ride forever
Sometime in January, I made a poll asking after those of you who have seen due South. Only seventeen people replied in the affirmative, although I got a few more comments to the effect of, "It's that slashy one from the 90s with the good fanfic, right?" Right! But, guys, as much as I love what the dS fandom has produced, I also just deeply madly love the show. It is low-budget and silly and I do not want to contemplate how many takes probably went wrong because of Diefenbaker, but it is also chock-full of optimism and ordinary people doing good things and Benton Fraser, and it tells a good story. Oh, yeah, and it's slashy, but as much as I fannishly love that, it actually is something of an afterthought, because I love the whole damn show.
In the spirit of this, I have decided it is high time for me to do a picspam about Why I Love Due South. It is a picspam with a Fraser/Kowalski bias and possibly unnecessary dithering over Paul Gross, but it is a picspam of general love also.
Why Aria Loves Due South: An Explanation in Many Pictures
We'll start with the obvious. Reason #1 is Benton Fraser. That's this guy.
Fraser spends less time than I would like in that leather jacket, or in civvies at all, but he is always just that beautiful. Usually even more so; that's just a shot I snagged from the first five minutes of the pilot. He is not generally My Type, physically, but I get a little incoherent whenever I see him because he's ... well, he's probably my favourite fictional character ever.
He gives a perfect stranger all the money he has in his hat because the man's little girl deserves money for health care. (Yeah, the perfect stranger is totally floored by this too.)
He walks from O'Hare airport into Chicago. Because he politely gave the taxis to all the other people waiting on the airport curb. And if he perhaps minds a little that the last taxi was rudely stolen from him right under his nose, he makes no complaint and probably tells himself that a brisk walk will do him good.
The following is probably one of my favourite shots in the entire series. Good thing it's in the opening credit sequence.
He is staunch in his duties, even if his duties are to stand in front of the Canadian Consulate in downtown Chicago and endure torments the likes of which the guards at Buckingham Palace only dream.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that despite my wish that perhaps Fraser would wear his leather jacket more often, I love it when Fraser wears anything. This completely and without question extends to the formal uniform; I swear to god, at this point I see any Mountie in the red uniform and I have a total Pavlovian response.
Fraser also has this really stupid habit of announcing that he is unarmed (he's not licensed for a firearm in the United States, you see) and then stepping directly in front of someone who is armed.
This is not to say that Fraser is incapable of being injured. He's at various times thrown out his back, gotten a knife in the thigh, gotten a bullet in the back, and not once but twice been beat up by (different branches of) the mob. He's beaten up by the mob, incidentally, for standing up for what is right in the face of pretty much everything, up to and including his partner telling him he's being stupid and stubborn. This is probably true but does not make Fraser wrong.
And, hey, another one of my favourite things about Fraser is how he hurts really pretty.
He does not just hurt pretty in the physical way, though. There's also this thing in season 1 that some people seem to really dislike and some people seem to really love, and I am firmly in the latter camp. This thing is called Victoria Metcalf; she's a bank robber Fraser arrested years ago, and he sort of fell in love with her in the process. Take note: Fraser refers to her as the only woman he ever loved, and while in later seasons he has pseudo-dalliances consisting of about a kiss each with, variously, his boss, a bounty hunter, and a card shark -- boy, Fraser can pick 'em -- he never comes close to losing his head around them the way he does around Victoria.
This is Victoria.
This is Victoria making out with Fraser. I include this for the purposes of, uh, when I first saw this scene I think I basically short-circuited. Because Fraser is generally the most buttoned-up -- and polite -- and almost painfully awkward around women who are showing any obvious attraction to him -- guy in the world, and here he is in some soft old sweater and ready to fall into bed at any moment. Sdklfd.
Yeah. Gimme a second here.
Anyway, like I said, Fraser hurts pretty, especially when Victoria up there turns out to be the sort of person who should be locked up in jail; she sets Fraser up, and leaves him, and even though he knows what is going on he's still in love with her and wants her to come back. (I like how when Fraser stops being perfect, he really stops being perfect. He gets knocked on the head or does something really stupid or falls desperately in love with someone fairly evil. Oh Fraser.)
So here he is hurting pretty and lights every single candle in his apartment because he sees the darkness in Victoria and wants to light it right out and call her back to him.
Oh that scene.
On an entirely different note, in case anyone was wondering "Who is that old Mountie in the background?" it would be Bob Fraser, our Fraser's dad. He died in the first episode, but he likes to hang around.
