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return to due South: season 4 episode 4 (or season 3 episode 17) "Mojo Rising"
Mojo Rising
air date October 28, 1998
Scene 1
Fraser and Kowalski are in the car. For some reason, Fraser is driving. Another car on the road honks its horn and pulls around to pass.
OTHER DRIVER: This ain't the sidewalk!
KOWALSKI: Fraser, what are you doing?
FRASER: Well, I'm driving.
OTHER DRIVER: Pick up the pace! Moron! [Fraser gives him a wave.] Come on!
KOWALSKI: This is not driving, this is walking in a vehicle.
OTHER DRIVER: Speed up! You're blocking traffic! [He zooms off.]
FRASER: I'm going the posted limit.
KOWALSKI: That is my point. Nobody goes the posted limit. You keep this up, we'll get smacked from behind, and I'll have to explain to my father why the car got wrecked while the Mountie was driving it after he dragged it here from Arizona like a dozen eggs.
FRASER: You must say hello to your father for me, by the way.
KOWALSKI: Look, you can do that yourself. He's staying out at this trailer park out in Skokie. Although he doesn't know if he can hack the winter.
FRASER: And how's your mother?
KOWALSKI: She can hack the winter. She comes in every day to iron my shirts.
FRASER: Oh, what a thoughtful gesture.
KOWALSKI: You kidding? Crispy shirts? Look like I work in a bank?
FRASER: That's a bad thing, I take it?
KOWALSKI: Yeah. I mean, it clashes with my, um —
FRASER: Persona? Aura? Style?
KOWALSKI: Exactly. And style counts, Fraser. Like what you're doing right now? This is anti-style.
FRASER: You just asked me to be careful.
KOWALSKI: Careful, not stationary. Stop the car, let me show you how to do it.
FRASER: I've ridden with you many times, Ray.
KOWALSKI: Ridden, yes. Studied, no. Learned? No. Stop the car.
FRASER: As you wish.
Rather than pulling over, Fraser simply stops in the travel lane. He and Kowalski begin changing places without either of them getting out. There is a chorus of frustrated horn-honks from behind them.
KOWALSKI: Okay. Good driving is like a vocation. Part brains, part magic, part guts, part ESP. [The changeover is now complete.] Watch the shoulder.
FRASER: What's that?
KOWALSKI: Clothing adjustment.
FRASER: I see.
KOWALSKI: You gotta be able to sense things. Like the lights. Okay. I'm sensing three —
SOMEONE BEHIND THEM: Move it! [But the light is still red.]
KOWALSKI: — two — one — [The light turns green.] — go. [He floors it and peels away with a screech of tires.]
FRASER: Ray, you have just violated at least a half a dozen traffic laws. [Kowalski gives him what is no doubt a "So what?" look through his sunglasses and turns his eyes back to the road. They pass an alley in which two guys have a third guy at gunpoint.] Ray, stop.
KOWALSKI: What? I just got going.
FRASER: Criminals. [He opens the passenger side door.]
KOWALSKI: Criminals?
Fraser dives out of the moving car, because of course he does. He rolls to a stop; as he's jumping up and running back toward the alley, Kowalski is throwing the car into reverse and screeching back to join him.
SOMEONE SHOUTING: INS officer! Stop!
Kowalski turns into the alley. The guy without the gun, a Black man, is running toward Fraser, who catches him; the two guys with guns, one older white dude and one younger Black dude, are hot on his heels.
SOMEONE SHOUTING (INS OFFICER, APPARENTLY): INS!
GUY THEY'RE CHASING: Stop them. They're trying to kill me!
FRASER: Gentlemen, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to stop.
Kowalski jumps out of the car and comes running with his gun drawn.
KOWALSKI: Chicago PD! You stop right there!
INS OFFICER, APPARENTLY: Show me your badge.
KOWALSKI: You show me yours.
INS OFFICER, APPARENTLY: You first.
KOWALSKI: You!
The guy they were chasing runs off. The two INS guys take out their badges.
INS OFFICER, APPARENTLY (INS OFFICER, IN FACT): Immigration and Naturalization. Stop that man!
The guy they were chasing hops in Kowalski's car, which he left running, and drives off.
KOWALSKI: Hey! My car!
Yeah I don't know about the wisdom of not even yanking the keys out of the ignition when you jump out of the car at what you think is a crime scene. How much extra time would that have taken?
Credits roll.
Paul Gross
Callum Keith Rennie
Beau Starr
Camilla Scott
Tony Craig | Tom Melissis
Ramona Milano
and Gordon Pinsent as Fraser Sr.
(plus Draco the dog)
Salome Bey, Von Coulter, Maurice Dean Wint, and Maury Chaykin as Jasper Gutman
Scene 2
Fraser and Kowalski and their INS buddies are at the 27th precinct.
KOWALSKI: They're shooting up the streets. How are we supposed to know it's not gang-related?
INS OFFICER, IN FACT: Gangs? [He points to his colleague.] Aaron look ganged-up to you? You got gangs of fat-assed forty-year-old white guys running around that we don't know about? [Aaron is not thrilled with this description.]
KOWALSKI: Okay, Mob. Something. How the hell are we supposed to know?
INS OFFICER, IN FACT: Maybe because I'm shoving a badge in your face. Maybe because I'm running full-out chasing a felon and yelling "INS" at the top of my lungs. Maybe because I could have capped you.
KOWALSKI: I could have capped you, pal.
WELSH: Gentlemen, gentlemen, please. This is not a schoolyard.
FRASER: Sir, if I may. We seem to be missing a couple of salient points here.
KOWALSKI: Yeah. One — a car got stolen. B — my car.
INS OFFICER, IN FACT: Yeah. That's going to cost me a lot of sleep, considering the guy you helped get away is the guy who tried to kill me.
FRASER: Well, since the man who stole Ray's car and the man who tried to kill you are one and the same, I would suggest we share a common goal, and in a spirit of judicial cooperation, perhaps we should consider pooling our resources and our information.
INS OFFICER, IN FACT: What's wrong with him?
WELSH: He's Canadian.
INS OFFICER, IN FACT: Oh. Look, I got lots of information on the guy we're looking for. What have you got?
KOWALSKI: I got the license number.
WELSH: Very little escapes his eye.
KOWALSKI: Frannie, put out an APB. License number W-E-seven-six-one, black nineteen-sixty-seven double-barreled carb GTO.
FRANCESCA: What is it with you guys and cars? What, do you all have your brains stuck behind your zippers or something? I mean, excluding you, of course, Fraser.
FRASER: Oh, thank you.
FRANCESCA: What is that? What does that stand for, GTO? Great throbbing —
KOWALSKI: No, Frannie, it's Grand — Grand — what is it again, Fraser?
FRASER: Gran Turismo Omologato.
KOWALSKI: Right. GTO. Now hit the keys, please, Frannie. Thank you.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: [appearing in the squad room] Raymond!
KOWALSKI: Dad.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Look what I found in the wrecking yard.
KOWALSKI: [looking] You got — Ram Air four cam shaft?
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: [delighted] Yeah! Mint, too. Let's go put it on. [realizes Kowalski is grim] What? Something happen to the car?
KOWALSKI: Are you kidding? That car is my life. No, I just, I took it in for some detailing.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Detailing.
KOWALSKI: Yeah, yeah. That's where they make it, you know, look, look new again.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: It already looks like new!
KOWALSKI: Yeah, but these guys, they, they, they make it look newer than new. They're good at this. They use this little toothbrush and whatnot, and I mean — let me drop this off, and I'll, ah — I'll, ah — [He takes the box away from Damian and puts it on his desk.] — you know, I'll get you a coffee for the way home. We'll get a coffee.
The Kowalskis split. Fraser and the INS guys are still talking to Francesca.
INS AGENT, IN FACT: Jerome Lafourrette was a friend. At least we thought he was.
