return to Due South: season 1 episode 7 "Chicago Holiday, part 1"

Chicago Holiday part 1
air date November 10, 1994

( Scene 1 )

The opera Ivanhoe is Sullivan, but not Gilbert and Sullivan. The librettist was Julian Sturgis, whom Gilbert recommended after turning down the gig himself. I suspect a modern-dress production of anyone's "Ivanhoe" in 1994 would have been excruciating.

"Perhaps I'm being a bit conservative," Fraser says. YEAH THAT COULD BE. And then one of the next phrases out of his mouth is "sock hop." Bless him.

I'm with Diefenbaker on all of it in this scene, honestly. Fraser's pretty salty at him to start with, and it's rich to tell him to keep his opinions to himself and immediately ask for his opinion on anything at all. Who knows what sort of mood Fraser thinks Diefenbaker is in; it seems to be Fraser himself who's in a snit, am I right?

( Scene 2 )

( Scene 3 )

So smoking has killed both the smoker and possibly also the killer. Let's hear it for clean living, I guess?

Credits roll.

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

(plus Lincoln the dog)

Lisa Jakub, Stacey Haiduk, Ron Lea, Deborah Rennard, Peter Williams, and Stephen Shellen

Stephen Shellen was apparently the third lead on a show called Counterstrike for a couple of years, which I haven't heard of, and he was the alcoholic brother-in-law in A River Runs Through It in 1992, which I guess is enough for an "and" credit.

( Scene 4 )

So Welsh is on a date with the medical examiner. (What happened to the putative Mrs. Welsh who shops at Petit's Food Town, huh? Told you he wasn't wearing a ring. Do we think he made his own meatloaf?) Are they on their way to see La Bohème or Ivanhoe? Answers on a postcard.

Normally we get the guest appearances in the first scene after the credits, but not this time; they actually run over the beginning of the next scene.

( Scene 5 )

Whoo, a lot going on here. First of all, Fraser isn't a guest at the party, so it's probably actually okay that he was wearing his regular dress uniform rather than his formal dress uniform. It's not like he rocked up in work clothes, am I right? I'm with Vecchio that probably bringing him this fancy belt and a pair of gloves and taking away the lanyard and leather is not more important than doing a stake-out trying to catch Eddie Beets. So Fraser needs to sort out his priorities a bit, right? Police work, then dress code?

The American ambassador's son is kind of a dweeb. (And why is there an American ambassador on the premises anyway? I'm pretty sure the United States does not have, nor need, diplomatic relations with Chicago.) Fraser stopped himself from saying anything appreciative about the young woman who had gone by them as soon as he realized that she was in fact the sixteen-year-old child he was supposed to be looking after. Opening the ladies' room door was a giant goof, of course. Like he's never heard of knocking?

And in between those things, the actual conversation with Canada's Senior Trade Negotiator, about whom what can be said? His wife either left him or died two years ago. I'm assuming she died, because if they'd divorced, unless he got 100% custody and the mom couldn't have unsupervised visits, wouldn't the daughter be with her rather than tagging along on her dad's business trip? He appears to believe money solves everything—as if Fraser can be motivated by a cash tip?, not that the guy knows that, and as if the only thing that could go wrong with his daughter's visit to Chicago would be if she needed more money. Sigh. "I guess I'm not much of a substitute," he said. For his daughter's mother. NO. NO YOU ARE NOT. YOU ARE NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR HER MOTHER. YOU ARE HER FATHER. The idea that fathers are incompetent bumbling Associate Parents, especially of daughters, is so tiresome and disappointing. (Big up for Charlie Pike, who was presented as neither of those things! . . . Also, side note, here we are in episode 7 and the family situations are something, aren't they. Let me get out of these parens and we'll do a rundown.)

