return to Due South: season 2 episode 13 "White Men Can't Jump To Conclusions"

White Men Can't Jump To Conclusions
air date April 4, 1996

( Scene 1 )

If properly molded boots are a Mountie's prize possession, what is the value in having them returned to being "as good as new"?

Astor Street is a real street in, as you might guess from the context, a fancy part of Chicago. Vecchio's attitude toward this neighborhood is a disappointing indictment of law enforcement in general and the Chicago PD in particular, isn't it? "This is a cruddy neighborhood, and if we try to fight crime here, we'll be here all day?" (a) Wow; (b) fuck off. (Plus, "you should think about getting a horse, because I'm getting tired of driving you around"? This is not something a guy's best friend says.) The neighborhood does demonstrate that it has an unusually high level of violence, and I'll grant that Vecchio is off duty, but come on.

Did anyone else think the focus on the shooting victim scrabbling in the gravel meant he was about to throw a handful of stones in Fraser's face? Just me?

Anyway, the neighborhood is also in a general state of poor repair, which is why the fence falls down so Vecchio doesn't have to climb over it and why the fire escape collapses so the shooter can't flee; but it hasn't shown itself to be a hotbed of theft, particularly, so it's additionally shitty of Vecchio to assume his car will have been stolen—and then disappointing when it turns out Fraser's boots aren't where he left them. (Spending the goodwill he had earned by remembering "bindlestitch," alas.)

Credits roll.

Paul Gross
David Marciano
Beau Starr
Tony Craig
Catherine Bruhier

(plus Lincoln the dog)

Camilla Scott, Leonard Roberts, Chauncey B. Raglin-Washington, Isiah Thomas, Tab Baker

( Scene 2 )

I can't decide whether the gym socks and sneakers are more ridiculous with the jodhpurs than they were with the socks pulled up over the cuffs of the blue sweatpants, or less. I think, based on the fact that the jodhpurs obviously tuck in better than the sweatpants, but the sneakers at least make sense with sweatpants whereas the uniform ensemble absolutely doesn't go, it's a draw.

How does Fraser expect his interlocutor to judge whether a given pair of boots are more faded than those depicted in a black and white line drawing. Honestly. (I'm not sold on the necessity of this montage in general. We've seen Fraser not entirely getting the hang of struggling neighborhoods before, particularly neighborhoods where a majority of the residents are people of color. We've seen him canvassing, both successfully and less so. And we've seen him being a bit of a dick to Diefenbaker. We've even seen him sniffing the insides of sneakers. This scene has all these things in one place. Woohoo.)

( Scene 3 )

There is a song playing in the background here, possibly on the car radio, and I can only hear the words "to business" twice and absolutely can't identify it. Happy for any guidance.

( Scene 4 )

I guess right now I should just be glad Vecchio isn't slamming this young man's face into the table.

( Scene 5 )

Lou, Apparently has made a solid point that Fraser and his colleagues are mounters and the horses are mountees, and I love it. Relatedly, it's never occurred to me before, but shortening "Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman" to "Mountie" feels like an Australian thing to do, doesn't it? I don't know, maybe they'd find a way to do an -o suffix rather than an -ie one in Australia or New Zealand. (That is, officers of the hypothetical Royal Australian Mounted Police would be called Rampos rather than Rampies or Mounties, the latter of which would sound like "mannies" anyway . . .)

So anyway, though, Lou, Apparently is the local Godfather, basically.

( Scene 6 )

Keen observers will have realized that by the end of this scene, Vecchio is in the men's room while Fraser stands in the open doorway with his back turned. Which, okay, you're giving your buddy a modicum of privacy, but seriously, maybe actually close the door?!

Fraser's point that the kid is practicing what he's not already good at is a solid one, but it's hard to avoid noticing that for once Vecchio has done some actual diligent police work, and Fraser's "but come on, Ray" isn't going to get as far as it's got him other times. (Also, he never does say how he knows the shooter was left-handed.)