AARON: There's been a lot of Haitian immigration to the city lately. Most of it legal. Some of it not so legal.
INS AGENT, IN FACT: They live in a sort of enclave. Very insular. Very wary of outsiders. Lafourrette carries some weight in the community. He's a priest.
FRANCESCA: Oh, like Father Malone?
AARON: More like Papa Shango.
FRANCESCA: What do you mean? More like voodoo?
FRASER: It's Vodoun, actually. Or in Haiti it's known as Lwa. It's a religion that derives from African Yoruban beliefs.
INS AGENT, IN FACT: He was our connection to the community.
FRANCESCA: What do you mean, he was like your, ah, your sniff? [off Fraser's reaction] I mean, um, your scratch?
FRASER: [whispering in her ear] Do you perhaps mean snitch?
FRANCESCA: Yeah, that's what I said.
FRASER: Oh, so you did.
INS AGENT, IN FACT: We've been closing in on some of the sweatshops. Jerome called, wanted to meet us down in the projects. Cloak and dagger all of a sudden. But he's always been a square guy. So we go. Six guys with guns waiting for us.
FRASER: And you're sure it was Mr. Lafourrette who betrayed you?
INS AGENT, IN FACT: Only one knew we'd be there.
KOWALSKI: [returns without Damian] Pitter-patter, let's get at her. Let's find that car.
FRASER: [grabbing his hat] Gentlemen. [as he and Kowalski are heading down the hallway] You all right?
KOWALSKI: Uh. I lied to my dad.
FRASER: About the car.
KOWALSKI: Yeah.
FRASER: I see.
KOWALSKI: Look, don't tell me I should have been honest with him, Fraser, 'cause I lied to him for his own good.
FRASER: You lied to him for his own good?
KOWALSKI: Well, yeah. You don't know my parents. I mean, they're like little kids in old bodies. They live in this weird world. They talk back to the television. They buy stuff from infomercials. I just try to protect them.
FRASER: I can understand that.
KOWALSKI: Oh, so you understand lying.
FRASER: The lying, no. But I can understand the wanting to protect your father. I've often wished that I could have protected my father.
KOWALSKI: Hmm.
Okay, car first, then voodoo. The '67 GTO was the second year the car was available as its own model rather than just an option package on the Tempest Lemans (the last model year of the "first generation" of GTO). Kowalski appears to be driving the hardtop rather than the sport coupe (when the door is open you can see that the windows are frameless). GTO does indeed stand for Gran Turismo Omologato, which is Italian for "comfortable yet zippy car you can buy like a normal person." (I mean, it's Italian for Homologated Grand Tourer, which is more or less what I just said.) The Pontiac GTO was the first real muscle car, so Francesca's guess (great throbbing organ, we assume) may also not be that far off. The Ram Air IV camshaft apparently makes the thing even zoomier, not that it can actually go faster but that it can accelerate more quickly. I would have assumed "double barrel" meant dual-exhaust, but apparently it has to do with the fuel intake (and means this engine is less powerful than the four-barrel?). I'm not a Car Person, so if someone else wants to explicate better I'm all ears.
Father Malone is Hal Holbrook's character in The Fog (1980), a film I have not seen but which is the subject of one of my favorite stories my uncle told about the importance of seeing movies in theaters: All the characters are running from the malevolent fog and decide to run to the old church. "No," my uncle shouts in a crowded cinema, "not the old church!" From across the room another moviegoer shouts "Why not the old church?" And as the fog rolls up the church steps, my uncle shouts back, "That's why not the old church!" (. . . I don't know, maybe you had to know him.) Anyway, Papa Shango was a heel character in entertainment wrestling in the early 1990s, dressed up to look like Baron Samedi and named after Shango, a Yoruba god who was the third Oyo king before his death (and deified posthumously). The Yoruba religion is also called Vodun (or Vodon, Vodoun, Vodou, Vudu, Voudou, Voodoo . . . Fraser can shove a maple leaf in his "well, actually") and evolved in the west, as religions do, into various related forms, such as (relevant in this conversation) Haitian Vodou. The lwa are the Vodou pantheon.
If Kowalski's parents are still alive today, there's a better than even chance they watch Fox news, isn't there. (BUT I will give Damian Kowalski props for calling his son "Raymond" rather than "Stanley." Way to use your kid's chosen name, there, Mr. K.)
Scene 3
Fraser and Kowalski are in a crowded, run-down part of downtown. Laundry is hanging on lines between buildings, steam is coming from grates, a couple of guys are warming their hands at a fire in a steel barrel.
KOWALSKI: This is Voodooville. We're about as popular as the INS down here.
FRASER: Well, these people have good reason to fear authority, Ray. Their history is one of domination, first by the colonial powers and then a series of brutal dictators who repressed the people with strongarm tactics and turned their religion against them.
Thank you. Yes.
In a building not unlike Fraser's old apartment building, neighbors pop out to see who's going by.
FRASER: Good day. Hello.
Fraser and Kowalski stop at one door. Diefenbaker goes to another one and grumbles a bit. Fraser and Kowalski go to see what's bothering him. They can hear noises from inside apartment 307; Kowalski opens the door, where four women are dancing rhythmically inside a drum circle. Kowalski is a little mesmerized. Fraser taps on his shoulder, and they back out and close the door. They knock at apartment 309 instead. A woman answers.
KOWALSKI: [showing his badge] Chicago PD. We're looking for Jerome Lafourrette.
WOMAN: Jerome didn't come home last night.
FRASER: You must be very worried about him.
WOMAN: Jerome's going to be all right. He's close to the lwa.
KOWALSKI: To the what?
FRASER: Ah, the gods, Ray.
KOWALSKI: Oh, that's great. Just tell us where the gods are so we can find him.
WOMAN: The gods are everywhere.
KOWALSKI: Look, this isn't a joke, lady. Your husband is in a lot of trouble. Grand theft auto and some stupid federal charges.
FRASER: Assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder, actually.
KOWALSKI: And the car.
FRASER: And the car.
KOWALSKI: Look, so if I were you, I'd start telling us everything I know about this, 'cause if you don't —
A WOMAN COMING OUT OF APARTMENT 307: Mr. Policeman! [Fraser and Kowalski both stand back, chastened.] There's a document called the Constitution of the United States of America. Have you read this document?
KOWALSKI: Well, no, my eyes are kinda bad, so I —
A WOMAN COMING OUT OF APARTMENT 307: You see anything in this document that gives you a right to come to this lady's house and treat her like she's some dirt on your boot?
FRASER: No, ma'am, we don't.
A WOMAN COMING OUT OF APARTMENT 307: Well, then, you should both leave. [The rest of the women have come out of apartment 307.]
KOWALSKI: Look, lady, I am a cop, and I'm here —
FRASER: Ray. Ray. [to the women] The detective would like to apologize for his tone.
KOWALSKI: I would?
FRASER: Ah, yes, you would, Ray. He meant no disrespect. [Kowalski nods.] My name is Constable Benton Fraser —
A WOMAN COMING OUT OF APARTMENT 307: You first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of your daddy, and you stayed. [She does a vaguely menacing laugh.] So did your daddy.
FRASER: [recovers quickly; cocks his head] Very perceptive. You would be?
A WOMAN COMING OUT OF APARTMENT 307: Lalla. Some folks call me Mama Lalla. I work with Jerome.
FRASER: At the shipping depot?
A WOMAN COMING OUT OF APARTMENT 307 (MAMA LALLA): No, in his other work.
FRASER: His Vodoun work. Well, perhaps you could help us find Jerome.
MAMA LALLA: Jerome Lafourrette don't need to be found by you.
FRASER: You don't think he'd like to return to his family?
MAMA LALLA: When he's good and ready.
FRASER: I see. I understand. Well, thank you. [He turns to go. Kowalski doesn't move.] Ray. Ray. Ray. [Mama Lalla grins. Fraser thunks Kowalski on the head to snap him out of it.] Thank you kindly for your time.
