watch curling, abducted and tied up, comforted, and released. It is all passive, Fraser is in charge of the entire ride, and I imagine that if this continued once they were back out working together -- if Fraser kept telling Ray that he was doing right, but then taking all the action, say, making Ray jump into Lake Michigan despite the fact that Ray cannot swim and then retroactively insisting that of course Ray would do that sort of thing and what was the fuss about anyway since they caught the bad guys, for example -- it might become an actual Problem.
The alternate but not incompatible theory involves both of them beginning to realize their attraction to one another consciously, and reacting in their own special unhealthy ways, but that does not invalidate and possibly just makes worse the fact that the beginning of Mountie on the Bounty is likely to happen if Ray's feeling like he doesn't have much control or weight in their partnership, and is lashing out because Fraser's validation doesn't help his neediness at all anymore. Which in fact brings us to ...
3x12 & 13 Mountie on the Bounty
You know what I love? The fact that the internet has helpful things like due South scripts. I've shuffled through them a couple of times when I want to find scenes more quickly than clicking through an episode will get me, and for the most part they're fairly accurate, but are mostly noted as 'draft' and occasionally have additional lines. Oh do I love those additional lines. For instance, the MotB part 1 script (that's under Boat Show, as you do when you have hilarious working titles) has Ray saying, right before the line where the finished version actually started filming, "There’s more to life than dying, Fraser, and every time I'm with you I think I'm going to die," which -- god I wish they'd kept that line. I wish they'd kept it because it comes up in nearly every Fraser/RayK fic at some point, either metaphorically or because Ray's honestly scared one of them is going to bite it, and maybe the line was cut because it's apparent enough that everyone latched onto it anyway, but I'd love to hear Ray say it.
In the realm of things that actually were said, though, the thing that Ray is apparently upset about (besides the greater and obvious issue that Fraser keeps getting them into danger without consulting him first; this is a perennial problem and one that kind of upset Vecchio too, enough that he kept count) is that Fraser keeps niggling and correcting him. It's the flipside of the affirmations: because Ray is kind of needy, if Fraser tells him what he's doing wrong he's going to take those things as much to heart as what Fraser says he's doing right, and I imagine that makes him raw and defensive pretty quickly. More than that, I am utterly sure that the correcting is something Stella used to do -- I think Stella and Fraser actually have a lot in common, and in the ongoing interest of my Figuring Out How To Like Stella project I should probably map it out at some point -- and so Ray would react worse than he might to a different bad habit.
I do know that Ray wouldn't have punched Stella in the middle of a fight -- in fact I suspect that Stella sometimes dealt with arguments by just storming off and waiting for them to both cool down -- but ... look, Ray wants to do something physical to Fraser and punching him is probably the safer option. I'm not particularly surprised, but I really don't like that Ray did it, and I think it shocked Fraser because it was nowhere in his list of possibilities; all the same, even Ray lashing out like that doesn't actually destroy their friendship. I think partly it's because Fraser keeps wanting to think better of him, and partly (some of you may remember this from back when he was being unhealthy about Victoria hurting him) perhaps he thinks that in some small way Ray had a right to do it, because he was obviously frustrated even if Fraser couldn't understand why. I don't want to think that, but sometimes Fraser doesn't take care of himself and goes about trying to fix the things that involve him personally entirely the wrong way. Ray does most of the breaking and most of the fixing in these episodes, and -- ahh, that is brilliant. It's brilliant first because if it's true that, as I suggested in the previous episode, Ray is having these issues in part because he's been feeling helpless, he does get to take some control back by basically being in control of the emotional arc during this case. Second, this is the one place where Fraser's completely useless; he's incapable of navigating his own emotions and coming out unscathed, and if Ray isn't too good at the unscathed part either, at least he knows how to deal with the issues that are about himself, so when it comes to Fraser-and-Ray, Ray's the one who has to help. I'm sure he'd be a little terrified if he ever actually realized that, because being the custodian of Fraser's emotional health is a ridiculously huge responsibility, but in the main he does it well on the climb back up out of the situation he created by punching Fraser in the first place.
