return to Due South: season 1 episode 1 "Free Willie"

Free Willie
air date September 22, 1994

( Scene 1 )

Just as in the pilot, the first thing that happens is a crime is committed.

Credits roll.

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

(plus Lincoln the dog)

Christopher Babers, Ed Sahely, Christina Cox, Domenic Cuzzocrea

( Scene 2 )

Okay, so this is a lot for our first day back. Knowing only what we learned about Fraser in the pilot, is it possible he's never actually rented an apartment before? He's probably not quite that green, because he has references, but who on earth are his references? For sure he's approaching this like an interview where there's a chance he won't be approved to rent the place.

His lanyard doesn't look straight to me, but I guess by that I mean it doesn't look vertical. It is straight in that it is strung directly from spot A to spot B, taut, rather than drooping in any way.

I was once thinking of moving to Boston, and a friend of mine told me that one of her co-workers, who had never met me, insisted that I wouldn't like it there because "the people are so unfriendly," by which she meant that strangers in the street hadn't smiled at her and said hey as they passed. My friend related this story with some amusement and agreed with me that in New England that's called "minding your own business," although her co-worker, having grown up in the south, apparently had different baseline expectations for social interactions with people to whom she had never been introduced. Fraser's having memorized the tenants' names from their mailboxes and greeting them all as he walks down the hall seems like an example of that. Dude has not taken the time to read the room, has he? He calls it being a good neighbor, but it sure seems like the people who live in this building would call it being nosy.

Anyway the apartment is crumbling and full of the previous tenant's trash, but it's an end unit, it's a good size, and it has windows facing at least two directions. Out of context, it's not too bad.

( Scene 3 )

Of course calling these guys Statler and Waldorf is just something I'm doing.

( Scene 4 )

I'm not sure why Fraser and Vecchio run along the rooftops rather than chasing the kid at street level. Maybe for the greater visibility? Anyway, as it did in the pilot, everything falls into place for Fraser. The "might end up hurting yourself" line sounds like it's right out of an after-school special, but he makes it work.

( Scene 5 )

Hmm, so Fraser is not one hundred percent black-and-white at all times with respect to what's right and what's wrong. Interesting.

( Scene 6 )

Is standing out front doing mannequin guard duty like covering the phones in other offices—everyone has to take their turn doing it? Because Fraser has an office and a desk, I mean, he's the Deputy Liaison Officer, and standing in front of the building looking pretty isn't liaising. Also, I thought Constable Brighton-who-holds-the-duty-roster (Constable Not Appearing in This Episode) had warmed to him a bit, so it would have seemed that the petty punitive guard-duty assignments were behind him. And yet here he is. Maybe mannequin guard duty was the price for taking the morning off to look at an apartment (and fight crime).

( Scene 7 )

Apparently Vecchio has already told his colleagues that the gun used in the robbery turned up in the possession of a purse snatcher the next day.

( Scene 8 )

The thing is it can't be lunch time—it has to be later than that. If it's the same day as Fraser looked at the apartment and then foiled Willie at the purse snatching, we need time for Vecchio to have run the gun through ballistics and get a result and for Fraser to have done some mannequin time and for someone to have found Willie and picked him up, which, how did they find him? I guess they ran the fingerprints on the gun and he was already in the system so they found him that way? I know police detectives don't work nine to five, but this is a lot to get done in a single day.

( Scene 9 )

Are there racetracks in Chicago where kids can be truant?

( Scene 10 )

Fraser pronounces "lieutenant" in the British style, "leftenant." My research suggests Canada is divided on this, but Fraser is old-fashioned enough that it doesn't seem like a completely out-there character choice.

Why do Vecchio and Huey and Gardino report to this lieutenant instead of to Captain Walsh? Presumably the actor from the pilot was no longer available.

"Not that well liked up there," Fraser says, meaning pretty much all of Canada, and I continue to be spitting mad about that on his behalf.

( Scene 11 )

So Fraser is flustered by feminine attention. What was the end of the sentence going to be, "They're not quite so, uh"—forward, right? Aggressive? Bro, Elaine was just trying to get your number. That's . . . pretty mild, as we see from the next encounter, "I like your dog, call me." The fact that Fraser thought it was appropriate to call all his neighbors by name before he'd actually met any of them but is also this uncomfortable facing the fact that women (in one case, a woman he has met) are letting him know they find him attractive is ironic in a way I'm not sure says great things about him, actually. By which I mean it doesn't seem to even occur to him that his "being a good neighbor" is making his neighbors uncomfortable, and he doesn't learn that when he's stammering at Elaine. Hmm.

( Scene 12 )

It's not obvious to me how Diefenbaker gets Willie off the bus. Even if we assume Diefenbaker is not allowed to ride the bus, how does he insist Willie come with him when the driver puts him off?

( Scene 13 )

It sure looks like Vecchio gives Celeste a single bill, which, most places don't take bills bigger than $20, so it's unusual to carry fifties, isn't it? Even if he goes to places where they'll take one, where's Celeste going to break that? He should have given her fives and tens.

