return to Due South: season 1 episode 20 "Victoria's Secret, part 1"

[fox]

DUE SOUTH
air date May 11, 1995

Paul Gross
David Marciano
Beau Starr
Daniel Kash | Tony Craig
Catherine Bruhier | Ramona Milano
Melina Kanakaredes
Denis Forest
Shay Duffin
and Gordon Pinsent as Fraser Sr.

(plus Lincoln the dog)

Scene 1

Mountains. Snow. A small cabin with a couple of outbuildings. A liquid is spilling or being poured on the floor. Suddenly a hurricane lamp falls and breaks and ignites the liquid: gasoline. As the cabin goes up in flames, we see a plane flying over a reservoir, very much like scene 3 of the pilot.

This is the same style of opening credits we had in the pilot movie, rather than a usual opening scene followed by same-same credit sequence. (And Gardino and Huey are sharing billing, as are Elaine and Francesca; plus Pinsent's credit is "and/as" as it was in the pilot but hasn't been since then.) Something is Up.

Scene 2

Someone turns over a snow globe of a Chicago skyline. Caption: "Victoria's Secret".

VECCHIO: You know how long that pool table's been in my basement?
FRASER: Fifteen years. [They are in a vacuum repair shop.]
VECCHIO: My old man brought it home for Mother's Day. On Father's Day she let him back in the house.
REPAIR SHOP OWNER: Ah, what's the name on that?
FRASER: Mustafi.
VECCHIO: You mean it's not even yours?
FRASER: No, I borrowed it from a neighbor. Apparently he wasn't aware it was malfunctioning.
REPAIR SHOP OWNER: [puts a vacuum on the counter] Eighty bucks.
VECCHIO: To fix that thing? I could buy a new one for that.
REPAIR SHOP OWNER: Not like this one. This one's got character. Not a common commodity among vacuums. [He winks.]
FRASER: Oh, dear, I appear to be a little, um . . .
VECCHIO: How much?
FRASER: Sixty dollars. [Vecchio gives him some cash, which he combines with his and gives to the repair guy. The repair guy gives him a receipt.] Thank you kindly.
REPAIR SHOP OWNER: No, I thank you.

He counts the cash as they go, taking the vacuum with them.

We also don't normally get the episode title up front or in fact on the screen ever. 🤔

I'm frankly impressed that Fraser is carrying U.S. cash at all, though it turns out he doesn't have enough to redeem his neighbor's vacuum cleaner. (The question, of course, is why Fraser is paying to repair his neighbor's vacuum cleaner in the first place, although I stand by my position that he probably does better financially than many or most people in his neighborhood.) I'd say GET A CREDIT CARD, FRASER, but there's probably an even chance this repair place is a cash-only business. (I do think Vecchio is right that he could buy a new vacuum for $80. I don't know why, but I have a very clear memory of paying $100 for a vacuum in 1999, which I still have.)

Scene 3

Fraser and Vecchio are walking on the sidewalk with Mr. Mustafi's vacuum cleaner.

VECCHIO: So you going to help me bring the pool table up from the basement?
FRASER: Won't your mother miss her dining room set?
VECCHIO: Yeah, probably, but it's my house, and if I want a pool table in the dining room, I'm gonna put a pool table in the dining room.
FRASER: How long is she going away for?
VECCHIO: Ah, a week. For years she's been saying how she wants to visit her sister in Florida, how hard it is to be apart, how much she misses her. [Fraser is distracted by someone ahead of them on the sidewalk.] As soon as I book the hotel room, she decides she's not speaking to her. I think she's just going down there to glare at her.

A woman steps off the sidewalk into a building. Fraser gets a glimpse of her face and runs around and ahead of Vecchio. He pushes through the crowd to keep following her. She has long, dark, curly hair. He goes through a revolving door into a lobby with an atrium; people are coming up and going down the stairs between the street level and a lower level. They do not notice him as they go about their business. Vecchio catches up with him.

VECCHIO: What's going on?
FRASER: Nothing. I just thought I, ah — thought I saw a woman I used to know.
VECCHIO: Thought she needed a vacuum?
FRASER: No. No, I was mistaken. [They turn to go back out to the street.]
VECCHIO: So you're going to pay me on Friday, right?
FRASER: Yeah. Sure.

Behind them, the revolving door continues to spin.

We haven't seen the brown uniform in a while, have we. (The last time I remember is when he's watching hockey with his upstairs neighbor in "The Blue Line," but I haven't been keeping track of every costume in every scene.) Also, there are a lot of extras with long, dark, curly hair in this scene. Nice attention to detail.

Apparently Vecchio, rather than his mother, owns the house.

Scene 4

Fraser is at home draining spaghetti in a colander. Music cue: "Possession" by Sarah McLachlan. Fraser dishes up some bolognese for himself and some for Diefenbaker.

Listen as the wind blows
From across the great divide
Voices trapped in yearning
Memories trapped in time

He looks at Diefenbaker, then dumps all the dinner off his own plate and into Diefenbaker's bowl and comes to put it down for him. He goes to look out the kitchen window.

The night is my companion
And solitude my guide
Would I spend forever here
And not be satisfied

Diefenbaker whines. Fraser turns around, smiles sadly at him, and shakes his head.

FRASER: It wasn't her.

He closes his eyes and thinks back to what he saw on the sidewalk.

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breath away

In his mind, he sees the woman's face. She goes into the building. At home, he blinks his closed eyes, remembering. In his mind, he goes to the revolving door to follow her.

And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes, dear

In his mind, he stands outside the revolving door. It is snowing inside the building atrium. People are coming up and going down the stairs, oblivious to him, going about their business. At home, he keeps his eyes closed, remembering. In his mind, the woman whose face he saw comes slowly up the stairs, looking right at him. At home, he opens his eyes and begins to smile hopefully.

Through this world I've stumbled
So many times betrayed

In his mind, the woman does not come through the door but stands looking sadly at him. At home, his hopeful smile fades a bit. In his mind, she knits her brow at him; we see her ask "Why?" At home, he blinks sadly and closes his eyes again.

Trying to find an honest word
To find the truth enslaved

In his mind, she tilts her chin up and looks away, exasperated. At home, he covers his face with his hands. In his mind, the revolving door keeps spinning. She looks at him and asks "Why?" again.

Oh, you speak to me in riddles and
You speak to me in rhymes

At home, he brings his hands down off his eyes, and in his mind she is still there. She dries her own eyes and turns her back on him to go back down the atrium stairs. The revolving door is still spinning. At home, he is lying on his bed; it is snowing in his room. The room is spinning.

My body aches to breathe your breath
Your words keep me alive

In his mind, the revolving door is still spinning, and there is snow in the atrium, but the people are all gone. Fraser is standing outside the door looking at it; he hangs his head. At home, he is lying on his bed in the snow.

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes, dear

It stops snowing in his room. He opens his eyes and looks at the ceiling, troubled by something.

It's safe at this point to assume that this is the woman he was in love with once, right? They were trapped in a snowstorm for a day and a night and a day, and she recited a poem to keep them both from freezing to death, hence "Your words keep me alive," right? Who else could she possibly be?

In his memory or dream or whatever this is at the snowy atrium, he is glad to see her, and he seems to be surprised and sad that she's not glad to see him. I think I'd like it if the other people in the atrium didn't have snow on their hair or their shoulders—if they'd managed to have the snow effect on Fraser and on the woman (and on the floors around them if necessary) but not on the other people nearby. (I know it was doable at this point in film and TV history, because in a rainstorm at the end of Heart and Souls [1993], Robert Downey Jr., a living person, gets drenched while Kyra Sedgwick, a ghost, stays dry.)

Scene 5

People are running up and down the stairs at the Vecchios'.

VECCHIO: Okay, everybody, let's go. In the car. You don't want to hit the traffic.
FRANCESCA: [from upstairs] Where is my makeup kit? Who took my makeup kit?
VECCHIO: I had to strap it to the roof cause it wouldn't fit inside. Come on, let's go.
MARIA: Where's Ma?
VECCHIO: She's in the front seat. She's been there for the last half hour. She can't wait to get down there and not talk to her sister.
TONY: Hey, Raimondo, you gonna help me with this, or what?
VECCHIO: Yeah, why don't you just hop on my back and I'll carry you all the way to Florida. [calling up the stairs] Come on, Frannie, let's go!
FRANCESCA: Is Fraser here?
VECCHIO: No, he's not here, how many times do I have to tell you? [Francesca comes down the stairs with her hair in rollers.]
FRANCESCA: Because if he is, I'll kill you. [the car horn honks] Is she in the driver's seat?
VECCHIO: [yelling outside] She's coming, Ma.
FRANCESCA: Oh, no. [as she goes out to the car] Ma, you're not driving. We're not going thirty-five all the way to Florida.
VECCHIO: [shuts the door behind her] Have a great trip.