KOWALSKI: [as they head out] Okay. This is great. So how do we find the car? How the hell do we find this car?
FRASER: All in good time, Ray. All in good time. [to the neighbors they've squeezed past to get out] Good day, gentlemen.
Unsurprising that Kowalski is more concerned about his car than about the "stupid federal charges," but I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that Fraser seems to be more concerned about the federal charges. Like: Did we see Jerome with a deadly weapon? No, we did not. Taking the INS guys' word for it, which hasn't previously been Fraser's style.
Scene 4
Fraser and Kowalski are talking to Jerome's boss the next day. The guy is chewing gum or something and writing on a clipboard.
JEROME'S BOSS: Jerome? Oh, he's a wonderful man. An excellent worker. Never late, never a problem. That's why I couldn't understand why he, why he didn't show up today. I figured it must have something to do with his religious work or something.
FRASER: So you're aware of his involvement with the Vodoun?
JEROME'S BOSS: Oh, certainly, yeah. Yeah, I was born and raised in New Orleans. I'm, I'm very familiar with Obeah, with Voodoo, with Lwa. I grew up with all that stuff. You know, it's not a bad thing. [Fraser cocks his head.] It's actually quite fascinating. It's, uh — it helps people to, to understand certain strange situations. Keeps things settled down. At least, Jerome did. Do you — is he really in trouble? Real trouble?
KOWALSKI: Big time.
JEROME'S BOSS: Jeez, I don't know what I'm gonna do without him.
FRASER: You have no idea where he might be?
JEROME'S BOSS: Oh, for all I know he could be in Haiti. [surprised to see someone] Eduardo? What you doing here? What are you doing back so soon?
EDUARDO: [an old man] I feel better working.
JEROME'S BOSS: Oh, man! [arm around his shoulder] Are you sure?
EDUARDO: Yes, sir.
JEROME'S BOSS: If there's anything I can do for you, you let me know, you understand?
EDUARDO: Thank you, Mr. Gutman.
JEROME'S BOSS (GUTMAN): Okay, you take care now. [Eduardo heads off to get to work.] His wife died six days ago. He's back to work already. Having a hard time, particularly with Jerome not around.
KOWALSKI: Why's that?
GUTMAN: Well, when, when, when, when one has a loss, one seeks the comfort of a priest. Jerome's a good man. You sure he did something bad? [Kowalski and Fraser both nod.]
FRASER: Thank you kindly for your time.
GUTMAN: All right, no problem, gentlemen.
He goes back into his warehouse, which is indeed marked "Gutman's import/export."
KOWALSKI: Some help. I mean, how in the hell is that going to help — [He turns around and realizes Fraser isn't there. He looks around for him.] — me find my car? [He spots Fraser.] Fra—
Fraser has caught up with Eduardo, who is walking alone down an alley. He stops and talks with him.
So Gutman here is from New Orleans, so what he says he's familiar with is probably Louisiana Voodoo, and he also refers to Obeah as well as the Haitian lwa. Given his white southern boss-man-ness, I am immediately and profoundly skeptical of his sincerity, and I think so is Fraser; look at the way he cocks his head when Gutman says "It isn't a bad thing," as if he's just barely restraining himself from pointing out that nobody had actually suggested it was.
Scene 5
It is nighttime. Fraser and Kowalski are back in Little Haiti.
KOWALSKI: You sure this is it?
FRASER: Well, Eduardo would have no reason to lie. And Mama Lalla was practicing for the Nine-Night ritual for his wife. If Mr. Lafourrette is as important as everyone says he is, it'll be his duty to attend.
KOWALSKI: Still, it doesn't look like a church.
FRASER: Well, a church isn't simply a church, Ray. It's a state of mind.
Fraser and Kowalski and Huey and Dewey get out of the car. Fraser and Kowalski (and Diefenbaker) go into a large converted factory. They follow the sound of drums and singing through some steam-releasing machinery and back to an emptier part of the building and then up a couple of stairs, where they find a medium-sized altar with many candles, a couple of benches, a fire in a brazier, and some people — including Jerome — drumming and some dancing. Mama Lalla is blessing Eduardo, who is wearing a dark business suit, as one would to one's wife's funeral. Kowalski pulls out his badge.
KOWALSKI: Excuse me, folks. Chicago PD. [The people are silent.] Jerome Lafourrette, you are under arrest.
MAMA LALLA: Leave him! And leave this church!
Jerome throws a handful of powder in the fire; it flashes and he vanishes. He runs out the way Fraser and Kowalski came in, but he is met by Huey and Dewey at the door, and of course when he turns back Fraser and Kowalski are following him out.
FRASER: I'm afraid you'll have to come with us, Mr. Lafourrette.
It's apparently not unheard-of to do the ninth night of the Nine-Night period after seven nights, so the fact that Eduardo's wife only died six days ago doesn't mean this doesn't add up; but should it have been done at Eduardo's home rather than in the church, whether Kowalski thinks it looks like a church or not?
Scene 6
Jerome Lafourrette is sitting stoically in the chair next to Kowalski's desk.
KOWALSKI: Look, you want to tell me where my car is?
THE GUY THEY'VE BEEN CHASING (LAFOURRETTE): I don't remember.
KOWALSKI: Not good enough.
LAFOURRETTE: I was frightened. I got off at Lakeshore. Somewhere near the projects. I think maybe I left it on Latimer or Western.
KOWALSKI: Latimer? You left my car on Latimer? Unguarded? They eat cars up on Latimer. Stick him in the lockup till the feds get here.
Kowalski rushes out. Fraser does not stick Lafourrette in the lockup; he sits down at Kowalski's desk. Diefenbaker grumbles. Lafourrette smiles a little.
LAFOURRETTE: A wolf.
FRASER: A half-wolf, actually.
LAFOURRETTE: The interesting half. The wild half that speaks to me. [Diefenbaker grumbles again.]
FRASER: He does seem to respond to you.
LAFOURRETTE: An understanding of wild things is important in my work.
FRASER: I assume you're not speaking of your work at the shipping depot.
LAFOURRETTE: No. My real work.
FRASER: Vodoun. Interesting use of the flash powder at the ceremony today. Perhaps a bit obvious.
LAFOURRETTE: There's showmanship in any religion.
FRASER: True enough.
The sound of drums begins. Welsh comes out of his office.
WELSH: What the hell is that noise?
Mama Lalla and her associates burst into the squad room. At least one Black cop is grooving to the drum rhythm. Mama Lalla scatters something around the room. The women begin singing. Lafourrette is smiling. Fraser looks very nervous.
WELSH: What is she doing?
LAFOURRETTE: She's placing a curse on your station.
WELSH: In here, who would notice?
Mama Lalla transfixes Fraser. Lafourrette snaps his fingers; Fraser blinks. Mama Lalla and the singers and dancers and drummers are gone. Everyone kind of looks around as if they'd just woken up.
WELSH: [to a nearby uniformed officer] Go with Constable Fraser and put this man in a holding cell. I'll tell the feds we got their man. [Lafourrette goes with Fraser and the uniform quietly.]
FRANCESCA: [blowing whatever Mama Lalla scattered at her off her phone] Hey, you guys, do you think this curse thing really affects me? I mean, I'm just a civilian aide and all.
HUEY: She cursed everyone who works here. And you work here, so —
DEWEY: [scoffs] Right.
HUEY: Listen, I've heard of people just giving up and dying after they've been cursed.
DEWEY: Yeah, but that's a mind over matter thing, all right? There's nothing real to that.
HUEY: Hey, you're killed by a gun, you're killed by your mind, you're still dead.
FRANCESCA: Is that true?
DEWEY: No. Your mind kills you, it's just psychosomatic.
FRANCESCA: Okay, so you're not really dead.
DEWEY: Right. You just think you are. I think.
I think about "There's showmanship in any religion" a lot.
