return to Due South: season 1 episode 10 "The Gift of the Wheelman"

The Gift of the Wheelman
air date December 15, 1994

( Scene 1 )

Again with Fraser deciding a bystander is or ought to be involved without consulting the bystander about it first.

Over the red uniform Fraser is wearing a navy blue pea coat with a red lining that looks great. One begins to suspect he would look good in, I don't know, overalls with a piece of hay between his teeth. Pick a ridiculous outfit, he'd make it work.

Credits roll.

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

(plus Lincoln the dog)

Ryan Phillippe, James Purcell, Tom McCamus, Gordon Pinsent as Fraser Sr.

Correct: Ryan Phillippe, the first Mr. Reese Witherspoon, before he was a medium-sized shot. (I'm not confident he was ever a big shot in his own right, but I am persuadable on this point.) Pinsent's credit is "as," as it was in "Manhunt." There have been "and" credits in a few episodes (the horseshit guy, Mrs. Lee, Eddie Beets), but this is the only "as" so far (and no "and/as" except himself in the pilot). I don't know what to make of that.

( Scene 2 )

Fraser leads Vecchio right up to the answer and then lets him work it out for himself. Bless.

( Scene 3 )

Admiral Peary; Matthew Henson. It looks like Fraser is nodding toward Huey when he mentions Henson, which is either thoughtful or patronizing (this White woman can see it either way).

I wish Welsh had not said "paddy wagon."

( Scene 4 )

Vecchio didn't see Del and the wheelman recognizing each other. Neither did Fraser, for that matter. How do they know how close together they were?

( Scene 5 )

Make sure that gift isn't ticking, though, Fraser. (The Sea of Cortez is the Gulf of California, between Baja California and mainland Mexico. My map of Canada obviously doesn't go that far south. 🙂)

( Scene 6 )

So Del knows Jimmy Donnelly trashed his apartment, and Donnelly knows Del knows it.

( Scene 7 )

Fraser said he'd give Del a hand with the trash and then he did not help. Boo. He could at least have tipped one trash can into the dumpster before he went minding the kid's business. Also: I do not believe him when he says he's always thought writing down his innermost feelings was the bravest thing a man could do. I just don't! Usually his parables have a grain of truth or relevance in them, but this one clangs a bit; I think he's telling the truth when he says he's only getting to know his father through his writing now that he's gone (and I think Del recognizes that that's true), but I think the bravest-thing-a-man-can-do stuff is bunk.

( Scene 8 )

I am unavoidably reminded of a scene from the Poirot episode "Elephants Can Remember," in which . . .

(this is a spoiler tag)

General Ravenscroft is consumed with guilt that he has been protecting his sister-in-law for her involvement in the death of his wife and kills her before shooting himself.

RAVENSCROFT: Goodbye, Dorothea.
DOROTHEA: Where are you going?
RAVENSCROFT: Hell, I expect.

The fact that Ravenscroft was played by Adrian "Wickham 1995" Lukis is probably why that scene sticks in my mind, but it's there, all right, and the point is, I think that's probably also the answer to Vecchio's question.

Elaine answers the phone with the specific number of the precinct: 27. Also, Porter was in prison for seven years and has been out for six, and Del is 20ish, so that's a kid whose dad was locked up from when he was seven to when he was 14 and whose mom split when he was 12. That's a lot for a kid to deal with, no.

( Scene 9 )

WHAT IS NOT TO LOVE ABOUT THIS SCENE

I mean: We don't love parents who hit their kids, as we have now learned Mr. Vecchio did to Ray. He hasn't talked about him a lot, but there's a lot of daylight between "he pretty much thought I screwed up everything I ever touched" and the—excuse the expression—one-two punch of the things he learned from his father being (a) when to duck and (b) never to hit a kid. God. (And yet he still feels like he's trying to prove himself to his father. It took fifteen words to expand Ray Vecchio's character to previously unobserved depths. Nice work, Marciano.)

But then here's Bob Fraser. ❤️ He's just in the back seat of the car, but it looks like he's wearing the fur hat he was wearing when he was shot, and there's a dusting of snow on it. Fraser's reactions are [chef's kiss]. The comedy of this scene eases the ache of Vecchio's bombshell just a little bit.

( Scene 10 )

Jimmy Donnelly is a meticulous and ruthless manager who kills as casually as combing his hair. He may be the scariest villain we've had yet.

( Scene 11 )

Fraser is exasperated with Bob for pointing out that observation is everything, but it can't be denied that he was so occupied with talking to a ghost that he missed the light in the condemned building and Vecchio spotted it immediately. This may be the first time Vecchio has out-policed Fraser.

( Scene 12 )

The comic timing of the three-way conversation during the shootout is flawless. This scene never disappoints.

( Scene 13 )

"You wouldn't be much of a son if you didn't [want to help your father]" is a bullshit emotionally manipulative thing to say, and Fraser should go to hell for saying it. Man. We are trained to love this character and be on his side and believe he is always interested in doing the right thing, and then he serves up crap like that. Sigh. (Yes, okay, characters aren't interesting if they don't have flaws. Fine. BUT STILL.)

Anyway. During this conversation with Bob, Fraser is giving the people they pass by a series of slightly manic smiles that almost certainly do nothing to reassure anyone that he is okay.

The elves/Elvis thing adds nothing to the story but is sort of funny. It has the whiff of something someone in the writers' room badly wanted to include, and they threw it in because they were a little short on time.

( Scene 14 )

Porter is driving a different car than the one he had parked a block away from the bank job. I'm just saying.

