Bounty Hunter

Season 3, Episode Number: 146

Original broadcast dates:

Written by George Walker, directed by Steve DiMarco

Official Episode Synopsis
While the Chicago police force is in the midst of an illegal strike action known as the "blue flu," Fraser and Kowalski help a female bounty hunter track down a bail jumper from Montana. Things heat up between Fraser and the bounty hunter, but then Fraser discovers that she and the bail jumper have a few secrets of their own.

Trivia:
Canadian Nielsen Rating - #2 (1,340,000 viewers) We learn where Fraser now lives since his apartment went up in flames. The RCW 139 license plate pops up again in on the back of Ray's car. This is not the first time Wendy Crewson has worked with Paul Gross. She was his co-star in the movie "Getting Married in Buffalo Jump."

Significant Guest Stars

JANET MORSE - Wendy Crewson
BRADLEY TORRANCE - Hugh Thompson
DEADEYE FINEBERG - Bruce McFee
ANSELL FORD - Cliff Saunders
WILD BILL JACKSON - Layton Morrison
HARVEY LOPEZ - Paul Saunders
LESTER RIVERS - Ray Alexander

Music

UNLOVED
Performed by: Jann Arden

YOU'RE EVERYWHERE
Performed by: Blue Rodeo

The Review Itself:
I hate the official synopsis. It reads like a sleazy Babe-of-the-Week episode. Due South has never been a typical cop show, and one of its virtues has been avoiding, in general, this common cop-show ploy.

<OT Rant Mode On:>
The Babe-of-the-Week device involves throwing a nubile but disposable Young Thang at Our Heroes, a female who (without requiring any character of her own) can act as an all-around plot device: "strut your macho for the girl" and "show that you're not a completely insensitive action-figure-clod by allowing the girl to confide in you" and finally the ever- popular "save the girl who has fallen into the clutches of the evil villain!". She is the perfect foil -- weak and vulnerable -- to show off the strong, smart, brave hero. And at the end of the typical hour-long episode, this female blow-up doll doesn't even have to be disposed of -- like King Lear's Fool, once she has served her purpose she is never seen again.
<OT Rant Mode Off >

That's not what this episode is about. Thank god. (While I'm praising the show for what it doesn't do, here's a cheer for resisting the save-the-cute-kids device.)

I realize that an episode with a female romantic interest isn't likely to be a slasher's favorite. But I like it very much, for two reasons: it lays a lot of groundwork for future slash between Fraser and Ray (I cannot image that he and Ray have done anything about their mutual attraction, and I'm not even sure that Fraser has noticed his attraction to Ray yet.) and I like Janet.

Janet Morse, the bounty hunter of the title, is not at all a Babe of the Week. She has character, she amply demonstrates that she doesn't need saving. Rather than acting as a foil for Fraser and Ray, she mirrors them. She's also got the backwoods self-sufficiency and kindness to mirror Fraser and her attitude and. . . wiry durability(?) mirror Ray. As Fraser Sr. says, she's bright, capable, and sturdy.

Ray is barely in this one, but he does have his own B story while Fraser's A story line dominates.

We also get to see Fraser actually wanting something: wanting the connections with a lover and a family of his own.

"Bounty Hunter" is about the connections between people, whether as lovers, partners, family, coworkers, or even fellow union members. Specifically, it examines loyalty.

SCENE by Scene
In the teaser, Fraser finds the halls of the usually bustling 27th empty, ghostlike. Something has disrupted the usual police community routine -- labor negotiations. Welsh explains the "blue flu" strategy to Fraser, without showing ill-will or even frustration.

In the break room, Huey fires up his audience by talking about lack of respect for the officers shown through the terms of the contract. Dewey makes a fool of himself by saying, "I am not a police officer, I am a man!" His mistake is picking up on the dignity argument, but not understanding that the reason for the meeting, and the subsequent sick-out, is all about supporting the Fraternal Order of Police -- the community of the police officers -- in the contract negotiations.

Ray (perhaps because he is the son of a meat-packer?) does understand the need for solidarity. He obviously isn't thrilled with the work slow down, but he is loyal to the community. Ray's entire story revolves around balancing his conflicting loyalties to the union, Fraser, and the law.

