Sansets' Women Appreciation Day 6 Challenge

[vsee]

Yes, I do know I am really, really late with this. My plans for the afternoon were canceled, so I am going to hash this out while I still have time.

sansets asked for a response to a female character you've disliked, to find redeeming qualities in them.

Comments

[nos4a2no9]

I first saw this ep in its original run back in Canada when I was wee, and I remember hating it. I still hated it years later when I became fannish about the show, and it's only after (many, many) repeated viewings that I've come to appreciate and love the story and the healing process that Fraser goes through. You've done a fantastic job of illustrating exactly why this episode works so brilliantly to help Fraser recover, not only physically but emotionally. And I love how you show that it rehabilitates his relationship with women. You're right in suggesting that dS never really showed us another female character as smart, strong and capable as Jill Kennedy, and she's a great foil for him in this episode. I wouldn't call her Mary Sue-ish: she's humanized a fair bit, and the acterss did a great job of giving her character some subtlety and good, solid humour. I like her as a plucky Grace Kelly-ish female pal, and I really agree with your observations about how she's filling a role formerly occupied by Ray. And I love the apperance of Martha Fraser in the episode: dragonflymuse is right to point out that it suggests Martha was far more affectionate towards her grandson than a lot of fanon suggests.

And what a great description of that scene in the pool. I hadn't quite thought about it in those terms, but it's a lovely image and a great way of interpreting the whole episode. Thanks for posting this and illustrating that the women of dS weren't always giggly schoolgirls around Fraser.

[vsee]

Hey, you. :) This is an interesting response! You're one of the only people I've talked much to who actually saw the show in the original run.

I'm glad you've come around to being able to enjoy this ep more for what it is. I know that a lot of people say that they don't enjoy this one, and I was very surprised. It was one of my S1 favorites from the first time I watched it. The one I've never understood is the episode North. That one baffles me and makes me cringe and frustrates me with bad characterization and tortured plots. And I know that North has a very loyal following. It does not help that North was the first ep I saw, totally out of context, and I had no real idea what the guys had been through. However, a few weeks later after I'd seen all of Season 2 and gone back and seen Season 1, and then understood better what I was seeing in North on the second viewing, I disliked it even more.

I would love to see a 1-2 paragraph description from as many different people as possible about how they would have resolved Victoria's Secret, how they would have got him through this transition. I was trying to come up with something, but so far, my answer is still "I am not sure." I am guessing there was a lot of that going around the writer's table when they were trying to solve this problem, too.