He goes into the dining room of the quiet house and looks predatorily at the dining room table.

We do not see Mrs. Vecchio in this scene, but we do see Maria, Tony, Francesca, and two children who are too old to belong to Maria and Tony if they have only been married five or six years (a boy who seems to be about nine and a young teenage girl). The house has a winding central staircase that goes up at least three levels.

Francesca may not have established an ongoing relationship with Fraser, but I don't think it's out of line for her not to want him to see her Like This. That level of undress—cold cream, hair in rollers—is just for family, right?

Scene 6

The fellas put a pool table down in the dining room.

VECCHIO: It's a thing of beauty, isn't it ?
FRASER: Do you think the room is large enough?
VECCHIO: Hey, if it's a little tight, it just makes the game more interesting. Would you look at the patina on this thing? If it's one thing my old man knew, it was quality in wood.
FRASER: I'm not sure we've got it quite level, Ray.
VECCHIO: And boy, could he play pool. [He starts racking balls.] Dinnertime would come, and Ma would start yelling how the roast was gonna be ruined. I'd volunteer to go down to Fanelli's, and I'd sneak in, and stand in the corner where he couldn't see me. Whack. Three balls off the break. He starts knocking 'em down, cross side, cross corner, and then he double backs the eight ball. [sighs nostalgically] He was a lousy father. But boy, could he play pool. It was the one thing in life he did well.
FRASER: Well, it's a beautiful table.
VECCHIO: So you're going to be here Friday night, right?
FRASER: Yeah.
VECCHIO: All right. And don't forget my money. 'Cause I need it to buy, um. I was thinking of getting a deli platter or maybe, uh, maybe some pizzas and beer. Ah, what the heck, I'll get both. I mean, how many times do you have the guys over, right?
FRASER: I wouldn't miss it. Listen, I, ah — [He checks his watch.] I really should be getting back.
VECCHIO: Okay, all right. [Fraser turns to go.] Oh, Benny. [Fraser turns back.] Thanks for your help.
FRASER: No problem.

Vecchio finishes racking the balls and looks at his table with satisfaction for a moment. Finally he lifts the rack, and all the balls roll to one side.

Vecchio's complicated feelings about his late bad dad continue. Meanwhile, Fraser is distracted, and Vecchio can tell. Is he preoccupied with the woman he thought he saw on the street?

Scene 7

Fraser is in a confessional. Music cue: "O God, My God" by the Bahá'í Chorale. The music is very backgroundy; this is not a montage. The choir sings the same text four times over the course of the scene:

O God, my God
My beloved
O God, my God
My heart's desire

FRASER: Oh, well, I guess I'm not really sure if I saw her, or I just wanted to see her. Maybe I saw her because she's the one person I can't face.
FR. BEHAN: Why?
FRASER: Because of a decision I made.
FR. BEHAN: Come back to haunt you, so to speak.
FRASER: Yes.
FR. BEHAN: Son, I'm a Catholic from Belfast. And any good decision there is usually wrong. Each one is impossible. But you still have to make them and learn to live with it. And then try to forgive yourself.
FRASER: She drove the getaway car.
FR. BEHAN: I'm sorry?
FRASER: She and two men robbed a bank in Alaska. One of them died, one of them fled south, and she came across the border in a light airplane. It was forced down because of weather. The pilot abandoned her. I tracked her to a place called Fortitude Pass. A storm had been blowing for days, and by the time I found her I'd lost everything — my pack, my supplies. She was huddled in a crag on the lee side of a mountain, almost frozen, very near death. So I staked a lean-to with my rifle and draped my coat around it, and I held onto her while the storm closed in around us. And I kept talking to her to keep her from slipping away. And it snowed for a day and a night and a day. And when I couldn't talk anymore, I took her fingers, and I put them in my mouth to keep them warm. I don't remember losing consciousness, but I — I do remember being aware that I was dying. And then I heard her voice. She was reciting a poem over and over. I couldn't make out the words, but I couldn't stop listening. She had the most beautiful voice. It was as though I had known her forever. Across a thousand lifetimes. [He dashes away a tear.] Uh, the storm finally broke, and we were alive. And after a day, we found my pack. We ate everything — everything I had. In one meal. And it took us four days to reach the nearest outpost, and we camped that night just outside the town, within sight of the church's steeple. And I held her in my arms. [He sighs.] And she asked me to let her go. You see, no one knew that I had found her, the police didn't even know her name — I could just let her go, and she could walk away that night.

The actor who plays Fr. Behan was from Dublin, as we've seen. That's not at all the same accent as Belfast, but for North American audiences, never mind, I guess? Having him be Catholic and from Belfast and in his 60s in the mid-1990s is definitely a choice.

The timing of the music against the story is really nicely done here. It comes to a point of harmonic tension at "as the storm closed in around us," and then there's a resolution at "aware that I was dying" so that right as he says "And then I heard her voice" the next section begins with a high entry in the sopranos. As he says "the most beautiful voice," the choir sings "my beloved;" the fourth repeat of the full text ends as he says "we were alive," and after that the choir repeats "my heart's desire" three more times. The music ends at "I could just let her go." All in all, great work, sound editing team.

This is another monologue in which we can't really see Fraser's face clearly; he's on the other side of the confessional screen the whole time. (It's interesting to note the details he didn't include when he was telling Vecchio this story the first time. Doyle-wise, that may be because they hadn't written the whole bank-robbery angle yet; Watson-wise, it's like glacial ice cracking a tiny bit at a time and then, in the confessional, suddenly calving a huge iceberg all at once, isn't it.) There's a long push in, as there was when he had his back to the camera and was looking out the window, and by the end we can see his expression a little more clearly than we could then, but he's still obscured. (There are also a couple of cuts to reaction shots of Fr. Behan, which, as when Vecchio was talking about Marco Mitrani silently begging him for help, I think was a bad decision.) He is badly distressed. Is it because he did let her go or because he didn't? Given that in his imagination she was not pleased to see him and repeatedly asked him "Why?", it's clear that he did not.

How did he know she was up there in the first place? A light airplane was forced down because of weather and the pilot abandoned the passenger; I guess the local RCMP detachment would keep track of that sort of thing?

Scene 8

Fraser is eating lunch in a diner. Bob is there with him. They are both in their red dress uniforms.

BOB FRASER: You did the right thing. You did your duty. That's all you could have done.
FRASER: She's the only woman I ever loved, and I put her in prison. Duty is a poor excuse.
BOB FRASER: Well, she was a criminal. You had no choice but to bring her to justice. Are you going to eat those fries?
FRASER: No, be my guest. [He pushes his plate across the table, then looks at Bob's hat. It has been cut off in the back.] What's wrong with your hat?
BOB FRASER: Ah. Oh, this is the one they buried me in. They had to snip off the back so I could lie flat. I'm sure they meant well, but they have no idea how embarrassing these things can be in the afterlife.
FRASER: You see, she — she really had no choice. She was living with the man who planned the robbery. It was, it was a very desperate situation.
BOB FRASER: I'm sure the judge took that into account. That's his job. Your job was to bring her in. I, I suspected it might have been your fault.
FRASER: What?
BOB FRASER: The hat thing. Is this the last image you have of me?
FRASER: [the diner owner sees him talking to the air on the other side of his table] It was your funeral, Dad. I could hardly close my eyes.
BOB FRASER: Anh. Can't be helped. These things taste like nothing.
FRASER: Well, stop eating them all.
BOB FRASER: I arrested your mother once.
FRASER: You did not.
BOB FRASER: Honest to God. I gave her a speeding ticket.
FRASER: You knew it was her car, and you pulled her over anyway?
BOB FRASER: No, I was right there in the passenger seat.
FRASER: Get out.
BOB FRASER: She was doing forty-five in a thirty.
FRASER: Mum?
BOB FRASER: I kept telling her I was going to do it, and every time I did, she kept speeding up. Made absolutely no sense. Women. You ever been able to figure them out, son?
FRASER: Well, actually, I'm asking for advice, Dad.
BOB FRASER: In my fifty-seven years of being alive and my fourteen months of being dead I've only learned one thing about women. That's that I haven't learned one damned thing about women. [He takes a handful of fries and scoots out of the booth.] Have I been of some help, son?
FRASER: Oh, yeah. Big help.
BOB FRASER: Good luck, son. [He heads out of the diner. Fraser hears the bell on the door ring as he goes.]
WAITER: Anything else for you, sir?
FRASER: No. Thanks. Ah . . .
WAITER: Do you want that to go?
FRASER: Yeah, I think I'll just, um —

Through the diner window, he sees the woman getting out of a taxi across the street. A bus goes by and he doesn't see her anymore. The cab is about to drive away. He jumps up and runs out of the diner, bumping into a guy coming in as he hurries out.

