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return to Due South: season 1 episode 19 "Heaven and Earth"
Heaven and Earth
air date April 24, 1995
Scene 1
A gold heart-shaped locket is swinging on a gold chain. A light flashes. A young woman in a blue jacket is wearing the locket. She is carrying books and walking and talking with a friend. The sound is muddy and indistinct. The young women pass a bulletin board. A light flashes. They are walking outside. A light flashes. They are in a passageway on a college campus. A light flashes. Fraser is reaching down into a pit. A light flashes. The young women are separating on a pathway beside a lawn. A light flashes. The young woman in the blue jacket is walking by herself. Now the visuals are becoming choppy and blurry as well. A light flashes. Fraser is reaching down into the pit. A light flashes. The young woman with the blue jacket is walking. She goes around a tree. A light flashes. Fraser is reaching down into the pit. The edges of the pit start to collapse. A light flashes. The young woman with the blue jacket drops her books. She bends over to pick them up, notices that someone has been following her, and stands up. Someone grabs her. She struggles; the chain of her necklace breaks. A light flashes. The trunk of a car is opening. Fraser is reaching into the collapsing pit. The young woman is thrown into the trunk. Fraser is reaching into the collapsing pit. The pit is filling in.
A man wakes up with a gasp. He sits up, breathing heavily. He is clutching the gold locket and chain in his hand.
DREAMER: Oh, not again. Not again.
This is an unusual opening scene; we haven't seen a dream sequence before. Except for Fraser, we don't know who any of these people are. And we don't know how the man having the dream got the necklace.
Credits roll.
Paul Gross
David Marciano
Beau Starr
Daniel Kash
Tony Craig
Catherine Bruhier
(plus Lincoln the dog)
Jonathan Banks, Ramona Milano, Alex Carter, Djanet Sears, Mark Melymick
Scene 2
Fraser and Vecchio (who is unshaven) are in the break room at the 27th precinct.
VECCHIO: Look, I don't care what you have to confess. I don't want to hear it.
FRASER: Ah, I'm sorry, Ray. I realize this may not be the best venue, nor the most appropriate moment, but it's something that —
VECCHIO: I am working on a big missing persons case. I haven't slept. This is the first chance I've gotten away from my desk in seventy-two hours, and I am trying to get some food — [The vending machine eats his money and does not give him food. He hits it and leaves the break room.] — so can we do this some other time?
FRASER: I'm disturbing you.
VECCHIO: Yes, you are.
FRASER: I should leave?
VECCHIO: Yes, you should.
FRASER: But Ray —
VECCHIO: But you won't.
FRASER: Well, I am sorry, but there's a certain matter that I've withheld from you for some time now, and I feel if I don't clear my conscience soon, I —
VECCHIO: Okay, okay, clear.
FRASER: Well, it appears that there's a situation that I have unwittingly encouraged, and it's taken a turn that I perhaps foolishly had not anticipated, or was even aware of as a remote possibility, but insofar as it is a matter of the heart, and directly affects someone who is close to both of us —
VECCHIO: Fraser, you've got from here to my desk. Make it count.
FRASER: Saturday last, your sister came to my apartment in the middle of the night dressed in what can only be described as less than requisite attire and offered herself to me.
VECCHIO: Okay, great. Now beat it. [Fraser beats it. But before he can get far, Vecchio realizes what he has just said.] My sister?
FRASER: Yes.
VECCHIO: You slept with my sister?
FRASER: Did she say that?
VECCHIO: No, she did not say that. She is my sister. I do not discuss sex with my sister.
FRASER: So, she didn't say —
VECCHIO: No.
FRASER: Oh, well. Very well. Forget that I mentioned it. [He flees.]
VECCHIO: Hey, Fraser —
A uniformed officer is coming along the hall with the dreamer from scene 1.
OFFICER: Ho, Detective Vecchio. I got another one for you.
VECCHIO: Uh, yeah, okay, great, get a statement.
OFFICER: Uh-uh. He'll only talk to you.
VECCHIO: All right, uh, bring him up to my desk. I'll be right up. Hey, Benny!
He goes to follow Fraser, but dodges out of the way when he sees Francesca and Elaine coming along the hallway together.
FRANCESCA: Okay, I'm standing in his door. I drop my coat. I look at him. And he looks at me — you know how a squirrel looks just before you hit him?
She makes a "hmm, yeah" face and walks away. Elaine is displeased and follows her.
First of all, "The Deal" aired on March 30 and this episode is airing on April 24, which is a long time (with another episode in between) for the events of "The Deal" to have been only eight or nine days ago or less. (I can stretch "Saturday last" maybe all the way to the following Sunday? But I feel like by Monday, "Saturday last" means the most recent Saturday, not the one 10 days ago.) When did "An Invitation to Romance" occur? Could have been a Friday, because Katherine was expecting to get married the next day, but that prospective wedding could have happened any day of the week, I suppose, so all we know is that it will have been a weekday, because the post office and the county building were open. Vecchio was on his day off and hung out at the reception at the consulate that evening, and now he's been working on a big missing persons case for at least three days, so if this is Sunday, the case came in no later than Thursday, and that reception couldn't have been later than Wednesday.
That is, they are asking us to believe that "The Deal" ended on a Saturday evening with Francesca coming and propositioning Fraser, and by Wednesday he was ready to tug a loose thread off his breast pocket and go waltz in the courtyard with another woman who had only hours earlier actually tried even harder to force herself on him. In addition to which, it is now Sunday (maybe) and the cuts and bruises he sustained in "The Deal" eight or nine days ago are no longer visible, nor were they visible on Wednesday in the episode in between.
In short: SHENANIGANS. I think "Invitation," which aired on April 6, i.e., a week after "The Deal," must have been out of order, and this episode must have been originally intended for that date.
Anyway. It's not clear whether Fraser and Francesca did in fact sleep together, because he did look at her just like a squirrel she was about to hit with the car, plus he had the aforementioned cuts and bruises at the time and may even have been toting one or more busted ribs. But if he'd turned her down, given how invested she was in the idea of sleeping with him, would she be telling Elaine about it a week later? But if he had slept with her, would he be tugging threads off his tunic and going to have a waltz with Katherine Burns four days later? A guy who is as wigged as we've seen Fraser be by social attention from attractive women doesn't strike me as a guy who will date (or "date") two women in that short a time period. (Further evidence, I think, that "Invitation" can't have taken place between "The Deal" and the present episode.)
