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together we're better than we are separately
2x16 The Duel
I have to confess some quiet terror for this episode. I don't know if it would be more upsetting to watch Colm Feore play Carver here and then Sanjay in Slings & Arrows, or if the reverse would be worse, but having lived in laughing terror of Sanjay for a season, having him turn up in dS as a serial killer was ... less than reassuring.
Laurie Zaylor intrigues me! Mostly I am interested because she was Ray's first partner, and also a woman, but she and Ray didn't seem to be weird at all, which makes me happy -- obviously we've already seen that Ray is able to treat women as people instead of Women (To Impress Or Ask On Dates), but that's a sure sign that he can keep it up for a while, especially because Laurie didn't actually leave the force because of him.
"Detective Vecchio's mobile office." I am so fond of the way Fraser answers the phone! And the little grin they exchange. And Ray's striped pajamas. And -- does anyone know where to find stupid cute domestic Fraser/Vecchio fic where Fraser answers the phone goofily and Ray wears striped pajamas? I think I need some.
Oh Frannie, bless. When Ray sends her to stay at Fraser's, she tries so hard to play house. "Welcome home, Benton," seriously? Oven mitts and everything. And honestly both of them are doing their best, but Frannie's her own sabotage. She tries to talk about things she thinks Fraser might be interested in, without knowing anything about them; the second she starts talking about skin-care products, Fraser's actually interested. And I love that -- not that Fraser's interested in skin-care products, although that's awesome too, and makes sense because he's pretty much genuinely interested in anything that will give him more information on the subject -- but that the minute Francesca isn't putting something on, she becomes interesting to him. Funnily enough, the skin-care product portion of the conversation is also the first time Frannie calls him 'Frase', which I certainly like -- maybe it means there's hope for her. I mean, I want there to be a universe in which Frannie stops making up and-then-I-lived-happily-ever-after-with-Benton stories and instead has long silly girltalks with Fraser over ice cream or something, and they're friends. Because I think they genuinely could be if only she'd let go of the fairytale.
I really do not know what to do with Ange! Ray was still married to her eight years ago but it wasn't going well; they seem to still be able to basically hold civilized conversations, but she really does think he planted the evidence. It's funny; everyone but Fraser seems to have this conception of Ray as being a little scarier and a little more crooked than he really is -- which is probably yet another reason he got picked for the Vegas job. And it's also yet another reason that the Vegas job upsets me, because he clearly has the potential to be all crooked and scary, but he was more or less okay at his job even before Fraser turned up, and Fraser has been really good for him. Oh Ray.
And oh god, it really looks like Fraser's apartment is actually lived in. He has books lying around! Some framed pictures on the walls! A dreamcatcher above his bed! I have this steadily growing suspicion that lots of things about s3/4 are going to kind of break my heart.
On the other hand I am very entertained by the fact that Fraser licked a rope and passed out. I am entertained both because, damn, Carver really knows his stuff, and also because it's kind of a miracle that that sort of thing doesn't happen more often. Why is Fraser not drugged or poisoned more often, that is the real question.
And they're so damn clever at the end! I want Ray to be twisty like that always. <3
2x17 Red White or Blue
...I have to confess, much as I wish for a universe in which Frannie and Fraser are able to actually be friends, I also wish for a universe in which Fraser and Thatcher work out some of their damn personal issues and end up together. It can be the same universe where Ray runs into Suzanne Chapin the undercover operative again and they all live badassedly ever after.
On the other hand OH MY GOD THE SCENE WHERE RAY AND FRASER TALK FROM ACROSS TOWN. This is another one of those top favourite scenes. Just. Are they telepathically communicating without realizing it? Do they really just know each other that well? Who cares! it's ridiculously awesome either way. I love that the uniform itches. I love that Fraser can do a pretty damn hilarious Vecchio impression. I love poor Ray's insecurities about how Fraser's better than him.
And I am endlessly fascinated by Ray's desire for Fraser to feel anger and love and lust and fear and have the ability to cry. Because -- I know Fraser hasn't ever cried in front of Ray, and his anger and fear are pretty understated, so we the audience certainly get to see more of Fraser than Ray does, but I think he still knows Fraser well enough to know that Fraser can feel. Especially because he was there for Victoria, and I'm pretty sure even he noticed that Fraser was human in that particular circumstance. So maybe Ray's just feeling simple frustration because he sees Fraser as getting all the attention and not even having the emotional capacity to appreciate it properly, but it seems to be a deeper and more genuine hurt than that. I don't think I'm going anywhere with this besides the observation that I think if Fraser and Ray ever got together, it would've been right after this episode -- but that's kind of upsetting too. Way to convince me you should be shagging at the end of the damn season, guys.