• Pilot: Fraser, an adult, loses his father; he has no other family. (Vecchio has a large family: widowed mother, two sisters, a brother-in-law, and some number of other relations, some of whom are children and some of whom are older adults.)
• Free Willie: Willie, age 13, has no mother and apparently no father; his sister is his guardian (but we never see her either).
• Diefenbaker's Day Off: Lucy, age 6, has a dead mother and a single father.
• Manhunt: Julie Frobisher, an adult, is divorced from her child's father; her own father is apparently widowed.
• They Eat Horses, Don't They?: Mrs. Gamez has four children, and their father is not in the picture.
• Pizzas and Promises: Lenny is a juvenile offender with a driving job, so he's 16 or 17; his parents are never so much as mentioned, so we may assume he's on his own.
• Chinatown: David Lee, an adult, is the son of parents who are still married to each other! Make a note!
• Chicago Holiday: And here we are.

So what's going on, eh? Anyway, he bumbles about it, but it is not at all charming or amusing that Canada's Senior Trade Negotiator has no idea how to parent his daughter.

( Scene 6 )

The girl gives the cabbie green money, so at least her dad has more sense than Fraser about what kind of cash to carry in the United States. Hard to see what it is that she gives him, but it may be a hundred.

This is the second time someone has assumed Fraser was the doorman, but at least last time it wasn't a doorman doing the assuming.

( Scene 7 )

The Musical Ride was on the reverse of the Canadian $50 for ten years (when the obverse had William Lyon Mackenzie King).

I have no idea whether there are S&M clubs in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, but if there are, it is likely Fraser visited none of them in the five weeks he was stationed there.

Jerome does not seem creepy or predatory toward Miss Nichols at all. Even "pretty little thing" seems appreciative rather than icky, and he offers to take her skinny dipping or to pull over and kiss her only after she brings it up (and doesn't argue at all when Fraser says "keep driving"). So well done Jerome.

( Scene 8 )

My entire life, I will never understand why numbered units don't count off in order. Red Squadron did this in the first Star Wars as well:

RED LEADER: All wings report in.
RED TEN: Red Ten standing by.
RED SEVEN: Red Seven standing by.
BIGGS: Red Three standing by.
PORKINS: Red Six standing by.
RED NINE: Red Nine standing by.
WEDGE: Red Two standing by.
RED ELEVEN: Red Eleven standing by.
LUKE: Red Five standing by.
RED LEADER: Lock S-foils in attack position.

Was that everyone? I have to go back and make sure! Leader(1), 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11—so where are Reds Four and Eight? Are they already dead? Leader would already know that, sure, but wouldn't it be easier to keep track of everyone if they counted off in the same order every time? Maybe Red Squadron is doing it in wing pairs, because Biggs and Porkins were apparently wingmates, so if the pairs are 10 & 7, 3 & 6, 9 & 2, and 11 & 5, okay, but there's still no rhyme or reason to what order the wings count off in, and in any case, back here in Chicago, WE HEAR FROM UNITS FIVE, FOUR, AND TWO and it's not like these guys have been in battles with TIE fighters lately, this case is only a few hours old, so WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO UNITS ONE AND THREE and why on earth are we not calling in in numerical order?!

I apologize for shouting, but I've been wondering that about Red Squadron for at least 30 years and having the Chicago Police Department do the same damn thing apparently activated something in me.

( Scene 9 )

( Scene 10 )

I have this memory that Long Island Iced Tea sounds like the drinkiest drink of all when you don't have a lot of experience of drinking, because it has a lot of kinds of alcohol in it. But of course a single spirit with a single mixer can have a lot of alcohol in it; it's not the variety that makes a drink strong, it's the quantity. And the variety makes Long Island Iced Tea not at all delicious, if you ask me.

Fraser's tendency to take things at face value suggests that he is actually being sincere with the guy who asks to be punished; he doesn't start to feel like something is strange here until the two pigtails-and-lollipops women basically proposition him, and then he realizes he's not in Kansas anymore when he gets an eyeful of the leather Mountie, whose costume we never see below the waist, so we should probably draw our own conclusions. (I adore that the leather Mountie is actually a real cop.) Poor Fraser, the number of things that have apparently never even occurred to him before. Nice recovery by the time he needs handcuffs, though.