In any event, I don't think it's any of Vecchio's goddamn business whom Francesca, a grown woman who has been married and divorced, does or doesn't sleep with. I know dudes have A Thing about their buddies sleeping with their sisters, but I'd prefer to think Fraser doesn't subscribe to that kind of crap. He's apparently only brought it up in the first place (but see comments) because he assumes Francesca will already have brought it up, so maybe he agrees (with me, I mean) that it's not actually information Vecchio needs or even has any right to.
Scene 3
Fraser is giving someone directions to somewhere else in the building.
FRASER: Ah, yes, it's just up the stairs, down the hallway —
VECCHIO: Will you excuse us?
WOMAN WHO HAD ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS: Sure. [Vecchio steers Fraser down the hallway and into a closet.]
VECCHIO: Okay, the way I see it — [Diefenbaker grumbles. Vecchio opens the door and lets him out of the closet.] — Okay, the way I see it, you got two options. You can tell me exactly what happened with my kid sister that night in your apartment, or one of us isn't leaving this closet alive.
FRASER: You're upset.
VECCHIO: That would be correct.
FRASER: Well, Ray, I had no choice. The door just opened, she was standing there, and then when she took off her coat, there was very much more of her standing there —
VECCHIO: Did you sleep with her?
FRASER: I told you, I can't tell you that. It wouldn't be chivalrous. However, if you have the need to call me out, then I —
VECCHIO: Call you out? What is that, some kind of hockey expression?
FRASER: No. I mean, it has nothing to do with hockey. It has to do with honor, and under the circumstances, I, I, I understand that —
There is a knock, then Elaine opens the closet door.
ELAINE: Hi.
FRASER: Hi.
VECCHIO: Hi.
ELAINE: Am I disturbing you?
FRASER: No, not at all.
VECCHIO: Yes, you are.
ELAINE: Lieutenant wants to see you.
VECCHIO: Don't move.
FRASER: I won't move. [Vecchio leaves the closet. Elaine gives Fraser a hard stare.]
ELAINE: Can I ask you a personal question? Francesca?
FRASER: Francesca . . .
ELAINE: Vecchio.
FRASER: Vecchio. [She gives him "yeah? so? what do you have to say for yourself?" eyebrows. He pulls the closet door shut.]
ELAAAINE. I want Elaine to have more dignity than Francesca in the whole throwing-themselves-at-Fraser situation, and she keeps—well, wanting what she wants, which is not wrong of her. And/but/so I guess the dabbing-his-wounds-with-antiseptic scene was not The Start Of Something for Fraser and Elaine, and it sounds like Elaine believes Fraser and Francesca did sleep together (though it's still not clear whether this is true, whether it's not true but Francesca implied it heavily, or what).
Would Fraser expect Vecchio to call him out for dishonoring Francesca by sleeping with her or dishonoring her by rejecting her? The whole concept of men's getting hung up on women's virtue is so foreign to me that I genuinely don't know. Again: This is a grown woman (so it's none of anyone else's business full stop) who has been married before (so for people who are prudishly concerned with her virtue, isn't she in a different category than an "innocent girl"?). Oof, I'm twisting myself into pretzels trying to be mad at Vecchio and not mad at Fraser here, and fuck it, I think they're both being disgusting.
Scene 4
Vecchio goes into the squad room.
VECCHIO: What's with the suits?
OFFICER: FBI.
Huey and Gardino are carrying banker's boxes labeled "MADISON Case #623-C" over to their own desks.
VECCHIO: What the hell are you doing? Those are my files.
HUEY: Not anymore.
GARDINO: You're off the case. [They are opening the boxes and going through the files.]
VECCHIO: Who says?
GARDINO: Couple old friends of yours.
I don't know why Huey and Gardino are buddies with the feds.
Scene 5
Agent Ford, whom we have met before, is in Welsh's office.
FORD: All that's needed here is a little cooperation, lieutenant. Surely your people can manage that.
WELSH: I've seen your version of cooperation. They're still replacing windows down in Chinatown.
FORD: We're not blaming you for Chinatown. Although there are some in Washington who were a little dismayed by the lack of respect your people show for federal authority. [Vecchio enters.] Here's a case in point.
VECCHIO: See you guys ran out of things to screw up in Washington.
WELSH: Detective Vecchio, these gentlemen are here seeking our cooperation on the Madison case.
FORD: Howard Madison has asked us to get his daughter back.
VECCHIO: Oh, asked you?
FORD: He's a defense contractor with a number of influential friends in Washington, the director being one of them.
VECCHIO: Come on, it's only been three days.
FORD: And you have nothing. We're taking over.
VECCHIO: Lieutenant, this is a missing persons case, pure and simple. If we turn it over to these bozos —
DIETER: Bozos?
VECCHIO: Oh, excuse me, Agent Bozos.
FORD: Call Washington.
WELSH: Oh, no, no, no, that won't be necessary. Detective Vecchio, you know the drill.
VECCHIO: Ah, come on, Lieutenant.
WELSH: You'll be kept informed.
I have to assume these particular feds have done good work that we haven't seen, or else why on earth would anyone entrust them to take over a missing persons case after their bang-up failure in the kidnapping of David Lee?
Scene 6
Vecchio goes back to his desk. Huey and Gardino are pleased to see that he is unhappy. He is exhausted and puts his head down. The dreamer is there after the uniform brought him up in scene 2. He carefully puts the gold locket down next to a picture of the missing girl in which she is wearing that very necklace.
VECCHIO: What the hell are you looking at?
DREAMER: I'd — like to help. I have something about the girl.
VECCHIO: Yeah, well, you know what? Why don't you tell it to them. [He points in Huey and Gardino's direction, then gets up and grabs his coat.]
DREAMER: Please —
VECCHIO: [to the uniformed officer] Look, get a statement from this guy and get him the hell out of here.
It is to be hoped that Vecchio is going home to get some sleep, but we have our doubts, don't we.
Scene 7
Fraser and Elaine are coming into the squad room.
FRASER: You see, a chivalric code of behavior dictates a certain amount of restraint on the part of the gentleman, no matter how he may feel, in order to respect the lady's reputation.
ELAINE: And your grandmother taught you this.
FRASER: Yes.
ELAINE: And you believed her.
Vecchio has joined them. They all see the uniformed officer getting the dreamer up from Vecchio's desk.
DREAMER: Um. Sir. I don't really want to — [He sees Fraser and stops short. A light flashes. Fraser is reaching into the collapsing pit.]
FRASER: Come on!
DREAMER: It's him.
OFFICER: What?
DREAMER: You're the one! [Everyone looks at him.] He's the one. In the red coat. You're the one who kidnapped the girl.
OFFICER: Are you kidding? He's a cop.