While Fraser is helping to answer the phones, Janet comes in, harried by her kids, talking with Francesca, business unknown. The first interaction between Janet and Fraser is indirect -- we see one of the kids (Robbie) wearing the Sacred Stetson. Janet chases her kids into the break room, drops a gun, and is instantly surrounded by gun-pointing cops.

Janet has a nice defining moment here. She's got her hands well away from her body, surrounded by suspicious cops, and she is calmer than usual when she deals with her kids. "In a minute, honey. Momma's a little busy right now. . ." (The kids ignore a roomful of drawn guns pointed at their Mom, and this is a defining moment for them, too.) Once Fraser and Francesca spring her from the cops, Janet immediately retrieves her attitude and trades a Long Significant Look with Fraser.

I have no idea why that long look is supposed to be significant, unless they are just struck by each other's physically appearance. Which is possible. I'd gawk if I unexpectedly ran into Fraser in serge. And Janet does look slightly like Victoria.

(Six paragraphs, just for the teaser. Er, time to step this up a bit.)

Scene 1: Squad room
Janet gets a hell of a character-defining scene here. She's a bounty hunter, she has multiple guns, she gets no respect from her kids, she's run ragged by the twin demands of single-motherhood and the job. Three things worth mentioning about this scene:

1)Janet gets a completely wonderful conversation with Frannie about her previous jobs. The girl-talk style (affirming what the other one said, lots of nodding and smiling, etc.) combined with the ultra-butch subject just butters my muffin.

2) Janet trumps Fraser twice. Once about the gun accident statistics, once by catching the falling fan above Annie's head before Fraser can get to it. Now that's enough to get the usually oblivious Mountie to notice a woman.

3)The end of the scene -- when Fraser leaves to follow Janet and Ray stays behind, is written like a classic Fraser/Vecchio guilt-trip scene, but it doesn't play out like one.
Here's the text:

Kowalski: What? Look, I can't break ranks on this.
Fraser: Understood.
Kowalski: No, I can't. Look, Fraser, I can't!
Fraser: Well, I heard you, Ray. I understand.
And then Fraser just leaves, without the "stand and stare at him until he breaks down" behavior that Fraser would have used on Vecchio. I'd love to know whether this episode was written before David Marciano left.

Scene 2: In The Truck
We get to hear Janet swear, and watch Fraser deal with the kids. He deals surprisingly well, connecting with them in a way that I wouldn't expect from a single man raised as an only child.

A word about the kids. They are brats. Absolutely. Every adult who deals with them receives blows to their dignity, but each of the adults (except for Bradley) also gets to demonstrate his or her maturity. Even Turnbull. So. . . the kids, rather than Janet, provide the foil to Our Heroes.

Jaw-dropper #1. Fraser saying: "I think we're all bozos."
He also manages to insure the safety of the kids while getting a jab back at Ray by volunteering Ray as a babysitter.

Scene 3: Precinct
Ray is an inept babysitter when faced with the brats. Big surprise.

Scene 4: Motel
This scene develops the potential for romance. Lays it on with a trowel. Outside the motel-room door, they're standing as close as they can get while Fraser's wearing his hat -- pretty much nose-to-Stetson. Janet demonstrates that she shares Fraser's hypersenses, "We'd hear him breathing if he were in there." (Okay, either she's semi-Sentinel, or Bradley is a remarkably loud breather, or she's being sarcastic.)

Janet kicks open the door, fairly casually, in a very Ray-esque moment.

She shares Fraser's tracking abilities, "there is not a lot of difference between bear hunting and hunting bail jumpers." And then they go on to discuss scat in the city and both take a sniff or lick at Bradley's boots. This time the Long Significant Look is one of recognition -- there are precious few people that could have that conversation. Fraser couldn't have it with any Mounties we've met, nor with any Chicago PD officers, nor with Quinn or Eric. As Fraser recognizes that Janet is a rare person who has the background to understand him, his attraction increases.

And, as usual, Fraser deflects. He turns the conversation towards Bradley.

Still, moments later, when Janet pockets $300, he calls her on it, "Well, ordinarily, yes. I have a problem with theft." But when she doesn't back down and return the money, Fraser is remarkably passive. To my mind, the interaction has shades of Victoria. Once Fraser's heart gets involved, his dedication to the law is. . . diluted.

