due South: the Pilot movie/later seasons
May. 4th, 2004 01:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
butterflyEvery time I watch this, I'm struck by how much this Fraser vibes like the one in Seasons three and four. This is the Fraser in his natural enviroment -- he's monumentally self-possessed (to quote Wesley from Angel -- I'm not going to cry thinking of Angel...).
His first meeting with Ray Vecchio is an odd precursor of how he'll one day meet Ray Kowalski -- as an imposter. Or, rather, you could say that the Ray Vecchio meet is the template for the later RayK intoduction.
It's an interesting parallel. And Burning Down the House and Call of the Wild are full of parallels to the pilot.
Fraser swears here, to Gerrard, though Ray never knows about it. Ray doesn't, in fact, see Fraser do any of the things that aren't what Ray would expect. Fraser-in-Chicago is a different creature than Fraser-in-Canada.
All wild animals change their behavior when placed into captivity. They pace meaningless circles, they get frustrated and act out, or they adapt. That doesn't turn them into domestic animals. The wild is still waiting, dormant, under the veneer of good behavior.
Domestication takes far more than one generation to seal in. And even then, it's far from foolproof.
We find out a lot about Fraser in the pilot -- he's incredibly determined and he's willing to bend the law in order to achieve justice (B&E and leaving a dead caribou on a desk). He's perceptive (Ray's 'garment salesman'), he's subtly snarky ("Like you, he's pretending to be something he's not."), and he's very much used to working solo (not calling Vecchio about finding the killer). Fraser is, at this point in time, very much a loner, with Diefenbaker his only companion.
And we have this very interesting conversation:
Moffet: "You've got to gain their trust and at the same time show them you're not anybody's lap dog."
Fraser: "Lap dog, sir?"
Moffet: "These are Americans, Fraser, if they think they can walk all over you they will. It's a delicate balance you've got to be just as shrewd and cunning and ruthless as they are and then being Canadians we have to be polite."
Fraser: "Polite? Sir?"
Moffet: "What's the one thing you hear Americans say about Canadians over and over again. They're such nice polite people. So we use that against them."
Fraser: "I'm not exactly clear as how we do that, sir."
Moffet: "We let them underestimate us. You'd be surprised at the number of people who underestimate me, Fraser."
Fraser: "I don't think so, sir."
Moffet: "How many times I've been at some diplomatic cocktail party when people start to say something and then suddenly stop, realizing I'm within hearing distance and then say 'Oh, it's just the Canadian.' It always works, though it never quite loses it's sting. So, it's a big job with a lot of ground to cover. You think you're up to it?"
Fraser: "I'll do my best, sir."
In one sense, it's vastly amusing, because Fraser is doing his "I'm sure that I don't understand at all" thing that he does when he completely understands. And his undetectable to the untrained eye sarcasm. And on the other hand, it's important because it's telling us that this is what Fraser does -- he uses his 'nice, polite' exterior in order to get his way. He does it in Canada (Saying 'fishing over the limit' when he could have mentioned the dynamite right away? It's clear that he's making his own fun.) and continues to do it in Chicago (one obvious example is Pizza and Promises).
My take on Fraser? He's a very good person who makes himself conform to right and nice (to use Discworld terminology). His innate sense of good is very powerful, but he moderates it with law and manners.
If someone wanted to make a case for Fraser as a Sentinel, it would be really, really easy. He's very strong, very agile, and his senses are enhanced to the point of ridiculousness.
He's 'the last of a breed'. Born and bred to trek across kilometres of snow and tundra. He was raised by his grandparents and they moved fairly often, which is enough by itself to isolate many kids. Add to that his personality (that we could already see in place in the kid in Easy Money) and the initial damage of Victoria and it's easy to see how he became the Benton Fraser that we meet in the pilot.
We know that as a child, Benton made at least a couple of friends. We know that he's friendly with people that his father knew. We know of absolutely no people from his years in the depot or the service.