DREAMER: Hmm. Hmm.
He suddenly pushes the uniformed officer away from him and runs. He goes past Vecchio's desk, shoving the chair in the way behind him, and out a fire exit. Vecchio tries to follow him but the door is blocked by a trash can. Fraser picks up the necklace where it has fallen on the floor and sees that it matches the one in the picture.
I definitely don't know what to make of Fraser explaining his idea of chivalry to Elaine. Neither, it seems, does Elaine.
Scene 8
The feds are in Welsh's office, looking at the necklace in an evidence bag. Fraser is drawing.
DIETER: Yep. It's hers. Father confirmed it.
FORD: Get it analyzed.
VECCHIO: [comes in from looking for the Dreamer] There's no sign of him. Come on, let's get out of here.
FORD: Sit down. He said you did it, Constable.
FRASER: That's correct, sir.
FORD: He even referred to you as "the one in the red coat."
VECCHIO: Gee, I wonder why he would say a thing like that? Come on.
FORD: I wasn't talking to you! [to Fraser] You work downtown, don't you, Constable?
FRASER: Yes, sir.
FORD: You ever spend any time at Haven Hill College? Take any night courses?
VECCHIO: Oh, this is great, so now you're going after the Mountie?
FRASER: It's all right, Ray. Uh, I'm sorry I'm afraid I haven't had the pleasure of visiting that campus. However, if you need an account of my activities that night, I'd be happy to furnish you with a detailed itinerary. In the meantime, perhaps this will be of some assistance. I'm not convinced about the ears.
FORD: This is very good, Constable. Perfect perspective, attention to details. Apparently embarrassing senior officials isn't your only talent.
FRASER: I'm sorry, sir?
FORD: Let's be very clear about one thing. This time, you are not going to come in the way of my investigation. In fact, if I so much as catch sight of your little red coattails, I'm going to nail them and you to a wall. Understood?
FRASER: That seems perfectly clear, sir.
FORD: Good.
FRASER: May I, um — [He reaches for his sketchbook.]
FORD: Leave.
FRASER: Yes, I may. [He leaves without his sketchbook.]
VECCHIO: You sure you wouldn't prefer a wallet size?
So this FBI agent is of course a complete asshole, and he's also impressively stupid: Does he really think this is the right time or the right way to start asking Fraser questions to probe whether he was involved in this disappearance? Like he won't see through him sooner than immediately? He thinks his "the one in the red coat" insight is an insight when Fraser is wearing the red coat right now. Le sigh.
Meanwhile, if the young woman disappeared on Thursday evening and this is the third day, that's one thing, but if "it's been three days" means she disappeared on Wednesday evening and they got the case on Thursday so this is the third day,* Fraser's detailed itinerary of what he was up to at the time of the disappearance would apparently involve riding in a garbage truck all the way to the city dump and then waltzing in a courtyard at a Canadian consulate reception, no?
*Look, I think if a thing happens on a Friday then three days later it's Monday, but a whole major world religion is based on "three days" actually being about 36 hours, so who knows what value of three days the show is using here?
Scene 9
Vecchio and Fraser are walking through the station.
VECCHIO: So we got a face, what else we got?
FRASER: Well, judging from the rumpled state of his clothing, I'd say this was a man who lived on the street, and yet he didn't appear to be ill-nourished. So he must be managing to feed himself.
VECCHIO: Food stamps, or, ah, maybe he's begging food from diners or coffee shops.
FRASER: And his fingernails. Everything else about him was dirty except for his fingernails.
VECCHIO: You saw that?
FRASER: Well he pointed it straight at me, Ray. There was something else. Something on his clothing, something pungent. [He stops and sniffs the air, remembering.] Mesa powder. Chili.
VECCHIO: Chili.
FRASER: It's the best I can do.
VECCHIO: Okay, so we are looking for a transient with clean fingernails who smells like chili.
Francesca is going by telling her story to someone else.
FRANCESCA: I'm not sure, but I think it was the look in his eye. You know, that long, slow, drift from here down — oh, well, you know. It's so romantic.
Fraser looks back at Vecchio.
VECCHIO: I'm telling you, nothing better have happened.
Fraser nods vigorously as they continue on their way.
Best I can work out, La Mesa is a brand of chili powder. He doesn't mean maize, which wouldn't have made sense anyway; is there a specific spice that I don't know the name of that he could be referring to?
The more people Francesca tells about her tryst with Fraser, the less I believe she actually shagged him, because if she were doing it she wouldn't need to brag about it. Right?
Scene 10
Fraser and Vecchio are driving around checking out soup kitchens. They are in line at the first one.
CHEF: Best chili in town. They come from Midtown to Lakeshore. You know, in this business, it's word of mouth that counts. [He offers Vecchio a ladle.]
VECCHIO: Oh, yeah, I bet. Fraser?
FRASER: [dabs his finger in the chili and tastes it] It's very good. [to the chef] Worcestershire sauce, if I'm not mistaken.
CHEF: Yeah, it gives it a little oomph.
FRASER: [smiles, shakes his head at Vecchio] Thank you kindly.
They are in the kitchen at the second place. Fraser is sniffing a pot in the background.
KITCHEN MANAGER: Sure, I got lots of dishwashers.
VECCHIO: Got one about five-ten, short brown hair, with a beard?
KITCHEN MANAGER: That would describe about half of them.
VECCHIO: How about this guy? [shows him Fraser's drawing]
KITCHEN MANAGER: Sorry. [Fraser shakes his head no about the chili as well.]
They are in line at the third place. Fraser is sniffing in chafing dishes. Vecchio takes the lid off a pot.
VECCHIO: Hey, what a surprise, chili. Benny?
FRASER: [sticks his finger in the pot, tastes it] Mesa powder. [They go back to the kitchen.] Excuse me. Your chili recipe —
COOK: Eat it or toss it.
VECCHIO: [sees the Dreamer washing dishes] Garret.
DREAMER (GARRET): [throws a pan of dishes at Vecchio; throws dishes at Fraser; grabs a knife out of a block and climbs on the counter] You get away from me! Get away!
FRASER: Now, please — there's no need —
Garret, for that is his name, comes at Fraser with the knife. Fraser blocks him with a pan and knocks him back into the counter. Fraser and Vecchio restrain him. He is sobbing.
Item one: GODDAMN, FRASER, GET A CLEAN SPOON rather than sticking your finger right in the ladle, you filthy animal.
Item two: This poor guy is obviously distressed, and even the heroic community-oriented Fraser treats him way more roughly than is necessary. Between the Francesca matter and this, he's not covering himself in glory today, is Big Red.