Scene 7
Kowalski sees a burned-out stripped-down black muscle car up on blocks in an alley at night.
KOWALSKI: No! Not my car, come on, come on. [He bends down to look at the license plate, which is RCW 139. Heavy sigh.] Thank you. [Fog rolls in quickly, and Baron Samedi appears behind him. Kowalski feels him approaching, pulls his gun, and turns; nothing is there. He turns in the other direction; nothing is there. He turns back in the first direction again; nothing is there. He is spooked.] I'm good. I — ooh!
That's not Kowalski's license plate, of course, but you know we've seen it before.
Scene 8
Lafourrette is sitting serenely in the holding cell. Fraser is standing outside.
FRASER: Not very comfortable, I'm afraid.
LAFOURRETTE: I have been in far less comfortable places, Constable. As have you.
FRASER: As have I. May I ask you a question? Did Vodoun have anything to do with the attempt on the lives of Agents Goodfellow and Aaron Gobrah?
LAFOURRETTE: I have been a houngan since I was twenty-five. It is very early to become a priest in my country. From my earliest days I have been taught to revere all life and to do no harm. Does that answer your question?
FRASER: Then you didn't try to kill them?
LAFOURRETTE: Does it matter?
FRASER: Jerome, you have a wife and a daughter. Don't you want to return to them?
LAFOURRETTE: [on his feet, not so serene] You saw my daughter?
FRASER: No. I saw her photograph in your apartment.
LAFOURRETTE: There is nothing more I can say.
KOWALSKI: [returning] You got a lot more you can say. Like where is my car, and how come I'm being followed by, ah, skeletons?
LAFOURRETTE: I don't know what you are talking about.
KOWALSKI: Well, then, you can sit right here till you figure it out. How does that sit with you?
LAFOURRETTE: It's fine. I won't be in here long.
The white INS agent's name is Aaron Gobrah. I am going to PUNCH SOMETHING, and not just because in my personal accent "Aaron" and "Erin" are not homophones.
Scene 9
Dewey comes into the break room where Huey is eating lunch.
DEWEY: I'm getting a coffee, Jack. You want one?
HUEY: Mm. Black. No cream.
Dewey puts change in the coffee machine and presses a button. Nothing happens.
DEWEY: Ah, man —
He presses the button again. The machine buzzes. Dewey sighs and gets down to look in the delivery well. When he pokes at it, hot coffee sprays in his face. He cries out and jumps back, rolling over the table behind him, crashing into Huey's table. Huey flails, and because the edge of his tray was over the edge of his table, catapults his lunch into the air. Francesca manages to dodge out of the way, and Huey's lunch plate lands on Welsh's chest. Francesca looks at Welsh, looks at Huey and Dewey, looks at Welsh again, and flees. Welsh stands there with spaghetti falling off his tie.
- I know there are lots of ways of describing what can be done with coffee, right?, because "regular" means different things in different places, for example, but isn't it pretty universal that black coffee has no cream? (I think Huey has not specified whether he wants sugar in that coffee, but what else would "black" mean?!)
- I'm always happy to see Dewey get coffee squirted in his eyes, but
- I shudder to think how much rehearsal that scene must have taken and how many takes they must have done and how many times Beau Starr must have had to change his shirt (or how many times Ramona Milano must have got hit by accident).
Scene 10
Fraser is coming back into the squad room. Francesca grabs him by the hand.
FRANCESCA: Hey, Frase. It's working.
FRASER: What's working?
FRANCESCA: The curse! Look! [Welsh comes plodding back in, dripping with red sauce.]
FRASER: Well, you know, Francesca, there've been lunch room incidences before. Ah, I don't think the curse is the obvious —
FRANCESCA: Fraser, I can feel it. [Huey and Dewey come in slowly.] Right here. [Francesca puts Fraser's hand on her heart.] Can you feel it?
FRASER: Ah, I feel something. [He is uncomfortable, of course. Kowalski comes through the squad room with a cup of coffee that has not sprayed anyone in the face, amused.]
FRANCESCA: It's like a dark hole burning its way through my heart.
FRASER: Now, Francesca, it's best not to get worked up about this. You see, our minds have the capacity to transfer —
FRANCESCA: No! It's a curse. We have to do something!
KOWALSKI: Yeah, like lock you up in one of them rooms with the rubber furniture.
INS AGENT, IN FACT (GOODFELLOW): Vecchio. Constable Fraser. [Fraser is only too glad to free his hand from Francesca.] Where is he?
Diefenbaker, wherever he is, howls.
FRANCESCA: Oh my God, it's a werewolf. [She runs away.]
FRASER: Ah, no, it's not a werewolf, it's Diefenbaker. My companion is half wolf.
GOODFELLOW: What's his problem?
FRASER: Well, I'm not sure. Although he did eat some lard at the consulate kitchen. Usually, though, that just leads to flatulence.
KOWALSKI: Flatulence?
FRASER: Farting, Ray.
KOWALSKI: Oh.
They go to see what Diefenbaker is howling about. Jerome Lafourrette is lying on the floor of the holding cell.
FRASER: Oh, dear.
Scene 11
At the morgue, Diefenbaker is still sitting at Lafourrette's feet (complete with toe tag). A young woman in a white coat places a drape over the body.
GOODFELLOW: All right, what can you tell me?
YOUNG WOMAN: Well, he's dead.
GOODFELLOW: I know he's dead. What about an autopsy?
YOUNG WOMAN: Mort does the autopsies. And he's out of town for a couple days. [apologetic smile]
GOODFELLOW: What about a cause of death?
YOUNG WOMAN: [peeks under the drape] Looks to me like his heart stopped beating.
GOODFELLOW: Why did his heart stop beating? [Diefenbaker is whining.]
YOUNG WOMAN: Maybe he was sick or something. [It really seems like she's trying her best.]
AARON (GOBRAH): Maybe he was sick or something?
YOUNG WOMAN: Maybe. Mort could probably tell you more.
GOODFELLOW: Look. Mort's not here. You're here. And I need an expert opinion.
YOUNG WOMAN: It you're looking for a bunch of words like myocardial-whatsit-osis or whatever, you're asking the wrong person. [giggling]
GOODFELLOW: Don't play games with me!
WELSH: Oh, she's not. Mert happens to be an expert in her field. Although that field has nothing to do with medicine, we remain very proud of her as a member of our cleaning staff. [The feds are buffaloed. The young woman, who it turns out is Mert the janitrix, smiles, gets her mop and bucket, and leaves the morgue.] You'll get a full investigation.
GOBRAH: Who was the last to see him?
FRASER: It was I.
KOWALSKI: So that pretty much rules out foul play.
GOODFELLOW: Unless someone got in there after the constable.
FRASER: Ah, no, Diefenbaker was there the entire time.
GOBRAH: You think the wolf did it?
FRASER: Diefenbaker would not have allowed anyone to harm Mr. Lafourrette, I can assure you of that.
GOODFELLOW: Oh, that's great. Guy dies and were not supposed to worry about it because the last person to see him has a red suit. And we got a dog for a witness.
FRASER: He's a wolf, actually.
Diefenbaker grumbles. The INS guys are not at all impressed. They leave the morgue, but Goodfellow stops in the doorway.
GOODFELLOW: We'll send someone to get the body. We've got medical techs who work all night. [He stalks off.]
FRASER AND KOWALSKI AND WELSH: Mmm.
All three of them go too. Fraser beckons to Diefenbaker.
FRASER: Dief. [Diefenbaker looks at him but whines a little and stays with Lafourrette.] Oof. Have it your own way.
First of all, our three leads going "Mmmm" (that is: "oooOOOOOooo") is actually very funny. Second, when Fraser stops to call to Diefenbaker to join him, he does a thing with his right hand down by his hip, which I will bet several pretend dollars is actually Paul Gross telling Draco the dog "stay." Man, these are smart and well-trained dogs on this show, and it still must have just taken for-goddamn-ever to get Diefenbaker's scenes in the can. I remember reading somewhere that Peri Gilpin, who played Roz on Frasier, had workdays that were something like 20% shorter than everyone else's because she so seldom worked with Moose the dog (who played Eddie).