I love the story of how Fraser and Dief met. I am intrigued this time through by the fact that Fraser gets knocked on the head a lot, though. I mean, on the surface it's just Paul Gross's silly affection for physical comedy, but more specifically it means that Fraser was knocked cold by a blow to the head three times in a row, and has certainly been knocked cold by blows to the head since (I haven't been counting, but there's one just earlier in this episode) and the next time it happens, in the episode following, it gives him temporary amnesia. Basically, someone wants to hypothesize that Fraser's brains are probably a bit scrambled by now, I will definitely buy it.
Hey, and we get unexpected James Allodi again! This time he is an Assistant State's Attorney. Oh my god someone please write weird fic where he's in the same district as Stella and then it turns into a Wilby Wonderful crossover. No I have no idea how it would work but the very thought fills me with giggling glee. MOVING ON.
"I'm gonna kill you!" "That's very possible." Augh, I -- I am sure I would get the formula figured out and become bored if Paul Gross wrote all the episodes, but one of the things he does that I am extremely fond of is absolutely understanding the dialogue. And I don't mean the plot-furthering dialogue, really, I mean the bantering bits like the above where the characters click and make me laugh even when I'm gnawing off my fingernails because they're strapped to a bomb. (One of the reasons I love this episode: every time they're strapped to the bomb I get nervous all over again.)
Augh, and Fraser envies Ray his existential honesty! That sounds weird at first glance, because Fraser is all sorts of capital-letter virtues and Honest is definitely one of them, but he means -- he means that the emotional stuff Ray's talking about does have a grain of truth to it. Fraser does feel emotions, really deeply, but I think in part because he feels deeply a lot of that stuff doesn't actually reach the surface. This isn't to say that Ray is all surfaces, but that if he feels something and he wants to let you know, he's gonna damn well let you know. (This is something that Ray Kowalski shares, except that unlike Vecchio he doesn't seem particularly okay with said existential honesty. He's got his heart on his sleeve but acts tough to cover it, which I don't think Vecchio needs to do. And this is why Fraser likes being around them! I think watching someone else who has normal emotional outlets is probably very helpful.) And oh the look of joy on Fraser's face when Ray figures out the wire riddle! I love how he has just this one moment of forgetting to be careful. <3
I am also very fond of Thatcher's rising incredulity at the FBI agent repeatedly calling her "darling," culminating in her smacking him pretty damn hard in the middle of her semaphore session. I really love Meg. I also really love the complete absurdity of the semaphore conversation, because, seriously? But it's a Paul Gross episode, so why the hell not. Anyway, I forgive the absurdity because I can actually hear them saying all the lines even though they're just gesturing them.
And again I can forgive all absurdities in a Paul Gross episode because, like I said, he really gets the character bits. Another one of my single favourite exchanges in all of dS is -- okay, here, I have to just do a transcription.
RAY. I just want you to know, I mean, I know you are what you are and you can't help that, but it's really hard to have a saint for a friend.
FRASER. I'm not a saint, Ray.
RAY. Well, I know that you're not a saint saint, like you've got your own day; I mean a saint in the sense of a --
FRASER. What, like a metaphor?
RAY. Yeah, like a metaphor.
FRASER. Yeah, but Ray, don't you see? You are as well. We all are, even them. You know what I mean?
RAY. Yeah, that's what scares me: I think I do.
And I just -- we all are, even them. It's probably the most perfect goddamn encapsulation of Fraser ever. And in part he means it in terms of potential, but I suspect he also means it in terms of actual, even though I'm not quite sure how to articulate this. It's not even a case of Fraser believing the best in people; it's just how he actually sees the world, and what I really love is that Ray gets that.
(I do also love that Ray yells at Randall Bolt that he's not a martyr, just a self-centered little creep who wants to get his face in the paper, and Fraser knows that Ray's projecting his Fraser-frustrations. Way to be a nut, Ray! And way to understand each other, guys! Damn you Paul Gross why do you cram all this shippy stuff into the last few episodes.)
Wow. Wow I really love that episode. It is basically the Fraser/Vecchio manifesto with bonus tiny Fraser/Thatcher goodies and I adore it.
2x18 Flashback
Note to Ray: if Fraser asks you who the hell you are, you should already realize something has gone very wrong. The thing about amnesia plots done well is that they tell you a lot about a character, and certainly one of the things Fraser loses is the sort of tight censoring of himself that he usually does, which is kind of cool. But more on that in a bit.