In fact, he likes to hang around a lot and dispense advice at both opportune and inopportune moments. The advice is sometimes really great and is sometimes completely ridiculous.
This here cap shows you that Fraser loves him despite this. Their relationship is one of my favourites in the show: they're both very concerned about justice and upholding the law, both very sure of themselves (most of the time), both prone to telling rambling Inuit stories with no discernable point, and, like most of us probably know from hanging around our families, those things they have in common really get on each other's nerves sometimes. Bob is one of the very few people Fraser feels comfortable enough around to be really snarky, and a snarky Fraser is a beautiful thing.
Oh yeah, and in seasons 3 and 4, Fraser's dad takes up residence in his office closet. Most people can't see Fraser's dad, though, which makes for ... awkward moments.
Like that one.
(Fraser spends a lot of time in this show in literal closets, incidentally, but that is ... an issue for slightly later, perhaps.)
Anyway, the other person Fraser feels comfortable being snarky around is his deaf half-wolf, Diefenbaker. Anyone who tries to sell you on due South is probably going to bring up Dief, but, let me state again, deaf half-wolf. One of Fraser's best friends. Dief can read lips (possibly; possibly he is only faking deafness), can certainly understand people, and has a Fraser-like dedication to police work that is only rivaled by his dedication to Chicago fast food.
Usually Diefenbaker is more adorable than that, but I came across that screencap and had to use it, because it made me die laughing and is the perfect summation of a certain relationship, namely that of Dief and Fraser's first partner, one Ray Vecchio.
Which brings me of course to ... okay, I was not counting reasons, but if we are talking Big Sweeping Reasons I Love This Show, there are exactly three of them, and #2 is Detective Raymond Vecchio.
That there is Ray, back in the pilot episode when he had hair. His receding hairline, however, is no cause for alarm; pretty much he is totally freaking adorable any way you shake it.
Ray is loud, and Italian, and has this absolutely huge loud Italian family, all of whom swoop in and adopt Fraser at a time when he's just lost his father and is alone in a foreign country. Bless the Vecchios.
Here's some bonus Ma Vecchio, and Fraser again -- Fraser who tucks his napkin into his suspenders. Ma Vecchio is probably worrying that he hasn't eaten enough.
Ray also comes in a package with his little sister Francesca, who tries at various points to steal Fraser's heart or at least get into his pants; she also, by s3, has cut her hair, become civilian aid at the police station, and started mostly answering to Frannie. She's total crazycakes and I think both she and Fraser can probably do better than each other, if that makes sense, but I love her.
Anyway, if Frannie is crazycakes that is because she comes from a family full of crazy people. Like Ray, for instance. Or maybe it's just that his shirt is insane.
But that is one of the things I love about Ray: his atrocious fashion sense, which very slowly gets better, so that by the time s4 rolls around, he's wearing Armani suits and can comfortably counter with "Bag lady" when Ray Kowalski calls him "Style pig." (Ray Kowalski, by the way, does not dress like a bag lady unless the trenchcoat counts, and he would probably die laughing if he could see the shirt Vecchio's wearing up there.)
I also love what a good friend Vecchio is. For instance, Diefenbaker, being partly a wolf, is not really ... licensed to be in Chicago. So right when the animal control people are about to take him away, what does Ray do but step in with a wolf license! It is forged, but, hey, it works, and anyway it's the thought that counts.
Oh Ray, what are you wearing.
Ray is also a pretty touchy guy, in the sense that he's cool with getting up in your space. Even (especially) if the you in question is Benton Fraser. They spend lots of time hauling one another to their feet, and clapping one another on the back, and standing side-by-side, and just generally being very friendly and close.
I don't really ship them, except in the Really Epic Bromance way, but I'd be willing to entertain the notion that Ray is quietly and totally not-self-acknowledged in love with Fraser, and that Fraser never even knows. Anyway, I totally love them together.
(My friends suggest that the above picture should come with a SURPRIZE BUTTSEX caption. Guys, I'm trying not to ship them here. Thanks a lot. Anyway, Fraser looks a little startled because he is busy looking at mug shots, not because Ray is hanging all over his shoulder.)
Fraser, by the way, values Ray's friendship so highly that he leaves a post-coital snuggle with Victoria to run out after Ray and apologize for forgetting to hang out with him the other night. Ray, as you can see, is not best pleased.
But their love totally endures.
Oh yeah, and Ray spends a lot of time dragging Fraser into closets, as I might have mentioned. I can't find good screencaps of that, though. Because ... closets. Dark, generally.
