return to Due South: season 2 episode 8 "One Good Man"

[fox]

One Good Man
air date February 8, 1996

Scene 1

Fraser is doing a white-glove inspection (literally: he is wearing white gloves) of his apartment building. Neighbors are gathered to watch. He even runs his glove across the brim of a neighbor's hat. He looks into a bathroom where a guy is holding onto the sink tap and smiling. Suddenly the plumbing springs a leak and water spouts into the air; people scatter with shouts of "What the hell are you doing?" and similar. Fraser runs his gloved index finger around the metalwork in the elevator cage. It comes back filthy. He folds his hand and extends his gloved little finger, which is pristine.

FRASER: I'd like to congratulate all of you. You've done a wonderful job.
MR. MUSTAFI: I told you. A little dusting, a little painting, the whole building good as new.
FRASER: Right you are.
VECCHIO: It's dirty.
FRASER: Yes, I know, Ray, but I'm trying to encourage them. [They pass another neighbor doing something to the wall.]
ANOTHER NEIGHBOR: Tasteful, huh?
FRASER: Well, yes it is, Mr. Klein. I'm sure that Mr. Taylor will appreciate it.
VECCHIO: Appreciate what, rat-infested wall covering?
FRASER: Ray!
VECCHIO: Look, the basement is flooded, the roof is leaking, and the floorboards are rotted out. Who's the rocket scientist who convinced them to redecorate? Of course.
FRASER: Well, I convinced them, Ray, that it would show the new landlord that he made a very wise investment, not just in the building but in the tenants themselves.
VECCHIO: And did you check him out?
FRASER: Well, of course, Ray. I met him at the laundromat, which he owns, along with a string of twenty-seven other cleaning establishments. Now, I complimented him on his twenty-five-cent all-you-can-dry policy, we fell to talking, he seems very sincere. He's meeting with Mr. Potter this afternoon to conclude the sale agreement. Cash, isn't it, Dennis?
SUPER (DENNIS): The full asking price.
VECCHIO: Yeah, Potter must be thrilled. The old weasel hasn't spent more than a dollar-ninety-eight on this place since you moved in.
DENNIS: Hey, I object to my employer being characterized in such a fashion.
VECCHIO: Being a fellow rodent, I expected you would. [He joins Fraser outside.] This whole neighborhood's a slum. Cleaning up one building is like dropping a good apple in a barrel full of bad ones. You can't win.
FRASER: You know, Ray, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
VECCHIO: Your grandmother teach you that?
FRASER: Yes.
VECCHIO: If you think Taylor's going to be an improvement, you got another think coming. [A vintage Thunderbird rolls up.] Wow.
FRASER: Ah, Mr. Taylor. [He feeds the parking meter himself.] It's good to see you.
TAYLOR: [shaking his hand] Ben. How are you?
FRASER: I'm very well, thank you. If you'd care to join us inside? This is my friend, Detective Raymond Vecchio.
VECCHIO: Sixty-six T-bird? Seventy-two Riviera.
TAYLOR: A Riv? Mint?
VECCHIO: Uh, it was. I've, ah, gone through a couple of them recently.
FRASER: They were blown up.
VECCHIO: You don't happen to know where I might —
TAYLOR: I'll keep an eye out for you.
FRASER: Well, shall we? [Taylor heads inside.] Nice guy.

So the building has a super, but Fraser took it upon himself to wrangle all his neighbors into a cleanup crew and make himself the manager? Well, that's not at all patronizing, is it. And to impress the new landlord, as well. Whose meter he pre-emptively feeds. Kiss-ass. And if that wasn't already rubbing me every possible wrong way, the new landlord turns up and is so slimy the slime gets on Fraser too. Ugh. I don't like it. (I also don't like that Vecchio changes his 1971 Riviera to a 1972 with no acknowledgment. WTF?)

I've seen this episode occasionally subtitled "a.k.a. Thank You Kindly, Mr. Capra," but I don't see why it should be when "Letting Go" wasn't subtitled "a.k.a. Thank You Kindly, Mr. Hitchcock," so I don't know. But the fact that the departing landlord is named Mr. Potter is certainly a big old wink in the Capra direction, isn't it.

This is not the first time Fraser has attributed a common Chinese philosophy aphorism—this one is from Lao Tzu—to his own family. Once, in an episode called "Chinatown," is vaguely cute in a dopey sort of way. Twice is starting to feel appropriative.

Scene 2

Taylor and Fraser and Vecchio are in the building with Dennis the super. Statler and Waldorf open the elevator gate.

STATLER: Going up?
TAYLOR: I thought this was junk.
STATLER: Hey, you watch how you talk about somebody's home.
FRASER: I took the liberty of having it repaired.
TAYLOR: Well done. [He gets on the elevator. Fraser goes to follow, but Statler blocks him.]
STATLER: Sorry, maximum of three allowed. [Fraser and Vecchio go up the stairs. Statler announces the elevator's arrival.] Third floor. [Fraser got there first; he opens the elevator gate with a crowd of neighbors behind him.]
TAYLOR: Congratulate me, Constable. I've just made an excellent investment.

The neighbors cheer. Taylor oils off. Fraser and Vecchio are in the elevator. Dennis comes along with an envelope.

DENNIS: Allow me to add my congratulations.
FRASER: Thank you, Dennis.
DENNIS: And this. [He gives Fraser the envelope.]
FRASER: Thank you kindly. [reads] There must be some mistake.
DENNIS: Nope. Taylor hired me to stay on as super, and I never make mistakes. [He closes the elevator gate. Fraser and Vecchio start to go up.]
VECCHIO: So he's going to raise the rent?
FRASER: Yes. One thousand dollars per month per unit.
VECCHIO: What?
FRASER: He can't do that, can he?
VECCHIO: No, not if you have a lease.
FRASER: Ah.
VECCHIO: You do have a lease, don't you?. [The elevator arrives at the top floor. All the neighbors have envelopes advising them of their rent increases, and they are all mad at Fraser.] I'm going to take that as a no.

Fixing the elevator was indeed a liberty, Fraser, you smarmy sycophant. You don't get extra credit for initiative when your initiative saves the boss money but he only finds out about it after the fact. It might have worked if Fraser had said "How about if I arrange to have the elevator repaired?" but even then, that is not a tenant's job, fucking stop it.

We don't know Fraser's rent, but we know Charlie Pike's was more than $200/month and Mrs. Gamez's was $375/month including utilities. A thousand-dollar increase per month would be an unmanageable increase for your fancy big-city apartments renting at $2500/month now; obviously for Fraser's neighbors it's literally impossible. If these people had another thousand dollars a month, wouldn't they be living somewhere else?

Apparently Illinois abolished rent control in 1997; it looks like even before that, there was no rent control in Chicago, and all the 1997 state law did was make it impossible for the city to impose a limit, but I can't find anything on what kind of restrictions Taylor might have had under the terms of a month-to-month or a fixed-term lease. Today, there's no limit on the amount of the rent increase, and the only limits that do exist seem to be that for non-fixed-term leases, notice has to be given within the period of the lease—7 days' notice for a week-to-week lease, and 30 days' notice for a month-to-month lease. You'd think if you had a full-year lease there'd be some required notice period of the increase to give you time to decide whether to renew, but I can't find any information on that from before 2020, when a lot of things changed—just that they couldn't raise the rent during the term of your lease, which makes sense and is probably what Vecchio was talking about.

But how do you rent without a lease? I mean, literally: What arrangement have Fraser and the others been renting under all this time? What, if any, guarantee have they had that their apartments would continue to belong to them? How does Taylor know whom to address these rent-increase letters to in the first place? Probably just lets Dennis handle it, because he's the super and he's the one who knows who lives where? But if they don't have a lease, why alert them of the rent increase in writing at all? Why not just throw them out? Does "a lease" refer specifically and only to a fixed-term lease? Is a month-to-month rental arrangement not a lease?

Credits roll.

Paul Gross
David Marciano
Beau Starr
Daniel Kash
Tony Craig
Catherine Bruhier

(plus Lincoln the dog)

Kash is still in the opening credits. I don't make this stuff up.

Maria Bello, Robert Clothier, Karl Pruner, Katayoun Amini, Johnie Chase, Ann Medina, Marvin Karon

I also don't understand the guest credits. Dennis the Super has appeared before and been in the opening credits both times, but he's obviously in this episode and yet does not appear in the (extensive) opening credits. I am stumped.

Scene 3

Fraser and Vecchio are at a garage looking at a car. Vecchio is examining the paint job; Fraser is underneath the thing where it's up on a lift.