( Scene 14 )

I'm not sure why a social worker isn't involved here, or why Fraser and Vecchio don't call one, if the concern is that Willie is neglected (and malnourished). He must already be known to that department, if Vecchio can tell from his rap sheet that the parents aren't in the picture and he lives with his sister. But okay, they don't call a social worker, they just decide if they leave Willie in his own home they won't be "taking responsibility" for him the way they promised the lieutenant, so I guess he's going home with Fraser, the breadth of whose experience in dealing with neglected teenagers is . . . yeah, I got nothing.

( Scene 15 )

Is the thinking that if Willie tries to sneak out in the middle of the night, Diefenbaker will stop him? Or the fact that the neighborhood is that sketchy will keep him inside where it's safe? Maybe he hasn't had this much positive attention from a sympathetic adult in a long while (no parents, sister is "around," ditches school), so he could be well disposed toward Fraser for that reason without even really realizing it himself.

Meanwhile, Fraser is sleeping in boxers and a waffle-knit henley on a bedroll on the floor with no blanket. And I get it: It's Chicago in September—he's probably never slept anywhere this warm in his life. But I personally feel like when you live alone you can do what you like, but if you have an unrelated teenager in the room with you maybe it's a good idea to put on something that's a little more outer than underwear?

( Scene 16 )

Okay so Willie hasn't like totally imprinted on Fraser like a duckling; he does want to split, but he knows if he does Diefenbaker will chase him down.

( Scene 17 )

The thing about revolving doors is that they don't need to be held. Fraser is at the regular door in the first place because someone is coming out with a hand truck, so for the first time since we've known him, holding the door instead of taking his turn in the normal order of things is genuinely helpful and considerate (rather than throwing off everyone's expectations[1]). But then he can't leave it and let other people whose hands aren't full deal with the door themselves. The guy is incapable of moving through life and letting other people do the same.

[1] I shudder to think about Fraser driving a car. Imagine this man at a four-way stop; he'd let everyone else go and keep going until the people behind him got mad and pulled around and there'd be an accident. He thinks it only takes an extra second to be courteous, but in traffic, it's only slightly important to be courteous and more important to be not unexpected, a standard I think he would not be able to achieve.

( Scene 18 )

Hamlin's point is fair enough. It's an interoffice envelope. Of course he can't tell one from another. I couldn't identify a ream of printer paper, either. Come on.

( Scene 19 )

( Scene 20 )

( Scene 21 )

( Scene 22 )

So the bonds were in the vault at 4:08, the robbers were in at 4:38 and out at 4:41, but they didn't have the bonds. And security checked everyone out as they left at (presumably) 5pm or later. But it doesn't occur to Fraser and Vecchio that one or more security guys might be in on it?

( Scene 23 )

If the bad guys were prepared to shoot Diefenbaker (though they couldn't make the shot at point-blank range), why didn't they just shoot Willie? Red Sneakers (Morgan) knows Hamlin has the real bonds, so it can't be that they think Willie knows something they don't know. The only reason they're after him is because he can identify her, right?

( Scene 24 )

It seems Welsh and the other detectives don't doubt Fraser and Vecchio's claim that Hamlin is the thief and Willie is not, so why is Welsh being a hardass about losing track of Willie (now that he's not of quite so much interest in the burglary)?

( Scene 25 )

The courier isn't checked by security before leaving the building?

( Scene 26 )

The fact that Hamlin sent the bonds anywhere should have raised suspicions!

( Scene 27 )

Morgan's gun was in the bag with the manila envelope that Willie stole, but never mind, I'm sure she has access to lots of firearms.

They should have reshot the scene (or at least done some ADR) until they could get audio of Fraser saying "in an unofficial capacity" rather than "on an unofficial capacity." Sigh.

The chase and the fights seem pretty good. It's not clear how Fraser would have never allowed Vecchio to be killed when the whole point of the conversation is that they were failing to communicate, but it's sweet that he says Vecchio is his best friend. I'm not sure I understand Vecchio's indignation wondering how many best friends Fraser has, but it does make sense to wonder how many friends he has, full stop. (I mean I count Vecchio and Diefenbaker at this point. Anyone else?) Because being the best of that small of a group isn't really that much of a distinction, I think is what he means.

( Scene 28 )

So Vecchio keeps his job after all, because Willie has surprised everyone (except Fraser).

( Scene 29 )

I'd have said he can't keep trying to spend Canadian cash in the United States. Bro, you're going to be living here a while: Get some of the green stuff. Also, how is Willie going to feed and walk Diefenbaker twice a day while he is in school? Once between the end of school at, what, 3ish and when Fraser gets home some time after 5pm, but how's he going to do this in the morning without cutting school? Also also, $25/week is $2.50 per walk if he does two walks a day on school days, which even in 1994 was crap. I get what Fraser's trying to do here, but that is not a reasonable wage.

In general, we leave with Vecchio saying "You can't do things your way" and Fraser saying "I suppose I can't" but everything he did do his way working out nicely for him, so there's no real disincentive to him keeping on doing things his way. Except, as I said, you'd think he'd add up how discomfited he feels around Elaine and how his neighbors keep slamming their doors in his face, work out that there's a connection there, and back off a little bit. Alas.

The title of the episode, "Free Willie," is a fairly transparent reference to the 1993 film Free Willy, with which as far as I can tell it has nothing in common but its title. (I guess they both feature young teenagers who have already had trouble with the law.)

Cumulative confirmed body count: 2
Red uniform: Going to rent an apartment, on guard duty, on investigation when coming directly from guard duty

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