chase_acow | Here's my first due South rec for ds

Hey everyone. Had a very busy day today, I only got home about an hour ago from an all-day-long marathon. I'm tired. So I don't know if any of you are due Southers, but I volunteered to rec episodes for March and I figure, I might as well post it on my journal too just to keep up with it.

I've got two papers due on Friday, guess I should probably start them sometime. Fourgy fic is finished, mostly. I just want to let it sit for a bit before I reread it and then ask for a ~~victim~~ volunteer to give it a once over. Also, I'm working on the prompt "dirty talk" and "cuddle" for

smut_69.

Real Life (tm) is not going so well. It's not that I have anything to complain about, it's just that I feel very isolated from everything right now. Hopefully spring break will sort me out. Happy Ash Wednesday.

Red, White, or Blue

Hi everyone, it’s your friendly neighborhood March episode day reccer –

sly_bone! I’ll be guiding your tour through some of my favorite dS episodes and moments. Hopefully they may become some of yours too.

Today, we’ll be taking a look at a classic Season 2 episode written by Paul Gross: Red, White, or Blue So fasten your seatbelts because it’s going to be a bumpy ride!

Synopsis:

This episode takes place after The Duel, before Flashback and is the second to last episode wish RayV in Season 2. It’s a continuation of the plot line of All the Queen’s Horses and features bad guy Randal Bolt and Co.

Incarcerated and awaiting trial, Randal Bolt, the leader of the terrorists in "All the Queen's Horses," plans his revenge on Fraser and Ray. With the help of his brother Francis and his cousins Vern and Gabe, Randal plans for his escape and the elimination of Fraser and Ray.

Vern and Gabe, posing as Fraser and Ray, kidnap our heroes just as Randal Bolt's trial is set to begin. Randal's family takes the courtroom hostage -- strapping bombs to Fraser, Ray, the judge and the jury. The FBI readies to meet Bolt's demands for a helicopter for their escape while S.W.A.T. Teams await instruction.

Fraser and Ray are trapped in the courthouse strapped to a bomb set to go off if their combined heart rates exceed 200 beats per minute. Trying to remain calm, they must diffuse the bomb, choosing between the red, white or blue wires of the detonator, save the hostages, the Justice Building, thirty million in bonds and put Bolt back behind bars.

Highlights:

Random! Coffee Mountie
Fraser/Ray conversation [see below]
The story of how boy met wolf
Mexican ponchos
~~Interpretive Dance~~ Semaphore
Thatcher smacking the FBI
Fraser setting himself on fire

Quotes:

This conversation takes place while Fraser and Ray are each in their separate homes, and neither one can hear the other. [This would be conformation of the broccoli test if anything is.]