Welsh talks about Mert and how proud he is of her for her good work on the cleaning staff in a way that sounds actually quite sincere and not really all that patronizing? Which I suppose is Doylishly because Beau Starr is a professional actor and he can choose whatever tone he likes, but Watsonially it makes me think she has what must be a relatively severe learning disability and got her job through some sort of placement service for people with special needs. And she's beaming because she really is doing her best. ❤️ (But what kind of name is "Mert"? Obviously they were trying to do an analogy with "Mort," but couldn't they have called her Mart, which would have been short for Martha, instead of Mert, which is . . . I have no idea?)
Scene 12
As Fraser comes out into the hallway, Diefenbaker howls.
WELSH: Oh, wonderful.
FRASER: It is quite beautiful, isn't it? You know, Lieutenant, I think it might be a good idea to assign someone to watch the body.
WELSH: Watch the body? You thing it's gonna turn into a zombie or something?
FRASER: Possibly.
They biff off. In the Vodoun church in the factory, Mama Lalla is singing and chanting before the altar. At the station, Mert comes back into the morgue to mop the floor. She wrings the mop in the bucket. Mama Lalla casts her enchantment. Mert stops and looks at the draped body of Jerome Lafourrette. It twitches, then sits up, then turns and stares at her. Mert faints.
Scene 13
Welsh, Kowalski, and Fraser are in Welsh's office with the INS guys the next morning.
GOODFELLOW: Let me see if I have this straight. Somewhere during the course of the night, Jerome Lafourrette — who for all intents and purposes was dead — got up off a gurney, then wandered the halls, unnoticed by half a dozen or so police officers, and walked out of the building. That about the size of it?
FRASER, WELSH, AND KOWALSKI: [mumbling] Pretty close. That's very good.
GOBRAH: You guys are something else. You screw up our arrest, kill our prisoner, and now you lost the body.
FRASER, WELSH, AND KOWALSKI: [mumbling] Oh, no, not lost.
KOWALSKI: Misplaced.
WELSH: It'll turn up. You know, bodies have a habit of doing that.
KOWALSKI: Yeah. Unless, of course, they've been zombified, in which case they walk the earth with a strange demeanor —
WELSH: Detective. [Kowalski shuts up.]
GOODFELLOW: I wish I could share your confidence, Lieutenant. But I think Agent Gobrah and I will handle it from here.
WELSH: I can't let you do that.
GOODFELLOW: Oh, you can't?
WELSH: Mm-hm. And it's personal.
GOBRAH: Personal.
KOWALSKI: Very personal. For all three of us.
WELSH: Yeah. I have to think of the reputation of this station.
FRASER: And I have to locate the whereabouts of my lifelong companion.
Both feds look at Kowalski.
KOWALSKI: I gotta find my car. It's a classic.
Is this the first time Welsh has said no to some feds and the feds have actually listened?
Scene 14
Francesca has turned her desk into a Vodoun altar. She and Dewey are looking through a book of spells.
FRANCESCA: Okay, I know it's in here somewhere. Okay, okay, here it is. Okay, so you take the cow's blood, and you mix it with the graveyard dirt.
HUEY: [nearby, unimpressed] Graveyard dirt?
DEWEY: Yeah, I got it from the graveyard at midnight.
FRANCESCA: Yeah, and I got the blood at Tony's Cold Meats, so it's nice and fresh.
HUEY: You guys are out of your minds. Voodoo is a religion. You can't learn it from a book.
DEWEY: Oh yeah? What about the Bible?
HUEY: That's different.
DEWEY: Look, we're not hurting anybody, okay? It's a precautionary thing.
FRANCESCA: Okay, so now we need the powder. [She scatters some powder in a circle and blows the rest off her hand. Huey recoils.]
WELSH: Ms. Vecchio!
FRANCESCA: Yes, sir.
WELSH: What's all this paraphernalia?
FRANCESCA: Um, okay, this is anti-curse paraphernalia, okay. You got your graveyard dirt, some special powder, and some cow's blood, which I'm not absolutely sure about, because it seems to indicate here that we're supposed to drink it, which —
WELSH: I want all this stuff out of my station. Immediately.
FRANCESCA: Yeah — yeah, but what about the curse?
WELSH: If it's not out of here in two seconds, you'll face the curse of unemployment.
FRANCESCA: Yeah, but, but — [In the doorway, Welsh bumps into a guy loaded with files, all of which scatter on the floor.]
COP: Ooh — oh! Sorry, sir!
WELSH: What is this? [He starts to help the guy pick up the files.]
COP: Sorry.
FRANCESCA: See? [thwaps Dewey] It's getting worse.
HUEY: [doing a 180] Okay. Come on. Throw the blood on the skull.
DEWEY: But —
HUEY: Do it!
DEWEY: [opening the jar] Shouldn't I let it breathe a little?
HUEY: Do it!
FRANCESCA: Just pour it!
DEWEY: Okay, okay.
He pours the blood over an animal skull in a brass bowl.
I don't know, it sure still seems like appropriation to me. It's not that you can't learn a religion from a book; it's that your prayers won't be answered if you don't believe. (I mean, and maybe not even then.)
Scene 15
Kowalski bumps into his father in the hallway.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Raymond. I didn't think you were here. Didn't see the car in the lot.
KOWALSKI: I know. You see, the car got —
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Got what?
KOWALSKI: Boring. You know, driving everyday. So I'm trying to get some, uh, exercise.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Exercise.
KOWALSKI: Yeah, you know, so a couple mornings a week, I run in. It gets the cardio going. It's —
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: You, you run in your work clothes?
KOWALSKI: Yeah, well, it's cold, and it warms 'em up.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Okay, well, I'll pick up the cam shaft, swing by your place —
KOWALSKI: No! Cause that's, ah, way too much trouble. Why don't you just wait for a day when I have the car here.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: What about tomorrow? You can't have it here tomorrow?
KOWALSKI: Sure, Dad. Tomorrow.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Okay, tomorrow it is then. See ya.
He goes off one way. Kowalski smacks his own head and goes the other way.
Damian Kowalski! He's trying so hard to connect! Every time Ray Kowalski comes up with some bullshit like "I took it for detailing" or "I run to work for the exercise" he goes with it, like he's been to therapy and learned that his son lives a different life in a different world than he remembers and if he argues too much or maybe any more at all he's going to lose him for good. ❤️Damian❤️
Scene 16
Downtown in Little Haiti, Fraser and Kowalski and the two INS guys get out of the car. People scatter.
GOODFELLOW: Kinda kicks the hell out of your ego, people treating you like you got a bad smell.
FRASER: Perhaps we should go in alone.
GOODFELLOW: Good idea. [Fraser and Kowalski head off.]
GOBRAH: Maybe we should take a shower.
Fraser and Kowalski are on their way to Lafourrette's apartment.
KOWALSKI: The guy's dead, Fraser. I don't really think he's gonna be coming home for a visit.
FRASER: Well, if he was dead, that would be true.
KOWALSKI: You don't really give into this zombie stuff, do you? 'Cause personally, I don't, but you? That would be un-Mountie-like and unlogical.
FRASER: Depends on what you mean by zombie, Ray.
KOWALSKI: Uh, dead guy walking.
FRASER: No, that would be highly unlikely. There are, however, certain drugs, for example, the gland secretions of the bouga toad, that are a hundred times more powerful than digitalis, or the pufferfish, which contains a tetrodotoxin. Either of these would allow an individual to create a very convincing impression of death.
KOWALSKI: [slaps his own face] Good enough to fool you?
FRASER: It's virtually undetectable.
KOWALSKI: So you think he's faking it.
FRASER: It would account for his leaving and for Diefenbaker's disappearance.