Scene 11
Garret is in the interrogation room at the 27th precinct with Ford and Dieter and a public defender. Vecchio and Fraser are watching from outside through the one-way mirror.
FORD: So you found the locket in the parking lot. Did you find anything else?
PUBLIC DEFENDER: Mr. Ford, we've been over this ground —
FORD: Thank you, Ms. Wilson. Hey, just walk me through this, okay? You find the locket in the parking lot, it's lying next to the car, you pick it up.
GARRET: Yeah.
FORD: Sounds reasonable. Were you trying to break in the car, Mr. Garret? Is that what happened?
GARRET: No. I, I told you, I just found it.
FORD: Yes. All you wanted to do was return it to its rightful owner. How did you know who owned it?
GARRET: I didn't. It's a police station, right?
FORD: You asked to speak to Detective Vecchio about the Madison case, so you must have known it was hers.
GARRET: I saw her picture in the paper.
VECCHIO: The picture released to the media didn't have a locket in it.
FORD: Hey, why didn't you sell it? It's got to be worth something. I mean, you could use the money, right?
GARRET: Look, I told you, I just wanted to help.
FORD: You just wanted to help. Can I tell you what I think, Mr. Garret? I think you came in here today because you wanted to tell the truth. Because your conscience was bothering you. You saw her on her way home from school, didn't you? [Garret is whimpering.] Purse dangling, gold jewelry. She's gotta have money on her, right? [Garret shakes his head.] You didn't want to hurt her, you just wanted to rob her.
GARRET: No.
FORD: But she struggled. Things got out of hand. She screamed, so you hit her.
GARRET: No. That's not the way it happened. She — just — no!
FORD: Where's the body, Mr. Garret?
PUBLIC DEFENDER (MS. WILSON): I object to this line of questioning. There has been no body recovered.
GARRET: I found a locket. That's all I did. I found a locket.
FORD: That is a lie, all right? Everything you've said here today is a lie.
MS. WILSON: Mr. Ford, if you have some evidence —
FORD: [slams a newspaper down in front of Garret] Picture of her in the paper. She wasn't wearing a locket, so you couldn't have known it was hers. [Garret keens and tries to look away.] And another little detail: You couldn't have picked it up beside her car, because she doesn't own one. [Ms. Wilson is rattled.]
GARRET: You listen to me, I didn't do it.
FORD: Because you're a liar, Mr. Garret. You lied to the sergeant at the desk, you lied to Detective Vecchio, you lied about Constable Fraser, and now you're lying to me.
GARRET: No. [He is becoming agitated.]
FORD: You saw her, you robbed her, and you killed her. Plain and simple.
GARRET: No! She was breathing!
FORD: When? After you hit her?
GARRET: In the trunk of the car! She was alive!
FORD: [He and Dieter exchange a look.] What kind of a car?
GARRET: I don't know, a car.
FORD: Big car? Small car? Was it red? Blue? Green?
GARRET: You don't understand! I wasn't there! I just see things!
FORD: Yeah. Just like you saw the Mountie, right?
MS. WILSON: Mr. Ford, that's enough.
FORD: He probably helped you put the body in the trunk, right?
GARRET: No, he buried her. He buried her. [He is seeing it now.] I see a hole. The earth, it's falling in. He's saying something. He's reaching for —
FORD: What? Her neck? Did you break her neck? Is that how you got this?
GARRET: [screaming] No! No! No! [Ford shoves the evidence bag with the locket into his hand. Garret rocks in his chair, crying.] No, no.
A light flashes. Someone tears the locket off the neck of the young woman with the blue jacket. He has his hands around her throat. The locket falls to the ground. She is being thrown into an earthen pit. She is at the bottom of the pit. Garret blinks and he is back in the interrogation room.
FRASER: She's alive.
Fraser and Vecchio head out to continue investigating. From inside the interrogation room, Ford hears a door close. He goes out to the observation area and realizes they must have been there.
FORD: Vecchio.
Again: Agent Ford, what a dick. I'm going to deduct five points from Ms. Wilson for "there's been no body recovered" in response to "where's the body," because DUH; what she meant and should have said was that there's no evidence the young woman has been killed. Other than that, of course the hero of the scene is Garret, who is convincingly upsetting as someone who is badly distressed by the things he's seeing (and the way he is being treated).
This is the same public defender who looked after Willie Lambert. I love continuity! (When it makes sense. I'm still a little ticked that Mrs. MacGuffin the housekeeper turned up at Nigel Ellis's place.)
Scene 12
Agent Ford is in the hallways looking to see where Vecchio and Fraser have gone.
FORD: Dieter! [Dieter emerges and follows him.]
Welsh and Francesca walk by in the other direction.
WELSH: Just out of curiosity, where was the wolf during all this time?
FRANCESCA: Well, it kinda happened like this —
Fraser and Vecchio go into the interrogation room Ford and Dieter have just left.
MS. WILSON: Hey, I'm sorry, but my client will answer no further questions.
FRASER: This will just take a minute.
VECCHIO: Yeah, thanks very much, Carolyn.
FRASER: She's alive, isn't she? You saw her.
GARRET: [weeping] Yeah.
FRASER: What else did you see?
GARRET: Nothing.
FRASER: You saw me.
GARRET: [He has stopped crying but is a little scared.] Yes.
FRASER: With her? When you saw me, was the girl there as well?
GARRET: [looks at Fraser for a long minute] No. [realizes that must mean something] No.
FRASER: Thank you. Excuse me.
Fraser starts to get up from the table. Garret grabs his hand. A light flashes. Fraser is reaching into the collapsing pit.
FRASER: Take my hand!
Garret gives Fraser a small smile.
I like Welsh using his detective skills to try and see how much of Francesca's story stands up to scrutiny.
The look on Fraser's face when Garret says "No" and he says "Thank you" is UNREAL. It is the kindest he has looked or been in the 20 TV hours we've known him. No wonder poor agitated Garret calmed down; it's the sort of expression of serene peace that is completely contagious. It's at 17:34 on the DVD. Look again. You'll feel better.
Scene 13
Vecchio and Fraser are in the hallway.
VECCHIO: What the hell was that?
FRASER: He saw her, Ray.
VECCHIO: Okay, great. So now all we have to do is place him at the parking lot.
FRASER: No, I don't think so. He wasn't there.
VECCHIO: You believe that?
FRASER: If he's guilty, why would he give us the locket? It only serves to incriminate him.
VECCHIO: Because he's delusional or he's a liar.
FRASER: Or because he sees things that we can't see.
VECCHIO: All right, you're losing me, Fraser.