FRASER: I told them not to pay the increase, Ray. It's unfair, and if it's not illegal, it's at the very least unethical.
VECCHIO: Good. So when do you move?
FRASER: Oh, we're not moving. We're going to exercise our rights.
VECCHIO: Yeah, well, if you excuse me, I'm going to exercise mine. [to the garage owner] Bubbles, Al. If you let the paint dry too fast, you get bubbles. So what we have here is either the work of someone who lacks a keen appreciation for a good finish or someone who has a bad eye for bubbles.
AL: Fine. Two bubbles? I'll knock off a point.
VECCHIO: Hey, you gotta do better than that.
FRASER: I mean, they can't afford an increase, Ray.
VECCHIO: So move.
FRASER: No. We're not moving.
VECCHIO: Look, both you and I know you gotta turn this baby over, Al.
AL: Ray, you're beating me up here. I'm bleeding all over the floor.
FRASER: I got them into this, Ray.
VECCHIO: No, what you did was, you helped them clean up that hellhole. If they want any more help than that, you tell them to call Sixty Minutes.
FRASER: Every person has the right to a roof over their head.
VECCHIO: Yeah, as long as they can pay the rent. What is that? Is that rust, Al? Do I see rust there?
AL: That's primer.
VECCHIO: Yeah, and if I was wearing a dress, I'd be a woman.
FRASER: Oh, dear.
VECCHIO: "Oh, dear." What do we have here? Oh, yeah, will you look at that, huh? Huh? What do you say now, Al?
AL: Okay, I'll drop off five hundred, but that's it.
FRASER: Well, now, that would make the final price, umm — oh, well, how much can a frame be worth anyway?
VECCHIO: Frame?
FRASER: Yep. It's spot-welded. It's quite excellent work. Except for the slight contour on the brazing here, you really wouldn't know that this car had been severed in half. I'm sure there's still a lot of it that's salvageable.
VECCHIO: So, Al, what do you have to say for yourself before we bring you downtown?
FRASER: Ray, he's your cousin.
VECCHIO: He's twice removed.

A woman has come into the garage.

WOMAN: Still driving that same old hunk of junk, huh?
VECCHIO: [very surprised to see her] Ange?
WOMAN (ANGE): Don't let me interrupt. Just a woman with a dead Mustang. Hey, Al, try to remember to put the oil cap back on, okay?
AL: Sure, Ange.
ANGE: [kisses Vecchio's cheek] See ya.

She leaves. Fraser isn't really sure what just happened.

Fraser is right that he's the one who got his neighbors into the fix that they're in. I don't know that simply refusing to pay the increased rent is an effective method of protest against Taylor; probably they should have been doing a rent strike against Potter in the past to get the place up to habitable standards, but this isn't the same thing. All the same, everyone does have the right to a roof over their head, and the only thing that depends on their ability to pay rent is which roof, which is probably what Vecchio means, but he's not really thinking clearly, because here's a decidedly-not-mint-condition 197[&nbsp] Riviera he's trying to buy and he's haggling with his twice-removed cousin over it? (That means whatever ancestor they have in common is two generations different for him as for Al—Al could be Ray's first cousin's grandchild or vice versa. With a couple of extra-long generations that can happen; my great-grandmother was young when my grandmother was born, and her much younger sister was older when her only child was born, and my grandmother had had her own children in the meantime, with the result that my grandmother had a first cousin who was a little younger than my father. That cousin's older daughter is only three months older than me, but she's my father's second cousin, that is, they have great-grandparents in common. So she and I are second cousins once removed, and the removals aren't getting closer in age because after her grandmother and my great-grandmother, who were sisters, the generations evened out—but if there had been another nuclear family with a big age gap in it and another later-in-life child somewhere in there, we could have twice-removed cousins as agemates.)

"If I was wearing a dress I'd be a woman" is bullshit, but I'm exhausted with the world we're living in now; we didn't expect better in 1996, did we?

Good grief, it looks like 60 Minutes is still on the air. This is a "news magazine" TV program that has, whether earned or not, a reputation for probing investigative journalism whose subjects sometimes change their wicked ways under scrutiny. Vecchio is suggesting Fraser's neighbors name and shame their new landlord into backing away from the rent increase.

Just as a matter of trivial interest, the woman who comes into the garage is played by Katayoun Amini (Mrs. Marciano).

Scene 4

Fraser and Vecchio leave the garage. It's snowing a little.

FRASER: Perhaps you're not ready to replace your old car. [They both get in the car and close the doors before Vecchio speaks.]
VECCHIO: She's a friend.
FRASER: I see.
VECCHIO: And it's none of your business.
FRASER: Understood.

So . . . I'm with Fraser here in that something other than what's obvious (losing a second Riviera to explosion in less than twelve months, and this one taking a human friend with it, to say nothing of the accidental shooting death of his high school girlfriend) is clearly bothering Vecchio, and he is not acknowledging what it is.

Scene 5

Fraser and Vecchio are at City Hall.

VECCHIO: City Hall? Are you crazy?
FRASER: They have a responsibility to protect the rights of all urban dwellers.
VECCHIO: Fraser, how many of those mutants who live in your building do you think actually vote?
FRASER: Ray, City Hall has a responsibility to govern and protect all of its citizens whether they vote or not. It's called a social contract.
VECCHIO: Yeah, well, maybe in Canada there's an igloo for every Eskimo and a seal in every pot, but here in America, if it doesn't get votes, it's dog meat. [They approach a desk where a city employee is reading a newspaper.]
FRASER: Excuse me.
CITY EMPLOYEE: [not looking up] Make it good.
VECCHIO: We have a complaint.
FRASER: No, we don't.
CITY EMPLOYEE: Which is it?
FRASER: We have an injustice.
CITY EMPLOYEE: Injustice is down the hall.
FRASER: Ah. [He and Vecchio step away from the desk.]
VECCHIO: Look. Benny. If you want some help, you're going to have to register a dispute.
FRASER: You sure?
VECCHIO: Yes, well, that's what they do here. They handle disputes.
FRASER: I won't be making a fuss?
VECCHIO: Well, of course you will. That's the whole point.
FRASER: Ahh. [He heads back to the desk, but returns after only a second.] I don't have to raise my voice, do I?
VECCHIO: Look, there's no polite way to dispute. You just jump right in there.
FRASER: I see.
VECCHIO: Okay.
FRASER: Okay.
VECCHIO: Let's go. [They head back to the desk.]
FRASER: [clears his throat] I demand — [The city employee puts down her paper and looks up at him.] — Well, no, I don't. I, I respectfully request, um — well, no, actually, just speaking strictly for myself, I — Ray —
VECCHIO: We have a slumlord who's trying to illegally evict a whole building full of poor people.
FRASER: Thank you.
CITY EMPLOYEE: Well, if that's the best you can do. Fill this out. Take it upstairs to room two-three-two. You'll need a buck for processing.
FRASER: Thank you kindly.

Fraser and Vecchio go to room 232, where a woman is sitting at a desk. Vecchio hands her a dollar; she gives the dollar to Fraser and gives Fraser's form back to Vecchio. They go to another desk where a man is diligently wielding a rubber stamp. They give him the dollar and the form; he looks at them both, gives the form to Fraser and the dollar to Vecchio, and carries on with his stamping. At a third desk, a young woman in a red suit refuses both form and dollar and points them to yet another destination. They are sniped out of an elevator and ultimately end up back at the original desk, where Fraser offers the dollar to the city employee, who resolutely does not look up from her newspaper.

It can sometimes be hard to tell when Fraser is deadpan snarking at Vecchio or quietly, passive-aggressively trying to get Vecchio to back into agreeing with him, but in this case he is so genuinely uncomfortable with the idea of asserting himself in any way that he actually can't do it and needs Vecchio to take over. I think that's sweet enough that I can almost overlook "responsibility to govern and protect all of its citizens whether they vote or not," which I suppose City Hall does have, whether the people it's governing and protecting are citizens or not. (Fraser, we've been over this.) (Oh! I guess we haven't. Obviously Fraser isn't a U.S. citizen, so it's not that he doesn't vote but that he can't vote, and in fact it would be wrong of him to try. But he's right that he deserves equal protection under the various laws and regulations with those who do vote, and so do those who could but choose not to.)

Scene 6

Fraser is speaking to a muster of his neighbors.

FRASER: Well, it's — it's not as bleak as it seems.
MR. KLEIN: You get our rent lowered?
FRASER: No.
MRS. GARCIA: A new landlord?
FRASER: No, I'm afraid not.
MR. MUSTAFI: Anything?
FRASER: Well, not exactly, but I do think it's time for us to retain legal counsel. [The neighbors don't like that. There is general grumbling.]
MRS. GARCIA: We can't afford a lawyer. It's too expensive.
MR. KLEIN: You got us into this.
STATLER: He's got a point.
FRASER: Yes — yes, yes, I realize that, but I, I firmly believe — [Dennis comes in and hands him a note.]
SOMEONE AT THE BACK: What now?
FRASER: Thank you.
DENNIS: I'd read it first. [Fraser opens the envelope. Dennis buggers off.]
MR. MUSTAFI: What? More rent?
FRASER: No. We are hereby notified that payment is past due, and with service of this notice, our occupancy of these premises has been terminated.
STATLER: What does that mean?
FRASER: It means we've been evicted.

The neighbors are unhappy. Diefenbaker hides under the bed.

How long has it been since they got the notice of the increase in their rent? Feels like one or maybe two business days, right? Every lease I've ever had has had a five-day grace period in it, but (a) that doesn't mean the rent was on time if I didn't pay it until the second or third day, just that they couldn't start charging me more until after the fifth day, and (b) as we've established, Fraser and his neighbors don't have a lease, so I guess the rent is late when the landlord says it's late? Or he doesn't actually need a reason to turf them out in the first place?

Scene 7

Fraser and Vecchio have pulled up outside the head office of the Chicago Guardian.