Fraser: (To Dief, as he opens refrigerator) "What do you want?"
Ray: (Looking into refrigerator) "Nothing. Every time I open this box, I'm full of hope, and all I get is a choice between dill pickles and asiago cheese."
BOTH: "It's like having your knees cut out from underneath you."
Fraser: "He's feeling slighted, and not without justification. After all, if you go to extreme lengths, and your efforts are ignored..."
Ray: "It only makes a guy feel like... uhh... What do I feel like? Am I angry? Am I depressed? Or am I just jealous?"
BOTH: "I'm talking to myself."
Ray: "This is ridiculous."
Fraser: "It's ridiculous."
BOTH: "Nevertheless, we really have to try and talk this out."
Ray: "We put that guy behind bars. He's ready to go to trial. Now, I walked into that room today and this little bouncy reporter comes up to me and I'm thinking, 'All right, Ray, here's your chance. Here's a little reward for putting yourself in harm's way one more time.' And what's the first question she asks me? "So? What's the Mountie like?" He's Superman, ok? What do you expect me to say? He's a moron? He dresses up in that damned red suit every single day of his life like a sign post."
Fraser: "Come on Ray, that's not fair. I don't wear it all the time. The truth is there are times I wish I didn't have to wear it. I mean, the thing itches. It itches 365 days of the year, unless of course, it's a leap year in which case it itches 366 days. The point is, I don't wear it intentionally. It's part of my obligations."
Ray: "We are not talking about clothes here, Fraser, ok? We're talking about you, the most irritating man in the world."
Fraser: "Ray, I know I irritate you. But you have to believe me, I'm not trying to irritate you. It's not part of some sort of master plan. You know, the fact of the matter is I often try to imagine how you would handle a given situation. Just the other day for instance, I saw this woman who was in a wheelchair and she was having difficulty with a set of doors. So I was just about to help her when all of a sudden I had your voice in my head: [in the worst accent ever] 'Hey, Fraser! What the hell's wrong with you? You gotta help every cripple in the greater Chicago area? What the hell do you think they have those handicap buttons for?'"
Ray: "So they can feel good about themselves. So they can do something on their own, without some do-gooder's help. But no. What do you do? You help them through anyway. You wheeled around and help them into a cab."
Fraser: "Which promptly ran over my foot. But the point of the anecdote is this: while I was helping her, I knew that you would be irritated with me. But I'm sorry. I seem... I seem to be powerless to prevent that. I don't know... I don't know if it's some sort of flaw in my upbringing, or just genetic abnormality, or perhaps it's some aberrant property in the Tuktoyaktuk water system."
Ray: "Don't put this on the water Fraser, this is a conscious thing that you do, OK? You cover everything up. You squash it down. It's like that time with Frobisher? When that guy Counter stabbed you in the shoulder?"
Fraser: "Geiger"
Ray: "What?"
Fraser: "The man's name was Geiger"
Ray: "His name is Geiger Counter?"
Fraser: "No. Just Geiger. No Counter, and he stabbed me in the leg."
Ray: "Leg? Shoulder? What difference does it make?"
Fraser: "Well, Ray, when you're the one being stabbed, the difference is remarkable."
Ray: "The point is, Fraser, he stabbed you and were you angry?"
Fraser: "I was in pain!"
Ray: "We're talking about anger here, Fraser. A human emotion. Are you human? Because if you are, human beings feel things, ok? They feel anger, they feel love, they feel lust and fear. And sometimes, I know you don't want to hear this, sometimes they even cry."
(knock knock)
Ray: (as he sees Fraser in his doorway) "Fraser?"
WHACK! Ray gets punched out by the Fake!Fraser
Fraser: (as he sees Ray in his doorway) "Ray?"
WHACK! Fraser gets punched out by the Fake!Ray

(This exchange is while the boys are still hooked up to the bomb monitoring their heartrates.)

Fraser: "*PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE*, Hmmmmmmmmmmm..."
Ray: "*What* are you *doing?*"
Fraser: "Hmmmmm - Dropping my heart rate - Hmmmmmm..."
Ray: "In the middle of an argument?"
Fraser: "Hmmmmmmm - Don't let me stop you - Hmmmmmm..."
Ray: "I'm gonna *kill* you!"
Fraser: "Hmmmmmm - That's very possible - Hmmmmmmm..."
(This conversation takes place after Fraser and Thatcher have a conversation using semaphore.)
Ray: "Nothing? You're standing there flailing your arms around like you're Daffy? What? Do you think I just got off the boat?"
Fraser: "Which boat?"
Ray: "Don't try to deflect this."
Fraser: "Deflect what?"
Ray: "You know what I'm talking about."
Fraser: "Well, no, Ray. Actually, I don't know what you're talking about."
Ray: "After all we've been through you haven't learned anything."
Fraser: "In what sense?"
Ray: "Oh. You are the most irritating man in the world."
Fraser: "Define irritating."
Ray: "No, you look it up, Mr. Encyclopedia."
Fraser: "I think you mean Mr. Dictionary."

What we’ve learned:

~ It’s the Northwest Territory not Northwest Territories.

~ Paul Revere did not actually make it to Concord. Instead, it was a Dr. Prescott.

~ Red stands for hardiness and courage.
~ White stands for purity and innocence.
~ Blue stands for vigilance and justice.
As spelled out by the Continental Congress of 1872

~ Semaphore is the best alternative to a phone when communicating across buildings.

~ There’s usually a puddle at the bottom of elevator shafts.

~ Sometimes, you have to be a conduit and let the world come to you

Resources:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~warydbom/duesouth.htm
http://www.carolinemockett.com/duesouth/eps/ep139.html
http://www.zianet.com/jsager/picframe1.html

Discussion:

1. What did you like/dislike about this episode?
2. What would you have changed about the ep? (character, theme, setting, putting RayK in?)
3. Anything you ant to point out that I missed/got wrong? Suggestions for making next week's rec better?

Next week: In honor of my icon, I'll present a few Fraser Sr. episode moments.

Here's my first due South rec for ds_recs