FRASER: There are more things in heaven and earth than have been dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio.
VECCHIO: Yeah.
FRASER: You see, Horatio was —
VECCHIO: Hamlet's best friend. I know. I saw the movie.
FRASER: Well, Hamlet sees his father's ghost.
VECCHIO: Yeah. He also kills his uncle and spends entirely way too much time talking to skeletons.
FRASER: Well, I suppose that would follow.
VECCHIO: Look, how is this relevant?
FRASER: Well, it isn't. But it is possible.
VECCHIO: He was a crazy person, okay? Elaine, tell him Hamlet was a crazy person.
ELAINE: Can't vouch for Hamlet, but I'd watch out for Rosencrantz and Guildenstern if I were you. [nods toward Welsh's office]
WELSH: [coming out of his office] Vecchio! Bring the Mountie.
In which Fraser once again quotes Shakespeare almost but not quite accurately (and in a plot having to do with hallucination or mental illness, as well). The line from Hamlet in this instance is "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Vecchio is right that Hamlet isn't strictly relevant here, although opinions differ on whether Hamlet was in fact crazy. I like Elaine calling the feds Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—the guys who are pretending to be your friends but are actually plotting against you. Is she the only one who's done the reading?
Scene 14
Fraser and Vecchio go into Welsh's office. Ford and Dieter are already there. Welsh hands Vecchio a letter.
WELSH: This showed up at Howard Madison's office a half an hour ago.
VECCHIO: She's been kidnapped.
WELSH: That's generally what a demand for ransom indicates.
VECCHIO: So Garret's innocent.
DIETER: The letter was mailed yesterday. Your transient could have written it days ago.
VECCHIO: Oh, so then he changes his mind, walks in here, and decides to confess? That's nuts.
DIETER: Yeah. So is he.
FORD: Cut him loose.
DIETER: What?
FORD: Vecchio has a point. Cut him loose. [Dieter goes to do this. Vecchio smiles.]
FRASER: What about the girl?
WELSH: Kidnapper is demanding a million dollars in cash by five p.m. or she's dead by morning.
FRASER: So she is still alive.
WELSH: For the moment.
It's hard to tell if this is a moment of softening between Ford and Vecchio or if Ford is lulling Vecchio into a false sense of security. (Assuming he has the wit.) Hence, I suppose, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reference.
Scene 15
Ford has a map open on Welsh's desk and a whole team of federal guys planning the dropoff and sting. Welsh and Vecchio and Fraser are present as well, on the sidelines.
FORD: No sharpshooters, no helicopters, no guns. We need him alive. We only have one shot at this, people.
A FED WITH A BIG GUN: What about the armored personnel carrier?
FORD: No. [to Dieter] Have Madison take his limo to the drop site. Tell him to leave his driver at home. We'll supply one of ours.
VECCHIO: If the kidnapper sees the driver, he'll spook.
FORD: [thinks about this for a moment] Tell him to drive himself. [Dieter nods and heads out.] Okay? Any questions? Good.
Vecchio and Fraser leave the office.
VECCHIO: Good plan.
FRASER: Mmm.
VECCHIO: Too good.
FRASER: Mmm.
VECCHIO: Where's Dieter? [Fraser nods to where Dieter is showing a map and a plan to Huey and Gardino.]
VECCHIO: Mmm.
FRASER: Mmm-hmm.
Aha, see, "Vecchio has a point" indeed; Ford is doing a double-cross.
Scene 16
Vecchio is waiting outside the Forensics department. A woman comes out and hands him the ransom note.
FORENSICS: Five minutes. That's it.
VECCHIO: Okay, okay. I owe you one.
FORENSICS: You owe me ten.
VECCHIO: I know, I know. [kisses her cheek] Thanks. [She goes back into her department. He heads to the interrogation room.]
FRASER: Garret, tell me about the kidnappers.
MS. WILSON: He doesn't have to tell you anything.
FRASER: The FBI has a ransom note.
MS. WILSON: My client has been exonerated.
VECCHIO: No, he's been released. There's a difference. [He hands Fraser the ransom note. Fraser is surprised to see it.]
MS. WILSON: What are you saying?
VECCHIO: I'm saying maybe they'll find somebody at the drop, and maybe this will all go away in an hour. But I'm telling you, if something goes wrong, they're gonna come looking to lay this on somebody, and that somebody's going to be him.
FRASER: Here's the note. We have very little time.
Garret touches the note. A light flashes. A person is looking in a broken mirror.
GARRET: I see dark hair. It's a wig maybe. There's a baseball hat.
VECCHIO: Any insignia?
GARRET: No.
A light flashes. The person with the dark hair and the baseball hat looks to their left, past an earthen floor, out a window at the letters "G O D" in yellow neon. A light flashes. They are walking on the earthen floor. There are 2x4s making a sort of path. A light flashes. They are looking down into the pit at the young woman in the blue jacket. They take something out of a paper lunch bag and throw it down to her. A light flashes.
FRASER: What about his face?
GARRET: His face.
A light flashes. The person is looking in the broken mirror again. Then there are sparks, and another flashing light, and the mirror is on fire.
GARRET: No! [He jumps back from the table.]
FORD: [coming in] Well! Isn't this interesting.
FRASER: Tell me about the face.
MS. WILSON: My client has nothing further to say.
She walks him out. Fraser and Vecchio sigh. Fraser puts the ransom note away in the evidence envelope.
Somehow Ford does not see that Fraser and Vecchio have the ransom note. That's lucky.
Scene 17
Garret and Ms. Wilson leave the 27th precinct. Ford and his team come outside a moment later.
FORD: Don't lose Garret.
Dieter, Huey, and Gardino follow Garret. Fraser and Vecchio give Ford the stink-eye. Ford does not care.
Scene 18
At a plaza in a downtown park, everyone is getting in place for the drop operation. Ford is on a walkie-talkie.
FORD: Everyone in position?
A GUY IN A HOODIE: Unit one ready.
A GUY AT A HOT DOG CART: Unit two in position.
A WOMAN WITH A STROLLER: Unit three ready.
Vecchio and Fraser are sitting in the Riviera. Fraser has his spy glass.
FORD: Okay, signal Madison.
A man, presumably Mr. Madison, gets out of a nice car with an attaché case. He walks to a spot near a phone booth and between a couple of planters. Everybody is watching him. The kidnapper is in a car, dialing a cell phone. Presumably Mr. Madison looks at his watch. The phone in the booth rings. He goes to answer it.
FORD: Okay, it's showtime. Everybody heads up.