VECCHIO: She's not going to help you. This is small potatoes, and she's a big journalist.
FRASER: Well, she was very helpful last time, as I recall.
VECCHIO: Yeah, well, last time she thought you were a fraud. Fraud sells newspapers. Do-gooders do not.
FRASER: You know, Ray, I think you're underestimating her. Everyone loves an underdog.
VECCHIO: Yeah, everybody's not Mackenzie King. [Fraser starts to get out of the car.] I'll wait.
FRASER: There's no need.
VECCHIO: You'll be back in thirty seconds.
FRASER: I'll be fine.
VECCHIO: All right.

Fraser lets Diefenbaker out of the car, and they go inside. There's another guy in the back seat.

CAR SALESMAN: Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a test drive.
VECCHIO: Just keep your shirt on, pal.

If it's a green 1971 or '72 Riviera, wouldn't Vecchio buy it without test driving?

Scene 8

Mackenzie King is bothering her editor.

MACKENZIE: Bagels, Warren. Not muffins, not cheese Danish. [She waves a doughnut at him.] Just a plain honest-to-God water bagel.
WARREN: You know, Mackenzie, there are reporters in Korea who would thank their boss for bringing them a rice-coated water beetle —
MACKENZIE: Well, sweetie, I would eat a beetle for you any day. On a bagel. [Fraser apears at Warren's office door and clears his throat.] Ah, now, here's a man who knows how to save a damsel in distress. You know what a bagel looks like, don't you, Fraser?
FRASER: Uh, yes, I, I am acquainted with them. Diefenbaker. [Diefenbaker is sniffing around the doughnut box on Warren's desk.] I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Knoop, he's, um — rude.
WARREN: Are you kidding? I was just about to offer him a job.
FRASER: Ms. King, would you accompany me to lunch?
MACKENZIE: [to Warren] Forget the bagel. [She rushes out to get her bag.]
WARREN: [following her] Uh, excuse me? Excuse me? Do I pay you to take Mounties out to lunch? I don't think so. I think I pay you to sit at that desk, work the phones, and come up with stories that sell papers. Am I making myself clear?
MACKENZIE: [hands Fraser her bag and coat with a smile] Will you excuse me a minute, please?
FRASER: Yes.
MACKENZIE: Thanks. [She goes back into Warren's office and slams the door. For a moment there is some muffled shouting and banging; then she opens the door again with a smile.] I'm ready now.
FRASER: Ah. All right.
MACKENZIE: [taking back her things] Thanks.

This is plainly, utterly, in no way the same woman who played Mackenzie King last time we met her. But we can tell it's Mackenzie King because Fraser and Vecchio said so in the car and then Warren called her by name to her face. That's how you bring back a character you haven't seen in more than a year when they're being played by a different performer! . . . Assuming the recurrence is even necessary. I guess it might have lost something if Fraser had gone to try to get Mackenzie King to cover his story and had to settle for one of her colleagues on account of the actress who played her last time wasn't available?

Warren can fuck off with the Orientalism, though.

Scene 9

People are demonstrating in front of a downtown office building with hand-lettered signs that say things like "CAPITALIST INJUSTICE - DON'T THROW US AWAY" and "WE CAN'T AFFORD THE RENT, PLEASE LET US STAY" and "TAYLOR UNFAIR - STOP THE INJUSTICE" and "TAYLOR IS BENT ON RAISING OUR RENT". Two people are holding a long banner that says "NO! NO! NO! TAYLOR'S GOT TO GO!" Fraser and Mackenzie King are looking at this picket line.

NEIGHBORS: No, no, no! We won't go! No, no, no! Taylor's got to go!
MACKENZIE: This is what I'm going to win a Pulitzer Prize for? Laurel, Hardy, and the cast of Mother Courage?
FRASER: They're a small group, but they're very dedicated.
MACKENZIE: They're pathetic, Fraser.
FRASER: Yes, but in a good way. Another bagel?
MACKENZIE: Oy. [She takes the bag with the last bagel and stomps off. Fraser stops one of the marching neighbors.]
FRASER: Where are the others?
NEIGHBOR: I caught Mr. Cooper sneaking off with his bags packed. Some of the others, too. I had to drag the rest of them here.
FRASER: Thank you. [Taylor and a couple of suits are getting out of a car.] Ah, Mr. Taylor, I've been trying to reach you.
TAYLOR: Constable, good to see you. Is this really necessary?
FRASER: Well, yes. You see, apparently there's been a misunderstanding wherein you raised their rent beyond the capacity of the tenants to pay it. And apparently the superintendent is trying to have them evicted.
TAYLOR: The building isn't rent-controlled, is it?
FRASER: Well, no.
TAYLOR: And they were given the full five days allowable by law to meet the rent increase?
FRASER: Yes.
TAYLOR: Is it illegal for a businessman to make a profit on an investment?
FRASER: You're taking away these people's homes.
TAYLOR: You told me you wanted to improve your neighborhood. Last week I purchased four tenements on your block. Two of them were condemned. The other two should have been. I'm going to replace them with condominiums, and when I'm through, your neighborhood is going to be one of the finest in downtown Chicago.
FRASER: You intend to demolish the entire block.
TAYLOR: Six blocks.
FRASER: What about the tenants?
TAYLOR: Anybody who can afford the new buildings is welcome.
FRASER: But they can't.
TAYLOR: I know. [Mackenzie King is back, snapping pictures.] Fraser, who do you think is putting the garbage in your halls to begin with? Ms. King, how are things at the Guardian? I haven't read my stockholders' report lately.
MACKENZIE: [laughing] Don't tell me. You're the, you're the guy who voted out the free bagel delivery, right?
TAYLOR: It's a pleasure.
MACKENZIE: I'm sure. [Taylor goes in. Mackenzie drags Fraser to one side.] John Taylor? I should call Warren now. He's going to fire me.
FRASER: You think our chances are slim?
MACKENZIE: Do you see this building? Donald Trump couldn't afford it. You are one man in a red suit.
FRASER: Yes. I see what you mean. [He takes a sign from a neighbor and joins the marching.]
MACKENZIE: [follows him around in circles] Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait. You watch a lot of movies growing up in Oopik or wherever you come from?
FRASER: Some.
MACKENZIE: It's a Wonderful Life, right?
FRASER: Yes, actually. Thirty-two times.
MACKENZIE: Huh?
FRASER: It was the Reverend's favorite film. Well, that and The Passion of Joan of Arc.
MACKENZIE: No, you see, that's why movies are dangerous, Fraser. They take young minds and twist them into believing things like, like courage and hope and one man can make a difference. This may come as a shock to you and the Reverend, but real life is not a Frank Capra movie. Real life is money and bank accounts and politicians. People who pretend it's not end up out here in the streets with people like them. [She is standing in the middle of the circle where the picketers are marching around her.] Are you listening?
FRASER: Not really, no.
MACKENZIE: Ugh! [She gets ready to take some more pictures.] You're a bad influence on me, Bento. [to marching neighbors] Anh, no smiling. What's the matter, doesn't anybody limp?

Ugh, let's just get the Dona1d Tr*mp of it all out of the way right now, shall we? If that line were written today, it would invoke E1on M*sk. In the mid-90s DT's name was still a popular shorthand for "more wealth than you can imagine." (Say it with me now: "I don't know, I can imagine quite a bit." A little Han Solo to get the taste of 2016–2020 out of your mouth.)

So: Is Mackenzie King a reporter or a photographer? Most journos aren't both, right? And we've had references to three titles in this scene:

1. Mother Courage and Her Children is a Bertolt Brecht play about a war profiteer who loses all of her children to the very war (the Thirty Years' War) she was hoping to profit from. The connection to Fraser's neighbors' picket line is not obvious; probably Mackenzie is just snarking about how they're bundled up against the cold.
2. We referred obliquely to It's a Wonderful Life before, but now we're coming right out and hanging a hat on it: In that movie, George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) gets the fuzzy end of every lollipop his life long, and it still seems like it's not going to be enough to save his community from ruination by the heartless miser Mr. Potter; but when George wishes he'd never been born, his guardian angel shows him how without him the community would have been orders of magnitude worse off. This one is a fairly on-the-nose reference for Mackenzie King and Fraser to be making.
3. The Passion of Joan of Arc is a French silent film about, well, the passion of Joan of Arc. It is very good, but excruciating to watch. It is basically the anti-Capra, which is the joke here, that Fraser's childhood minister should have had these two polar opposites as his favorite films. I recommend watching The Passion of Joan of Arc with the Voices of Light soundtrack featuring Anonymous 4.

There is no such place as Oopik (or Upik), of course, because Mackenzie King is just being ridiculous and racist (I was going to say xenophobic, but that's not right at all, is it, when you're talking about a White person's attitude toward Indigenous North Americans) about Inuit place names; but there is an Inuit handicraft known as the Ookpik. Go figure.