KOWALSKI: Why's the wolf hanging with the dead guy?
FRASER: Mr. Lafourrette has a very powerful presence. Diefenbaker's responding to that.
Fraser is about to knock on the door when it is opened from the inside.
MAMA LALLA: You are not needed here.
FRASER: We thought we could help, ma'am.
GUTMAN: Can you find Jerome?
FRASER: Mr. Gutman, we are trying, yes.
GUTMAN: I just stopped by to see if I could be of any help to Lisa. [He puts his arm around the woman from scene 2.]
FRASER: That's very thoughtful.
WOMAN (LISA LAFOURRETTE): [uncomfortable] Mr. Gutman has been very good to, um, both Jerome and to myself.
KOWALSKI: You only have the one other room?
GUTMAN: If you're looking for Jerome, I can assure you you're not going to find him here.
KOWALSKI: Mind if I look around? [pushes back a curtain without waiting for an answer]
GUTMAN: May I ask why you're doing this, Detective?
KOWALSKI: No. [Behind the curtain is a child's bedroom area: an armchair and a small bed with some toys on it. The bed is neatly made.]
GUTMAN: Are you satisfied?
MAMA LALLA: They are never satisfied.
FRASER: I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, ma'am. We are just trying to help.
MAMA LALLA: We don't need your help. We're doing fine as we are.
FRASER: No, I'm sure you are. In the meantime, I'd like to thank you for feeding Diefenbaker. I, ah, I hope that this will cover it. [He gives her some cash. He and Kowalski are leaving, but Fraser does a Columbo.] Oh, by the way, Mrs. Lafourrette, is your daughter home?
MAMA LALLA: She's at school.
FRASER: Ah. And a good thing, too. You know, in the words of Plato, a soul takes nothing with it to the other world, save its education and its culture. Thank you kindly.
Gutman is skeevy as hell.
Fraser's stuff about the soul taking things to the other world (usually "the next world") is from Plato's Republic, but the words are those of Socrates.
The bouga toad to which Fraser refers is the cane toad; there's no explanation for why it is sometimes called "bouga." Pufferfish do contain tetrodotoxin, which is named for them and their fellow species whose organs contain it. (Be careful not to eat fugu unless it's prepared by a qualified chef, kids!)
Kowalski slapping his face to wake himself up after Fraser rambles is a thing that happened, although Fraser didn't comment on it.
Scene 17
Fraser and Kowalski leave the Lafourrettes' apartment.
KOWALSKI: Fraser, what was that "feeding Diefenbaker" stuff?
FRASER: I detected his scent the moment we entered the apartment.
KOWALSKI: Well, that means Lafourrette was in there, too.
FRASER: Almost certainly.
KOWALSKI: Well, let's go back in there and bust them for harboring a fugitive.
FRASER: We have no proof.
KOWALSKI: We got proof, Fraser. You smelled the dog! [realizes what he just said, mutters to himself] Smelled the dog. Fraser, I think I've been working with you too long.
Scene 18
Francesca and Huey are still consulting her book of spells. She is on the phone.
FRANCESCA: Yeah, sure, Fraser, I'll check it out. Okay. [She hangs up.]
HUEY: You know what? I think we need more blood.
DEWEY: All right, more blood?
HUEY: Yeah.
FRANCESCA: Yeah, we just might. [She points to a page in the book.] Look. See, it says right here —
HUEY: Uh-huh.
WELSH: What's that smell? Ms. Vecchio, I seem to recall issuing an order regarding mumbo-jumbo. As "there will be no mumbo-jumbo." Does that ring a bell?
FRANCESCA: Yes, sir.
WELSH: All right. Get rid of this stuff now. And you two, get back to work.
Francesca picks up her wooden bowl with most of her Voodoo accoutrements in it and leaves the squad room. In the hall, Welsh is talking to a uniformed cop who has a marching band in her custody.
WELSH: I don't care what happened to their bus. Get them out of here. [turns to the drum major, speaks sarcastically] Forward! Left, right, left, right! [The band turns and goes toward the break room.]
Francesca heads down the hall, past where a guy is on a ladder fixing a light. As she passes, something shorts out and sparks start flying. The guy falls off the ladder onto a janitorial cart, which rolls down the hallway. People scatter in its path. The lights are all flickering. Someone shouts "Stop that guy!" The guy is about to crash into a lady in a wheelchair, but her (presumably) husband pushes her out of the way at the last minute. The guy goes through the window in the maintenance closet doorway instead. The husband runs to catch his wife's wheelchair. She goes past the marching band. Someone dodges out of her way and bumps into the drum major, who stops and falls backward; the entire band goes down like dominoes. Francesca runs back to the squad room, having disposed of or at least dropped her bowl, and bangs into someone who was standing by her desk talking to Dewey. The person and Dewey both fall down, knocking over the candle on her desk.
FRANCESCA: Oh, God. [sees her desk] Fire! Fire!
WELSH: [comes running] What's going on?
FRANCESCA: It's in the book! Look! It says right here! [points]
WELSH: Oh, the book, huh? [He throws the book in the burning trash can. It puts the fire out — and then the sprinklers start spewing water everywhere. Welsh is displeased.]
FRANCESCA: See? [Points to the sprinklers with a "what did I tell you" air. Welsh heads back to his office, growling.] It's the curse!
Welsh keeps growling. Huey turns his face up to the water and laughs.
I like the marching band. Nice return to form.
Scene 19
In Little Haiti, Fraser and Kowalski are back outside with the feds looking up at the apartment.
KOWALSKI: Gutman's a weirdo.
FRASER: I did sense a certain tension in the apartment.
GOBRAH: Runs a clean shop, as far as we can tell.
KOWALSKI: As far as you can tell? Why? Are you investigating him?
GOBRAH: We investigate everybody. [They watch Gutman coming down the stairs from the building.] His name's come up a couple of times. Nothing concrete. Although a legitimate operation like Gutman's could be a good cover for a sweatshop. Give you a way to distribute the product. And the Voodoo might be useful, too.
FRASER: Voodoo?
GOODFELLOW: Yeah, he's kinda hyped on it.
KOWALSKI: Hyped on Voodoo.
FRASER: He did seem very knowledgeable.
GOODFELLOW: He's what those in Voodoo circles would refer to as a hangan.
FRASER: A houngan?
GOODFELLOW: That's what I said.
FRASER: Ah. Right.
Goodfellow said [hæŋgən], sounds like "hangmen" but with a hard G and no M. Fraser said [hɐuŋgən], first syllable sounds like "hound" but with a G (and in scene 8 Lafourrette said [hɐungən], much more clearly differentiating the n and the g). I'm not surprised that Wiktionary suggests it's more correctly pronounced [huŋgən], with the u of "food," because we're talking about Hatian Creole, a French-based language, and the root of the word is from Fon, and none of these—Fon, French, nor Creole—has that "ow" diphthong Fraser (and Lafourrette) used.
GOODFELLOW: A lot of white guys never get that far into it.
FRASER: Is that why he employed Jerome?
GOODFELLOW: Yeah, I guess. Lafourrette never talked that much about him.
GOBRAH: Never talked about him at all.
Kowalski's phone rings.
FRANCESCA: [as soon as he answers, before he can even speak] Yeah, it's me. Where's Frase?
KOWALSKI: Yeah. [He hands Fraser the phone but leaves his hand out like a dock for him to hang it back up in.]
FRASER: Hello?
FRANCESCA: Hey, Frase. That Lafourrette girl? She didn't go to school today. She hasn't been there all week.
FRASER: Thank you kindly, Francesca. [He retracts the antenna and folds up the phone.] I think perhaps we should have another conversation with Mrs. Lafourrette.
He hands the phone back to Kowalski. As Kowalski is putting it in his pocket, small explosions or popping sounds are heard nearby. Fraser and Kowalski and both feds turn, all but Fraser pulling their guns. A man wearing a skeleton mask looks at them for a moment and then runs off with another similarly dressed person. There was no gunfire; the noise is from little model rocket poppers.