I kind of love how Ray is particularly concerned with getting Fraser's memory back so that they can track the diamond thieves. I'm sure he's actually freaked out that Fraser doesn't remember him, but he's focusing on something that is smaller and therefore easier to deal with.
So, amnesia plot: the things that are different about Fraser, and the things he retains, are important. He assumes he's under arrest, to begin with; this means that he's retained the logical thinking process (he doesn't know who he is, but there's a police officer, ergo ...) and also his sense of being law-abiding.
He thinks that jumping onto moving vans sounds like a pretty stupid idea. He does look mildly flattered when Ray says that no, he's not stupid, he's a hero, but he seems a little disbelieving of it. I think the inference there is that he never really thinks of himself as a hero; whatever sense he's retained, he doesn't think of heroics as being a part of him, and I think that's probably true no matter what. Also he makes a face at how damn bright the serge is, which sort of goes with last episode's complaint about the uniform actually being annoying a lot of the time. And dear god. "What the hell kind of name is 'Benton' anyway?" Maybe that goes with the bit about the serge: here are all the things that he wants to complain about or secretly bother him a bit, but he's just never had a way to voice them.
He doesn't hold the door for the woman coming through afterward. And he laughs about it. "C'mon, Mack, no one's that polite." So not only does he totally not buy it, but he can't even be bothered to remember Ray's name. I think ... that's one of those instances where, since he doesn't have any parenting in the back of his head drilling the politeness in, he's erring in the opposite direction just because the amnesia has actually given him a temporary outlet for it.
Besides all the stuff he gets to be suddenly contrary about, though, he gets to keep a lot of his Fraserisms. For instance, when he meets Welsh again, he does this awkward hearty sort of handshake, which is pretty much trademark Fraser "I am not entirely sure what to do in this situation so I will default to the most awkward thing possible." And when a hot woman breezes through the station and gives Fraser the normal checking-out treatment, he is completely blown away -- and he still does all the awkward Fraser body language and can't actually articulate the fact that he found her attractive. He's flattered but already a bit uncomfortable! Hello, I am steadily more convinced that, Victoria and Meg aside, Fraser is really kinda gay.
Huh. When Ray tells Fraser to trust him, Fraser asks "Do I trust people?" Ray answers "Implicitly," and Fraser's response is "Good." I like that; I like that a lot, that he's concerned with that and that he's glad to learn that he does trust people. It is absolutely still Fraser in there under the veneer of un-Fraser-like mild rudeness. Also again Fraser cannot actually say the words, but he wants to know if he and Meg are involved, and when Ray says "She hates you," Fraser's response is "That's too bad." I like how things like his attraction to Meg and his loyalty to Ray are constants even when he doesn't know why.
Ow, ow, re: his apartment: "I live here? Am I being punished?" And of course the answer is yes, but the answer is also that he's punishing himself, even if he doesn't realize it. (Which ... explains the Consulate next season. Dear god.) His reaction to Diefenbaker is interesting: he goes crashing back against the door in surprise and is astonished that he owns a wolf. But mostly he wants to know if it's legal. Heh.
I like that his first flash of memory is the first time dead Bob turned up. His father is important no matter if there's no memory attached.
I'm particularly fascinated that his entire response to the Victoria debacle is "You shot me? You're sure we're friends?" Nothing else held any emotional resonance -- because in the end Victoria is mostly a story, and one he doesn't remember right now, even if Ray figured it would be important. What is important is that Fraser's puzzled that they're friends not because Ray shot him but because he thinks that he, Fraser, is annoying. How could someone he implicitly likes as much as he likes Ray actually put up with the man Ray's been describing? Alone we're incomplete but together we're better than we are separately. Dear god, Ray. And Fraser gets this puzzled look on his face, like, he's not sure that friends is the right word, and that's when he starts to remember. And then, dear god, "Oh Benny, I could kiss you!" "I thought we were just friends, Ray." "Oh, we are." I just. I thought the episode before this was the Fraser/Vecchio manifesto? LIES. THIS IS.
And it ends with a story about an Inuit marriage ceremony in which two people who have been bound together will be more effective. Oh. my. god. Epic! Epic no-longer-bromance! And then they went and cancelled the damn show.
And I just. The end credits are my favourites. Them just smiling and cracking up for a whole minute and change. I'm glad you guys had a good time! Byyyyye, Vecchio. <333
And now for some Slings & Arrows. Dear god I hope I do not get mental whiplash.
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I think "We all are, even them," is maaaaaybe my single favourite line in the whole show. He knows exactly what he's saying.