And finally, Taylor. Ugh, this guy. As far as I can tell, the "five full days allowable by law" to which he refers is a provision in Chicago ordinance whereby if a landlord intends to evict a tenant for nonpayment of rent, they have to give them five days from the eviction notice in which to make the payment before the eviction is carried out. I think he is still supposed to have given reasonable notice of the increase in the first place—seven days for a week-to-week tenancy, 30 days for a month-to-month—but if they don't have a written lease, it's hard to say what reasonable notice would have been, so assuming all of this is happening on or around the first of the month, I guess the increased rent is the next payment he's entitled to expect, but it doesn't feel to me like five days have passed between his notifying them that they're going to be evicted and anybody actually being chucked out of their apartment, which (as I said) is what I think the five-day thing means.

Eat the rich.

Scene 10

Taylor is looking down at the demonstration from his office window many floors up. Dennis the superintendent is with him.

TAYLOR: Dennis, do you know the story of the three bears?
DENNIS: The three bears?
TAYLOR: They went out picketing. Left their homes unattended. Someone came along and shut off their heat. Cut off their electricity. Backed up their plumbing. Changed all the locks.
DENNIS: Goldilocks?
TAYLOR: It's an analogy.
DENNIS: Ah. It's . . . cold out.
TAYLOR: Who would you rather be? Goldilocks or one of the bears?

That's not at all what happens in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, of course. Goldilocks was trespassing, which I'm sure it is not Taylor's intention to suggest he is asking Dennis to do; he's been pretty careful to be sure he's doing everything exactly by the book.

The camera doesn't focus all the way in on Dennis here, but it's hard to look at him standing at Taylor's shoulder so far above ground level, hear him protest that it's cold out (so maybe he shouldn't shut off the tenants' heat), and not think about Grima Wormtongue realizing maybe he shouldn't have thrown his lot all in with Saruman the White after all:

Scene 11

Fraser presses the button to call the elevator in his building. It doesn't come. He sees that an "out of order" sign has been tied to the cage. Diefenbaker looks at him expectantly.

FRASER: Well, come on. Don't lallygag.
WALDORF: [as Fraser and Diefenbaker pass him on the stairs] Good evening, Mr. Fraser.

Fraser is whisking some sort of custard sauce in a round-bottomed bowl. He puts a pan on the burner. In the basement, Dennis the Super shuts off the gas. Fraser sees the flame go out, tries another burner, realizes it's not going to happen, and pours the uncooked sauce into Diefenbaker's bowl. Later, he is looking in a mirror, face full of shaving cream, stropping a razor on a leather strap. Dennis the Super shuts off another valve. Fraser starts to shave, goes to rinse his razor, and the water stops running. He rolls his eyes and gives up. Dennis the Super is pulling breakers. Fraser is lying in bed reading. All the lights go out. Fraser is surprised and unhappy. Dennis the Super, by the light of a small flashlight, puts a padlock on the main switch.

FRASER: These are the times that try men's souls. [Diefenbaker looks at him.] Thomas Paine. He wrote books. The Rights of Man, among others. Good night. [Diefenbaker tunnels under the covers.] Stop stealing the blanket. [Fraser takes the blanket back. Diefenbaker whines.] You're an Arctic wolf, for God's sake. [Diefenbaker whines.] You're getting soft. I hope you realize that.

There is noise in the hallway. Fraser jumps out of bed and rushes to the hallway.

SOMEONE IN THE HALLWAY: You better clear out. [Fraser catches a chair someone has thrown over a shoulder.]
MR. KLEIN: Hey, that's mine. Look, I don't care who you guys are, you can't come in here and break my stuff. [Fraser goes over and wrests a lamp away from a guy who is ransacking Mr. Klein's apartment.]
FRASER: Thank you kindly. Now perhaps you and your friend could vacate this apartment building.
SECOND HALLWAY GUY: Sorry, no can do.
FRASER: You live here?
SECOND HALLWAY GUY: Do now. This apartment. I guess somebody forgot to pay his rent.

Behind Fraser, a third guy flips open a switchblade. Diefenbaker snarls.

FRASER: Diefenbaker.
SECOND HALLWAY GUY: Jack, put that away. You're going to scare our new neighbors.
SOMEONE IN THE HALLWAY: Hey, this yours? [He holds up a ceramic vase.] Guess you forgot it. [He drops the vase to smash on the floor.]
SECOND HALLWAY GUY: [pats Fraser on the shoulder] We'll be seeing you, neighbor.

The hallway guys go into Mr. Klein's and someone else's apartment. Mr. Klein and some of the other neighbors look at Fraser. Fraser looks at Dennis the Super, who slinks away. Fraser goes back into his apartment, leaving Messrs. Klein and Mustafi and some other neighbors in the hallway by candlelight.

What on earth is Fraser cooking? Why is he shaving at night? (Maybe that's something face-shaving people do. I don't know. My dad shaved in the morning, and I think my brother does too? My husband wears a beard, but before he grew it I think he shaved in the morning also.

Anyway, "These are the times that try men's souls" is the first line of The American Crisis no. 1 by, as Fraser says Thomas Paine:

THESE are the times that try men's ſouls :  The ſummer ſoldier and the ſunſhine patriot will, in this criſis, ſhrink from the ſervice of his country ; but he that ſtands it NOW, deſerves the love and thanks of man and woman.  Tyranny, like hell, is not eaſily conquered ; yet we have this conſolation with us, that the harder the confliƈt, the more glorious the triumph.  What we obtain too cheap, we eſteem too lightly:–––'Tis dearneſs only that gives every thing its value.

I'm not going to go off on an examination of Paine here, except to say that it's a little surprising to think of Fraser as a revolutionary. Here's Paine in Common Sense:

Society in every ſtate is a bleſſing, but Government, even in its beſt ſtate, is but a neceſſary evil ; in its worſt ſtate an intolerable one :  for when we ſuffer, or are expoſed to the ſame miſeries by a Government, which we might expeƈt in a country without Government, our calamity is heightened by refleƈting that we furniſh the means by which we ſuffer.  Government, like dreſs, is the badge of loſt innocence ; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradiſe.  For were the impulſes of conſcience clear, uniform and irreſiſtibly obeyed, man would need no other law-giver ; but that not being the caſe, he finds it neceſſary to ſurrender up a part of his property to furniſh means for the proteƈtion of the reſt ; and this he is induced to do by the ſame prudence which in every other caſe adviſes him, out of two evils to chooſe the leaſt.  Wherefore, ſecurity being the true deſign and end of government, it unanſwerably follows that whatever form thereof appears moſt likely to enſure it to us, with the leaſt expence and greateſt benefit, is preferable to all others.

"Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil"? Benton Fraser? Something something people's basic respect for the law? That Benton Fraser? Constable Benton Fraser, Royal Canadian Mounted Police? The whole point of him is that the "impulses of conscience" are not "clear, uniform[,] and irresistibly obeyed." Does . . . does he think of himself as a necessary evil? (Yes, I put in the serial comma. I will die on this hill.)

In unrelated news, Fraser appears to have bought a new light blue henley and blue plaid flannel shirt, because his favorites from season 1 were, as we've noted, ruined when he was shot.

Scene 12

Fraser and Vecchio are in the car. Fraser is looking at some fingerprints and mug shots.

VECCHIO: Rushton, Herrera, and Goldman. None of them have ties to Taylor. None of them on parole. No outstanding warrants.
FRASER: What about Mr. Klein's furniture?
VECCHIO: He refused to move it. They had the permission of the landlord. I mean, it's cruel, but it's not illegal.
FRASER: So there's nothing the police can do?
VECCHIO: Well, I can bring them in for questioning, give Taylor a warning. But sooner or later, if he wants you out, he's going to throw you out. [He sees something. He wipes fog off the car window. Ange, the woman who came into the garage in scene 3, is coming out of the garage now. Fraser looks to see what Vecchio is looking at. Ange gets into her car. Vecchio looks sad.]
FRASER: So, a friend?
VECCHIO: Yeah. [Fraser nods.] She's also my ex-wife.
FRASER: Oh.
VECCHIO: [starts the car] What?
FRASER: Nothing.
VECCHIO: [pulling into traffic] Why are you in this car with me?
FRASER: Because you said you'd drive me.
VECCHIO: Oh, no, I didn't.
FRASER: Oh, yes, you did.
VECCHIO: Well, I've changed my mind.
FRASER: Ah, well. [opens the door to get out of the moving car]
VECCHIO: What are you do— just shut the door, will you? O— okay, shut the door!

Fraser shuts the door and the car drives on.

Although we didn't know until now that Vecchio was married once, it is inconceivable that Fraser also didn't know this. Right? Right?!

Scene 13

At Fraser's building. Statler is camping in the hallway. People upstairs are shouting. Diefenbaker barks. Mackenzie King falls down the stairs into Fraser's arms.

FRASER: Hi.
MACKENZIE KING: [leading him back upstairs] Come on, you want to get in on the action here? We got a deadline.
MR. MUSTAFI: No! No lockouts here. See? Right here in the pamphlet. No lockouts permitted by law.
SECOND HALLWAY GUY: [locking Mr. Mustafi out of his apartment] This ain't no lockout. You people got rats in these apartments. You gotta wait for the exterminators.
WOMAN: You put these rats in here! I saw you! [The second hallway guy stomps off. Diefenbaker follows him. Dennis the Super catches Fraser stalking through the hall.]
DENNIS: No, no, look. This is all legal. Mr. Taylor says everything happening here is legal.
FRASER: Mr. Taylor lies.
MR. MUSTAFI: They come into our apartments and said we broke the plumbing and, and, and, and wrecked everything. It's not true. Most of the things, they were wrecked when we came in.
MRS. GARCIA: He broke my window and he said I did it.