Benton Fraser's isolation wasn't instant when his mother died -- it came slowly as he immersed himself in a world of books and nature and laws. Fraser caged himself, believing that he needed it.
He caged himself and then his father died. His father's death led him to Chicago and solving his father's death caged him there. But inside the concrete and glass cage of Chicago, Fraser found that he'd always had the keys to the cage of his soul.
Full circle -- finding his father's killer trapped him in Chicago, finding his mother's released him out into the wild again. due South is a loop, but not a true circle -- rather, it's akin to a roller coaster loop, where the exit is close to the entrance and yet profoundly different. There's a way in and a way out and when you're inside, you get turned upside and your stomach jumps.
One of the things that thrums throughout the third/fourth season(s) is the sense that Fraser is done with Chicago. Vecchio was a reason to stay in Chicago, so is Kowalski, but RayK is not, in Fraser's mind, tied to Chicago in the way that RayV is. Once Vecchio is gone, Fraser slowly starts giving up the pretense that he wants to be in Chicago (he abandons looking for a new apartment after SvS and also wears the red serge exclusively as a uniform after that episode). When he mentions his homesickness in Call of the Wild, it's the release of a tension that he's been feeling for quite some time, I would imagine. But we keep seeing hints of it throughout the season(s) -- his longing mention of his cabin in Bounty Hunter, trying to pretend that he's in the wilderness in A Likely Story, his visualization of the Borderlands as snow-covered forests in Dead Men Don't Throw Rice, the way he immediately gloms onto Maggie and her very Fraserish ways in Hunting Season.
Fraser's homesick, yet he doesn't leave. And he could. He's offered a transfer in Mountie on the Bounty and Thatcher mentions the possibility again in Call of the Wild. Yet he stays, until Ray Vecchio returns, and his parents are at peace. Until Ray Kowalski mentions his own longing for an adventure.
Before Call of the Wild, Fraser had obligations that kept him in Chicago. In CotW, they all get resolved. His father, RayV, Inspector Thatcher and Francesca, they all get their peace and a place.
Fraser can go home, with nothing holding him back.
He can walk in the sky, where he belongs.
His first meeting with Ray Vecchio is an odd precursor of how he'll one day meet Ray Kowalski -- as an imposter. Or, rather, you could say that the Ray Vecchio meet is the template for the later RayK intoduction.
It's an interesting parallel. And Burning Down the House and Call of the Wild are full of parallels to the pilot.
Fraser swears here, to Gerrard, though Ray never knows about it. Ray doesn't, in fact, see Fraser do any of the things that aren't what Ray would expect. Fraser-in-Chicago is a different creature than Fraser-in-Canada.
All wild animals change their behavior when placed into captivity. They pace meaningless circles, they get frustrated and act out, or they adapt. That doesn't turn them into domestic animals. The wild is still waiting, dormant, under the veneer of good behavior.
Domestication takes far more than one generation to seal in. And even then, it's far from foolproof.
We find out a lot about Fraser in the pilot -- he's incredibly determined and he's willing to bend the law in order to achieve justice (B&E and leaving a dead caribou on a desk). He's perceptive (Ray's 'garment salesman'), he's subtly snarky ("Like you, he's pretending to be something he's not."), and he's very much used to working solo (not calling Vecchio about finding the killer). Fraser is, at this point in time, very much a loner, with Diefenbaker his only companion.
And we have this very interesting conversation:
Moffet: "You've got to gain their trust and at the same time show them you're not anybody's lap dog."
Fraser: "Lap dog, sir?"
Moffet: "These are Americans, Fraser, if they think they can walk all over you they will. It's a delicate balance you've got to be just as shrewd and cunning and ruthless as they are and then being Canadians we have to be polite."
Fraser: "Polite? Sir?"
Moffet: "What's the one thing you hear Americans say about Canadians over and over again. They're such nice polite people. So we use that against them."
Fraser: "I'm not exactly clear as how we do that, sir."
Moffet: "We let them underestimate us. You'd be surprised at the number of people who underestimate me, Fraser."