PRESUMABLY MADISON: Yes. Yes. Yeah, I see it. Okay. Yeah. Okay.
He hangs up the phone in the booth and steps out and looks around. Fraser is watching him in the spy glass. The kidnapper's car starts moving. Ford's cell phone rings.
FORD: What?
DIETER: Yeah, this is unit seventeen. We, uh . . . we lost Garret.
FORD: What? Where?
DIETER: I don't know, uh, not far from you.
FORD: Attention all units. Garret made his move. Keep your eyes open.
VECCHIO: [to Fraser, as the kidnapper's car rolls away behind them] They're going after the wrong guy.
The kidnapper's car goes around the block. Presumably Madison is waiting by the phone booth. Ford is watching him with binoculars. Fraser is watching him with the spyglass. The car is in a parking lot. The kidnapper dials again. The phone in the booth rings. Ford is watching. Presumably Madison walks to a planter.
FORD: What's he doing? [Presumably Madison drops the bag down the grate in the middle of the planter.] Son of a bitch. What's underneath this place?
VECCHIO: It's in the garage. [He starts his car.]
FORD: The parking garage, the parking garage. All units move out. I want a man at every exit. Seal it off now!
They jump in their cars. The kidnapper takes the bag and leaves his car. He throws away his wig and cap and takes off his jacket as he runs. Fraser and Vecchio are driving in the garage.
FRASER: To the left. There.
They find the kidnapper's car with the driver's door still open. The kidnapper walks up the stairs out of the parking garage. The feds are looking over the kidnapper's car.
VECCHIO: They couldn't find an egg roll in Chinatown.
Fraser sees the trash can and heads over to it. He lifts the wig out with his knife. Ford sees this and opens his map.
FORD: All units in sector seven.
The kidnapper puts the bag in the trunk of a parked car. A police car is going by.
FORD: A perimeter around the plaza from State Street to La Salle. Anything suspicious, stop and apprehend.
COP IN PASSENGER SEAT: Check him out. [His partner slows down to have a look at the kidnapper getting in the car. He blats the horn once. The kidnapper peels out.]
COP IN DRIVER'S SEAT: Got him.
COP IN PASSENGER SEAT: Suspect eastbound on Monroe.
They back up to follow him. Music cue: "At the Hundredth Meridian" by The Tragically Hip. The kidnapper slews around a turn, and the police follow.
Me debunk an American myth?
And take my life in my hands?
Swerving, horns. A motorcycle cop joins the chase. So does the Riviera and an unmarked car that also has a light on its dashboard, apparently carrying Agent Ford.
Where the great plains begin at the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian where the great plains begin
Corners, tires squealing, more chase.
Driving down a corduroy road
Weeds standing shoulder high
Ferris wheel is rusting off in the distance
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
Where the great plains begin
Left alone to get gigantic
Hard, huge and haunted
A generation so much dumber than its parents
Came crashing through the window
The chasers split to go under an overpass.
A raven strains along the line of the road
Carrying a muddy, old skull
The wires whistle their approval
Off down the distance
The kidnapper goes off road for a moment to get onto another bit of highway. One by one the chasers follow him, hopping the median.
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
Where the great plains begin
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
Where the great plains begin
Nobody can get ahead of the kidnapper to hem him in.
I remember, I remember Buffalo
And I remember Hengelo
It would seem to me
(Instrumental break.)
The kidnapper is driving on a railroad track. Ford runs aground but everyone else is able to chase him.
If I die of vanity, promise me, promise me
That if they bury me some place I don't want to be
That you'll dig me up and transport me
Unceremoniously away from the swollen city breeze
Garbage bag trees, whispers of disease
And acts of enormity
Ford gets his wheels free and resumes the chase.
And lower me slowly, sadly, and properly
Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
Where the great plains begin
One of the cop cars and the kidnapper are trying to shoulder each other off the road. Finally the good guy wins and forces the kidnapper through a chain link fence. He drives into a tank at a gas plant and stalls. He tries to start his car again.
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
At the hundredth meridian
Where the great plains begin
The Riviera pulls up. Fraser sees that the kidnapper's car is nose first in a gas tank and the engine is smoking. He jumps out of the Riviera and runs toward the kidnapper.
FRASER: Get away from the car!
The tank explodes. Fraser is blown back. Vecchio runs to him, already dialing on his cell phone, making sure Fraser is okay.
VECCHIO: South Torrance Avenue. The refinery.
Ford arrives and gets out of his car. A body panel from the kidnapper's car lands on the ground. Fraser and Vecchio look at him. Ford slaps the hood of his own car. Sirens wail as the gasoline burns.
That was a long chase. Was the episode running short? (But at least the units counted off in order this time, thank God.)
Scene 19
It is nighttime. Ford is in Welsh's office on the phone.
FORD: Yes, sir. The kidnapper's name was Jefferson Adams. Date of birth five twenty-five forty-nine, no fixed address. Yeah — well, it's hard to say sir, um. He may have been some kind of disgruntled employee. Uh, apparently he worked at Madison Systems for, ah —
VECCHIO: [in the bullpen, looking at similar paperwork] — fifteen years. Plant closed. Laid off last year sometime, a couple of misdemeanors. Nothing but petty stuff since then. Nothing that's going to get us to the girl.
FRASER: Where's the plant?
ELAINE: Skokie. FBI's already up there. No sign of her.
SOMEONE ON A DIFFERENT PHONE: Where the hell is he?
DIETER: [mumbles with his mouth full]
FRASER: It's Garret. They can't find him. [They pick up their papers and biff off.]
FORD: No. No, sir. I wouldn't say hopeless. [Dieter, Huey, and Gardino come in.] We still have a suspect, an accomplice. Garret. Correct. [Dieter shakes his head. Ford makes a silent "damn it" gesture.] Yes, sir, I'll have him in custody within the hour. Uh. Half hour, yes. Yes, sir. Yes, sir, good night. [He hangs up the phone.] Get the Mountie in here.
DIETER: The Mountie?
FORD: Get him in here!
DIETER: [goes out into the bullpen, sees Elaine by herself because Fraser and Vecchio have biffed off] Great.
Jefferson Adams, huh? I'm so tired.
I'd like to think Ford is mad because if the case doesn't get solved the young woman will stay kidnapped and soon die, but I suspect he is mad because if he doesn't solve the case he'll be in trouble with the FBI director.
Scene 20
Fraser, Diefenbaker, and Vecchio are driving in the Riviera.
VECCHIO: So. Francesca.
FRASER: Your sister.
VECCHIO: You're not going to tell me, are you?
FRASER: No, Ray.
VECCHIO: I'm going to have to live with this, aren't I?