GUY COMING INTO THE DINER: Hey!

Fraser gets out to the street. He looks in both directions and does not see the woman. He takes off running after the cab. He jumps over a couple of parked cars and runs in traffic to catch it. Horns blare at him. He leans in the driver's window at a red light.

FRASER: Where is she?
CAB DRIVER: What?
FRASER: [grabs the driver's lapel] The woman who was in this car. Where'd she go?
CAB DRIVER: [points a gun at him] Get your hands off me. [The light turns green.]
FRASER: [as the cab pulls away] Did you not have a woman in this cab?

He tries to run alongside the cab, but it is gone. He's standing in traffic. He looks around and goes back the way he came. There's a knock on the diner window; the waiter is holding up his check. He nods and goes back inside. He pays the bill and is dealing with the cash in his hat as he shoulders the door open to leave again. The woman is just coming in; they meet in the vestibule.

WOMAN: Hi.
FRASER: [He can't believe it.] Hi.
WOMAN: It was you. I thought I saw you standing in the middle of the road. I, I — I wasn't sure if I was just seeing things.
FRASER: No, that, that, that was me. I was, ah — [Someone else comes into the diner and goes between them.] I was standing in the middle of the road.
WOMAN: I, I, I never thought I'd see you again.
FRASER: Neither did I.
WOMAN: Um — [Other people are squeezing past them in the vestibule to leave the diner.]
PERSON LEAVING THE DINER: Sorry.
FRASER: Where were you, um —
WOMAN: Uh — [The other people finish squeezing past them.] Prison.
FRASER: — no — going. Where were you going? [He smiles at her.]
WOMAN: Oh. [She smiles at him.] I — it doesn't matter.
WAITER: You still want this to go?
FRASER: [not looking at him] No.

The waiter takes Fraser's unfinished lunch away. Fraser and the woman stand in the vestibule looking at each other.

The only woman he ever loved, he calls her, though he knew her for a week. I mean it was a solid week, it's not like he saw her a few times over the course of a week, the way you'd say you met someone a week or so ago; they were together around the clock for five or six days. It's orders of magnitude longer than Vecchio knew Suzanne Chapin, for one thing. But I'm not sure that's long enough to know you love someone. Like—I know people who have met people and fallen in love quickly and got married and stayed that way happily for a long time. I don't think it's completely unheard of to form a deep connection on a very short acquaintance. But these kids were delirious and half-dead with cold, at least until they gorged themselves on whatever he had in his pack when they found it the day after the storm broke. Presumably that's when she told him the story of her life, such as that she had been living with one of the men who planned the robbery (the one who died, or the one who fled south?)—I don't know, Fraser, it seems like you might be losing the plot just a bit. It makes me think a little less of your caution to Vecchio that he'd only known the mystery woman for a few seconds while he had a concussion, is all I'm saying.

Meanwhile, Bob says he's been dead for 14 months, and it's May 1995, which means he was shot in late February or early March 1994, which I really think doesn't make sense given what Chicago has been like and the length of time Fraser has been living here. He also says he was 57 when he died, which means he was born in . . . carry the one . . . around 1937, making him about five years younger than I thought, so I don't know, maybe the RCMP started issuing those watches in 1950 and were still doing so in 1956ish when he must have joined up? Because he sure didn't join the force at age 13. He has seven stars on the left sleeve of the uniform Fraser is seeing him in, which is apparently the uniform he was buried in. Fraser has two stars; Frobisher had six; and the show hasn't commented on them at all, but Uncles Google and Wiki tell us each star denotes five years of service, which is consistent with what we do know (that Fraser's been in for 13 years as of the pilot)—meaning Frobisher has been in for at least 30 years but not 35, if his rented uniform is accurate, and therefore we know Bob was in for at least 35 years but not 40. Which works out if he joined between 1954 and 1959. (Pinsent himself was born in 1930, so he was in his mid-60s at this point—closer to the age he was playing than Nielsen was by a few years.)

Bob writing his wife a speeding ticket from the passenger seat of the car is pretty diagnostic, isn't it? I love her for speeding up and daring him to do it. On the one hand, 45mph isn't that fast, but on the other hand, it's half again the speed limit, which is a big percentage to be going over. The whole episode would be additionally hilarious if they'd been talking about her doing 45kph in a 30kph zone (about 30mph and a little less than 19mph, respectively—basically hurrying through a school zone), but Canada didn't adopt the metric system until 1970, and we're pretty sure she had died before then.

Though while we're on the subject, how can Bob's ghost tell Fraser something he's never known before? I guess one of the first things they talked about when Bob first appeared was Uncle Tiberius, which was Bob answering a question Ben Fraser asked. But in general he seems to be a way for Fraser to puzzle out issues from more than one angle, doesn't he? He's in Fraser's mind. He can only know things Fraser knows (or has read in the journals, I guess, though he may not have internalized the information until it comes out when Bob is talking about it; or has repressed).

Scene 9

Fraser and the woman are sitting at the counter in the diner. She has apparently just finished eating.

WOMAN: Just a few days. My sister died just after I got out.
FRASER: I'm sorry.
WOMAN: After that there wasn't much to keep me in Alaska. So I thought I'd come to Chicago, finish up some old business. And then I figured I'd go to Dallas, or maybe Austin. Someplace warm. Get a fresh start.
FRASER: Austin's a nice city.
WOMAN: Have you been there?
FRASER: No.
WOMAN: Well, warm sounds good to me right now.
FRASER: I can understand that.
WOMAN: I'm glad I got a chance to see you before I pushed off. You look great. Well, I, I, I, I'd better go. Um, here. [She starts to get her wallet out of her bag.]
FRASER: No, I, I got it.
WOMAN: Figure you owe me, huh? [a wry smile]
FRASER: Yeah.
WOMAN: Bye. [She pats his shoulder as she goes.]
FRASER: [turning to stop her] Victoria.
WOMAN (VICTORIA): [stopping at the door, turning back] Yeah?
FRASER: Can I see you again?
VICTORIA: [She smiles.] When?
FRASER: Now.
VICTORIA: [takes a couple of steps back toward him] You hungry?
FRASER: Starving.

He jumps off his counter stool to go with her.

So in case there was any doubt—look, I'm committed to only knowing what we learn from the show as we go—this is the titular Victoria. (And she has a secret, which I assume is not to do with her underwear; the title of the episode is slightly regrettable, isn't it.) We don't know what sort of old business she has in Chicago that needs finishing up. We know that bank robbery is always a federal crime, so she'll have been in a federal prison, of which there are none in Alaska—so the Alaska-and-Fortitude-Pass thing isn't the cold she wants to get away from; presumably the prison she was in was in a cold place also? There are federal women's prisons at Danbury, Connecticut, and Waseca, Minnesota (both low security); Pekin, Illinois (medium security, but that's downstate enough that it starts to look like upper south to me, which is a lot milder than north/Great Lakes/New England, climate-wise); and Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Seattle/Tacoma (all administrative security, which the website tells me means "institutions with special missions, such as the detention of pretrial offenders; the treatment of inmates with serious or chronic medical problems; or the containment of extremely dangerous, violent, or escape-prone inmates"—such as, perhaps, one who had fled across an international boundary? I'm spitballing here).

It's not reasonable of Fraser to figure he owes her anything, but we've already seen that he's not reasonable where she's concerned—not just that he loved her after only knowing her for a few days (and still loves her however much later this is; assuming her friends stole more than $1000 but she didn't go in and rob the place herself, I think she'll have been sentenced to up to 10 years, same as William Porter), but literally, just so far in this episode, the way when he thinks he sees her he drops everything and runs into traffic. He is not rational about her.

They do make a very nice-looking couple.

Scene 10

Later that evening. Fraser returns home. Victoria is already in his kitchen. He has changed into civilian attire and is carrying a bag of groceries.