Also, the following cap is much tinier because I had to take it myself and my computer saved it small, but it is worth it! This is the cap that exemplifies one of my favourite (shallow) things about Vecchio, namely how he has really pretty eyes. Like, whatever, he has a big nose and he's going bald, but his eyes, guys, they are beautiful.
SEE.
Anyway, any discussion of Ray Vecchio is totally incomplete without mentioning his beloved 1971 Buick Riviera. (Well, there are ... several. Fraser is not good for their lifespan.) Ray's one true love is his Riv. Here is the Riv!
Like I said, Vecchio goes through several. The first one gets shot in the gas tank, blowing it up -- in the name of justice, of course. The second is blown up by the mob. And the third caught fire and then Ray Kowalski drove it into the lake they call Michigan.
And -- yes, those are rubber duckies exploding every which way, there. I LOVE HOW ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS THIS SHOW IS SOMETIMES.
Anyway, flaming Riv, driven by Kowalski into Lake Michigan. Which brings me to #3 of the Big Sweeping Reasons I Love This Show, Ray Kowalski. Let's see.
The man can only shoot with any accuracy if he wears the biggest, dorkiest glasses in the universe. Ie, if he is not wearing his glasses he shoots totally random objects, but if he is wearing his glasses, he is the best shot ever.
It is just so goddamn fun to watch him and Fraser in the same scenes, because Fraser has the world's best posture and keeps everything all subtle and collected, and Ray just ... sprawls on things. Takes up space. Is messy.
Within a few hours of first meeting Fraser, Ray steps right in front of him to take a bullet. Mind you, Ray was wearing a bullet-proof vest, but still -- damn. (Just so that we're clear, within a few days of meeting him, and while seriously injured because of dumb stuff Fraser did, Ray Vecchio went up to the Yukon to tell Fraser case information; there is apparently just something about Fraser that makes people named Ray do amazing, sort of dumb, really wonderful things for him. Anyway, yeah, Kowalski takes a bullet for him.)
And in return Fraser starts doing stuff for Ray. For instance, Ray is ... sort of following his ex-wife around. (Not one of his admirable qualities.) Fraser sees that the fact that Stella is dating another man is upsetting Ray, so when said other man walks over to their car to get a ride, Fraser very politely gets out to help the man in -- and manages to hit him really hard with the door in the process. It is all entirely innocent and absolutely deliberate and may make my heart glow a little, because Fraser does not do slightly jerktastic things like that very often.
Oh, and did I mention that they are basically incapable of standing more than ... no inches apart? Or from really obviously staring at one another?
Or from ... uh.
The above cap brought to you by Mountie on the Bounty, one of the most beautifully slashy things to ever grace the small screen. They engage in intense conversations about partnership and trust, touch a hell of a lot, both lose their cool, and kiss; Fraser calls it buddy breathing, but none of us are fooled. There's even a bit where they're stuck together -- very, very close together -- in a submersible.
Oh, and Fraser uses a gun, which, I totally pretend not to have a gun kink but clearly I'm lying.
And ... look, okay, whenever I get to the last scene of Mountie on the Bounty I sort of lose all abilities of coherent speech. It's this awkward not-speaking declaration of love and then they just look at each other.
And ... uh, I really did mean for this to mostly be just an "I love due South" post, but I feel it is worth pointing out that I began s3 thinking, "There's no way it can be as slashy as advertised" and reached the finale of s4 admitting that, yes, it was slashy, but they still got female love interests every so often. Then I got to this one particular scene. In this one particular scene, Fraser is chasing a suspect through a hotel; the suspect is in the elevator, and Fraser is taking the stairs. In order to know what floor the suspect is going to, Fraser stays on Ray's cell phone while Ray stays on the pay phone in the lobby and reads off floor numbers to him. Fraser gets a little out of breath, what with all those stairs to run up. Ray listens, then observes, "You're breathing kinda hard," and gives the following look.
It is much smirkier in motion, but -- I am sure the intention was to convey that Ray is teasing Fraser a little for being human like everyone else. My immediate reaction was still, "Oh my god, why did he say that? For what reason would he say that?? Wow. They are totally having sex." I am sure this is a leap in logic.
But it is a small one.
And finally, because this is not a manifesto but in fact a THIS SHOW IS AWESOME, GUYS post, I leave you with a picture of all three of them. Fraser is extremely pleased with this. So am I. The Rays aren't, but then they bond over what a freak Fraser is, and everything is lovely.