Other neighbors agree. Fraser goes and breaks the emergency glass with his elbow and gets the fire axe out of its cabinet.

DENNIS: What are you doing?. Hey, don't, don't do that.
MACKENZIE KING: [snapping pictures] All right, all right, now we're talking.

Fraser is going to break the lock on his apartment door. The second hallway guy comes at him with a wooden stool. They fight.

MACKENZIE KING: Aim for his head next time. I could use the blood.

Fraser and the second hallway guy fall through the apartment door into Fraser's kitchen. They are still fighting. The guy is a lot bigger than Fraser. Mackenzie follows them with her camera. A neighbor hurries into the elevator with her kid to get away. Fraser lands a couple of punches on the second hallway guy. The guy throws him over his kitchen table. The woman in the elevator screams. Fraser manages to throw the guy off.

WOMAN IN ELEVATOR: It's going to fall! [Fraser rushes out through the broken door, where Mackenzie King is still taking pictures. The elevator cable falls away from the pulley. The elevator slips a bit.]
MR. KLEIN: The cable's been cut! [Fraser tries to haul open the elevator cage.]
SOMEONE ELSE: They jammed the door!
FRASER: Call the fire department!
WOMAN IN ELEVATOR: Oh, please, open it, open it!
SECOND HALLWAY GUY AND GUY IN THE HALLWAY: [arriving to see what the commotion is] Get out of the way!
WOMAN IN ELEVATOR: Open it!

In the basement, sparks are shooting from breaker boxes. The elevator slips a little further before the brake catches it. The little kid in the elevator screams. Her mother is sobbing. The enforcer guys are horrified. Neighbors are crowding them away from the elevator.

A NEIGHBOR: You did this! You!
FRASER: [to the kid in the elevator] Take my hand. [More parts of the elevator are falling apart.]
WOMAN IN ELEVATOR: Go with him, go with him!

Fraser pulls the little girl out of the elevator. She drops her doll, which falls down the shaft. He hands her off to Mackenzie King and turns back to the door.

MACKENZIE KING: It's okay, it's okay. You're okay. You're going to be fine. [She hands the little girl off to the neighbors and turns back to the elevator. Fraser has fought the elevator door the rest of the way open. Dennis looks relieved.]
MRS. GARCIA: It's okay. Your mom's okay. [Fraser is trying to help the woman out of the elevator, but it's partly between floors and she's scared to try to climb out. He gets in with her. The elevator slips a bit further before the brake catches it again. Everyone screams.]
FRASER: It's all right. It's all right.
MR. KLEIN: Come on. Come on up, give me your hand. Don't worry. [Fraser boosts the woman up to climb out of the elevator where other neighbors are helping her.] Come on. Easy. [The last of the bolts holding the elevator pulley falls away.] Fraser!

Fraser holds on as the elevator drops freely through the shaft. As it passes the second floor he dives out. Dennis looks down into the shaft with alarm as the car falls. It lands on the doll the little girl dropped and is pierced with bolts. Dennis rushes away from the shaft. Mr. Klein is looking down too. The woman they saved is hugging her daughter and crying.

MACKENZIE KING: [rushing to take pictures of the snapped cables] Excuse me, excuse me, folks. Fraser!

Fraser sticks his head into the empty elevator shaft and looks up.

The elevator was already dropping before they got the little kid out of it, so when the mom is not able to come close enough to grab Fraser's hand and be pulled up, I mean, of course he has to get in so he can reach her to help get her out, but what you've done here is subtract the weight of a small child and add the weight of a grown adult, which can't possibly be helpful.

I expect the doll is supposed to make this scene extra poignant and alarming, because there's often a kid-goes-back-for-a-toy thing that is at minimum an additional heartstring puller and at maximum the moment everything actually goes irremediably wrong (I am thinking specifically of Edmund Pevensie wanting a picture of his dad as they're rushing into the bomb shelter in the 2005 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe—another title that ought to have had one more comma in it, damn you, Lewis—and, though I can't imagine how I am remembering this, the Christian Bale character losing a model airplane and getting separated from his family in the evacuation of Shanghai in Empire of the Sun (1987)). Or maybe it's supposed to highlight the danger. I don't know, I feel like it's plenty dangerous, and there's no actual chance the little girl is going to dive after her doll, so. Maybe it's just one more symbol of what's happening to Fraser's neighbors; if she's living in that building, that kid likely doesn't have a lot of toys, so losing that doll will hit her harder than losing a favorite doll would hit many other kids.

In any event, I don't actually give a shit about the doll, because the actual incipient-disaster stuff is convincingly upsetting to me. I'm sure it's because I am myself the mother of a young child; I've acknowledged before and I will always admit that I am not able to be totally rational about scenes of little kids in peril. Not that you have to have kids to feel this way—I've always had this weak spot, even before my son was born (I am now thinking of [The Incredibles0(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Incredibles) (2004), [a] where Elastigirl is on the airplane radio begging Syndrome to call off his missile attack, "there are children on board, say again, there are children on board this plane" and [b] where she tells Dash to run for help as fast as he can, and he's delighted because he's never been allowed to do that before, and I have goosebumps because the whole point is that she doesn't want him to understand how much danger they're in)—but something in my brain chemistry seems to have changed with the new-baby hormones and not changed back, and I am genuinely rattled by this elevator scene, even though the thing is only falling from the third floor to the basement, so what is that, 50 feet? The (uncredited, as far as I can tell) woman playing the sobbing mother nails it as far as I'm concerned. The fact that they bothered to have someone tell the kid her mom's okay is a nice touch.

Trivially, in this scene Fraser is wearing a red-based plaid flannel jacket that flatters him much less than the blue shirt did.

Scene 14

The hallway guys are under arrest. Dennis the Super, Fraser, Mackenzie King and her camera, and Vecchio are watching them getting loaded into patrol cars.

VECCHIO: I spoke with Taylor. He claims he never heard of Rushton or the other two. Said the super must have put them up to it.
FRASER: No. Dennis is stupid, he's not that stupid.
MACKENZIE KING: Well, Taylor isn't, either. We're not going to have any convenient check stubs to tie him to this.

Mr. Mustafi comes out of the building with a suitcase. Fraser tries to stop him; Dennis the Super is nearby with a broom also.

FRASER: Mr. Mustafi. Look, it's all right. They're not going to be back.
MR. MUSTAFI: [loading his things into a taxi] Tonight, maybe. What about tomorrow? Am I supposed to sit in my apartment and wait for somebody to try to kill me?
FRASER: If you leave now, you will lose your home. The best thing we can do is stand here and fight.
MR. MUSTAFI: You fight. I'm not like you. [He gets in the cab. Fraser is looking defeated. Other neighbors seem to be leaving also.]
STATLER: Some things you can fix. Some things, maybe you shouldn't try.

♫ What do we leave? Nothing much, only Anatevka . . . ♫

There's an ambulance in this scene also, though Fraser was probably the most seriously injured and he's not being seen to in it. Maybe the woman and her daughter are getting checked out, evaluated for shock, whatever. In the fashion report, Fraser has replaced his red plaid jacket with a dark cadet henley sweater that I like a lot.

Scene 15

Fraser is in a dark-paneled den. Someone is removing a silver tea service.

FRASER: I appreciate your seeing me, Mr. Potter.
POTTER: [playing with a Gameboy] You want something.
FRASER: Ah, yes, sir, I do. Um, my neighbors, your former tenants — they're being evicted from their homes. It would appear that Mr. Taylor has been less than honest about his intentions.
POTTER: How disappointing.
FRASER: Well, yes, it is. He intends to demolish the building. The entire block, in fact.
POTTER: And this gives you pause, huh? You're beginning to wonder if you did the right thing.
FRASER: No, sir.
POTTER: Nonsense. You saw glory. Little people rising up, throwing off the yoke of tyranny. The people don't like to succeed, Fraser. It's a lot of responsibility. [He rolls out in his wheelchair from behind his desk over to a rolltop with a lot of medication on it; he starts getting pills out of bottles.] Think of it. You tell a man he's going to die, he can accept that. You've given him a certainty. And you ask that same man to take a gamble, to risk everything he has — even if the prize was the Fountain of Youth itself, he'd sooner roll over in the ditch than take that chance.
FRASER: Not every man.
POTTER: No, no, no. Some are, are just plain dense, like you.
FRASER: Sir, I would like you to buy the building back from Mr. Taylor.
POTTER: You would?
FRASER: Yes, I would, sir.
POTTER: [still counting out pills] Waste money on lawyers' fees? Don't be stupid. I made a handsome profit on that sale. As for the building, it's a dump not worth the land it's standing on. Aah! If I hadn't found me a buyer, I'd have razed it myself just to save the taxes. Heh-heh. You can leave now. [Fraser nods and turns to go.] Eh. Throw another log on before you go. It's cold in here.
FRASER: [looks around the room] Yes, I would imagine it is.
POTTER: Get out!

Fraser goes. Potter starts taking his medicine.