VICTORIA: Hi.
FRASER: I'm sorry it took so long to find the cilantro.
VICTORIA: Tracked it down, did you? [She is crunching celery.]
FRASER: Well, the second grocer said he never stocks it, although I did find traces of the leaf on the floor of the produce section and there was a boot imprint on one of them, so I —
VICTORIA: And you found it.
FRASER: Uh, unfortunately, no.
VICTORIA: So what'd you get?
FRASER: [shows her] Ice cream.
VICTORIA: Mmm. Great. I found ground beans, a pork chop, some spaghetti sauce, and pasta.
FRASER: So what are we making?
VICTORIA: All of it. [She laughs.] How much do I owe you?
FRASER: No, you were right, I owe you. What can I do?
VICTORIA: Can you stir?
FRASER: It's one of my areas of abiding interest.

He moves over to take the wooden spoon from her. For a moment they are both stirring together. Their hands touch. The pan starts to boil over.

VICTORIA: Ah —
FRASER: Oh, um —
VICTORIA: I think — should — whoa —
FRASER: Sorry. [He fetches her a kitchen towel.]
VICTORIA: Here — [as she moves the pan off the burner] Ah, how about, how about you, um — set the table?
FRASER: Okay.
VICTORIA: Yeah.
FRASER: Good.

He opens the cupboard. The only ceramic bowl he has is Diefenbaker's. He looks at Diefenbaker, who rolls his eyes and grumbles. Fraser grabs his two tin camp plates and a glass and a couple of forks and closes the cupboard again. While he is setting the table, Victoria peeks in his wallet and counts the cash. He only has a couple of dollars, so she rolls her eyes fondly and gets her own wallet so she can slip him a few twenties. She starts opening cabinets.

VICTORIA: Ah, you wouldn't have any candles, by any chance, would you?
FRASER: Ah, yeah. [He opens another cupboard and looks slightly abashed.] In case of power disruption. [There are stacks and stacks of candles in there.]
VICTORIA: You're prepared for everything.
FRASER: [He gets down two candles.] Not quite.

She grabs a double handful more.

He is wearing the same blue henley and blue buffalo check flannel he was wearing at choir practice. I like that they're reusing outfits; this is a guy who wouldn't have a super full closet. Nice work, wardrobe department. As for being prepared for "not quite everything"—🤨—and save me from people with a candle fetish—please let's not go there again.

What are ground beans? I must have listened to that moment fifteen times, and that's definitely what she says. I want it to be "ground beef" or "green beans," but it is neither. Today I'd assume "ground beans" was some kind of beanmeal or grain-free flour substitute, but I'm not sure Fraser would have such a thing in his kitchen in 1995? (What he would have in his kitchen in 1995 is skills, though. I dispute the suggestion that he is incompetent to even stir a pot without it boiling over and causing a kitchen disaster. Guy's been living on his own for a long time, and both he and the dog are well nourished. That particular moment is gender-stereotyping bullshit.)

Scene 11

Candles are burning all over the apartment. The remains of dinner are on the table. Diefenbaker is on the bed. Fraser and Victoria are sitting on the floor leaning back against the bed watching a movie.

VICTORIA: I never figured you for a television.
FRASER: I borrowed it from my neighbor, Mr. Mustafi. [The movie is Hitchcock's North by Northwest. It is silent.]
VICTORIA: Why doesn't it have any sound?
FRASER: It's broken. I have to have it repaired before I return it. You know, if it's a problem, I have other neighbors, we could probably —
VICTORIA: It's, it's okay.
FRASER: You sure you don't want to go out?
VICTORIA: Shh — this is my favorite movie. I've always wanted to be Eve Kendall.
FRASER: But she sends Cary Grant to be killed.
VICTORIA: She had no choice.
FRASER: Ah.

They watch the movie. It is snowing outside. Victoria looks at the window.

VICTORIA: Aren't you cold?
FRASER: No. [realizes she is cold] Oh, I'm sorry. Pardon me.

He gets up to close the window. She smiles after him. He looks for a moment at the empty streetscape: a billiards place, some apartments above it. Everything is deserted and quiet. He goes back and sits next to her to watch the movie.

In North by Northwest (1959), Cary Grant inadvertently gets mixed up in a lot of international intrigue and is fleeing from the bad guys and the police when Eva Marie Saint agrees to help him—but she is double crossing him, because she's in league with the bad guys, only she's also double crossing the bad guys, because she's actually a government agent. Once he knows this, he helps her with her operation, and when the bad guys realize she's double crossing them, he helps save her. The film ends with them on their honeymoon on a train. It seems to be the first double cross, where EMS appears to be in league with the bad guys, that Fraser and Victoria are referring to.

Trivially, we now also know that Mr. Mustafi is using Fraser to get all his stuff repaired. Hrmph, Mr. Mustafi.

Scene 12

Fraser is walking Victoria back to her hotel. It has stopped snowing. They stop outside the revolving door.

VICTORIA: Thanks.
FRASER: Should I walk you to your door?
VICTORIA: I think I can handle it from here. I had a great time.
FRASER: So did I.

They look at each other for a moment, then she goes inside. She looks back over her shoulder once before she disappears on her way to the elevator. Fraser turns to go. He is walking home, twirling his hat. Outside a restaurant, a guy at a card table stops him.

VENDOR: Hey, mister. Mister. Take a look. Twenty bucks for genuine Eskimo soapstone sculpture.
FRASER: [looks at it] Actually, this isn't, ah, soapstone. [He sniffs it.] It's not even stone. It's soap. [He turns it over.] And you might be curious to discover that the Inuit are not indigenous to Taiwan.
VENDOR: Weren't they supposed to have crossed the Bering Strait?
FRASER: [considers this; nods] Point taken. [gets out his wallet] I'm afraid that all I have is, ah — [He finds much more cash than he thought he had in his wallet. He looks back toward Victoria's hotel, looks back at the vendor, and gives him twenty dollars for a soap sculpture.]
VENDOR: You're a gentleman. Thank you, sir.
FRASER: Thank you kindly.

Fraser walks on home.

I can't follow all the genetics in the question of how the earliest Indigenous peoples of the Americas have been suggested (determined?) to be genetically linked to peoples of east and north Asia, but I guess I don't see why some folk couldn't have gone from mainland China to Taiwan at the same time (very broadly speaking) some other folk went from mainland China through Russia to Alaska. Of course the point of this is that the guy selling soap learned some stuff in school about land bridges, and Fraser is giving him an A for effort, basically.

Scene 13

Fraser is sitting on the floor watching North by Northwest (still or again). The window is open again. There is a knock at the door. He gets up to answer it; there's another knock while he's on his way. It is Victoria. He is glad she came back, but she is unhappy.

VICTORIA: Did you think we could just pretend that it didn't happen? [He hangs his head.] How could you do it? [He looks up at her. She comes into the apartment and shoves him. He doesn't resist.] How could you do that to me, huh? [He bumps back into his kitchen wall, then steps toward her again. She pushes at his chest again.] How could you do it? [He catches her hands. She tries to hit him, then grabs the shoulders of his shirt.] No.
FRASER: [He puts his arms around her and whispers.] I'm sorry.

Their foreheads press together. Music cue: "Possession" by Sarah McLachlan. She starts kissing him, and he buries his face in her neck and wraps his arms around her tightly.

Listen as the wind blows
From across the great divide
Voices trapped in yearning
Memories trapped in time

He lifts his head and looks at her; they kiss and keep kissing. He closes the apartment door.

The night is my companion
And solitude my guide
Would I spend forever here
And not be satisfied

He kisses her mouth. He helps her get her coat off and kisses her neck. He kisses her mouth again. It starts to snow.

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes, dear

They are kissing more and more intensely. They fall back on his bed. He makes a slightly uncomfortable sound.

VICTORIA: I'm sorry.
FRASER: It's all right. I probably deserve it.
VICTORIA: You do.

She kisses him. He kisses her.

Through this world I've stumbled
So many times betrayed
Trying to find an honest word
To find the truth enslaved

They kiss and kiss. He puts her fingers in his mouth. She kisses his face. They kiss some more. Their legs are tangled together. Fade to white . . .

Oh you speak to me in riddles and
You speak to me in rhymes
My body aches to breathe your breath
Your words keep me alive

. . . they are sleeping. Her head is on his shoulder, her arm is slung across his chest; he has a hand on her elbow.