FRASER: Yes.
VECCHIO: Stupid, right? I mean, if I want anybody to sleep with my sister, and I'm not encouraging this, I'd want it to be you.
FRASER: That's very generous of you, Ray.
SO CLOSE. So close to an emotionally mature moment. Ray. Your sisters have both BEEN MARRIED. Your other sister HAS CHILDREN.* These are women who HAVE HAD SEX WITH MEN. I'm giving Fraser full credit for not telling Ray whether he shagged Francesca and for not being the one to keep the subject alive (and then taking away points for having been the one to bring it up in the first place (but see comments), for a total of 95%; and I'm giving Vecchio half credit for "I'm going to have to live with this" but still apparently feeling in some deep-down part of himself like he gets to have any decision at all in whether or with whom women in his family have sex.
*Wait, do we know that? We know Maria and Tony have been married five years; we know Vecchio has a nephew who buys dollar-and-a-half gumballs; but we don't know for sure that the nephew is Maria and Tony's son, do we—there's also apparently a brother (who doesn't live with the rest of the family but who may be local and have a family of his own)—but it seems probable.
Scene 21
Fraser and Vecchio have returned to the shelter where they found Garret. The kitchen is empty, but Garret appears in a back door.
GARRET: He's dead.
FRASER: Yes.
They sit in Garret's room.
GARRET: No. What I see, what I see doesn't help people. I feel them. Oh. I feel them till they crush me. Other people's lives, other people's pain, I don't know whether it's me anymore, I don't know whether if it's them. I let them in, and they swallow me until I feel like I'm suffocating. I don't want their pain anymore. I don't care, I just — want them to stop.
FRASER: But they won't.
GARRET: No. [cries] No, they won't stop. It took me years to cut out the sounds of their voices. I still see 'em, but I don't hear 'em anymore. Not for a long time. Not until now.
FRASER: Why did you let her in?
GARRET: She's strong. She wants to live.
FRASER: Help her.
GARRET: Not my responsibility. If I take you there, and she's dead, they'll blame me. They'll say I did it. They'll say I killed her.
FRASER: You'd be running that risk, but you've been running for a long time, Garret. They're your visions. You have to look at them and listen to them.
GARRET: Why?
FRASER: Because if you don't, a young girl is going to die.
Garret is shivering.
This is Fraser being a lot less kind than he was in scene 12. Boy, when he decides what he would do if he were in your place, he allows for no wiggle room, does he?
Scene 22
Fraser, Diefenbaker, and Vecchio are driving around in the Riviera with Garret.
GARRET: There's no — there's no floor, just dirt or sand. But it's inside.
VECCHIO: What did you see? A factory? A warehouse?
GARRET: God.
FRASER: God?
VECCHIO: Great.
They reach a lit-up sign: GODDARD fine ladies' footwear.
GARRET: I could only see part of it through the window. G, O, D. I, I couldn't be sure. It's older windows. With safety glass. Industrial. Dirty.
He starts walking toward an abandoned building. Fraser and Vecchio follow him. Ford and his guys are getting on a helicopter.
FORD: I want ground teams on Feinman and Reading. There won't be much time when we find them.
The helicopter takes off. A car drives off. Fraser and Vecchio and Garret and Diefenbaker go into the abandoned warehouse.
FRASER: Diefenbaker, be careful! [Diefenbaker runs off in his own direction.]
GARRET: Good listener.
Ford is in the helicopter looking at his map.
FORD: Go to Romeo Tango zero niner. We're looking for a green Buick Riviera.
In the abandoned warehouse, Fraser and Garret and Vecchio are looking for the kidnap victim.
FRASER: Miss Madison! [Diefenbaker barks. They run to him. They go through a door into a big unfinished area. Diefenbaker barks again.] Good boy, Diefenbaker. [They go into the space.] Miss Madison! [Diefenbaker grumbles and runs one way. Fraser and Vecchio follow him.]
GARRET: [sees the broken mirror; looks to the left and sees "G O D" through the window] This is it.
The dirt floor is in dunes. Diefenbaker runs around them.
FRASER: Miss Madison! [Diefenbaker whines. The sand starts to slide under Fraser's foot.] This whole area is unstable. But the kidnapper must have used something to keep his weight from undermining the sand.
MISS MADISON: [from the bottom of the pit] Who's that?
VECCHIO: It's the police, Miss Madison. You just sit tight, we'll have you out of there in a minute.
MISS MADISON: Don't you go away. Please.
Fraser and Vecchio go to look for something to keep their weight off the edge of the pit. Garret steps closer, and the sand starts to give. Diefenbaker is trying to get closer also.
GARRET: No, dog.
MISS MADISON: [crying] Don't leave me! Don't leave me!
Fraser has found some planks and is looking at a spool of chain. The helicopter rotors are audible. Miss Madison looks up from the bottom of the pit. Garret looks at the piles of sand; they are starting to shift. He shakes his head. The sand starts to slide into the pit. The searchlights shine through the broken parts of the ceiling.
MISS MADISON: I can't breathe —
VECCHIO: Ford.
Ford is in the helicopter. He is almost there. Fraser and Vecchio rush back to the edge of the pit with their planks. Garret is shaking his head. The sand is sliding.
MISS MADISON: I'm getting buried! Get me out! I'm getting buried! I can't breathe, I can't breathe! I can't breathe! I can't breathe! Help me, help me please! Help me! Help, oh!
Garret jumps into the pit with her. Fraser and Vecchio run up and lay down the planks.
GARRET: Hold her hand! Hold her hand!
MISS MADISON: Come on, come on —
He lifts her up so she can reach where Fraser is reaching down for her. The sand is really running now. Fraser catches her hand, and he pulls her and Vecchio pulls him and then Vecchio helps him pull her and they get her out. Vecchio takes her away from the pit and Fraser lies back down on the edge and reaches for Garret. The sand is falling in his face. He is reaching for Fraser. Fraser is reaching for him. His feet are stuck in the sand.
He suddenly realizes this is his vision. He smiles and points to Fraser. Fraser is reaching down into the collapsing pit.
FRASER: Take my hand. [turns to Vecchio] I can't reach him! [Vecchio leaves Miss Madison; he loops one end of a chain around a metal fixture and the other end through Fraser's belt. The sand is burying Garret.] Come on! Reach for it, take my hand! [The sand has covered Garret.] I got him!
VECCHIO: Okay!
Vecchio hauls Fraser out by the chain, and Fraser gets Garret out from under the sand and then out of the pit and away from the edge. He crawls to where Miss Madison is sitting with Diefenbaker. They look back and the pit is full of sand. Ford and his team arrive just in time to see Fraser, Vecchio, Garret, Diefenbaker, and Miss Madison walking safely away.