I love the fact that Ray is obviously and quietly miserable and subdued directly afterwards. Hitting Fraser was not premeditated and just in the heat of the moment, and it's possibly the one time when he's really not lived up to Fraser's expectations of him, which probably compounds the awfulness. Of course the real grown-up solution would be to go to Fraser and apologize and ask if they can just take turns talking to try and work out what's gone wrong, but the very notion is slightly hilarious in its absurdity. Instead Ray tries the "punch me too and we'll be even" approach, which doesn't help because it just makes both of them hurt more but at least it's a gesture, and then of course it's time to run away from the problem, because both of them can be pretty good at that. I like that Fraser's "You sure?" isn't about whether he should punch Ray, but about the transfer; I like that he's letting Ray lead on this one, because he understands the fundamental problem with their partnership conceptually if not in quite the right spirit.
And really ... if they hadn't had another case thrown at them it might have been the best solution: Fraser would at least be back in the right country if still in a city, Ray would stop having to be Vecchio, and that ... would have sucked, actually, because Ray's already at the point where having Fraser around helps him know who he is, Fraser would be miserable in a city without a friend, and both of them would hate being apart from one another. I don't know if they'd ever be smart enough to contact one another again, though. Say thank you to the pirates for stabbing Billy Butler and dumping him on the hood of Ray's car! Because of course being forced into close quarters on very little sleep to solve a major crime is actually exactly what they need.
To Fraser's credit, after he tells Ray how ridiculous it is to assume that Billy Butler's a pirate, once Frannie tells them Butler's rap sheet, Fraser immediately concedes the point. He is trying, he's just not very good at it. And I think here's a good time to point out that this episode is, weirdly, one of the examples of how they can be good for each other. Because ... okay, as I said, by throwing Fraser off and putting him in a weird vulnerable emotional position, Ray's the one who's enough in touch with his own emotions to actually deal with the fallout and bring them both back to a place where they can continue to trust one another and be partners; Ray can identify the problems and try to change things, helping Fraser through that weird blind spot he has about himself.
More than that, though, he's good at getting under Fraser's skin -- this is the first episode where he really snaps at Fraser, and Fraser snaps back. Vecchio would complain nearly all the time, but Fraser pretty much never lost his cool except that time he had the head injury. Kowalski, on the other hand -- he sees Fraser get pretty snippy the first day of knowing him, and while I don't think that set the tone, I do think it means Ray got a valuable glimpse at Fraser there under the Mountie. Then he opens up to Fraser without prompting, without any of the small tactics Fraser employs to draw people out, and keeps on responding to Fraser, and Fraser responds back. I think Vecchio more or less got to know what Fraser was really like through sheer exposure, although even then I'm inclined to believe he has a kind of rose-tinted-glasses view (which ... still strikes me as odd, considering Victoria, but it's entirely possible that Vecchio figures love just makes people nuts and he moves on) but Kowalski ... makes Fraser be genuine with him, draws it out and prods it out and argues and shouts it out. And I think that is really healthy, that Fraser can be genuinely in-himself honest with Ray in a way that he's usually only honest with a half-wolf and a dead man. I suspect that means MotB is the painful growing-pains stage, and it's only the sheer dumb luck of getting a case at the critical moment that gets them through it, but they do manage to. I'll be sure to test the theory of Fraser's ability to be himself around Ray in s4, but I really hope it holds water because that would be a serious relief.