I am disappointed in Vecchio's assessment that basketball and crime are the only career paths available to kids in that neighborhood. And in his zero-sum calculations about the numbers of bad guys in the world depending on whom he does and doesn't lock up. That's not . . . I don't like it.

( Scene 7 )

At this point one begins to feel more of Vecchio's pain.

( Scene 8 )

I'm not sure Fraser's popularity should be lower now than it was when he got Zuko out on that technicality, as linked from the previous scene. I'm just saying. But his rules-lawyering "you told me to stay away from you for an hour" bullshit is bullshit.

When I was 11, I was babysitting my brother once and got fed up with him and told him I was going to my room and to leave me alone. A little while later I heard him crying and went to see what was up, and he'd been playing with his Swiss Army knife and had cut his hand, and while I was helping him clean it and getting him band-aids and so on, I asked him why on earth he hadn't come to get me, and he sobbed "You said not to bother you!" So of course I ate my heart out, and it's possible neither of us has ever breathed a word of that event to our parents, but the important reason for my telling this story at this time is that Benton Fraser is a grown adult who knows better than my brother did at the age of eight what is an appropriate way to leave someone alone for an hour and what is—what's the word I'm trying to think of here—not.

Charles Manson was the white supremacist leader of a cult whose members killed at least nine people; prosecutors argued that even though he didn't tell his followers to commit these murders, it was his influence that led them to do their crimes because they wanted to please him. (One of his adherents was Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who was convicted of attempting to assassinate Gerald Ford—an event entirely fictionalized in Assassins by Stephen Sondheim.)

( Scene 9 )

This is the second time Reggie has talked about Dick and Marv: He means Marv Albert and Dick Enberg, who used to be big play-by-play announcers.

"I can afford to be an idiot" is an interesting position for Tyree to take. He is evidently smarter than Reggie, but he doesn't think he's as good a basketball prospect, so he assumes he doesn't have a way out of the neighborhood and can therefore more safely make what he knows ahead of time to be bad decisions. 🤔

( Scene 10 )

I've been fortunate to have no experience whatsoever of how gangs operate. Will they shoot anyone at all who comes onto their turf if they're not a member of the gang? or just if they're a member of a rival gang? or just someone who's in the area for the wrong reason? (Such as being a cop, I suppose.) Basically, how offensively reductive is Vecchio being here?

( Scene 11 )

So now both Reggie and Tyree have been visibly unhappy with Lou, Apparently's instruction. If he's this magnanimous, beneficent figure in the neighborhood, why are they both afraid of him? 🤔

( Scene 12 )

I adore "the bang is where the bing should have been." I adore it so much that I don't mind that they did the bit three times when only one of them was actually necessary. (The subsequent back-and-forth feels enough like "Even if you were right, that would be one plus one plus two plus one, not one plus two plus one plus one." "Okay, fine. One plus two plus one—shut up!" that it also makes me happy.)

This is the first we've heard about the shooting victim shooting back (or first), though, isn't it? There's been no suggestion before now that he was even armed. Wouldn't that be in any way relevant? (A man approximately 79.5 kilos weighs approximately 175.25 lbs, and I don't see why it couldn't have been a woman approximately 79.5 kilos standing on that spot, eh, Fraser?)

( Scene 13 )

This is the second mention of Purdue, a university in Indiana whose basketball program is historically very successful. Isiah Thomas is a basketball hero who grew up in Chicago and retired from pro ball (with the Detroit Pistons) in 1994, at which point he became EVP of the Toronto Raptors.

So all these guys also know Tyree didn't do it, but he knows who did, and he's being instructed to take the fall rather than try to get off as he deserves. What is Lou's purpose here?

( Scene 14 )

I can't work out the rhyme or reason of when Fraser calls Thatcher "ma'am" and when he calls her "sir." I'd have thought maybe it was "ma'am" in general because she outranks him and "sir" when he's done something wrong, but even that doesn't work now, does it? I'm stumped.