KOWALSKI: Ugh. Fireworks.
While the other three are stowing their weapons, Fraser turns and looks the other way. Lafourrette is standing in the alley behind them with Diefenbaker at his side.
FRASER: Dief.
He starts to walk toward them. Lafourrette silently aims a pistol at him.
KOWALSKI: Gun!
Kowalski and the feds have their guns right back out again. Diefenbaker growls and jumps on Lafourrette's hand, knocking his gun to the ground.
GOODFELLOW: Hold it right there, Lafourrette.
Lafourette turns and runs. He jumps down a step, and a wall of flame rises up behind him. Diefenbaker is nowhere to be seen.
FRASER: Dief!
KOWALSKI: Dief's deaf.
FRASER: Good point, Ray.
Fraser turns up his coat collar and jumps through the fire. The alley behind it is empty. Kowalski runs after him. The feds don't know what's happening. By the time Kowalski gets to where Lafourrette dropped his gun, the flames are dying down.
KOWALSKI: [picks up Lafourrette's gun] You all right?
FRASER: Yeah.
KOWALSKI: You sure you're okay?
FRASER: Yeah. I'm fine. [His coat is still burning.]
KOWALSKI: The reason I ask is, you're on fire.
FRASER: [looks] Oh.
He drops his coat on the ground and keeps looking down the empty alley.
The INS probably does investigate everybody, which is gross.
Scene 20
Kowalski is talking to some other neighbors, who don't seem to know anything. He turns back to Fraser, whose coat shows no signs of having been burned at all.
KOWALSKI: Another gimmick?
FRASER: Well, the fire was real enough.
KOWALSKI: What are you saying? It was magic?
FRASER: [shakes his head] Lighter fluid. [hands him a little bottle of lighter fluid] This may not sound particularly logical, Ray, but judging form the intense and immediate bond that he and Diefenbaker have formed, I'm inclined to believe that Jerome is trying to do the right thing.
KOWALSKI: Would that include stealing cars and taking pot shots at cops? He's got a lot to learn about civics, Fraser. [He takes the lighter fluid bottle back to talk to the feds.]
GOODFELLOW: As usual nobody saw anything else, including the fire.
KOWALSKI: Hey, you know, you blink, you miss a big wall of fire. [hands Goodfellow the bottle] Look, he planned the whole deal. Escape route, the whole thing.
GOODFELLOW: Where'd you find this?
KOWALSKI: Ah, Fraser found it over there — [Fraser is not there.] — there.
Fraser's disappearance would be a lot more convincingly mysterious if we hadn't been able to see the brim of his hat for a moment in the shot where Kowalski is talking to the feds and then notice him turn and go.
Scene 21
Mama Lalla is concentrating on something. There is a beaded curtain behind her; Fraser appears on the other side of it.
MAMA LALLA: Leave this alone. You don't know what you're messing with.
FRASER: I know that you're frightened. And that Mrs. Lafourrette is frightened.
MAMA LALLA: I don't know what you're talking about.
FRASER: I'm talking about Jerome's daughter.
MAMA LALLA: Nobody's doing nothing to Marie.
FRASER: Then perhaps I could see her. [She does not respond.] I can't let Jerome kill someone. Or be killed himself. I don't think you could do that, either.
MAMA LALLA: I've been working on him. [She is looking at a photo of Gutman on her altar with some stones and candles and fruits.] I've been working on him hard.
KOWALSKI: [arriving, getting up to speed in one] Gutman?
MAMA LALLA: [getting up, coming out through her curtain] He's a bokor.
KOWALSKI: Broker? Like a stock broker?
FRASER: No, it's, ah, bokor, Ray, a practitioner of black magic.
MAMA LALLA: Gutman uses Voodoo to control the folks working in his sweatshops.
FRASER: The dark side of Vodoun.
KOWALSKI: Oh, and this is the light side?
MAMA LALLA: You see, you fight the dark with the dark. I don't like it, but that's the only way it works. But Gutman's too strong for me. I can't control him.
Gutman's place at night.
MAMA LALLA (VO): And Jerome won't!
FRASER (VO): Because Gutman has his daughter. And in exchange for her safety, Jerome was ordered to kill two federal agents. He's afraid.
MAMA LALLA (VO): [chuckling] So we gotta put a hurting on him.
If the practitioner herself pronounces it "voodoo," you'd think Fraser could give his "well, actually" a rest. Sigh. But okay. So Gutman is a bokor, and apparently powerful enough that Mama Lalla can't fight him herself? I guess her point is that she, as a manbo, isn't conversant enough with the Dark Side to confront Gutman effectively.
Scene 22
Gutman is at his desk. Someone creeps into the office. He looks up: It is Mama Lalla.
GUTMAN: What do you want, Lalla?
MAMA LALLA: To bring you this. [She comes forward slowly and sets something down on his desk.]
GUTMAN: You doing this to me?
MAMA LALLA: Jerome doing it.
GUTMAN: He's bluffing. It could cost him too much.
MAMA LALLA: Maybe. Maybe not. I'm just delivering the message.
GUTMAN: [speaks Creole]
Mama Lalla returns to where Fraser and Kowalski are waiting in the car.
MAMA LALLA: He got the message.
FRASER: Good.
KOWALSKI: Good?
FRASER: Mr. Gutman now believes that Mr. Lafourrette is no longer afraid of him.
KOWALSKI: So?
FRASER: Well, he'll wonder why. That should lead us to Marie.
MAMA LALLA: You know, she's a sweet little girl. You know, and I'm gonna work it. You find his govi?
FRASER: We will.
KOWALSKI: Govi, what's a, what's a govi?
FRASER: It's a vessel in which he keeps his pwen, or his spirits. It's symbolic of his power.
KOWALSKI: Hmm.
Wikipedia suggests that pwen are a type of talisman provided by oungans for healing. I don't see why he shouldn't keep them in a govi, which is indeed a vessel, except that the govi is usually used to house the spirit of an ancestor, and keeping pwen in there sounds a little (to me, and I'm absolutely not an expert, learning this as I am from the internets) like keeping a lucky charm in the urn with your grandmother's ashes. Bit disrespectful. A tabernacle is not a pantry. On the other hand, if Gutman is a bokor, that is, a bad oungan, maybe he profanes the sacred on the regular.
My French is pretty good but I don't know Haitian Creole, so I can't work out what Gutman is supposed to be saying (or whether Chaykin is saying it well). I got something like va vi li et pas ti chon; va faire boutou, which Google Translate suggests means something like "go live [your life] and don't be a fool; go do [your] work," so maybe it's all "mind your own goddamn business." Anyone able to parse it better than that?
Scene 23
Gutman is trying to work, but he is distracted by the object Mama Lalla left on his desk. Finally he crumples up the page he's been writing on and hurries out of his office to his factory. Kowalski has dozed off, but Fraser pokes him and they watch Gutman slink down the alley.
FRASER: Let's go.
Gutman goes into a factory where it looks like people are working with leather. One woman is lying across her workbench.
GUTMAN: What is she doing? What is she doing laying down like that? Get her up, get her back to work. [The woman's colleagues help her stand up and try to take care of her. Further inside the factory, a woman is glaring at Gutman.] What is that? What is that look? What is that? What, you resent me? It that it? Is that it? You all resent me? Don't you have any gratitude? What do you people want? What do you want? What, do you want to go back home? You want to go back home? I'll send you back home. Right back to the Tonton Macoute with the long knives and the knock on the door in the middle of the night when they come and they take your babies away forever! Is that what you want? Get back to work!
The Tonton Macoute were a paramilitary organization serving two generations of Duvaliers, the dictators of Haiti from 1958 to 1986. So Gutman is, as suspected, a very bad man indeed, abusing refugees and threatening to return them to the persecution they'd fled.