Scene 5: The Chase
Outside the hotel-room, they see Bradley. and Janet draws her gun on him. As a carful of gun-toting (unknown, but evidently bad) guys enters the parking lot, Fraser drops Janet. They get distracted from the chase for a moment, presumably by their physical proximity. Janet's the first one to get back to the matter at hand.

The parallels in the rest of the scene are straight-forward. Janet jumps into Bradley's car and tries to wrest away control of his gun. Fraser jumps onto the gun arm of one of the Bad Guys, which is sticking out of the door of the Bad Guy car.

Both of them roll out of, or off of, the cars, in the same direction, at pretty much the same time, as the cars turn out of the parking lot. Both end up on their stomachs, clutching guns, watching the cars speed away. They give up (whereas at other times I suspect Fraser would give chase on foot), and do a lovely "my fault" tango.

If it wasn't obvious before, we now know that Janet can keep up with Fraser. And that Fraser finds Janet distracting.

Scene 6. Precinct
Ray, who earlier protested he couldn't check a license plate for Janet, is now on the case, ready to check out the gun Fraser brought back with him. Ray's need to react to "big-time guns" shooting at his partner over-rules his need to maintain solidarity with the union. Also, Ray tells Janet: "I don't like hairbags shooting up the city any more than you do" -- he feels his responsibility to the law. Later in this scene he has to deal with flack from the other cops about this, but there's no question that Ray's primary loyalty lies with Fraser.

I can see, in retrospect, where one could posit that Ray's behavior is motivated by jealousy and/or worry concerning Fraser dealing with Janet on his own. But I don't see it myself. I see Ray just being his normal, aggravated, smart-ass self.

When Janet finds that Bradley stole back the money she had taken from his room, she expects to spend another night sleeping in the truck with the kids. Fraser steps in. Being Fraser, he can't let them sleep in the truck while he has a better place to sleep himself. Which, of course, leads them and us to

Scene 7: The Consulate
The kids need a place to sleep, there's a perfectly usable bed, and bedroom in the Consulate, but due to protocol they can't sleep there. On the other hand, both Bobby Orr and k.d. lang have slept in it, "but not at the same time, for obvious reasons" says Turnbull to the kids. The kids don't understand why they can't go upstairs, nor why the two celebrities wouldn't sleep together, and nobody is going to explain to them.

Scene 8: Fraser's office
Fraser's office has a window! I never noticed that before. Janet has to stretch to be polite about Fraser's living in his office. I loved Janet's classic (but largely futile) Mom voice, when she strides out of the office shouting, "Suzanne!"

Scene 9: Fraser Sr.'s office
A sweet little scene.

Fraser, Sr: I don't know. They said that applewood lasts longer, gives off a pleasant aroma. And that may well be true, but I'll tell you this, my son. It's damn difficult to get that stuff to burn.

Sort of like Fraser's romantic life?

Fraser doesn't take his Dad's comments (about wanting grandchildren and about Janet being a sturdy woman) well. Instead of encouraging him, they put his back up.

Skipping a couple scenes of the kids and Turnbull.
In Ray's car, Fraser suggests paying Ray to help him. This provides a way to allow him Ray to balance his loyalties to Fraser and the work slowdown. The scene with them bidding down his pay to $20 is a flash-in-the-pan classic due South exchange.

Scene 13. Stables
Janet shines flashlight into Ray's face. Ray lets it go. Fraser says, "We're here to help" but Bradley takes off anyway. At the end of the scene, the three stand watching Bradley get away. Ray gets his own back: he shines his light in Janet's face and says "Some people you just can't help."

Scene 14 Consulate
The "let's hit all Fraser's buttons" scene First there's the kids asleep with Dief. Then Janet and Fraser get to talking about home, homesickness (a bit of typical bizarre comment: "very peaceful once you get past the lava springs, polecats, and poisonous tundra beetles. . .") and about "becoming disconnected" in the city.

She's disarming, in more ways than one -- taking off her guns, taking off some of her tough attitude -- and the conversation is punching many of Fraser's buttons: family (the kids asleep), domestic peace (complete with Dief settled by the kids), someone who understands the attraction of a home in the wilderness and the difficulties of city living, Janet accepting his help. If he remembers that Janet is very good at buddying up to people quickly, he's ignoring it. So by the time she asks, "Can I trust you?" he's pretty much a goner.

