return to Due South: season 1 episode 19 "Heaven and Earth"

Heaven and Earth
air date April 24, 1995

( Scene 1 )

This is an unusual opening scene; we haven't seen a dream sequence before. Except for Fraser, we don't know who any of these people are. And we don't know how the man having the dream got the necklace.

Credits roll.

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

(plus Lincoln the dog)

Jonathan Banks, Ramona Milano, Alex Carter, Djanet Sears, Mark Melymick

( Scene 2 )

First of all, "The Deal" aired on March 30 and this episode is airing on April 24, which is a long time (with another episode in between) for the events of "The Deal" to have been only eight or nine days ago or less. (I can stretch "Saturday last" maybe all the way to the following Sunday? But I feel like by Monday, "Saturday last" means the most recent Saturday, not the one 10 days ago.) When did "An Invitation to Romance" occur? Could have been a Friday, because Katherine was expecting to get married the next day, but that prospective wedding could have happened any day of the week, I suppose, so all we know is that it will have been a weekday, because the post office and the county building were open. Vecchio was on his day off and hung out at the reception at the consulate that evening, and now he's been working on a big missing persons case for at least three days, so if this is Sunday, the case came in no later than Thursday, and that reception couldn't have been later than Wednesday.

That is, they are asking us to believe that "The Deal" ended on a Saturday evening with Francesca coming and propositioning Fraser, and by Wednesday he was ready to tug a loose thread off his breast pocket and go waltz in the courtyard with another woman who had only hours earlier actually tried even harder to force herself on him. In addition to which, it is now Sunday (maybe) and the cuts and bruises he sustained in "The Deal" eight or nine days ago are no longer visible, nor were they visible on Wednesday in the episode in between.

In short: SHENANIGANS. I think "Invitation," which aired on April 6, i.e., a week after "The Deal," must have been out of order, and this episode must have been originally intended for that date.

Anyway. It's not clear whether Fraser and Francesca did in fact sleep together, because he did look at her just like a squirrel she was about to hit with the car, plus he had the aforementioned cuts and bruises at the time and may even have been toting one or more busted ribs. But if he'd turned her down, given how invested she was in the idea of sleeping with him, would she be telling Elaine about it a week later? But if he had slept with her, would he be tugging threads off his tunic and going to have a waltz with Katherine Burns four days later? A guy who is as wigged as we've seen Fraser be by social attention from attractive women doesn't strike me as a guy who will date (or "date") two women in that short a time period. (Further evidence, I think, that "Invitation" can't have taken place between "The Deal" and the present episode.)

In any event, I don't think it's any of Vecchio's goddamn business whom Francesca, a grown woman who has been married and divorced, does or doesn't sleep with. I know dudes have A Thing about their buddies sleeping with their sisters, but I'd prefer to think Fraser doesn't subscribe to that kind of crap. He's apparently only brought it up in the first place (but see comments) because he assumes Francesca will already have brought it up, so maybe he agrees (with me, I mean) that it's not actually information Vecchio needs or even has any right to.

( Scene 3 )

ELAAAINE. I want Elaine to have more dignity than Francesca in the whole throwing-themselves-at-Fraser situation, and she keeps—well, wanting what she wants, which is not wrong of her. And/but/so I guess the dabbing-his-wounds-with-antiseptic scene was not The Start Of Something for Fraser and Elaine, and it sounds like Elaine believes Fraser and Francesca did sleep together (though it's still not clear whether this is true, whether it's not true but Francesca implied it heavily, or what).

Would Fraser expect Vecchio to call him out for dishonoring Francesca by sleeping with her or dishonoring her by rejecting her? The whole concept of men's getting hung up on women's virtue is so foreign to me that I genuinely don't know. Again: This is a grown woman (so it's none of anyone else's business full stop) who has been married before (so for people who are prudishly concerned with her virtue, isn't she in a different category than an "innocent girl"?). Oof, I'm twisting myself into pretzels trying to be mad at Vecchio and not mad at Fraser here, and fuck it, I think they're both being disgusting.

( Scene 4 )

I don't know why Huey and Gardino are buddies with the feds.

( Scene 5 )

I have to assume these particular feds have done good work that we haven't seen, or else why on earth would anyone entrust them to take over a missing persons case after their bang-up failure in the kidnapping of David Lee?