Well, asking the guy to buy the building back is indeed stupid. But I'm a little puzzled by the effort this scene makes to make Potter even a little bit sympathetic. "Tell a man he's going to die, he can accept that" is, in the circumstances with all these pill bottles, evidently him talking about himself. He doesn't want the burden anymore of owning that building. But he's also an asshole, caring more about his profits and taxes than about the people who live there. Why have both? Fraser's comment that it must indeed be cold in that room would have landed a lot harder, I think, if Potter himself hadn't realized the metaphor and yelled at him for it. This scene gets a C-plus.

Scene 16

Fraser and Vecchio are scaling a brick building.

FRASER: Ray, do you think I expect too much from people?
VECCHIO: Well, take our climbing up the side of this building, for example.
FRASER: Okay.
VECCHIO: Is the building on fire?
FRASER: Uh, no.
VECCHIO: Is there a helpless person trapped up on the roof?
FRASER: No.
VECCHIO: Is there a hostage to rescue?
FRASER: Uh, not that I'm aware of, no.
VECCHIO: Then we're climbing this building because . . .?
FRASER: Oh, I see. Because I expect too much from people.
VECCHIO: Exactly.
FRASER: Well, that and the fact that the doors to the Council chambers were closed until after question period. This seemed the only way that we could gain access.
VECCHIO: [His foot slips, and he's hanging by his hands.] Fraser! Fraser!
FRASER: Oh, sorry. Here. [He helps Vecchio re-establish his footing.] You all right?
VECCHIO: Yeah, no problem.

They keep climbing.

This is not, of course, actually a reasonable way to gain access to a room you're barred from, Fraser. In fact the whole idea of gaining access to a room you're barred from seems kind of un-Fraserish, doesn't it? But never mind: The important thing is, yes, Fraser does expect too much from people, but when "people" are Ray Vecchio and they always come through for him, why would he expect any less? ("We furnish the means by which we suffer," indeed, eh, Vecchio?)

Scene 17

Fraser and Vecchio step out into the gallery of the City Council chamber. While the alderman in charge is speaking, they go down the gallery to join Mackenzie King, who is already seated.

ALDERMAN: That concludes the scheduled agenda for this meeting. We'll now proceed to open the floor for question period. Will anyone who wishes to address the Council please form a line to the left of the podium and wait to be recognized by the chair.
VECCHIO: How did you get in?
MACKENZIE KING: I opened the back door.
CLERK: First speaker. Please state your name.
FRASER: Ah.
FIRST SPEAKER: My name is Albert Sumner.
CLERK: Please proceed.
MACKENZIE KING: Listen, I spoke to the chairwoman. She said no go. It turns out Taylor has legal building permits, legal demolition permits, and I suspect he's greased some pretty significant palms. Sorry.
FIRST SPEAKER (SUMNER): Mr. Mayor, ladies, gentlemen. The entire city of Chicago is in peril. We are under attack by an enemy so insidious that if we don't act immediately, we risk everything. All the work that we do as a community, all the time we put in to make it safe for people to live in . . .
FRASER: Excuse me. [He gets up and walks away.]
VECCHIO: Oh, no. [He gets up and takes off his coat before going to follow Fraser.]
SUMNER: . . . now in grave danger. [Fraser is lining up to the left of the podium to wait his turn to speak.] It's a threat, I tell you. A threat to every man, woman, and child living in the greater Chicago area. Certainly there are those who will scoff, those who will, uh, jeer. But they are urban dwellers. They have yet to experience the scourge of the suburbs. The green death. The blight we call crabgrass.
VECCHIO: Time's up, buddy.
SUMNER: Ah, excuse me, according to parliamentary law, I have the floor.
VECCHIO: You have the floor?
SUMNER: Yes, I have the floor.
FRASER: He's right, Ray, he does have the floor.
VECCHIO: [knocks the guy down] Now he has the floor.
FRASER: You kicked him.
VECCHIO: No, I didn't.
FRASER: The man is unconscious.
VECCHIO: He's resting.
ALDERMAN: [banging a gavel] The chair recognizes . . .?
VECCHIO: Ah, Benton Fraser, Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
FRASER: Um, no, I'm not. I mean, not now. At least, not, not, not, not officially. I mean, ordinarily, yes, I am, I am a, a mounted policeman, but I'm not here in any official capacity.
ALDERMAN: May I ask why you are here?
FRASER: Uh, yes, Mr. Ch— Madam Chairm— sir. Um. [He clears his throat. In the gallery, Mackenzie King is not optimistic.] Earlier this evening, a man told me that people would prefer their own death rather than risk everything for an ideal, and this is something I find extremely difficult to reconcile.
ALDERMAN: And you came here because . . .?
FRASER: I didn't know where else to go. You are the people's elected representatives, and if we can't trust your judgment, who can we trust?
ALDERMAN: What exactly is your quandary, sir?
FRASER: My neighbors are being evicted from their homes. A, a certain businessman, Mr. John Taylor —
ALDERMAN: Mr. Taylor's development plans are a matter of record, Constable, and if you need further explanation, I suggest that you speak to the, ah, City Clerk's office.
FRASER: I'm well aware of Mr. Taylor's plans, sir. No, my question actually is for you. Why did you approve them?

Taylor is in the audience, and he doesn't like the question. Neither does the alderman, whose name according to the sign in front of her seat is D. Farrell.

ALDERMAN (FARRELL): Do you represent anyone besides yourself, Constable?
FRASER: Sir?
FARRELL: Ah, these other tenants, your neighbors, uh, where are they tonight?
FRASER: Well, they are not here tonight. They were unable to attend.
FARRELL: So, you're only here to speak for yourself, and these fifty tenants, for all we know, they may not even exist. [Fraser looks over at Taylor, who smirks at him.]
FRASER: No, I assure you, sir, that, that really is not the situation.
CLERK: [rings a bell] Time.
FRASER: Excuse me?
CLERK: Time. Time's up. Step down.
FRASER: I'm sorry, I, I don't understand.
FARRELL: Each speaker has one minute, Constable, and I'm afraid if you wish to say any more, you'll have to come back tomorrow night. May we have the next speaker, please?
SUMNER: Point of order, Madam Chairman —
FARRELL: Ah, we'll get to you, sir.
FRASER: But my question —
FARRELL: I'm afraid those are the rules.
CLERK: Step down, please.
FRASER: But, but I, I — no.
CLERK: Step down, please.
FRASER: No, I'm afraid I can't do that.
SUMNER: This is my minute! You are using my minute!
VECCHIO: No, no, no, you see, your minute was incredibly boring, so it was cancelled.
FARRELL: Constable, I'm going to have to insist that you leave the podium.
FRASER: No.
FARRELL: Excuse me?
FRASER: With all due respect, sir, I refuse to yield the floor.
SUMNER: Point of personal privilege, Madam — [Vecchio pulls him away and knocks him down.]
VECCHIO: That man is exhausted.
CLERK: Oh, God, a filibuster? He's going to filibuster.
FARRELL: What?
ANOTHER ALDERMAN: He's going to talk us to death. We'll be here all night.
A THIRD ALDERMAN: I don't have time for that. I'm a City Councilman, for God's sakes. Got a golf game in the morning.
VECCHIO: You know, you're wasting your time.
FRASER: Possibly.
VECCHIO: The best you're going to get is a bad case of laryngitis.
FRASER: Probably.
VECCHIO: Lozenges?
FRASER: Cherry flavored?
VECCHIO: On my way.
FRASER: Thank you kindly.

Fraser takes his place at the podium and squares his shoulders. Vecchio heads out and is stopped at the door by Mackenzie King.

MACKENZIE KING: I could have packed the place if he waited for the morning edition.
VECCHIO: What about a TV crew?
MACKENZIE KING: And lose the exclusive? No.
VECCHIO: All right, see you later.

He leaves. Fraser begins to speak.

FRASER: "These are the times that try men's souls," wrote Thomas Paine in The American Crisis. My grandmother gave me that book for my birthday when I was six. I had asked for building toys —
MACKENZIE KING: [to herself] "Do unto thy neighbor." You would have thought at least some of them would have shown.
FRASER: — but my grandmother failed to see how rooting about in the dirt with a toy bulldozer was going to broaden my horizons. I was resentful, naturally, so the next day I took the present and I attempted to feed it to a passing walrus, successfully, I might add . . .
A THIRD ALDERMAN: Oh, God.
ANOTHER ALDERMAN: At least he didn't start with Geronimo.

"The man is unconscious" / "He's resting" is a nice Monty Python "Parrot Sketch" reference. Thanks for that. Also, here's another instance of Fraser using gender-neutral "sir." (And he should have asked "whom can we trust?", but never mind.)

So obviously we're forgetting It's A Wonderful Life and moving on to the Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) portion of the episode. ("Mr. Fraser Goes Downtown" doesn't have quite the same gravitas, does it?) In that film, Jimmy Stewart plays Jefferson Smith, a Boy Scout Rangers leader who is appointed to the U.S. Senate on the assumption that he will be naive and easy to manipulate. When he's framed for corruption (interestingly, for a scheme involving a dam project), he does a filibuster to expose the dam scheme (but protest his own innocence) and talk about American idealism. He does not succeed in convincing the Senate, but eventually his mentor, who had betrayed him, has an attack of conscience and comes clean, and the good guys win.