Expecting him to pay to replace his government-issued boots as they weren't lost in the line of duty for that government seems entirely reasonable to me, as does the fact that he apparently has a spare uniform but just the one pair of boots, but (a) doesn't he have footwear other than bright white sneakers he could be wearing until his knee boots are recovered or replaced, and (b) doesn't he have both a brown and a blue uniform, either of which he could be wearing instead of the red one given that this is not a special occasion and he's not able to wear the red uniform with the boots it requires?

She is wearing the 1996iest skirt suit ever (wearing it well, but it is unmistakably Of Its Time, as are the chunky-heeled shoes). Also, she pronounces "Lieutenant" in the more usual North American way, without the 'f'. Fraser, meanwhile, is terrible at gaslighting.

( Scene 15 )

The thing is, all the times Fraser has done this ("it was a clunk or a thud"), nobody has ever pointed out that onomatopoeia isn't actually evidence.

( Scene 16 )

I understand the ploy of firing an extra shot to get the blowback on Tyree's hands. I do not understand firing that shot into a tin trash can, the stopping power of which at that range is probably zero. Is that really safer than simply firing it at the ground? I guess Lou and Tyree weren't thinking about the subtle acoustic differences of the respective shots.

I can't find the lyrics to "Peeps" anywhere online.

But the main thing I've got right now is that I am really not fond of the casual way this show has just served us our hero, a white law enforcement officer, turning a high-pressure stream of water on a Black person. Jesus. I understand and appreciate the roles everyone is playing in this scene, and I know it's Chicago in 1996 and not Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963, and I still DO NOT LIKE IT and would prefer the show had found some other way for Fraser to foil that drive-by shooting.

( Scene 17 )

Tyree hasn't given Lou any reason to doubt him, but here we are: There is something they know that they don't want Fraser to know, which would get Tyree's friend (so, probably Reggie) in trouble if it were known, and Tyree believes the right thing to do is to keep lying about it. And now the only time Lou has used the word "Mountie" without mockingly converting it to some other variant (Mounting, Mounter), it's been when he's ordering a hit on him.

( Scene 18 )

I'm glad Vecchio is calling out the ridiculousness of Welsh's lunch spread. It's time someone did.

( Scene 19 )

I appreciate the quickness with which Fraser hops from "Well, actually" to "right, I'm sorry." He's learning—slowly, but it's happening. I'm less impressed with how he hasn't learned yet that Existing While Black is indeed often treated as a crime and had to have Tyree's mother explain it to him.

( Scene 20 )

In another callback to "The Deal" (besides the bindlestitch, I mean), this is not the first time Fraser has drawn someone out over one-on-one basketball. Of course, Reggie is not at all slimy, the way Frank Zuko was, and he beats Fraser fair and square on the court—and implicates himself much more easily with his words.

( Scene 21 )

Aha, you see, it was indeed Chekov's Gravel back in scene 1.

( Scene 22 )

If we can see Tyree's shadow on the floor, so can Fraser, right?

( Scene 23 )

I thought Vecchio's position was that Reggie and Tyree were in the 2-4 Dragons, and the shooting victim (whose name is apparently Taylor Thomas) wasn't, and he was shot just for being on 2-4 Dragon turf. But if Reggie is scared of 2-4s here in or near Fraser's neighborhood, does that mean (a) they are not 2-4s themselves? (b) Fraser lives on 2-4 turf and is not considered a trespasser because he exists outside the gang structure? (c) They are 2-4s but this is someone else's turf and they're liable to be penalized by 2-4 leadership for wandering afield? . . . Basically I don't understand what's going on gang-wise in this episode.

I agree that Fraser has in common with Tyree that their fathers were both shot. I do not agree that Fraser's experience in his 30s of losing his somewhat estranged father is particularly similar to Tyree's experience at age four of seeing his father shot to death in his presence. But they are both fatherless, I'll grant that.

Reggie's question, "You've been outside of Chicago; what's that like?" is almost an afterthought in this scene, and it is so sad.