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes, dear
(Instrumental bridge.)

She stirs. He turns over. She watches him sleep for a moment and then gets up. She puts on a big red shirt of his and goes to close the window. She can see that someone is smoking in the window above the billards place across the street.

Into this night I wander
It's morning that I dread
Another day of knowing of
The path I fear to tread
Oh, into the sea of waking dreams
I follow without pride
Nothing stands between us here
And I won't be denied

She goes to the kitchen, pulls on rubber gloves, and smiles at the soap carving.

And I would be the one
To hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes, dear

She soaps up a kitchen sponge and starts cleaning the kitchen.

I'll hold you down
Kiss you so hard
I'll take your breath away
And after I'd wipe away the tears
Just close your eyes

The guy across the street puts out his cigarette.

It's so important that she's the one who initiates the kissing, because the last thing she said before that was "No."

The kissing is pretty good. They're in silhouette a lot of the time, but they sell the mutual desire all the same. And then when she wakes up next to him, her makeup is absolutely undisturbed. Ah, well—we're not actually after stark realism, are we? At least she is no longer wearing those giant hoop earrings. . . . I don't know from where she gets the red shirt she puts on. It seems to just be there next to the bed, but it wasn't what he was wearing before they went to bed, and he doesn't seem like a clothes-just-lying-around-on-the-floor kind of guy. (And it's just a red chamois or flannel overshirt, not his red uniform tunic—which would also not be lying on the floor next to the bed, in any case.)

I personally would wash the dishes and then clean the counters and sink and whatnot, because drips.

Scene 14

Someone tries to open Fraser's apartment door, but it is locked.

VECCHIO: Hey, Benny, you okay?

Vecchio getting ready to kick the door in when Fraser answers it. He is dressed in his undershirt and suspenders (and must therefore be wearing uniform trousers, though which uniform is unclear).

FRASER: Morning, Ray.
VECCHIO: Hey, the consulate said you didn't show up, so I figured you had to be pretty sick. Are you all right?
FRASER: Yeah, I'm fine.
VECCHIO: So you're not sick?
FRASER: [He has kind of a goofy smile on his face, in fact.] No, I'm fine.
VECCHIO: But you didn't go to work.
FRASER: [shrugs] Must have slept in.
VECCHIO: [doesn't understand] Are you in some kind of trouble?
FRASER: No, no, no. No. No, I just, I, ah — I have a friend visiting, and I, I'm —
VECCHIO: Oh. Well, what kind of friend? [Fraser does an eye-rolling shrug.] A guy friend? A girlfriend? [Fraser bursts into embarrassed, nervous laughter.] You got a woman in there?
FRASER: [pulls himself together, but still beaming] Yes.
VECCHIO: [chuckles and punches him bro-ily in the ribs] Way to go, man, way to go! You got an actual woman. You. [Fraser raises his eyebrows and nods.] Wow.
FRASER: Thanks for dropping by, Ray.
VECCHIO: Wow, way to go. [He gives Fraser a sincere thumbs-up. Fraser returns it much less sincerely, yup-yup-thumbs-up. Vecchio speaks to a neighbor who is peeking into the hallway as he leaves.] He's got a woman in there.

Fraser closes the apartment door. Victoria is behind it, wearing his red uniform tunic and nothing else. She waves coquettishly. He walks over to her and leans on the wall.

VICTORIA: Do you really have to go to work?
FRASER: Yeah.
VICTORIA: So I guess you need this. [She starts unfastening the tunic.]
FRASER: Kind of. Although I, I do have something like eighty-two sick days coming to me.
VICTORIA: Hmm. I think you should go straight to bed.

He nods enthusiastically as she tugs him back toward the bed by his suspenders.

Hey, looks like someone installed those new door locks, finally.

It's hard to know what time it is, but it's still morning, so Fraser hasn't even missed half a day of work, and Vecchio is already doing a wellness check because no one can fathom that he might miss work for any other reason. Which is sweet of Vecchio and kind of appalling about Fraser, really. Although in further fairness to Vecchio, when Fraser answers the door he continues (that is, after not turning up at work that morning, which is Not At All Like Him) to seem Not At All Himself. I point out these fairnesses to Vecchio because I'm not sure it's being a great friend to be so surprised that your friend had a date. I mean I guess what Vecchio is surprised about is not that Fraser could bring a woman home with him—he's been fighting them off since he and Vecchio met—but that he did (and that, he assumes, it is not Francesca). Benny is human after all, film at eleven.

Fraser (that is, Paul Gross) has a smallpox vaccine scar on his left arm, which just sends me off on a tangent that goes straight into the Sports Night scene where Isaac points out that he has a smallpox scar and Casey (or Dan, I can't remember which one right now) doesn't, because in his lifetime the thing was utterly eradicated. (I can't find it now and I've just spent longer than I'm happy about looking; I thought it was the same scene where he talks about how he's obsessing over whatever the next big thing is because he knows he won't be alive to see it, but it turns out that's a conversation with Dana about how they're terraforming Mars. Anyway, RIP Robert Guillaume. Loved him.)

Also, in this scene Fraser may be wearing even more mascara than Victoria. I mean I'm not saying they don't both look good, but the makeup team may have gone just a little overboard at this particular moment.

Scene 15

Fraser is on the phone at his office, which is liberally crowded with "get well soon" flower arrangements and balloons.

VOICE ON THE PHONE: An Inuit boy saw the smoke. Took us a week to get up there.
FRASER: I appreciate your calling, Sergeant.
VOICE ON THE PHONE (SERGEANT): Ben, we don't know what caused it. It could have been lightning. I'm sending someone up there tomorrow, see if there's anything we can salvage.
FRASER: Oh, I don't think there's anything of value.
SERGEANT: Your dad didn't keep any gunpowder in the place, did he? Something that might have caught a spark?
FRASER: No, I don't think so.
SERGEANT: I'll call if I find out anything.
FRASER: Thank you kindly. [He hangs up and turns to Bob.] Your cabin burned down last week.
BOB FRASER: Mm. Well, I don't use it much anymore. [Fraser looks at his hands.] I'm sorry. I know how you love the cabin.
FRASER: [shrugs] I wasn't using it much anymore.
JASMINE: [comes in with a box] Another well-wisher. No card. [Fraser opens the box and finds a single rose. He smiles.] Go. I'll cover for you.
FRASER: Thanks.

He raises his eyebrows at Bob and takes off. Bob watches him go in sort of amused surprise—then realizes he didn't take his hat. Bob carefully reaches over and steals the hat (which has not been sliced off at the back) from the hat stand.

The hat thing is charming. The sergeant on the phone looks to me to be the station chief from scene 2 of the pilot, which doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense as (a) there was a sergeant under him at that time and (b) that station was two thousand miles to the northwest of Bob's cabin, but maybe the guy got demoted and transferred, who knows. The flower in the box is almost invisible to me. It's fairly clearly a long-stemmed rose, but it doesn't seem to be red. Is it purple? Blue? Black? What's going on here?

Scene 16

The back of Gardino's pool cue is stuck in the radiator in Vecchio's dining room. He is having a very difficult time getting it free.

VECCHIO: Better not ruin that radiator.
GARDINO: [finally gets his cue out; it is badly chewed up] Nice space you have for this.
VECCHIO: Just shut up and shoot pool.
GARDINO: Well, what am I supposed to do with this? [He is holding the cue almost vertically.] All I can do is just drill the ball straight through the table. [He stabs at the cue ball, but because he hits the top of it rather than the side, it goes nowhere.]
HUEY: You missed. You have to pull up a ball.
GARDINO: [agitated] We've been shooting for twenty minutes. We haven't sunk one.
WELSH: Didn't I hear something about a pizza and a deli platter?
VECCHIO: Ah, yes, sir, but I got caught a little short. [offers Welsh a tiny jar] Caper, sir?
HUEY: [He is holding his own cue almost vertically] I can't remember. Are we spots or stripes?
GARDINO: You sink anything, you win. [Huey stabs at the cue ball, which at least moves a few inches.]
WELSH: So where's the big red one?
VECCHIO: I think he got himself a mystery woman.
HUEY: You mean you haven't met her?
VECCHIO: Yeah, yeah, I met her.
WELSH: So what's she like?
VECCHIO: She's, uh — she's Canadian.
EVERYONE: Ohh.
WELSH: Detective Gardino, please?

Gardino opens the window so Welsh has room behind him for his cue. He takes a shot and sinks #14 in the corner pocket, which has a hole at the bottom so the ball falls on the floor and rolls away.