Oh lord, I dearly hope Ray and Fraser slept between getting their information about the Wailing Yankee from Lew and asking around the docks after Calhoun, because if they did not sleep, then they went from an afternoon chasing three guys on the FBI's most wanted list through a night finding Billy, another day asking after the Wailing Yankee, another night driving from Chicago to Sault Ste. Marie, a day aboard the Henry Allen, a night trying not to drown, and a day tracking down the criminals and arresting them all. If they didn't sleep, that's -- assuming they woke up at a reasonable hour on the first day -- about seventy-eight hours straight without sleep. If they got an extra night it's still somewhere in the realm of sixty-six, although if Fraser napped on the drive from Chicago it's at least vaguely plausible he'd be able to shoot straight at the end of it all. (I just want to know how Ray managed it without any caffeine. Damn, it's amazing he didn't yell at Fraser more.)
Hey look, the perfect encapsulation of what's going on! Ray wants to continue questioning Gilbert Wallace; Fraser cuts him off; Ray's angry because he was going on his gut and Fraser missed his cue after a brief moment of being back in touch. And of course the thing here is that Ray is absolutely right, Wallace is guilty, and Ray's instincts are right on the mark. Directly after this, Ray storms off in the wrong direction, Fraser tells him the car's the other way, and Ray follows, ticked off that Fraser's corrected him again. Oh the insecurities and trust issues they need to work out.
My heart always breaks a little at Ray's "I may be damaged, Fraser, but I'm not stupid." Because, well, it's true, and go Ray for the self-awareness, but also ow. On the other hand it is mended a little by Bob popping up with his first in a series of "partnership = marriage" speeches, which I adore in part for the subtext but also because I love Bob for basically coaching Fraser through being a dumbass and managing to keep Ray. I find it interesting that Bob specifically tells Fraser, "You need the Yank. Swallow the pride," because of all Fraser's various sins ... yes, pride is the big one, but I'm always surprised when it's pointed out to me. It remains that Fraser is terrible at admitting that he's wrong when it's a personal matter rather than a professional one, and I don't even know if he ever admits it in as many words in the course of the episode. What he concedes to Ray is pretty small, actually.
As a little character note, I like that Ray is quietly freaked out by all the talk of ghosts. I guess that's sort of the same thing as his intense dislike of the morgue.
Of course I have been going on happily about how Ray gets to be in charge of the emotional arc this episode, but we still do have the same pattern of Fraser being in charge of the physical one. (Which is a potentially awesome thing to remember if you want to write them in a romantic relationship, actually.) Ray gets handcuffed, Ray nearly drowns, Ray doesn't even get to drive the damn submersible -- although in the last case he does have some control over the situation. The point is, pretty much as is par the course his life is fairly constantly in Fraser's hands; so a lot of the episode is about them getting their rhythm back, learning to cue each other with just a single gesture so that when Fraser inevitably risks Ray's life in some wildly bizarre way, Ray can trust that they're on the same page. As Ray says, their communication has "Gotta be more like instinct, like -- like breathing," which for some reason on the last eight or so watches I missed; basically the buddy breathing is brilliant on a lot of levels, starting around the massive amounts of subtext and going through the fact that Fraser saves Ray's life and the communication is literal breathing.
I do not-so-secretly hate that the actual buddy-breathing part is so terribly lit that it's not even possible to take a good screenshot and lighten it. I've seen a few animated gifs that lighten it up well, but ... listen, if you have the guts to basically have Fraser and Ray kiss on screen, light it properly. On the other hand the subtext is nearly blinding. After the buddy breathing we have the additional bonus of Ray, in a checking sort of way, wanting to know if anything's changed, and the really wonderful bit where Fraser says, "Don't worry, Mr. Instinct, I'm not excited," followed by a shower of sparks. I mean, really.
By the way, I need to take a moment to adore Frannie's interview techniques. (Remember what I said about there being a due South fic for every occasion? Here's Secret Weapon, a story about Frannie interrogating suspects. <3)
It breaks my heart a little that Fraser really does make only one concession to Ray the entire episode, and agrees to go a different direction on Ray's hunch -- and that only because Bob convinces him he should. Fraser still has a long way to go, I think; but it's enough to get Ray more or less back into the right groove, because apparently even the one solitary concession is important. I'm not sure if that means Stella never gave way and the fact that Fraser has means the world, or just that Ray desperately wants things to be okay so the one act of capitulation was enough to renew his faith, but either way I think Ray gets more hugs for pushing and for keeping things together.