( Scene 15 )

It's lunchtime on Christmas Day and Fraser is eating alone in a diner. What the fuck, everyone he knows in Chicago?

We've known Bob Fraser for a cumulative total of about five voice-over-and-dialogue minutes, and the line "That's what I taught you" makes me cry. Nice work, Pinsent.

( Scene 16 )

So I don't understand: Had Fraser just popped away from the stakeout to get a bite at the diner? I do like the "in what sense" callback, and HELLO, Vecchio's dad is also here haunting him, and he doesn't seem at all fazed by it, which (along with "give it a rest") has to mean Vecchio has seen his father's ghost before, doesn't it?

( Scene 17 )

Poor Del. He's absolutely right that it's not his fault and his father is not his responsibility. It is wrong of Fraser to make it Del's responsibility to save William's life. I mean William is also wrong, wrong, wrong, and of course Del will be devastated if he carries out his plan. But it's not at all fair to make saving his life be Del's responsibility.

I am interested to know when Del was most proud of William. The text doesn't say. I wonder what Phillippe was thinking about in that pause after he gave that line. Also, he gives us more precise math: He was six when his dad went away the first time, so he's about 19 now.

( Scene 18 )

Fraser says "Everyone involved in the robbery will die," but the bagman is not present, and Fraser has no way to know he's already dead. (Neither has William, which must be why there were three barrels of gasoline up there.)

This is the note William wrote to Del:

Son, Of all my writings, this will prove to be the most difficult.

I am so sorry to have been such a disappointment to you. Please believe that I have tried my best and can no longer live with the fact that it has not been enough.

The most important thing now is your future. You must go back to your Aunt Celia. She loves you a lot.

In the closet of her spare bedroom you will find a cardboard box with your name on it. Inside you will find all that I can offer you for your future.

Do good, work hard, and never forget my love for you. Don't be sad. There is just no other way.

Love, Dad

So what Del did to bring William in was tell Fraser and Vecchio that William was meeting Jimmy at the distillery, which he learned back in scene 6 and they still didn't know. I appreciate that he burns the letter; he's not fooling when he says he doesn't want it. (Why does he have to go back to Aunt Celia? He's 19 years old; he can probably live on his own.)

Fraser's speech about giving your kid an example of how to be a person is good. How is it that he gives William better advice about being a father (which he is not) than he gave Del about being a son (which he is)? William is wrong, of course, that being $3 short on the price of a Christmas gift is in any way shameful. (Erector Set was a metal building toy that was basically defeated by plastics. Impressive that Jimmy can make jokes while he's got gasoline streaming into his eyes.)

Speaking as someone who has lost a parent, "Don't be sad" is an absolutely crap thing for a parent who knows they're going to die (by whatever means) to say to their child.

( Scene 19 )

I am not (as I've said) a lawyer, but apparently bank robbery is a federal crime because banks are federally insured? So that's what the U.S. Attorneys have to do with it. William wasn't actually the one who robbed the bank or threatened anybody with a gun, but there's no such thing as an accessory to a federal crime; you're either a principal or an accessory after the fact, and William is not the latter, which means he's the former. The federal statute on bank robbery is here, and it looks like William actually falls under subsection (c):

Whoever receives, possesses, conceals, stores, barters, sells, or disposes of, any property or money or other thing of value which has been taken or stolen from a bank, credit union, or savings and loan association in violation of subsection (b), knowing the same to be property which has been stolen shall be subject to the punishment provided in subsection (b) for the taker.

Which is a fine and either up to a year if the amount is less than $1k or up to 10 years if the amount is more than $1k, with separate enhancements for attendant assault of any kind or threats with deadly weapons (up to 25 years); kidnapping (at least 10 years); and causing the death of any person in the course of committing, attempting to commit, or attempting to evade or escape capture for any of these (life in prison or the death penalty).

So 3–5 years doesn't sound so bad, off that particular menu.

( Scene 20 )

Fraser is still wearing his (Bob's) watch in bed, which I don't remember if I've noticed before but which is bothering me now. Also, the blanket is like over his hips and his knees, but he doesn't tuck his feet under it or pull it up over his shoulders—which I can believe Christmas in Chicago may not be that cold to someone accustomed to wherever the hell he used to live, but he huddles up as if he's cold when he's got blankets right there.

Anyway, even though Bob appears and reappears as he pleases, I'm glad he uses the door rather than drifting through walls.

Now then: The title of this episode has been "The Gift of the Wheelman," and Del bought his father's present in the O. Henry Gift Shop, and his father was named William Sydney Porter, which was the original name of O. Henry, so clearly we're meant to make the connection with The Gift of the Magi, the famous O. Henry story in which a couple are both short of cash at Christmas: Unbeknownst to each other, she sells her hair to buy him a gold watch chain, and he sells his grandfather's gold watch to buy her some ornamental hair combs. The theme there is personal sacrifice for the benefit of the one you love most, which O. Henry's narrator says makes them even wiser than the biblical wise men. Which, okay, William is prepared to sacrifice himself, his life, for Del, but are we to understand that Del's scraping together $75 to replace his father's fountain pen is a corresponding sacrifice? Maybe the irony of the criss-crossing sacrifices isn't the point, but I feel like without that, without the mutual sacrifice, you're not really referring to the O. Henry story, and you could (and maybe should) have called the episode something else.

Cumulative confirmed body count: 8
Red uniform: Out Christmas shopping, but changes into civvies before going on stake-out that evening

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