I feel like Fraser having a Canadian girlfriend is less of a thing to nod knowingly at than usual, being how he is himself Canadian.

Scene 17

It is almost 4:00 a.m. Fraser and Victoria are asleep in his bed. A knock on the door wakes him. He kisses her shoulder and sits up; she snuggles further under the blanket. In the hall, Vecchio knocks again. Diefenbaker is outside the apartment as well.

VECCHIO: Three's a crowd, huh, Dief? [Diefenbaker whines. Vecchio knocks a third time.]

Fraser puts his pants on and goes to answer the door. He is pulling a shirt on as he opens it.

FRASER: [surprised to see Vecchio] Hi.
VECCHIO: What's tonight, Benny?
FRASER: Ah, actually, it's Saturday morning, Ray, and — [Vecchio gives him "yeah, that's right" eyebrows.] Oh, I'm sorry.
VECCHIO: Yeah, don't worry about it, it was nothing special.
FRASER: No, I'm sorry, I just, I forgot. I, I got caught up in some things, and, ah — I got your money. [He fishes for it and offers Vecchio some cash.]
VECCHIO: Like this makes a difference? [He takes it roughly.]
FRASER: I meant to be there, Ray.
VECCHIO: So is she in there?
FRASER: Yeah. Sorry, do you want to — you want to meet her?
VECCHIO: Nah, don't do me any favors. Wouldn't want to embarrass you anyway. [He turns and leaves.]
FRASER: Ray. [Vecchio keeps walking.] Ray.

Fraser rushes back inside and sits down to put on his boots. Victoria is sitting up in bed.

VICTORIA: I take it that was Ray.
FRASER: Yeah.
VICTORIA: I'm sorry.
FRASER: It's not your fault. [He laces up as fast as he can and grabs his jacket and hat.] Don't go anywhere.

Vecchio is only being a little bit pissier than I think is called for here. He'd made it pretty clear that Friday night was a special thing that he was looking forward to, and he wanted his buddies together; completely forgetting about it was fairly shitty on Fraser's part, and the fact that he didn't pay him back the money he'd borrowed is really only a tiny symptom of that. Like I don't think Vecchio couldn't afford a pizza and a deli platter. It's just that he didn't get cash out for it because he was sure it was coming, so by the time it was time to get them, he didn't have it on hand. So he was slightly embarrassed because he had to offer his boss jarred capers as a snack, more embarrassed because in fact the pool table doesn't fit in the room and is not in as great shape as he thought, and ultimately annoyed that his party sucked and his best friend didn't even show (and didn't even let him know he wasn't going to show!) because he got a better offer.

That is lousy best-friending from Fraser right there (and it's not great boyfriending either—you do not bring your best friend in to meet the woman who is sleeping naked in your bed at four in the morning, Benton), and the only thing that saves him is that he realizes it.

Scene 18

Fraser runs out of the apartment and shuts the door; he and Diefenbaker run outside. Vecchio is in the car pulling away. Fraser runs after him. The guy in the window across the street is still there smoking. Vecchio stops at a light. Fraser catches up with him.

FRASER: I'm sorry, Ray.
VECCHIO: Yeah.
FRASER: It's just that I, I made a mistake once, and — and I can't make it again. [Diefenbaker has gone back inside. He trots up to the apartment door, which is standing open. He is suspicious, but he goes inside.] You know, I, I think there are certain things that you'd live to regret in your life. Losing your friendship would be one of them. And losing her — [Inside, Diefenbaker is snarling very angrily, showing almost all his teeth. He barks. A gun fires. Fraser hears it and looks back toward his building.] Gunshot.

Fraser runs back up the street. Vecchio turns the car around and follows him. Fraser bursts into his apartment to find it has been ransacked. He looks around; Victoria is gone; Diefenbaker has been shot. He is listening for Diefenbaker's heartbeat when Vecchio runs in.

VECCHIO: Oh my God. Okay, I got the car running. Come on, let's go.

Fraser picks Diefenbaker up and hurries after him.

You do not. Fuck. With. The wolf.

Scene 19

At an animal hospital. A nurse walks by in the hallway with a miniature horse. A pot-bellied pig is in a cage with its head bandaged up like it has a toothache. A dog is yipping somewhere. Fraser is at a cage where Diefenbaker is lying on his side. He reaches in and pats his paw.

[snif] (I guess we should be glad he survived, although this doesn't seem like a show that kills one of its leads, even if the lead we're talking about is a dog. Nevertheless: [snif])

One of the other transcript sites, which I check against sometimes to see if they have thoughts about things I maybe can't hear clearly, has a few more lines here:

VECCHIO: I put out a description. She might have gone to a police station.
FRASER: She wouldn't.
VECCHIO: I got them checking the hospitals too.
FRASER: Oh - I called.
VECCHIO: You have any idea who might have done this? She's okay. She's okay. ("Victoria's Secret 1-2" at nicede.se)

It would make sense to have something like this between the animal hospital and the next scene! But this dialogue absolutely does not occur anywhere on either of my DVDs (the allegedly complete first season which lacks the pilot; the complete season 1 with the pilot which lacks any subtitles or extra features of any kind) or in the full episode on YouTube. Is it on the UK DVD?

Scene 20

In the daytime, Fraser is walking down the street. He sees Victoria loading her luggage into a taxi and hurries to catch her; he traps her in her hotel's revolving door.

FRASER: Where are you going?
VICTORIA: Just let me go, please.
FRASER: I want to know what happened.
VICTORIA: I'm sorry, okay? I thought — just let me go —
FRASER: [shouting over her] I said I want to know what happened.
VICTORIA: Jolly's out.
FRASER: Come on.

He takes her hand and her suitcase, and they run.

I really want to believe that he's mad that she left his apartment because Diefenbaker was shot—oof, bracketing difficulties—I mean, I want to believe that the fact that Diefenbaker was shot is the reason he is angry that she left his apartment, not that he thinks she left his apartment because Diefenbaker was shot and he's mad about that—but the way he's been acting in this episode, I think he may be madder that she left than he is that Diefenbaker was shot, and I'm not feeling great about that.

I assume Jolly is the smoking man across the street; I'd assume he was the bank robber who fled south, but so he's out now—out of what? I guess he fled south but didn't get far?

Scene 21

Fraser and Victoria are at the zoo, in a tunnel in the polar bear viewing area. He is looking through a window, watching a bear swim.

VICTORIA: He showed up at my sister's place about a month after I got out. She was in Skagway. I got the hell out of there as fast as I could. I don't know how he found me this time, if he followed me, I don't know . . . I thought I saw him that first time that we were at your place.
FRASER: Why didn't you tell me?
VICTORIA: I've been seeing him every night for the last month. You left for just a few minutes, and I look up — he was standing above me. He grabbed me by the throat. I couldn't scream, I, I couldn't fight. If it weren't for your wolf, I'd, I'd — is he dead?
FRASER: No. He's badly hurt.
VICTORIA: I'm sorry. I, I just got out the fire escape and — I don't know why he's doing this.
FRASER: What does he want from you?
VICTORIA: I don't know.
FRASER: [becoming exasperated] What aren't you telling me?
VICTORIA: Nothing.
FRASER: [angry] What aren't you telling me?
VICTORIA: They never found the money we stole. Over half a million dollars. So when I got out, I went to find it.
FRASER: And you had no intention of giving it back.
VICTORIA: It wasn't there. I just assumed that Jolly got there first. He thinks I did.
FRASER: Did he tell anyone where he hid it?
VICTORIA: Jolly's got a big mouth, but I don't think he's stupid enough to tell anyone.
FRASER: And you told no one?
VICTORIA: I'm not exactly a trusting person. People tend to let me down.
FRASER: Not this time.

Why are they at the zoo?

I feel like when she has just said "I don't know why he's doing this," it's a little tone deaf of Fraser to ask "What does he want from you?" Obviously he goes on to be clear that he thinks she's not telling him everything, but I think he could have skipped to that rather than detour through asking a question she has literally just answered with her previous line.

So Jolly is in fact the other surviving bank robber, and apparently the three of them hid their takings before they ran (or the two of them did after the third one died).