( Scene 6 )

It is to be hoped that Vecchio is going home to get some sleep, but we have our doubts, don't we.

( Scene 7 )

I definitely don't know what to make of Fraser explaining his idea of chivalry to Elaine. Neither, it seems, does Elaine.

( Scene 8 )

So this FBI agent is of course a complete asshole, and he's also impressively stupid: Does he really think this is the right time or the right way to start asking Fraser questions to probe whether he was involved in this disappearance? Like he won't see through him sooner than immediately? He thinks his "the one in the red coat" insight is an insight when Fraser is wearing the red coat right now. Le sigh.

Meanwhile, if the young woman disappeared on Thursday evening and this is the third day, that's one thing, but if "it's been three days" means she disappeared on Wednesday evening and they got the case on Thursday so this is the third day,* Fraser's detailed itinerary of what he was up to at the time of the disappearance would apparently involve riding in a garbage truck all the way to the city dump and then waltzing in a courtyard at a Canadian consulate reception, no?

*Look, I think if a thing happens on a Friday then three days later it's Monday, but a whole major world religion is based on "three days" actually being about 36 hours, so who knows what value of three days the show is using here?

( Scene 9 )

Best I can work out, La Mesa is a brand of chili powder. He doesn't mean maize, which wouldn't have made sense anyway; is there a specific spice that I don't know the name of that he could be referring to?

The more people Francesca tells about her tryst with Fraser, the less I believe she actually shagged him, because if she were doing it she wouldn't need to brag about it. Right?

( Scene 10 )

Item one: GODDAMN, FRASER, GET A CLEAN SPOON rather than sticking your finger right in the ladle, you filthy animal.

Item two: This poor guy is obviously distressed, and even the heroic community-oriented Fraser treats him way more roughly than is necessary. Between the Francesca matter and this, he's not covering himself in glory today, is Big Red.

( Scene 11 )

Again: Agent Ford, what a dick. I'm going to deduct five points from Ms. Wilson for "there's been no body recovered" in response to "where's the body," because DUH; what she meant and should have said was that there's no evidence the young woman has been killed. Other than that, of course the hero of the scene is Garret, who is convincingly upsetting as someone who is badly distressed by the things he's seeing (and the way he is being treated).

This is the same public defender who looked after Willie Lambert. I love continuity! (When it makes sense. I'm still a little ticked that Mrs. MacGuffin the housekeeper turned up at Nigel Ellis's place.)

( Scene 12 )

I like Welsh using his detective skills to try and see how much of Francesca's story stands up to scrutiny.

The look on Fraser's face when Garret says "No" and he says "Thank you" is UNREAL. It is the kindest he has looked or been in the 20 TV hours we've known him. No wonder poor agitated Garret calmed down; it's the sort of expression of serene peace that is completely contagious. It's at 17:34 on the DVD. Look again. You'll feel better.

( Scene 13 )

In which Fraser once again quotes Shakespeare almost but not quite accurately (and in a plot having to do with hallucination or mental illness, as well). The line from Hamlet in this instance is "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Vecchio is right that Hamlet isn't strictly relevant here, although opinions differ on whether Hamlet was in fact crazy. I like Elaine calling the feds Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—the guys who are pretending to be your friends but are actually plotting against you. Is she the only one who's done the reading?

( Scene 14 )

It's hard to tell if this is a moment of softening between Ford and Vecchio or if Ford is lulling Vecchio into a false sense of security. (Assuming he has the wit.) Hence, I suppose, the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern reference.

( Scene 15 )

Aha, see, "Vecchio has a point" indeed; Ford is doing a double-cross.

( Scene 16 )

Somehow Ford does not see that Fraser and Vecchio have the ransom note. That's lucky.

( Scene 17 )

( Scene 18 )

That was a long chase. Was the episode running short? (But at least the units counted off in order this time, thank God.)

( Scene 19 )

Jefferson Adams, huh? I'm so tired.

I'd like to think Ford is mad because if the case doesn't get solved the young woman will stay kidnapped and soon die, but I suspect he is mad because if he doesn't solve the case he'll be in trouble with the FBI director.