Scene 24
At the warehouse altar, Mama Lalla is chanting. Lisa Lafourrette is behind her; others are dancing, singing, drumming. They are singing to Papa Loko. At his own altar, Gutman lights some candles and cries out to Papa Shango. In his factory, the leather workers hear him and look around; they see Fraser and Kowalski on their way back to confront him.
KOWALSKI: What's the matter with them?
FRASER: They're afraid.
Kowalski reaches for his gun as he and Fraser press on through the factory. Gutman is chanting over a skull with blood and feathers strewn on it. He is invoking Papa Shango. Mama Lalla and her entourage are singing to Papa Loko. As Fraser and Kowalski reach the place where Gutman is calling Shango, he throws a string of mussel shells on his altar. Mama Lalla and Lisa Lafourrette and their group are still singing and praying. Gutman is also dancing and hollering. He turns around and sees Kowalski and Fraser behind him. Kowalski starts to reach for his gun. Gutman flings something at them—powder, ash, something like that—and runs away while they're coughing. Fraser goes to the altar.
KOWALSKI: Fraser, what are you doing?
FRASER: His govi.
Fraser picks up a glass jar with some stones in it and follows Gutman.
I think Mama Lalla and her crew are praying to Loko and Gutman to Shango, both powerful figures among the lwa. I'm impressed with the photographic differences in the two scenes; Gutman is shown praying angrily and all alone, while—though it's not, obviously, that Lisa Lafourrette is happy right now, as her daughter is still missing—the prayer and song at Mama Lalla's altar is generally joyous and definitely full of confidence. Nice lighting choices here.
Scene 25
Gutman is running out through the factory, but Jerome Lafourrette is in his path.
LAFOURRETTE: Tell me where my daughter is.
Mama Lalla is chanting through a fire.
GUTMAN: No.
Fraser and Kowalski arrive in the midst of a knot of factory workers.
LAFOURRETTE: Tell me now. [He cocks a gun and points it at Gutman.] Or I will kill you!
Mama Lalla is chanting.
KOWALSKI: Lafourrette, put the gun down.
LAFOURRETTE: He is an evil man!
GUTMAN: You're not gonna shoot me, Jerome. I've got your daughter. [Lisa Lafourrette is praying. She begins to sway.] Listen to the bokor, Jerome.
KOWALSKI: Jerome, put the gun down. We can work this thing out.
Mama Lalla and her crew arrive in Gutman's factory, singing at Gutman to Papa Loko. Lisa Lafourrette pats Jerome as she passes him. Gutman sings to Shango back at them, but they drive him back. Fraser brings the govi to Jerome Lafourrette, who takes it, looks at Fraser, and drops the thing to shatter on the floor. Diefenbaker barks. Fraser and Jerome look at each other. Mama Lalla is chanting at Gutman; he is defeated.
I like how Jerome doesn't hurl the jar onto the floor with any type of vehemence; he just lets go of it, beneath his contempt, I got no use for this object or this guy. Nice.
Scene 26
Fraser is feeling between bricks on a wall.
KOWALSKI: What are you looking for?
FRASER: A trigger mechanism. Yup. Here we go.
He presses on the right spot and a section of the wall swings open into a hidden room. They go into the room, in the order named: Fraser, Jerome Lafourrette, Lisa Lafourrette, Mama Lalla, Kowalski.
MARIE: Daddy?
LAFOURRETTE: Marie!
Lafourrette runs and picks up his daughter, who is about six and has been resting on a bed of straw. Lisa is sobbing and hugs her too. Mama Lalla hugs the whole family. Fraser and Kowalski wait, correctly, by the door.
Scene 27
Fraser and Kowalski are saying goodbye to the feds back at the police station.
GOODFELLOW: He's on his own recognizance, so we should be able to cut him a good deal in return for his testimony. He shouldn't do any jail time. [nods to Kowalski] Detective.
KOWALSKI: Agent.
GOODFELLOW: Constable. It's been a real slice.
FRASER: Of what?
GOBRAH: He's Canadian.
GOODFELLOW: Right. Catch you later. [They buzz off.]
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Raymond? Pitter patter, let's get at her. [He is down the other hallway, holding the box with the cam shaft.] Daylight's burning.
Kowalski looks at Fraser like he's about to die, then goes to talk to his father. Fraser looks right into the camera and then heads off the other way.
KOWALSKI: Dad. I got, um, something to tell you.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: What is it, son?
KOWALSKI: The car. [He takes a deep breath.] It's not here. I lent it to a guy for the weekend so he can take photos of it for this magazine called, uh, Black Old Classic Cars, so — [He makes a "what can you do" face.]
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: [angry and disappointed] Look me in the eye and tell me that again. [Kowalski hangs his head.] The police called your apartment while your mother was ironing shirts. You parked it beside a hydrant. I got it out of the pound. It's outside.
KOWALSKI: [relieved grin] Thanks. [He hugs Damian, knocking the box to the floor. They both bend down to get it.] I'll —
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: It's okay. [They head back up the hallway.] There's no need to lie to us, you know. Your mother and I are fully functioning adults. We can, we can handle the truth.
KOWALSKI: Remember that antique lamp that I said the cat broke? [Damian nods.] It was me.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: Yeah, I know, son.
KOWALSKI: And the time after school where I had the black eye? That did not happen in gym. That, uh, I got into a fight.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI: I know, son.
"I'm in love with the Mountie." "I know, son."
No?
They have left the station. Fraser steps into the squad room, where there's a nice lawn on the floor and grass growing on all the desks, out of all the lamps and file drawers, everywhere.
KOWALSKI (VO): Remember when I was fourteen and the station wagon went missing?
DAMIAN KOWALSKI (VO): Yeah?
KOWALSKI (VO): That was me.
DAMIAN KOWALSKI (VO): [chuckling] You stupid son of a bitch.
A guy with gardening shears is prowling around looking for something to trim. Mama Lalla is with Lisa and Marie Lafourrette near Francesca's desk.
FRANCESCA: Okay, so the curse is lifted? Well, what about the grass? That's not normal.
MAMA LALLA: Well — oh, I just threw around some seed, and somebody starts watering 'em.
FRANCESCA: So there, there was never a curse.
MAMA LALLA: If it was that easy, everybody'd be doing it.
FRANCESCA: [drops a hunk of grass on someone else's desk, muttering to herself] There was no curse.
Near Kowalski's desk, Jerome Lafourrette is saying goodbye to Diefenbaker. Fraser goes over to them.
LAFOURRETTE: I have to thank you, Constable.
FRASER: There's no need. It's not necessary. Just make sure you keep your gros bon ange healthy.
LAFOURRETTE: And you.
They shake hands. Lafourrette goes to his family and picks up his daughter. Diefenbaker grumbles and whines a bit, looking back and forth between the Lafourrettes and Fraser.
FRASER: Well, it's your decision. I mean, you are familiar with the concept of free will. It's up to you. [The Lafourrettes and Mama Lalla leave. Diefenbaker stays with Fraser.] Thank you kindly. [Diefenbaker whimpers at Fraser's feet.] You hungry? [Diefenbaker barks. Fraser nods.] Get it yourself.
In Haitian Vodou, the gros bon ange is the part of the soul that handles basic biological functions like the ABCs of respiration and circulation. (Air goes in and out. Blood goes around and around. Change is bad.) Its complement, the ti bon ange, handles the nonphysical, like character and will. (The bons anges are "good angels," gros "big" and ti (petit) "little," respectively, or major and minor, though I don't think the ti bon ange is lesser than the gros in any way; maybe outer and inner is a more accurate gloss?) I expect Fraser is not concerned about Jerome Lafourrette's ti bon ange, but telling him to keep his gros bon ange healthy (and pronouncing it extremely Québecois, by the way, at least to my ear) is basically telling him to be safe.
Cumulative body count:
3534
Red uniform: The whole episode