I have absolutely no idea to do with the weird little bit on the Bounty when Bob starts going on about romance and suddenly Fraser and Thatcher are kissing without provocation and Ray is making out with some blonde Mountie and Turnbull is busy doing some seriously-this-isn't-even-subtext arm-wrestling, and I think it is all some ridiculous elaborate fantasy Bob is concocting but whatever it is it just basically bewilders me. Why is it there.
Also, I think it should be said: epic battle between a Great Lakes freighter and the HMS Bounty? Kind of cracky and ridiculous, but also really genuinely awesome.
And then we have a moment where Fraser updates Ray on the situation, Ray says, "Right behind you," Fraser asks, "Ready?" and waits for confirmation, and after that it's smooth and easy, they're good to go, they're doing their little hand-gesture communications that
What I really adore, though, is their last bit of conversation. Their complete inability to articulate their feelings, oh, it's wonderfully typical and also wonderfully all right, because they communicate well despite the complete non-articulation. The very best bit, though, is the little glance they share and then their mutual brilliant smiles of pure relief -- barring Fraser's face when they touch down in the Territories, and possibly Ray's face when Fraser asks him to dinner at the end of the first episode (but maybe not even those times) those are the biggest happiest smiles they wear during the whole course of the show, and it's because -- Fraser doesn't get Canada back, and Ray doesn't get his life, and that doesn't matter because they have one another and that's everything and I am completely unrepentant for being a total sap about the whole thing.
...That was later than I meant to stay up. This is how much I love that episode; I will happily burn the midnight oil, whatever that actually means.
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Yeah, the romance scene? Confuses me so much. Like you said: why is it there???? BUT TURNBULL OMG. <3<3<3
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Re: Turnbull, I actually went to the script version online of that scene to see if it wanted to mention whether it was some weird fantasy in Bob's head or what, but to my astonishment I came across the following:
TURNBULL is perplexed, as though gripped by a new sensation.
TURNBULL: I don't know what it is. The sun, maybe, the excitement. Could be the salt air.
SAILOR MOUNTIE: This is a fresh water lake.
TURNBULL: So it is. So it is. Put it down to effects of wind and sail but I'll tell you something: you are an extremely handsome young man.
Not 'aggressive'. 'Handsome'. I think I just sat there and boggled and wondered where the subtext had fled to. I mean, it's still perfectly obvious in the draft that they used, but WHAT THE HELL, right? (In the draft online, by the way, several of Fraser and Ray's best exchanges, like the one after the buddy breathing and the one at the very end, aren't nearly half as good. So I am glad they changed things! Still. Also the script called it intimate buddy breathing, which, hee.)
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I like to pretend that Ray knows a lot of criminals and that they secretly feel each other up sometimes. Man, instead of writing fic, I just make ridiculous shit up.
Ummmm and I still haven't seen MotB. FAIL.
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Okay, and you know what, fuck it, you have no excuse. MotB on YouTube. WATCH IT.
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Oooh. brb, doing that.
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:DDD! Tell me what you think! AT LENGTH. & also remember it is a two-parter, but I'm pretty sure the sidebar links will get you through the whole deal.
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I also picked up on Bob calling Fraser on out his pride, and it's weird, because I never would have particularly thought of that as a fault of his, but it totally makes sense. This episode was also interesting because you don't get to see Fraser be genuinely wrong a lot of the time, but in this episode, he gets snipey and yells and makes poor relationship choices a hell of a lot, and it's really refreshing. Interesting thing: I made my sister watch this ep with me, and she's never seen dS before. Her biggest reaction was, "I hate Fraser. He's good at everything."