Meanwhile, here's the world we're living in now, in 2022: I'm having the hardest time thinking of "over half a million dollars" (so $500–750k, probably, or she'd have said something like "almost a million dollars") as an impressively large amount of money. I don't mean it's not a lot of money. Of course it is. But for the fuss that Victoria and Jolly are apparently making, I'd be expecting seven figures at least. Assuming they meant to split it evenly (assuming none of them meant to double-cross the others), they'd each be ending up with maybe as little as $170k. At that time you could buy a house for that much even in the major cities, but even then, even in a less urban environment, it wouldn't have gone a lot further than that, would it? Sigh. I can't tell whether I'm sadder about how I'm living pretty comfortably during this world-burning era of late-stage capitalism (In 1995, the Waltons were the richest people in the world, and their net worth was $23.5 billion. Bill Gates was in second place at $12.9. The ten biggest fortunes in the world would have added up to 101.4 billion, which today would just squeak in at #9. Figure Victoria and her friends stole their half-mil some years before 1995, and yes, that was a lot more money then than it is now.) or that 1995 was such a long time ago.

Anyway, Skagway, Alaska, is in the northern panhandle, right on the border with British Columbia.

Scene 22

Fraser has taken Victoria to Vecchio's house.

VECCHIO: You can stay here till they get back. After that we'll have to make other arrangements. This is my sister's room.
VICTORIA: You sure this is okay?
VECCHIO: Any friend of Fraser's is a friend of mine.

Victoria comes into Francesca's room. There are towels on the foot of the bed, like a nicely prepared guest room, and a couple of framed pictures of Fraser on the dresser.

VICTORIA: [all smiles] So. You're Ray.
VECCHIO: [all smiles] Yeah. And you're Victoria.
VICTORIA: Mm-hmm.
VECCHIO: So how did you two meet?
VICTORIA: [a bit of a challenge] He arrested me.
VECCHIO: Ah. He meets a lot of people that way. [all business] Listen, you hurt him and I'll kill you. This is my room right across the hall. You hear anything, you bang on the door.
VICTORIA: [not scared or even especially impressed] I don't think I'll need to do that.
VECCHIO: You hear anything, you see anything, you bang on my door, okay? Nothing happens to you while you're under my roof. If I'm not home, you call me at this number. [He gives her his card.]
VICTORIA: Thanks. [back to being pleasant] I appreciate what you're doing.
VECCHIO: [still kind of surly] It's not you I do it for.
VICTORIA: You made that real clear, but I do appreciate it.
VECCHIO: I hope so.

He leaves the room and closes the door.

Vecchio seems completely sincere when he says "hurt him and I'll kill you," and yet he says it in exactly the same tone in which he goes on to say "that's my room across the hall." It is clear to me that he means it literally, in contrast to Francesca's threat earlier in the episode to kill him if Fraser saw her with her hair in rollers. I think he still doesn't know Victoria's backstory—even if he was only pretending to be asleep when Fraser first mentioned her, as I noted, the bank robbery wasn't part of the story Fraser told at that time, and Fraser hasn't talked about that in this episode except with the priest and his father's ghost—but Vecchio knows that Victoria makes Fraser behave Not Like Himself. He was happy for him the first morning, but once it turned out Fraser was serious enough about her to forget him, he went from bro to big brother in a hurry, didn't he.

Scene 23

At Fraser's apartment, a forensics team is doing its thing.

GARDINO: Just two sets of prints, if you discount the — heh — paw marks. [Fraser smiles stiffly. Vecchio glares.] Sorry. Uh, how is the little guy?
FRASER: Ah, we won't know for a while.
HUEY: Is anything missing?
FRASER: It doesn't appear to be.
HUEY: We'd like to talk to your lady friend.
FRASER: I'll bring her in.
HUEY: Good. [He and Gardino are leaving.]
GARDINO: Oh. [takes a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket, gives it to Vecchio] You wanted this?
VECCHIO: Thanks. [He reads it.] Chuckles ain't no clown, that's for sure.
FRASER: Jolly?
VECCHIO: Yeah, he's got quite a history. Manslaughter, attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon. He killed a guard in that bank job with your girlfriend. Hey, did she get a lighter sentence for testifying against him?
FRASER: Yeah.
VECCHIO: Hmm. Looks like he didn't trust her. He escaped the same week she got released. You were only gone a few minutes. He must have been staking out the joint.

They are looking out the window at the billiards place.

I don't know how many times I've seen this episode, and this is the first time it has occurred to me that although Fraser spent just those few days with Victoria in the first instance, it probably didn't end the hot minute he turned her in. If she got a lighter sentence for testifying against Jolly (who we can now confirm didn't get far after he fled south, and who'd have been eligible for the death penalty on account of he killed someone in the course of the robbery), she probably took a plea rather than going to trial herself, but while Fraser could know that because he asked someone or read about it somewhere, isn't it equally possible he was there and attended Jolly's trial, particularly when Victoria testified? Being all supportive, which she will not have wanted? Shit, he probably worked to arrange the plea deal with her testimony rather than just letting her walk in the first place. File that under "half a loaf," eh?

Scene 24

Fraser and Ray cross the street to the billiards place and go up to the second floor, finding the window where the smoking man was smoking and watching Fraser's apartment.

VECCHIO: Yeah, this'd do it.

Fraser takes out his handkerchief, picks up one of the cigarette butts, and sniffs it.

FRASER: Canadian.
VECCHIO: [knocks on the nearest apartment door; to the person who answers, getting out a printout of Jolly's mug shot] Hi, police officers. Have you noticed a guy who — [The guy shuts the door in his face; they hear him lock the bolt. They knock on the door across the hall.] Hi, I'm Detective Vecchio, and this is Benton Fraser — [The woman in that apartment shuts the door in his face.]
FRASER: [at another door] Hello, I wonder if you could — [The guy shuts the door in Vecchio's face.]
VECCHIO: [at another door] Hi, how are you doing? [The guy shuts the door in his face.]
FRASER: [at a fifth door] Excuse me, sir. We were wondering if you could help us.
GUY WHO DIDN'T SLAM THE DOOR IN THEIR FACE: Sure.
FRASER: Ah, have you seen a man loitering at that end of the hallway in the last few days?
GUY WHO DIDN'T SLAM THE DOOR IN THEIR FACE: Just the private detective. I let him use my phone.

Vecchio is on the guy's phone, apparently getting its call history.

VECCHIO: Five-five-five nine-seven-three-two.
GUY WHO DIDN'T SLAM THE DOOR IN THEIR FACE: My mom.
VECCHIO: Seven times?
GUY WHO DIDN'T SLAM THE DOOR IN THEIR FACE: Yeah. [Fraser gives a slight smile and nod.]
VECCHIO: Five-five-five seventy-three-thirty-three.
GUY WHO DIDN'T SLAM THE DOOR IN THEIR FACE: Don't know that one.
VECCHIO: [into the phone] All right, that's the one. Look it up.

You live with your mother, Vecchio; I'm not sure you can throw stones at this guy.

Do Canadian cigarettes smell different than American cigarettes, or is this just Fraser's magical senses? Also, why would Jolly—who robbed a bank in Alaska and then fled south and then went to trial and will have escaped from a federal prison—be smoking Canadian cigarettes? Why is that a thing?

Scene 25

Apparently 555-7333 was the phone number of a crappy motel. Fraser and Vecchio are at the counter, showing the manager—who is wearing very thick glasses—Jolly's mug shot.

VECCHIO: You ever seen this guy?
MANAGER: Mm, nope.
VECCHIO: [rolls his eyes, puts the picture down for a second, then shows it to the guy again] How about this guy?
MANAGER: No.
VECCHIO: [maybe third time's the charm] What about this guy?
MANAGER: Room two-eleven.
VECCHIO: Thanks.

As Vecchio and Fraser go into the motel, the manager cleans the camera lens with a tissue.

Scene 26

Fraser and Vecchio are in the motel hallway approaching room 211. Vecchio knocks at the door and then gets to work with a set of lock picks.

FRASER: Why would he call his own hotel?
VECCHIO: I don't know. Probably checking his messages.
FRASER: No known accomplices.
VECCHIO: Well, maybe he's got a girlfriend.
FRASER: Maybe. Don't we need a warrant to go in there?
VECCHIO: Not if there's imminent danger.
FRASER: Uh, and what kind of imminent danger might that be, Ray?
VECCHIO: Oh, I don't know. [He gets the door open.] Something like fire?

He lights a book of matches and drops it in the trash can, then closes the door again and knocks on the door of room 210.