( Scene 24 )

This is a nice little hat-hanging moment on the Timmy-and-Lassie of it all. 😄

( Scene 25 )

There was some nice reaction work from Reggie in this scene, during Tyree's monologue, as if he hadn't realized how bad it was going to be for those who don't have his talent and luck. It's hard to think of a kid growing up in the circumstances the show has outlined for us re: that neighborhood as privileged, but Reggie does have some good fortune compared to Tyree, and this is the moment he realizes it.

I think the "crying wolf" comment is just there because they needed something to wrap up the scene with. It doesn't have anything to do with Diefenbaker's reasons for bringing Vecchio down to find Fraser in the alley.

( Scene 26 )

I assume "get his rag" refers to a badge of gang membership Taylor Thomas would earn for killing (or at least shooting) Reggie. I'm not sure I see how Reggie blowing the game will get both him and Tyree out of there, but it's of course true that telling the truth is the right thing to do.

Fraser's mistaking the idiom is cute, and I guess it's there for a tiny amount of levity in an otherwise potentially very grim scene? I don't know, I feel like it doesn't exactly go, but it doesn't totally clang either. He hasn't spent the past two years trying to be hip and failing, so it's not obvious to me why we need this punch line for a joke that hasn't ever been set up, but whatever.

( Scene 27 )

We never see the boot savior's face, nor do we know why he brought the damn things to the game in the first place (how did he know Fraser would be there?). The trope of someone in a dangerous neighborhood pointing out how dangerous the neighborhood is (rather than or in addition to people from outside the neighborhood pointing out the same thing) is not uncommon, but it's also been well used in this episode already, hasn't it? I don't know what the whole boots-saved-by-this-guy thing is for.

( Scene 28 )

Ray Vecchio, in "The Blue Line": "Now, I meet celebrities every day, and you can't make a big deal of it. . . . Point is, they're people just like you and me, only they're a lot richer, nastier, and more obnoxious." Ray Vecchio, in "The Promise": "Celebrities are no different than the next guy, Fraser. The only mistake you can make is treating them like they are." Ray Vecchio, meeting Isiah Thomas: [so starstruck he's ready to start dribbling, if you take my double meaning (rim shot) (that's a percussion, not a basketball, rim shot) (oh, I'll come in again)]

I like Fraser asking Isiah Thomas if he plays basketball. It's good for famous people to be reminded occasionally that there are people who don't know or much care who they are. (I did hear a story once about Karen Carpenter meeting someone at a party who hadn't heard of her, which she found very surprising, but hey, the guy was charming, and she enjoyed talking to him, and as they were saying good night she said it was fun and she hoped she'd see him again, and he winked and said "We've only just begun." Somehow the way I imagine that event is delightful rather than gaslighty or otherwise manipulative. Ditto the crown prince of Denmark meeting a girl in a pub and telling her his name is Fred and not revealing that he's royalty until after she's smitten. I think that's marvelous.) Anyway, the idea that a talented athlete should have other assets to fall back on because most people can't succeed at college or professional sports is a sensible one, and it's good to hear a professional athlete acknowledge that among his gifts is uncommon good luck.

The title is a reference to White Men Can't Jump, a 1992 movie with the (at the time) ubiquitous Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson, in which one plot point is whether Harrelson's character can do a slam dunk. So the basketball connection is obvious, and I guess the conclusion Vecchio and Fraser are not supposed to have jumped to is that Tyree was responsible for shooting the guy in the alley—except Vecchio didn't jump to that conclusion, did he, he got there by following a solid deductive process including the fact that Tyree ran from the scene with the gun in his possession and had blowback on his hands. It's actually Fraser who normally jumps to conclusions, and the fact that he often turns out to be right doesn't change that fact (but it shows that White men can, in fact, do this thing). Sigh.

Cumulative body count: 21
Red uniform: Not in the first scene, but otherwise the whole episode, despite the fact that the boots are missing

Previous | Index of annotated transcripts | Next