( Scene 20 )

SO CLOSE. So close to an emotionally mature moment. Ray. Your sisters have both BEEN MARRIED. Your other sister HAS CHILDREN.* These are women who HAVE HAD SEX WITH MEN. I'm giving Fraser full credit for not telling Ray whether he shagged Francesca and for not being the one to keep the subject alive (and then taking away points for having been the one to bring it up in the first place (but see comments), for a total of 95%; and I'm giving Vecchio half credit for "I'm going to have to live with this" but still apparently feeling in some deep-down part of himself like he gets to have any decision at all in whether or with whom women in his family have sex.

*Wait, do we know that? We know Maria and Tony have been married five years; we know Vecchio has a nephew who buys dollar-and-a-half gumballs; but we don't know for sure that the nephew is Maria and Tony's son, do we—there's also apparently a brother (who doesn't live with the rest of the family but who may be local and have a family of his own)—but it seems probable.

( Scene 21 )

This is Fraser being a lot less kind than he was in scene 12. Boy, when he decides what he would do if he were in your place, he allows for no wiggle room, does he?

( Scene 22 )

Jonathan Banks, as Garret, is very, very good. I'm not familiar with Breaking Bad, but I imagine he was very good over there as well. In this scene, when he's getting buried in sand and realizes that his vision was Fraser trying to save him rather than trying to hurt the young woman, I get goosebumps. I'm glad they didn't leave him down there. (This isn't that kind of show.) I also liked how Diefenbaker wanted to get closer to the panicking young woman in this scene. Good dog.

( Scene 23 )

Mr. Madison went off-plan on the drop, and we barely heard either of them speak and barely ever saw her face, and I still get misty when the parents and the children are reunited safely. It's like I'm wearing a bulls-eye.

( Scene 24 )

At first, to be perfectly honest, when I hear Vecchio tell Francesca to stay away from Fraser it sounds like the reverse of the typical Protective Older Brother situation, right?, hey buddy keep your hands off my sister—it sounds like he is trying to protect Fraser from Francesca. Could have been interesting. But then he busts out "guys like him don't marry girls like you," and I don't know what kind of slut-shaming playbook he's reading from, holy crap. Followed by "girls like you get hurt and guys like him don't even know," and I don't know which of them he thinks the slut is that he's slut-shaming. The guy has been awake for four days straight, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't talk sense. So I don't know what's going on with him.

But I do like Francesca's answer. (It also seems to be in line with Katherine Burns's take-a-risk pull-a-string advice from "Invitation," does it not?) I like very much that she is the firmest of all in her assertion that whom she sleeps with is none of her brother's business. (Because it is! None of his business!) I can't quite reconcile that with how many other people's business she seems to have made it throughout the rest of the episode, though. She was very comfortable talking about Her (let's call it a) Date With Fraser and then suddenly extremely uncomfortable talking to Fraser. This meeting at the water fountain is not a meeting between two people who are likely to be in a romantic relationship going forward, is it. Mind you that doesn't shed definitive light on what happened between them before. Way I see it, it could have gone a couple of ways: Either he let her down as easy as he could and they did not sleep together; or they did sleep together and no more than one of them enjoyed it. (Or, now that I'm thinking about the drinking fountain not working, they went for it but Fraser couldn't get it up. I'm surprised it took this long for that to occur to me.) It looks like she may have realized that whatever happened last Saturday should not have happened (starting from her showing up at his place and dropping her coat, I mean; she shouldn't have done that, and whatever happened after that, they shouldn't have done those things either) and probably has realized that it certainly shouldn't happen again.

So we still don't know for sure if Fraser slept with Francesca—I'd bet a couple bucks that the show itself chose not to decide, that the actors did a couple takes playing it as though they had and a couple playing it as though they hadn't and those got mixed and matched in editing—and it's not terribly important that we do know, but now I'm coming back to the fact that "An Invitation to Romance" aired between "The Deal" and this episode. I am even more convinced that it should have gone the other way, that this should have aired a week after "The Deal," and the order of events should have been:

1. Fraser hears Francesca insist that she is right to reach for something she wants.
2. Fraser and Francesca part in the hallway on good terms, no matter what happened between them a week ago.
3. Some time after that, Fraser meets Katherine Burns, and after that whole business in the garbage truck with the loose thread and her, too, urging him to take a risk, he does.

We're not doing the title, because it was covered in scene 13.

Cumulative body count: 11
Red uniform: The whole episode

Previous | Index of annotated transcripts | Next