Anyway. This is a show that is PRETTY and HAPPY and KINDA GAY and about COPS and also MOUNTIES, and I LOVE IT.
The end!
[Cap credits: Due South Screencaps; Cap It!; view_paradise; a few are my own.]
In the spirit of this, I have decided it is high time for me to do a picspam about Why I Love Due South. It is a picspam with a Fraser/Kowalski bias and possibly unnecessary dithering over Paul Gross, but it is a picspam of general love also.
Why Aria Loves Due South: An Explanation in Many Pictures
We'll start with the obvious. Reason #1 is Benton Fraser. That's this guy.
Fraser spends less time than I would like in that leather jacket, or in civvies at all, but he is always just that beautiful. Usually even more so; that's just a shot I snagged from the first five minutes of the pilot. He is not generally My Type, physically, but I get a little incoherent whenever I see him because he's ... well, he's probably my favourite fictional character ever.
He gives a perfect stranger all the money he has in his hat because the man's little girl deserves money for health care. (Yeah, the perfect stranger is totally floored by this too.)
He walks from O'Hare airport into Chicago. Because he politely gave the taxis to all the other people waiting on the airport curb. And if he perhaps minds a little that the last taxi was rudely stolen from him right under his nose, he makes no complaint and probably tells himself that a brisk walk will do him good.
The following is probably one of my favourite shots in the entire series. Good thing it's in the opening credit sequence.
He is staunch in his duties, even if his duties are to stand in front of the Canadian Consulate in downtown Chicago and endure torments the likes of which the guards at Buckingham Palace only dream.
Oh yeah, and did I mention that despite my wish that perhaps Fraser would wear his leather jacket more often, I love it when Fraser wears anything. This completely and without question extends to the formal uniform; I swear to god, at this point I see any Mountie in the red uniform and I have a total Pavlovian response.
Fraser also has this really stupid habit of announcing that he is unarmed (he's not licensed for a firearm in the United States, you see) and then stepping directly in front of someone who is armed.
This is not to say that Fraser is incapable of being injured. He's at various times thrown out his back, gotten a knife in the thigh, gotten a bullet in the back, and not once but twice been beat up by (different branches of) the mob. He's beaten up by the mob, incidentally, for standing up for what is right in the face of pretty much everything, up to and including his partner telling him he's being stupid and stubborn. This is probably true but does not make Fraser wrong.
And, hey, another one of my favourite things about Fraser is how he hurts really pretty.
He does not just hurt pretty in the physical way, though. There's also this thing in season 1 that some people seem to really dislike and some people seem to really love, and I am firmly in the latter camp. This thing is called Victoria Metcalf; she's a bank robber Fraser arrested years ago, and he sort of fell in love with her in the process. Take note: Fraser refers to her as the only woman he ever loved, and while in later seasons he has pseudo-dalliances consisting of about a kiss each with, variously, his boss, a bounty hunter, and a card shark -- boy, Fraser can pick 'em -- he never comes close to losing his head around them the way he does around Victoria.
This is Victoria.
This is Victoria making out with Fraser. I include this for the purposes of, uh, when I first saw this scene I think I basically short-circuited. Because Fraser is generally the most buttoned-up -- and polite -- and almost painfully awkward around women who are showing any obvious attraction to him -- guy in the world, and here he is in some soft old sweater and ready to fall into bed at any moment. Sdklfd.
Yeah. Gimme a second here.
Anyway, like I said, Fraser hurts pretty, especially when Victoria up there turns out to be the sort of person who should be locked up in jail; she sets Fraser up, and leaves him, and even though he knows what is going on he's still in love with her and wants her to come back. (I like how when Fraser stops being perfect, he really stops being perfect. He gets knocked on the head or does something really stupid or falls desperately in love with someone fairly evil. Oh Fraser.)
So here he is hurting pretty and lights every single candle in his apartment because he sees the darkness in Victoria and wants to light it right out and call her back to him.
Oh that scene.
On an entirely different note, in case anyone was wondering "Who is that old Mountie in the background?" it would be Bob Fraser, our Fraser's dad. He died in the first episode, but he likes to hang around.
In fact, he likes to hang around a lot and dispense advice at both opportune and inopportune moments. The advice is sometimes really great and is sometimes completely ridiculous.