( Scene 11 )

Vecchio looks more disappointed and betrayed than he did when Fraser got stabbed in the leg. Meanwhile, Fraser is treating the police van like a taxi stand or an elevator, which is sure to end well.

( Scene 12 )

So Eddie is a lot worse of a bad guy than Huey and Gardino were giving him credit for back in scene 4. This him-and-Janice threatening-and-being-scared stuff is pretty convincingly frightening.

( Scene 13 )

So I didn't ask when they were all getting into the police van, but I'll ask here: What is it that all these people have been arrested for? Was dancing in leather underwear illegal in Chicago in 1994? Surely not. In fact based on what we see on the screen, the only people who have done anything illegal in that club are the following:

• Eddie, who threatened Janice with a knife
• Janice, who hit Eddie with a bottle
• the bartender, who served Miss Nichols alcoholic drinks
• Miss Nichols, who bought them
• Fraser, who assaulted Eddie, destroyed club property, and arguably contributed to the delinquency of a minor

I don't blame Mme. Defarge for not cooperating. She was blameless and she should say it.

( Scene 14 )

So on the one hand: It's probably true that the girl has no idea what could have happened to her. On the other hand, it's likely her dad has no idea either, and he's not thinking of her as any type of young adult. She's wearing a close-fitting dress, but nothing so revealing it has to be covered up or would (or should) shock her (late?) mother. And he's disproportionately stressed about having broken up his business meeting; like, if he's really scared for his daughter's safety, he shouldn't give a shit about the American commercial attaché, and if he's that embarrassed about the American commercial attaché, he's upset because his daughter embarrassed him, not because he was scared for her safety. My kid is only five and a half, but his father and I have recently agreed that when he is old enough to be able to call us on the phone by himself, our official position will be No matter where you are, if you need me to come and get you, I will do it, and I will not be mad at you for asking. (And that goes for your friends, too, so if you've got a friend who needs us to keep them safe, you bring them on over.) I am disappointed in Mr. Nichols's parenting.

( Scene 15 )

I feel like it's pretty shitty of Christina—for that is her name—to blame Fraser for taking the rap for her, then promise him she's in for the night, and then sneak out again. I know she's only 16, but maybe two out of three, right? Of course she wants to get in trouble; the fact that he might be blamed for her choices is extra tiresome for her because her whole point is that she's making her own decisions. (In which case she could have just told him she wasn't going to stay in. But never mind.)

Name for me please a hotel where housekeeping comes around to make up the rooms this late in the evening? I've never heard of such a thing. Anyway: Obviously the thing here is the hat the show is hanging on the MacGuffin. Oy vey.

( Scene 16 )

Is there nothing that man will not chase on foot?

( Scene 17 )

I don't know why they all think either (a) they will find the list somewhere in the apartment or (b) the fact that they can't find the list means there is no list. Assuming there is a list, isn't it valuable enough not to leave lying around?

I'm not a lawyer, but it looks from my preliminary research like if Janice would only get six months for stealing that platinum watch (from Eddie's home rather than from his person), it must be worth less than $500, which seems unlikely to me?

( Scene 18 )

This Latvian kid knows his Sinatra, eh? I've always liked "My Kind of Town"; I think it's what Sinatra's "New York, New York" is trying to be but only Liza Minnelli's "New York, New York" actually achieves. "My Kind of Town" is a love song to Chicago, and so is Minnelli's "New York, New York"; Sinatra's "New York, New York" already has New York in its pocket. It's smug and smarmy. There's no question whether he can make it there, so the song doesn't work. I don't hear any of that oiliness in "My Kind of Town", and it works a lot better for me.

Cumulative confirmed body count: 6
Red uniform: The whole episode, because this was a formal event (so it's minus the crossbody accessories, as well)

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