I'm going to think for a moment about how much it cost Fraser to say no when he was asked to leave the podium. Also about the line "a passing walrus." Here's what Wikipedia says about the distribution of walrus around the southern coasts of the Arctic Ocean:

That's approximately this, right?

There are no walrus habitats within a thousand miles of Inuvik, innit. And even if there were, would a walrus come far enough inland to be "passing" where six-year-old Benton Fraser could have fed it a copy of The American Crisis? In short: Hmm. Finally, can a witness do a filibuster?

Never mind: Let's just show some love for Vecchio going to get Fraser some cherry throat lozenges. ❤️

Scene 18

Vecchio leaves City Hall and goes to recruit spectators.

VECCHIO: Anybody want to make an easy fifty? [Some people chatting nearby look up.] All right, how about a hundred? A hundred apiece. All you gotta do is to listen to some Canadian quote an American revolutionary.
MAN: Which revolutionary?
VECCHIO: Like it makes a difference? Hundred dollars. Upstairs.

Vecchio makes $35,580 a year. How can he be throwing hundies at enough passers-by to fill the gallery? (Also, what about Fraser's lozenges?)

Scene 19

In the city council chambers, Fraser is still talking. The City Council members and others assembled are not particularly happy or, it must be said, paying much attention.

FRASER: For my seventh birthday, I, I requested a go-kart, but I — I received a book. My eighth birthday, I wanted a Johnny Seven, but again I, I received another book.
HECKLERS Take a rest! Shut up already! Do we have to listen to this? Enough already!
FRASER: On my ninth birthday, I wanted a guppy, but again I received another book. And finally, by my eleventh birthday, I realized that my toy box contained virtually no toys at all. Rather, it was lined with some of the most seditious reading material available through mail order . . .

Three things: (1) The Johnny Seven One-Man Army was apparently an extraordinary toy gun that was wildly popular in the mid-1960s, and times were different then, but I wouldn't buy that for an eight-year-old either, even if I could afford it, which who knows if Fraser's grandparents could? (2) Note that what Fraser asked for on his eighth birthday was less elaborate than what he asked for on his seventh, and what he asked for on his ninth birthday smaller yet. Imagine this little boy telling himself, year after year, it was too much, what I asked for last year, so I'll scale it down a bit, and still never (ever) getting what he really wanted for his birthday. 😭 (3) What disappointment did he receive when he turned 10?

It's interesting that the grandparents supplied him with seditious reading material, though. I mean: Fair enough, librarians are generally as a group down with kids reading anything they want, right?, even if those kids are their grandson. But the kid's dad is a police officer, so giving him things to read that will encourage him to rebel seems a little . . . were Fraser's grandparents disappointed that their son was a cop? (I almost said "or son-in-law," but after "Letting Go" it's safe to conclude that the librarian grandparents were Bob's folks rather than Ben's maternal grandparents, about whom we now know exactly nothing.)

Scene 20

Outside, Vecchio is still making it rain.

VECCHIO: All right, anybody else? Come on, I got free money here. A hundred bucks to listen to some Canadian quote an American revolutionary. Thank you very much. Upstairs. Council Chambers.

Mackenzie King, who is being overwhelmed by the incoming crowd, wants this to be a big story.

MACKENZIE KING: [on the phone] No, I haven't been drinking! Look, you got ten minutes to get a camera crew down here or I call WPOV and give them one hell of a scoop. . . . You know me, Jack, I wouldn't do that. My word is my bond. . . . Fine. [She hangs up.] Jesus. [She calls someone else.] Hi — hi, Maury, Maury, Maury. Hi. Mackenzie King here. Listen, you got ten minutes to get a camera crew down to City Hall or I call Jack over at WZMR and give him one hell of a scoop. . . . No, I haven't been drinking!

Vecchio is improvising.

GUY: You always give money to strangers?
VECCHIO: This is better than money. This is a nineteen-seventy-two Buick Riviera. Or what's left of it.
GUY: You should have kept the money.

Okay, so the cash Vecchio is handing out is the money he was going to use to buy the car. That makes a shade more sense of the visit to the garage being in the episode at all, and it absolutely tracks with Vecchio and Fraser's friendship: Vecchio would give up his chance to replace the Riv to save Fraser's home, sure he would. (I will forgive him for reusing the line "to listen to some Canadian quote an American revolutionary" because the people he's saying it to didn't hear him say it a scene and a half ago.)

Scene 21

Inside, Fraser is still talking. Vecchio's randos are filing in and sitting down.

FRASER: That summer — [He coughs.] — That summer, my grandmother took me swimming. The water had risen to just above freezing, and I clung to her as we waded deeper into the river. I'd never before noticed the burn marks she had on her upper arms and on her shoulders, and when I asked her how she'd come by them, she said simply that she had been burned. Later, my father told me the full story. My grandmother was nineteen, and she was teaching in a small Inuit village when a fire swept through, and it surrounded them. [Dennis the Super comes into the gallery.] Their only means of escape was through a river that had been torn by rapids. Most of the, ah, adults died because they were too afraid to brave the water. [The City Council and others start quieting down and listening.] But my grandmother was supported by an idea, and with this idea, she led the children deeper into the river. They clung to her as she held onto the roots of a tree, as it burned above them. The heat was so intense that — [He coughs again. More people are filing in and shushing each other.] — it melted most of her hair and left second-degree burns on her upper body. If she had let go, they all would have been swept away. But she didn't let go, and they survived. My grandmother maintained that it was not the river that saved them. Rather, it was an idea. "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly. It is dearness only that gives everything its value." Thomas Paine — [Taylor gives Farrell a signal to cut Fraser off. She ignores him. Fraser coughs and clears his throat.]
HECKLERS: Hey, we're listening! We like what you're saying, keep it up! Keep going, man! You can do it, go on! We're with you, Big Red!

Farrell pours a glass of water and passes it along the dais.

FRASER: Subsequently, I made a concerted effort to work my way through my grandmother's library, although I have to confess that —
HECKLERS: Right on! Come on, Big Red! Hey, hang in there! Keep it coming, Big Red! Good boy! You're doing good, big guy! Let's go, Big Red!

The glass of water finally reaches Fraser at the podium. He nods his thanks to Farrell and takes a sip.

FARRELL: You've got our attention, Constable. Proceed.
HECKLER: What a guy!
FARRELL: Well, come on. It's either you or old Crabgrass.

Fraser smiles slightly. The crowd, now filling the gallery, applauds and cheers. Some of them give him a standing ovation. Mackenzie King whoops. Taylor is at the side of the room with Vecchio as Fraser continues to orate.

TAYLOR: You're not fooling anyone. Not one of these people live in my building.
VECCHIO: Well, how would you know? Did you take the time to shake their hands or learn their names?
TAYLOR: I have their names. There are files.
VECCHIO: Well, congratulations. I have camera crews, and in these halls, perception is nine-tenths of the law.
TAYLOR: I'll win this in court, and you know it. [Dennis the Super joins them.] Oh, good, you're here. Give the chairman the list of the tenants' names.
DENNIS: I couldn't find it.
TAYLOR: What?
DENNIS: I looked through my files. All I could find was this. [He hands a paper to Vecchio.]
VECCHIO: It's a lease.
DENNIS: Potter gave it to me when he made me super. Ten years. No increase. It's got four years left to run.
VECCHIO: Well, at least you'll have a roof over your head, Dennis.
DENNIS: You know, Detective Vecchio, you could be just a little nicer. If I still got a roof over my head, then so does he, and so does everyone who lives there.
FRASER: . . . And I, I believe it was Geronimo who said, "It is my land, my home, my father's land, to which I now ask to be allowed to return." . . .
DENNIS: No one can tear down that building unless I say so, huh?
VECCHIO: You're a good man, Dennis. [He strides into the well waving Dennis's lease as everyone applauds something Fraser has just said. Fraser is still talking.] Madam Chairperson, point of order. New evidence has come to light in this case regarding the tenants.
TAYLOR: Dennis, you realize you're fired.
DENNIS: Hmm. Stuff it in your ear, Goldilocks.
FARRELL: [bangs her gavel] The City Council hereby suspends Mr. Taylor's development plans until further notice. The eviction orders are revoked.
FRASER: [as the crowd is cheering] . . . "Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,/ With loss of Eden, till one greater Man /Restore us, and regain —"
MACKENZIE KING: Hey. You can stop now.
FRASER: Oh. Thank you.
MACKENZIE KING: I can't believe I let you do this to me again.
FRASER: I was, um, kind of surprised myself.
MACKENZIE KING: Never again, understand?
FRASER: Understood.
MACKENZIE KING: Good. Okay.
FRASER: Okay.
MACKENZIE KING: Okay. Goodbye.
FRASER: Oh. Yes. Goodbye.
MACKENZIE KING: Tha— thanks.
FRASER: Thank you kindly.
MACKENZIE KING: You owe me.
FRASER: How much?
MACKENZIE KING: How much?
FRASER: How much do I owe you?
MACKENZIE KING: Oh, goodbye, goodbye, goodbye . . .
FRASER: The woman is completely irrational.