VECCHIO: How are you doing?
WOMAN IN 210: Fine.
VECCHIO: We'd like to ask you a couple of questions about your neighbor next door.
WOMAN IN 210: I just checked in.
VECCHIO: Okay, have you noticed anything strange about him?
WOMAN IN 210: I've never seen him.
VECCHIO: Any odd smells coming from his room?

The woman sniffs the air. Vecchio waves smoke away from his face. Fraser looks at the woman, waiting for the penny to drop. Finally, she sees the smoke coming from under the door of 211.

WOMAN: Fire! Fire! [She runs away.]
VECCHIO: Really? Where? [loudly] Okay, who's ever in this room is in imminent danger!

Fraser kicks the door in. Vecchio starts trying to stomp out the fire he set in the trash can; his foot gets stuck.

FRASER: So according to the law we can look around now?
VECCHIO: Yeah. Just find something to stop this thing from burning.
FRASER: I understand.
VECCHIO: No, no, no, I mean it! [Finally he yanks the trash can off his foot, runs to the bathroom, dumps the thing in the shower, and turns the water on.]
FRASER: [coming into the bathroom with an empty knife sheath] Ray.
VECCHIO: Where's the knife?
FRASER: Not here.

Vecchio turns off the water and looks through the soggy, burned trash. He picks up a cigarette box.

VECCHIO: Canadian. [He turns it over and sees something written on the inside flap.] Oh my God.

Fraser is dialing from the phone in the motel room. It is ringing at Vecchio's house. We can see the wet, burned cigarette box; it says "Vecchio" and "Octavia." Victoria answers the phone.

VICTORIA: Hello?
FRASER: Get out of the house.
VICTORIA: What, what's, what's going on?
FRASER: He's got your address. Get out of the house. Go someplace public — the zoo, where I took you. I'll meet you there.
VICTORIA: Okay.

She grabs her coat and her bag and runs. While Fraser has been on the phone, Vecchio has been talking to the manager.

MANAGER: Maybe fifteen minutes ago?

Fraser comes out to the lobby and heads for the exit. Vecchio joins him. They pass an incoming fire crew on the stairs.

I don't know why they didn't just kick the door down—they've obviously done it before—but I guess they do need the excuse to dump out the trash in the shower and find the cigarette box, although they could have just bashed their way in and rooted around in the trash can, couldn't they?

I also don't know why the zoo. I mean at this point I guess it's because they went there before and it's a familiar place for her to meet him. But I still don't know why they went there before. "What the fuck, my wolf has been shot and you just split?" "Jolly's out!" "Okay let's go to the zoo." ???

Scene 27

Victoria arrives at the zoo in a taxi. She pays the driver.

VICTORIA: Keep the change.

As she is going in to the zoo, Jolly drives up and watches her for a minute. He parks the car and tucks the knife that should have been in the sheath Fraser found into his jacket.

The license plate on Jolly's car is RCW 139. That's obviously the real mystery running through this whole series.

Scene 28

Victoria runs through the reptile house. A moment later, Jolly follows her. Fraser and Vecchio are speeding through the streets with the red light going on the dashboard. Victoria reaches the underground polar bear viewing area. She turns around and sees a shadow in the hallway behind her. She is frightened. A woman comes through the area with two small children. Victoria is relieved. The woman and the children are looking at the bears. Victoria is waiting for Fraser. Fraser and Vecchio are speeding to the zoo. One of the little kids runs off.

KID'S MOM: Jenny!

She leaves the viewing area in pursuit of her kid. Victoria watches them go, and when she turns around, Jolly is there. She gasps.

JOLLY: I thought you wanted to see me. [She tries to run, but he is too quick; he grabs her.] Don't tell me I thought wrong. [Fraser and Vecchio are hurrying through the reptile house.] Just tell me where the money is, love.
VICTORIA: I told you I don't know where the money is.
JOLLY: Heh. Did I mention I don't believe you?
VICTORIA: You never told me where you hid it.
JOLLY: Ed knew.
VICTORIA: Ed's dead.
JOLLY: I'm thinking he told you. I'm thinking maybe you told someone else. Someone who could pick it up for you when things went bad. [Victoria slips her hand in her pocket.] And somehow things went very bad, didn't they?

From her pocket she produces a small knife. She stabs him and runs.

Hard to say whether it was Ed or Jolly she was living with before the robbery. Anyway, her knife is just little; she stabs him with it, but it's a scratch. He is easily able to regroup and follow her.

Scene 29

Fraser and Vecchio are running through the zoo and reach the polar bear exhibit. Victoria is of course not there.

FRASER: How long would it take to get from your house to here?
VECCHIO: Not this long. Maybe she went to the wrong place. [Fraser sees blood on the floor; it is fresh.] I'll take from here to the lagoon.

He runs back the way they came; Fraser runs out the way Victoria went after stabbing Jolly.

I love how even though he doesn't like Victoria at all, Vecchio is right here with Fraser trying to keep her safe.

Scene 30

Victoria is running through the aquarium. People are looking at fish. She gets to the indoor/outdoor otter exhibit and sees Jolly looking for her from the outdoor viewing area. She runs. Jolly comes in but she is gone. Vecchio is running through another part of the zoo. At the tiger enclosure he grabs a woman with dark curls and spins her around. She is startled.

VECCHIO: Oh, I'm sorry, I thought you were somebody else.

Victoria runs through a fixture over a path. Jolly follows her. Fraser climbs up a whole climbing thing and scans the whole zoo. Victoria is running; Jolly is chasing her. A goose squawks. Fraser hears it and jumps down from the thing he'd climbed on. Victoria runs behind a waterfall and slips and falls on the wet stones. Jolly catches up to her. He grabs her and holds her out over the edge, threatening to drop her over the waterfall.

JOLLY: You know what, love? Money isn't everything. I can always make more, right? [He pulls his knife out of his jacket.]
VICTORIA: Oh, God —
JOLLY: I'll settle for peace of mind.
VICTORIA: Oh, God!

Fraser swings down through the waterfall and kicks Jolly off Victoria and back against the wall.

FRASER: Run!

Victoria runs. Fraser and Jolly fight.

JOLLY: I shoulda known it was you. [He knocks Fraser over the ledge; Fraser loses his hat but hangs on and tries to pull himself back up.] You think you know her? You don't!

He cuts Fraser's hand; Fraser lets go of the ledge and slides down the waterfall to the pool below. Jolly runs after Victoria.

What are those adobe things in the zoo, and what are they for? The animals don't normally climb them, because they're out in the human pathways. Anyway, I don't know if it's Fraser's ass or the stunt man's ass that the camera focuses on as he's climbing, but that's sure a moment of ass-cam, all right.

Victoria looks very different with her hair not framing her face in the held-over-the-waterfall bit.

Scene 31

Fraser swims out of the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. He looks at his cut hand. Jolly runs out of the zoo and back to his car. He gets in, and Victoria is already in the passenger seat. She raises her eyebrows at him.

JOLLY: Come to your senses, have you?
VICTORIA: A long time ago.

She produces a gun in her gloved hand and calmly shoots him dead. She gets out of the car and walks calmly back into the zoo. Caption: to be continued . . .

Buh buh buh bzuh?

She didn't seem scared at all just now. She seemed to be completely in control of the situation, in fact. And she just shot Jolly with the same gun that was used to shoot Diefenbaker. It had a distinctive sight on its nose; this is clearly the same gun. She just shot Jolly with the same gun that was used to shoot Diefenbaker.

Luckily, I suppose, for viewers, the second part aired immediately after the first part rather than a week later.

Cumulative body count: 12
Red uniform: Bringing the pool table up from the basement (without jacket), in the confessional, at lunch and the rest of that day but not that evening, at work the next day

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Comments

[resonant]

You're doing a great public service here!

Ground beans seem likely to be coffee.

Pekin is a neighbor to Peoria, where I was living when this ep aired. Pre-global-warming, it was a bit hotter in summer and warmer in winter than Chicago, but not by all that much - in 1990, my first year there, there was a week where it never got above zero, day or night, and then in the summer there was a week where it never got below 90. No lake effect, though, so a lot less snow.

[fox]

Coffee? To be cooked along with pork chops, pasta, and spaghetti sauce? (I mean, maybe for people who accept ice cream as a substitute for cilantro, sure, what the hell.)

I spent a little time thinking I should have put her in Austin instead of Denver in "It's Not A Secret . . ."—it's not a lot further away, and I literally picked Denver so Ray could say "a thousand miles from home"—but then I decided it was just as well I didn't put our heroes in a position to have to be coordinating with state social services in Texas. 🙄