And her next question: "Can I trust you to kiss me?" has him leaning forward to do just that. When his Dad, interrupts, saying, "Resist." Fraser replies, "I can't."

Jaw-dropper #2: Fraser can't resist?! This is the thirty-something, been-burned, lonely and desiring Fraser that we almost never get to see. Immediately afterwards, we and Fraser discover that Janet has lied by omission, by not mentioning until then that she has a husband. She isn't free to start a relationship with Fraser, and it is unclear whether she didn't think about it, or whether she just didn't care when she escalated the romance between them. (And does her motivation have anything to do with talking to girlfriends of her husband?)

And some more really excellent, telling dialog:
Fraser Sr: Some people are vulnerable, their force is at a low ebb. You know, it's not right to take advantage of people in such a position. Fraser: Oh, you're right. I - I behaved improperly. Fraser Sr: Not you. Her, son. Dad's loyalties are to his son. He interfered to protect Fraser.

Scene 15: Morning at the Consulate
Thatcher's incoherent dressing down is delightful, right down to the unmentionable underwear. Jealous just a bit, Meg?

Scene 16: Precinct
Noteworthy for the Ray/Janet antagonism. Noteworthy for Fraser's leather jacket.

Scene 17: The Bounty Hunters!
I like the other bounty hunters. A cross between Mad Max extras, Keystone Kops, and road philosophers.

Scene 18: The Bar
Janet: I married this schmuck, he's mine. And the look of Fraser's face as she says this.

Scene 20: Shootout
Janet: Oh. So what you're saying is, you're not really a deadbeat. You're just really, really stupid. Bradley: Right. Then, after Lester absconds with Bradley, Ray and Janet's recriminations parallel each other. They are very alike. Scene 21-23: Stables (intercut with scenes of lost bounty hunters) Ray calls for backup, but is put on hold. Loyalty unanswered. When Janet and Fraser find Bradley (with Lester and goon holding guns on him), both Janet and Bradley show their loyalty to each other. They might not like each other, but they are family, and they each put themselves in danger in an attempt to protect the other.

Ray is left behind to watch Bradley and goon, while Janet and Fraser pursue Lester. Hmm. . . maybe I can see some jealousy there after all. Janet's horning in on his duet.

Catching Lester is nearly anticlimactic. Fraser does get to tell his renegade bison story, and retrieves his hat. (Is he also retrieving his self-assurance/safety?)

Scene 24. Squad room
Fraser watches the kids play with Bradley, intently. He never had a normal family growing up, his family is dead, and he doesn't have a family of his own. And you can see how much he wants it.

Scene 25. The Kiss.
She's made it clear that she's going back to Montana. She doesn't invite him along. Fraser almost, almost lets Janet walk away without even a handshake. He doesn't, he calls her back, and they share a bittersweet farewell kiss.

Fraser's blinking back tears as his father remanifests. Fraser: Dad, when you were alone out there without Mom, did you ever feel lonely? Fraser, Sr: Oh, every second, son. Every second. Fraser: That's what I thought.

Then Ray finds him, offers to take him out, reassures him, and puts a hand on his shoulder as they walk off together. (And I breath a big happy sigh.)

Drool-Worthy Moments:
Fraser spends a fair bit of time out of uniform in this episode. For some reason, the hiking boots really get to me. Just. . . mmm. Fraser in his long johns. Especially the rear view.

Fraser looking over at the kids playing with their Dad, and wanting that for himself, so badly it hurts.

Slash-O-Meter Rating:
Low. Very low. Those boys aren't bonking, Fraser at least hasn't even thought about it at the beginning of the episode. But the episode sets him up, very nicely, to consider Ray as a potential partner.

Ray is tough, Ray can keep up with him, Ray obviously is fond of Fraser, and Ray has the same basic desire for justice as Fraser. Of course Ray has had all these qualities before, but with Janet's interlude, these properties change from merely characteristics of a friend to the proper characteristics of a lover for Fraser.
Ray has two more points going for him: He is in Chicago. And Ray is male.

Fraser is comfortable with men, but women are not only different, but dangerous when he opens up to them. There's Victoria, of course, but also Janet. Even though Janet meant no harm, she preyed on him when his defenses were down.

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