What I can hear of what Fraser says before he gets to Geronimo is choppy. He begins:

FRASER: As I was saying, as I worked through my grandmother's library, I grew to love the volumes she'd selected for the same reasons she did. I recognized that they had been chosen —

and then he's indecipherable again for a couple of seconds that include the words "their generation" before he says:

FRASER: One of the greatest of those was of course Charles Dickens, who in his great novel Barnaby Rudge wrote, "To be shelterless and alone in the open country, hearing the wind moan and watching for day through the whole long weary night; to listen to the falling rain, and crouch for warmth beneath the lee of some old barn or rick, or in the hollow of a tree; are dismal things—but not so dismal as the wandering up and down where shelter is, and beds and sleepers are by thousands; a houseless rejected creature."

And he goes straight into Geronimo from there.

I have not read Barnaby Rudge, and my guess is you haven't either. It is not one of Dickens's widely read works, but a librarian's grandson who had books instead of playthings could probably quote from it without notes, sure, why not.

That Geronimo quote is indeed attributed to Geronimo himself in S.M. Barrett, Geronimo's Story of His Life (New York: Duffield & Co., 1906), 215.

Then after that, while Vecchio is presenting Dennis's lease to the chair and Alderman Farrell is suspending Taylor's demolition permits, Fraser continues:

FRASER: The great French philosopher, scientist, and nuclear theorist Gaston Bachelard spoke eloquently about the need for a secure haven in his work The Poetics of Space. He wrote, "This being the case, if I were asked to name the chief benefit of the house, I should say: the house shelters day-dreaming, the house protects the dreamer, the house allows one to dream in peace."

Look, at least all of Fraser's filibustering is relevant to the topic he wants to discuss and for which he is refusing to yield. Not like Senator Howard Stackhouse (D-MN), whose filibuster on a bill about health care for families included a full reading of David Copperfield, a recipe book, and Hoyle's Rules of Games. (That's a West Wing reference, for those who didn't see it—season 2, episode 17 "The Stackhouse Filibuster"—and in Sen. Stackhouse's defense, he went on for more than eight hours, which, if Fraser had spoken for that long, he might have had to wander off the point eventually as well.) Here's what Wikipedia has about Gaston Bachelard and about his La poétique de l'espace. Someone in the writer's room did a lot of research into Bartlet's Quotations for things about houses and homes, didn't they?

Anyway, the next time we check in with Fraser, after Farrell is done gaveling, he's quoting from Milton:

FRASER: Of Man's first Disobedience, and the Fruit
Of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal Taste
Brought Death into the World, and all our Woe,
With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat,
Sing, Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret Top
Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,
In the Beginning, how the Heav'ns and Earth
Rose out of Chaos: Or if Sion Hill
Delight thee more, and Siloa's Brook that flow'd
Fast by the Oracle of God; I thence
Invoke thy aid to my advent'rous Song,
That with no middle Flight intends to soar
Above th'Aonian Mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in Prose or Rhyme.

This first sentence of Paradise Lost (which I can't read for the rest of my life without thinking of Words, Words, Words by David Ives: "Of Man's first disobedience, and the Fruit of that forbidden Tree, whose mortal Taste brought Death into the blammagam. Bedsocks knockwurst tinkerbelle.") begs the Holy Spirit to inspire the poet by singing of the Fall and of the state of depravity that will persist until humankind is redeemed by the death and resurrection of Christ. Comparing Fraser and his neighbors' eviction, even as unjust as it is, to the expulsion from Eden, which can only be healed by salvation, is . . . a lot.

Also a lot is the way Fraser and Mackenzie King are looking at each other (and the tones in their voices while they are speaking quietly and meaningfully to each other in front of a live microphone, hello), which he doesn't seem to realize he's doing at all. So we're back to Fraser not having the first idea about the effect he often has on women (the paragraph beginning "In the same time" is basically a litany of women Fraser could have pulled if he'd wanted to).

In the midst of all that, Vecchio's "perception is nine-tenths of the law" is a riff on the old adage "possession is nine-tenths of the law", which is frankly also apt in the present episode, is it not?

Scene 22

Fraser's apartment is a wreck. He is sweeping broken crockery into a dustpan. Diefenbaker, lying on the un-ruined braided rug, whines.

FRASER: Well, yes, I'm sorry, but we can always get you another one. [Diefenbaker whines again.] Yes, I realize it was your favorite. But some things are worth the sacrifice. [Someone knocks on the door. Diefenbaker grumbles.] Ingrate. [Fraser answers the door, which is in splinters. Mr. Mustafi is there.]
MR. MUSTAFI: We, uh, heard your place was a mess. [He comes inside, beckons others to follow him, and gives Fraser a raised eyebrow and a smile.] You really should set a better example, you know.
FRASER: [smiles] Understood.
MR. MUSTAFI: [leads a posse of neighbors in to help clean up the ruin of Fraser's place] Come on. Painting, dusting. You want garbage bags?

I don't know what favorite item of Diefenbaker's was sacrificed for the cause, but Mr. Mustafi bringing the neighbors in to clean up is charming. Fraser is touched, maybe even a little choked up.

Scene 23

Vecchio is sitting at Al's garage in the Riviera he was hocking Al about at the beginning of the episode. He turns on the radio. Music cue: "Lock, Stock, and Teardrops" by Andi Duncan. Vecchio tilts the rearview mirror.

RADIO: ♫ The way you hurt me, it's a wonder I'm still here at all. Someday you'll wake up and you'll find yourself alone. ♫

Flashback: It is several years ago; a younger Vecchio is in the first Riviera with Ange.

VECCHIO: So what do you think?
ANGE: This is what you spent our savings on?
VECCHIO: Yeah.
ANGE: Five thousand dollars?
VECCHIO: Yeah.
ANGE: Uh-huh.
RADIO: ♫ Lock, stock, and teardrops, I'll be gone. I can't go on, the way you make me feel ♫
VECCHIO: Well, I bought it for you.
ANGE: Ray, it's a nineteen-seventy-two Buick Riviera. It's the car of your dreams. You bought it for me?
VECCHIO: Yeah. I mean, can't we both have the same dreams?
ANGE: Okay, so when do I get to drive it?
RADIO: ♫ You make me cry and every time expect me to forgive ♫
VECCHIO: When do you get to drive it?
ANGE: Yeah.
VECCHIO: Uh . . .
ANGE: When?
VECCHIO: All right, all right. Now.
ANGE: Okay. [She goes to change places with him.]
VECCHIO: Well, not now-now.
ANGE: Oh. Not now-now. Maybe-later now? Maybe-like-never now? Like maybe-not-in-your-lifetime now?
RADIO:♫ Someday you'll wake up to a cold and lonely dawn. ♫
VECCHIO: Come on, let's not go there. Come on, give me a kiss.
ANGE: Why?
VECCHIO: 'Cause you love the car.
ANGE: I don't.
VECCHIO: You will.
ANGE: In your dreams.

She gives him the kiss as the flashback ends.

RADIO: ♫ Lock, stock, and teardrops, I'll be gone. ♫

Vecchio is sitting in the car by himself in the present day, listening to the song. Al comes up to the passenger window.

AL: Ray.
VECCHIO: Yes, Al?
AL: Well?
RADIO: ♫ Lock, stock, and teardrops, I'll be gone. ♫
VECCHIO: I'll give you a thousand bucks.
AL: Ray!
VECCHIO: [gets out of the car] Ah, come on, Al, it's all I got left. Come on.
RADIO: ♫ Lock, stock, and teardrops, I'll be gone. ♫
AL: Deal.
VECCHIO: And get it washed.
RADIO: ♫ Lock, stock, and teardrops, I'll be gone. ♫

Vecchio leaves the garage.

It turns out Vecchio can get the car even though he disbursed all that cash to get an audience for Fraser's civil action at City Hall, so I'm back to not being sure what the point of the car and the ex-wife is in the first place. If he had loved the car the way he did because it was a relic of his marriage, that would be one thing—but it was his dream car before he bought the first one, so I continue to be stumped.

It must be winter in the flashback, because Vecchio is wearing a hat (to hide Marciano's hair loss, of course, but never mind). For what it's worth, it looks like Ange is in uniform as a patrol officer.

The whole episode is one big Capra homage, as we've said. But isn't the title actually a reference to the Biblical story of Sodom and Gomorrah, in which (Genesis 19) God is going to destroy those cities because they are full of wickedness but Abraham begs him to spare them if a quorum of righteous people can be found; Abraham fails to find a full ten righteous citizens of Sodom but can only find one good man, so the angels save Lot and his family—only Lot's wife looks back at the ruination of the Plain and is turned into a pillar of salt. This is an odd connection; there's no sense in this episode that Taylor or the City Council will choose not to tear down Fraser's building if enough righteous people can be found among the residents (who are not presented as being generally "wicked" in the first place, except by Taylor, who is himself a bad person, and in any event even the "wicked" deserve housing, so this is not a productive line of analysis). And in the Bible story, just one good man isn't enough to save the cities, but in this episode, it just takes one good man to get the demolition permits suspended and the building spared—and that one good man is not Fraser but Dennis the Super. So the whole thing is, as most of the episodes whose titles are references, a little inexact.

Cumulative body count: 20
Red uniform: Doing the inspection, meeting Mr. Potter, going to City Council

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