Good point about Ray controlling the emotional arc! It seems especially true given that every time Fraser has to make any large emotional choice, Bob actually has to prod him into it.
I flailed impossibly hard at the "communication should be like breathing" bit. I C WUT U DID THAR, EPISODE.
The random kissing bit really threw me off! WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
The mutual laughter of utter relief was perfect. Christ. ♥
Point of interest: thinking about this episode re: "Vault" is kind of fun, because that has underwater stuff, too. No buddy breathing, possibly because RayV is less faily and possibly because they're not really there yet. But in any case, the episodes struck me as remarkably similar.
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I think Fraser is probably a lot better about figuring out Ray's emotional issues than Ray is at figuring out Fraser's, but if they are Fraser'n'Ray issues Ray is almost always going to have to take the lead because Fraser is a total dumbass about himself. And Bob is only helpful sometimes, because he also likes to spend time pestering Fraser to give him grandchildren. (I think I recall that in the very last episode Bob councils Fraser to just leave Ray to freeze to death. Of course there are extenuating circumstances for Bob at the time, but ... still.)
I PRETEND THE RANDOM KISSING IS JUST ALL IN BOB'S HEAD. IDEK.
And YES, it is kind of astonishingly like Vault, actually, even inasfar as (to a much lesser degree) Fraser gets kind of snippy and Ray Vecchio uses their weird circumstances to make Fraser be actually emotionally honest with him, albeit just about how he feels under-appreciated sometimes. But yeah, the buddy breathing was unnecessary in that case because they just didn't have the right kind of tension then. (Have I mentioned how it kinda breaks me up inside that I start shipping Fraser/Vecchio for reals around Red White or Blue? It's the end of the damn season! Vecchio goes away forever! MY HEART.)
Anyway, uh, I am glad you enjoyed MotB. My somewhat irrational love for it is vaaaast.
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I think "Asylum" is the episode that made me a slasher. Now I have slash goggles that work in all kinds of situations, but when I watched this show for the first time (at, er, 16) I did not see the slash until Asylum. And then, delightfully, I couldn't unsee it. Also, a world of <3 for Bob's advice and story about the Ellesmere relocation.
I did not know that AT ALL about the MotB script. Fascinating. *Spock eyebrow*
Re: Ray's neediness and responses to Fraser - I think part of it is that they don't have direct conversations, afaik, in which Fraser actually says "Here are all the things you do well and here are the things you could change" ... and so in Ray's head I suspect he saves up the little corrections and they turn into "Ray, you are incompetent and I am embarrassed by you" or similar.
This whole episode is kind of the end of the honeymoon period and the beginning of the marriage, isn't it? Metaphorically and also not at all metaphorically. Which, Thank you Bob for signposting that.
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Re: Ray's neediness, YES, I think that is it. Fraser can be wonderfully generous with his praise of Ray, but he's also willing to be honest with Ray about the things that need correcting, which is something he doesn't really do with anyone else Ray observes him around in a friendly capacity (ie Huey or Frannie); therefore it must be that Fraser disapproves of everything! I kind of think that this part of their relationship is on a bell curve of Ray's confidence around Fraser, though, and MotB is the part where it stops getting worse and starts getting better.
Or, as you said, it's kind of the end of the honeymoon and the beginning of the marriage. Which is a slightly different metaphor but still absolutely apt. :D
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I thought the fact that Fraser broke up the whole ~romantic interlude~ thing by asking Bob why the sun was setting at midday was meant to indicate that the whole thing was some kind of Bob-generated fantasy vision, but I still choose to believe that the Turnbull bit was entirely canonical because it was too awesome.
As a random aside, btw: Fraser + sharpshooting = HOT.
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I'm pretty sure that Turnbull's crush on Fraser occasionally breaks the subtext barrier, and I am aided in this suspicion because of the scene on the Bounty even if it is all a Bob-generated fantasy, yes. :D
Fraser + sharpshooting = pretty much the hottest single moment of the entire show, honestly.