This here cap shows you that Fraser loves him despite this. Their relationship is one of my favourites in the show: they're both very concerned about justice and upholding the law, both very sure of themselves (most of the time), both prone to telling rambling Inuit stories with no discernable point, and, like most of us probably know from hanging around our families, those things they have in common really get on each other's nerves sometimes. Bob is one of the very few people Fraser feels comfortable enough around to be really snarky, and a snarky Fraser is a beautiful thing.
Oh yeah, and in seasons 3 and 4, Fraser's dad takes up residence in his office closet. Most people can't see Fraser's dad, though, which makes for ... awkward moments.
Like that one.
(Fraser spends a lot of time in this show in literal closets, incidentally, but that is ... an issue for slightly later, perhaps.)
Anyway, the other person Fraser feels comfortable being snarky around is his deaf half-wolf, Diefenbaker. Anyone who tries to sell you on due South is probably going to bring up Dief, but, let me state again, deaf half-wolf. One of Fraser's best friends. Dief can read lips (possibly; possibly he is only faking deafness), can certainly understand people, and has a Fraser-like dedication to police work that is only rivaled by his dedication to Chicago fast food.
Usually Diefenbaker is more adorable than that, but I came across that screencap and had to use it, because it made me die laughing and is the perfect summation of a certain relationship, namely that of Dief and Fraser's first partner, one Ray Vecchio.
Which brings me of course to ... okay, I was not counting reasons, but if we are talking Big Sweeping Reasons I Love This Show, there are exactly three of them, and #2 is Detective Raymond Vecchio.
That there is Ray, back in the pilot episode when he had hair. His receding hairline, however, is no cause for alarm; pretty much he is totally freaking adorable any way you shake it.
Ray is loud, and Italian, and has this absolutely huge loud Italian family, all of whom swoop in and adopt Fraser at a time when he's just lost his father and is alone in a foreign country. Bless the Vecchios.
Here's some bonus Ma Vecchio, and Fraser again -- Fraser who tucks his napkin into his suspenders. Ma Vecchio is probably worrying that he hasn't eaten enough.
Ray also comes in a package with his little sister Francesca, who tries at various points to steal Fraser's heart or at least get into his pants; she also, by s3, has cut her hair, become civilian aid at the police station, and started mostly answering to Frannie. She's total crazycakes and I think both she and Fraser can probably do better than each other, if that makes sense, but I love her.
Anyway, if Frannie is crazycakes that is because she comes from a family full of crazy people. Like Ray, for instance. Or maybe it's just that his shirt is insane.
But that is one of the things I love about Ray: his atrocious fashion sense, which very slowly gets better, so that by the time s4 rolls around, he's wearing Armani suits and can comfortably counter with "Bag lady" when Ray Kowalski calls him "Style pig." (Ray Kowalski, by the way, does not dress like a bag lady unless the trenchcoat counts, and he would probably die laughing if he could see the shirt Vecchio's wearing up there.)
I also love what a good friend Vecchio is. For instance, Diefenbaker, being partly a wolf, is not really ... licensed to be in Chicago. So right when the animal control people are about to take him away, what does Ray do but step in with a wolf license! It is forged, but, hey, it works, and anyway it's the thought that counts.
Oh Ray, what are you wearing.
Ray is also a pretty touchy guy, in the sense that he's cool with getting up in your space. Even (especially) if the you in question is Benton Fraser. They spend lots of time hauling one another to their feet, and clapping one another on the back, and standing side-by-side, and just generally being very friendly and close.
I don't really ship them, except in the Really Epic Bromance way, but I'd be willing to entertain the notion that Ray is quietly and totally not-self-acknowledged in love with Fraser, and that Fraser never even knows. Anyway, I totally love them together.
(My friends suggest that the above picture should come with a SURPRIZE BUTTSEX caption. Guys, I'm trying not to ship them here. Thanks a lot. Anyway, Fraser looks a little startled because he is busy looking at mug shots, not because Ray is hanging all over his shoulder.)
Fraser, by the way, values Ray's friendship so highly that he leaves a post-coital snuggle with Victoria to run out after Ray and apologize for forgetting to hang out with him the other night. Ray, as you can see, is not best pleased.
But their love totally endures.
Oh yeah, and Ray spends a lot of time dragging Fraser into closets, as I might have mentioned. I can't find good screencaps of that, though. Because ... closets. Dark, generally.
Also, the following cap is much tinier because I had to take it myself and my computer saved it small, but it is worth it! This is the cap that exemplifies one of my favourite (shallow) things about Vecchio, namely how he has really pretty eyes. Like, whatever, he has a big nose and he's going bald, but his eyes, guys, they are beautiful.