Fraser: "I don't think so, sir."
Moffet: "How many times I've been at some diplomatic cocktail party when people start to say something and then suddenly stop, realizing I'm within hearing distance and then say 'Oh, it's just the Canadian.' It always works, though it never quite loses it's sting. So, it's a big job with a lot of ground to cover. You think you're up to it?"
Fraser: "I'll do my best, sir."
In one sense, it's vastly amusing, because Fraser is doing his "I'm sure that I don't understand at all" thing that he does when he completely understands. And his undetectable to the untrained eye sarcasm. And on the other hand, it's important because it's telling us that this is what Fraser does -- he uses his 'nice, polite' exterior in order to get his way. He does it in Canada (Saying 'fishing over the limit' when he could have mentioned the dynamite right away? It's clear that he's making his own fun.) and continues to do it in Chicago (one obvious example is Pizza and Promises).
My take on Fraser? He's a very good person who makes himself conform to right and nice (to use Discworld terminology). His innate sense of good is very powerful, but he moderates it with law and manners.
If someone wanted to make a case for Fraser as a Sentinel, it would be really, really easy. He's very strong, very agile, and his senses are enhanced to the point of ridiculousness.
He's 'the last of a breed'. Born and bred to trek across kilometres of snow and tundra. He was raised by his grandparents and they moved fairly often, which is enough by itself to isolate many kids. Add to that his personality (that we could already see in place in the kid in Easy Money) and the initial damage of Victoria and it's easy to see how he became the Benton Fraser that we meet in the pilot.
We know that as a child, Benton made at least a couple of friends. We know that he's friendly with people that his father knew. We know of absolutely no people from his years in the depot or the service.
Benton Fraser's isolation wasn't instant when his mother died -- it came slowly as he immersed himself in a world of books and nature and laws. Fraser caged himself, believing that he needed it.
He caged himself and then his father died. His father's death led him to Chicago and solving his father's death caged him there. But inside the concrete and glass cage of Chicago, Fraser found that he'd always had the keys to the cage of his soul.
Full circle -- finding his father's killer trapped him in Chicago, finding his mother's released him out into the wild again. due South is a loop, but not a true circle -- rather, it's akin to a roller coaster loop, where the exit is close to the entrance and yet profoundly different. There's a way in and a way out and when you're inside, you get turned upside and your stomach jumps.
One of the things that thrums throughout the third/fourth season(s) is the sense that Fraser is done with Chicago. Vecchio was a reason to stay in Chicago, so is Kowalski, but RayK is not, in Fraser's mind, tied to Chicago in the way that RayV is. Once Vecchio is gone, Fraser slowly starts giving up the pretense that he wants to be in Chicago (he abandons looking for a new apartment after SvS and also wears the red serge exclusively as a uniform after that episode). When he mentions his homesickness in Call of the Wild, it's the release of a tension that he's been feeling for quite some time, I would imagine. But we keep seeing hints of it throughout the season(s) -- his longing mention of his cabin in Bounty Hunter, trying to pretend that he's in the wilderness in A Likely Story, his visualization of the Borderlands as snow-covered forests in Dead Men Don't Throw Rice, the way he immediately gloms onto Maggie and her very Fraserish ways in Hunting Season.
Fraser's homesick, yet he doesn't leave. And he could. He's offered a transfer in Mountie on the Bounty and Thatcher mentions the possibility again in Call of the Wild. Yet he stays, until Ray Vecchio returns, and his parents are at peace. Until Ray Kowalski mentions his own longing for an adventure.
Before Call of the Wild, Fraser had obligations that kept him in Chicago. In CotW, they all get resolved. His father, RayV, Inspector Thatcher and Francesca, they all get their peace and a place.
Fraser can go home, with nothing holding him back.
He can walk in the sky, where he belongs.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-05-04 06:57 pm (UTC)I love writing and thinking about the characters. Especially Fraser. I adore RayK and Francesca and Welsh and Dief and many others, but Fraser...
*sigh*