Jonathan Banks, as Garret, is very, very good. I'm not familiar with Breaking Bad, but I imagine he was very good over there as well. In this scene, when he's getting buried in sand and realizes that his vision was Fraser trying to save him rather than trying to hurt the young woman, I get goosebumps. I'm glad they didn't leave him down there. (This isn't that kind of show.) I also liked how Diefenbaker wanted to get closer to the panicking young woman in this scene. Good dog.
Scene 23
Miss Madison is sitting in the back of an ambulance being looked at by an EMT. She hops down and goes to her father when he rolls up in a patrol car with lights and sirens.
MISS MADISON: Daddy.
He hugs her. Our heroes look on. After a moment, she leaves her dad and comes over to Garret. She gives him the gold locket, which someone had apparently returned to her in the past few minutes. He watches her go back to her father.
FRASER: Can we drop you somewhere?
Garret smiles quietly and walks away. Diefenbaker whines goodbye to him as he passes the Riviera.
VECCHIO: [to Ford, before he gets in the car himself] Great job.
Someone hands Ford a cell phone. He takes a deep breath and answers it.
Mr. Madison went off-plan on the drop, and we barely heard either of them speak and barely ever saw her face, and I still get misty when the parents and the children are reunited safely. It's like I'm wearing a bulls-eye.
Scene 24
Fraser and Vecchio are walking in the hall at the 27th precinct. Fraser clears his throat. Vecchio looks at him. Everything is okay. Fraser nods and turns away one direction. Vecchio heads the other way and bumps into Francesca coming around a corner.
FRANCESCA: [surprised] Hi. [looks around him] Where's the Mountie?
VECCHIO: Come here. [He pulls her into an interrogation room.] You and me gotta talk.
FRANCESCA: What?
VECCHIO: Stay away from him, okay?
FRANCESCA: Excuse me?
VECCHIO: Look, Frannie, you heard what I said. Just stay away from him, okay?
FRANCESCA: [as he turns to go] Hey — Ray!
VECCHIO: Frannie, you are in over your head.
FRANCESCA: Meaning?
VECCHIO: Meaning, guys like him don't marry girls like you. That's fairy tale. And girls like you get hurt, and guys like him don't even know it, and that's life.
Fraser is watching this from the observation area.
FRANCESCA: Oh. Yeah. You know this.
VECCHIO: Why do you do this? You always do this to yourself.
FRANCESCA: Yeah, I do. You know what your problem is, Ray?
VECCHIO: No, Frannie, why don't you tell me?
FRANCESCA: Yeah, I'll tell you. Your problem is that you are so afraid to dream. You are so afraid to reach out for something that you really want. You know what happens to people like you? They get old. They get alone. And they die. And they never know. Well, that's not me. [She goes to leave.]
VECCHIO: Hey, hey, hey, come here, come here. [He catches her by the arm.] Did you sleep with him?
FRANCESCA: Oh — [she laughs sadly] — God. Why? Why? Would it matter to you if I did?
VECCHIO: Yes, it would. You're my sister. I care about you. [She smiles, hugs him, swats his chest, and leaves the room without answering his question. He leans on the table and may collapse at any moment.]
Francesca goes around the corner in the hallway and surprises Fraser struggling with a drinking fountain. He stands up straight. She realizes she can't reasonably go back the other way.
FRASER: Hello.
FRANCESCA: Hi. [long pause] Well, um . . . I'll, I'll see you. [She steps around him to leave.]
FRASER: Can I, um — [She stops and turns.] Can I walk you home? I mean your home. I assume that's where you —
FRANCESCA: [smiles] That's okay. Some other time.
He nods. She leaves. He tries the water fountain another couple of times. It does not work. He looks around. Nobody is watching except us. He kicks it.
At first, to be perfectly honest, when I hear Vecchio tell Francesca to stay away from Fraser it sounds like the reverse of the typical Protective Older Brother situation, right?, hey buddy keep your hands off my sister—it sounds like he is trying to protect Fraser from Francesca. Could have been interesting. But then he busts out "guys like him don't marry girls like you," and I don't know what kind of slut-shaming playbook he's reading from, holy crap. Followed by "girls like you get hurt and guys like him don't even know," and I don't know which of them he thinks the slut is that he's slut-shaming. The guy has been awake for four days straight, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't talk sense. So I don't know what's going on with him.
But I do like Francesca's answer. (It also seems to be in line with Katherine Burns's take-a-risk pull-a-string advice from "Invitation," does it not?) I like very much that she is the firmest of all in her assertion that whom she sleeps with is none of her brother's business. (Because it is! None of his business!) I can't quite reconcile that with how many other people's business she seems to have made it throughout the rest of the episode, though. She was very comfortable talking about Her (let's call it a) Date With Fraser and then suddenly extremely uncomfortable talking to Fraser. This meeting at the water fountain is not a meeting between two people who are likely to be in a romantic relationship going forward, is it. Mind you that doesn't shed definitive light on what happened between them before. Way I see it, it could have gone a couple of ways: Either he let her down as easy as he could and they did not sleep together; or they did sleep together and no more than one of them enjoyed it. (Or, now that I'm thinking about the drinking fountain not working, they went for it but Fraser couldn't get it up. I'm surprised it took this long for that to occur to me.) It looks like she may have realized that whatever happened last Saturday should not have happened (starting from her showing up at his place and dropping her coat, I mean; she shouldn't have done that, and whatever happened after that, they shouldn't have done those things either) and probably has realized that it certainly shouldn't happen again.
So we still don't know for sure if Fraser slept with Francesca—I'd bet a couple bucks that the show itself chose not to decide, that the actors did a couple takes playing it as though they had and a couple playing it as though they hadn't and those got mixed and matched in editing—and it's not terribly important that we do know, but now I'm coming back to the fact that "An Invitation to Romance" aired between "The Deal" and this episode. I am even more convinced that it should have gone the other way, that this should have aired a week after "The Deal," and the order of events should have been:
- Fraser hears Francesca insist that she is right to reach for something she wants.
- Fraser and Francesca part in the hallway on good terms, no matter what happened between them a week ago.
- Some time after that, Fraser meets Katherine Burns, and after that whole business in the garbage truck with the loose thread and her, too, urging him to take a risk, he does.
We're not doing the title, because it was covered in scene 13.
Cumulative body count: 11
Red uniform: The whole episode
no subject
Well observed, neighbor. I agree about 85–90%. 😄