SEE.
Anyway, any discussion of Ray Vecchio is totally incomplete without mentioning his beloved 1971 Buick Riviera. (Well, there are ... several. Fraser is not good for their lifespan.) Ray's one true love is his Riv. Here is the Riv!
Like I said, Vecchio goes through several. The first one gets shot in the gas tank, blowing it up -- in the name of justice, of course. The second is blown up by the mob. And the third caught fire and then Ray Kowalski drove it into the lake they call Michigan.
And -- yes, those are rubber duckies exploding every which way, there. I LOVE HOW ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS THIS SHOW IS SOMETIMES.
Anyway, flaming Riv, driven by Kowalski into Lake Michigan. Which brings me to #3 of the Big Sweeping Reasons I Love This Show, Ray Kowalski. Let's see.
The man can only shoot with any accuracy if he wears the biggest, dorkiest glasses in the universe. Ie, if he is not wearing his glasses he shoots totally random objects, but if he is wearing his glasses, he is the best shot ever.
It is just so goddamn fun to watch him and Fraser in the same scenes, because Fraser has the world's best posture and keeps everything all subtle and collected, and Ray just ... sprawls on things. Takes up space. Is messy.
Within a few hours of first meeting Fraser, Ray steps right in front of him to take a bullet. Mind you, Ray was wearing a bullet-proof vest, but still -- damn. (Just so that we're clear, within a few days of meeting him, and while seriously injured because of dumb stuff Fraser did, Ray Vecchio went up to the Yukon to tell Fraser case information; there is apparently just something about Fraser that makes people named Ray do amazing, sort of dumb, really wonderful things for him. Anyway, yeah, Kowalski takes a bullet for him.)
And in return Fraser starts doing stuff for Ray. For instance, Ray is ... sort of following his ex-wife around. (Not one of his admirable qualities.) Fraser sees that the fact that Stella is dating another man is upsetting Ray, so when said other man walks over to their car to get a ride, Fraser very politely gets out to help the man in -- and manages to hit him really hard with the door in the process. It is all entirely innocent and absolutely deliberate and may make my heart glow a little, because Fraser does not do slightly jerktastic things like that very often.
Oh, and did I mention that they are basically incapable of standing more than ... no inches apart? Or from really obviously staring at one another?
Or from ... uh.
The above cap brought to you by Mountie on the Bounty, one of the most beautifully slashy things to ever grace the small screen. They engage in intense conversations about partnership and trust, touch a hell of a lot, both lose their cool, and kiss; Fraser calls it buddy breathing, but none of us are fooled. There's even a bit where they're stuck together -- very, very close together -- in a submersible.
Oh, and Fraser uses a gun, which, I totally pretend not to have a gun kink but clearly I'm lying.
And ... look, okay, whenever I get to the last scene of Mountie on the Bounty I sort of lose all abilities of coherent speech. It's this awkward not-speaking declaration of love and then they just look at each other.
And ... uh, I really did mean for this to mostly be just an "I love due South" post, but I feel it is worth pointing out that I began s3 thinking, "There's no way it can be as slashy as advertised" and reached the finale of s4 admitting that, yes, it was slashy, but they still got female love interests every so often. Then I got to this one particular scene. In this one particular scene, Fraser is chasing a suspect through a hotel; the suspect is in the elevator, and Fraser is taking the stairs. In order to know what floor the suspect is going to, Fraser stays on Ray's cell phone while Ray stays on the pay phone in the lobby and reads off floor numbers to him. Fraser gets a little out of breath, what with all those stairs to run up. Ray listens, then observes, "You're breathing kinda hard," and gives the following look.
It is much smirkier in motion, but -- I am sure the intention was to convey that Ray is teasing Fraser a little for being human like everyone else. My immediate reaction was still, "Oh my god, why did he say that? For what reason would he say that?? Wow. They are totally having sex." I am sure this is a leap in logic.
But it is a small one.
And finally, because this is not a manifesto but in fact a THIS SHOW IS AWESOME, GUYS post, I leave you with a picture of all three of them. Fraser is extremely pleased with this. So am I. The Rays aren't, but then they bond over what a freak Fraser is, and everything is lovely.
Anyway. This is a show that is PRETTY and HAPPY and KINDA GAY and about COPS and also MOUNTIES, and I LOVE IT.
The end!
[Cap credits: Due South Screencaps; Cap It!; view_paradise; a few are my own.]