The first season of the television show 'Due South' was a marvel. It grew from a shaky beginning as an offbeat buddy cop series to a touching comedy drama adventure and never looked back. At the heart of that was the development of the second lead character Ray from a buffoon to a credible police officer and tender hearted tough guy, and the mini-arc surrounding first lead Benton Fraser and his soul-destroying love for bad seed criminal Victoria. Victoria casts a shadow comparable to a far more famous villain in Sherlock Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty, another character who only appears once but almost collapses the show with their own departure.
The power of Victoria is that she almost turns the true blue and noble mounted policemen Fraser to her side of the law, so besotted is he by her. Fraser has a huge simple-minded blind spot in dealing with women in any case - he would rather talk to his wolf Diefenbaker - and Victoria blind-sides him. She almost tears asunder the brotherhood between Fraser and Ray, so strong is her hold on him. And that's where we get into 'Letting Go', as it's the resolution or the epilogue to the whole thing and awesome in its simple resurrection of our leads as heroes. It is also surely one of the best single episodes of a show ever. At the end of 'Victoria's Secret': Fraser is about to jump onto a moving train to leave with his jewel thief lover but is hit by a bullet from Ray's gun, and one intended for his lover, who may have been about to kill him in any case. We open 'Letting Go' with Ray anxiously walking beside trolley as Fraser goes to emergency surgery. The setup is love, injury, betrayal and disappointment.
The essential core of the show is a void; The emptiness left behind by the woman who almost ruined everything and tore apart the dynamic Due South duo forever, and rendered Fraser dark and heartbroken in the bargain. That absence, that unspeakable pain that leaves Benton bed-ridden and Ray traumatized by guilt is the guiding force behind the show, and the recovery of the two and their friendship, slow and halting as it is, is really the best thing the show ever did. Did I mention I love 'Due South'? The second season was not as good, purely because there wasn't a comparable story to be told. They had shot their golden bullet already, and then poor ratings saw it cancelled and the game was done. The revival series really isn't even vaguely as good and shall not be discussed further.
It seems an insurmountable task to put things back on the footing they were on before Victoria. The obstacles are numerous and enormous: Fraser is bed-ridden with self-pity and resentment even subtly toward Ray for not letting him leave, Ray is racked with guilt over what he has done and some anger at what almost happened to Fraser, Victoria is gone, and the world is an uninviting beige place. Even Fraser's dad is worried, whether he be a delusion or a ghost, and being in turn beleaguered by his own delusional or ghostly dead mother. That just boggles belief as does the spectral sight of Fraser senior floating on his back in the therapy pool in full RCMP dress uniform. There's something very strange in the Fraser genes. Thank goodness he was usually too terrified of women to breed. He's not the only one!
The power of Due South lies in Paul Gross's sincerity. He can give single lines and monologues better than any one else, bar none. The whole character of Victoria was set up in one monologue delivered to a room full of sleeping people, and it was devastating in its sincerity. Fraser may be strange but he believes in what he says, and that's what he almost loses, while caught in the trope of heroes being destroyed by love. You have time to be a lover or to be a hero but not both. Throughout this episode, Fraser is slowly coming back to terms with being who he used to be, a role he has renounced almost terminally in the previous episode. Of course, as a mountie very much in the Sherlock/Kirk mold, what brings him back is a case and a woman. Not The Woman, but a woman, representing the fact that not all women betray and plot to kill their lovers. And television being what it is, she's blonde and therefore nice, and not brunette and therefore evil.
Fraser's recovery is the more tangible but it's Ray's desperate attempts to make amends and bring his friend back from his heartbroken apathy to real life that help to sell the episode. Of course he finally has to get shot saving Benny's life, taking a bullet for the one he gave, and rubbing out Fraser's buried animosity in the process.
Ultimately the glory of 'Letting Go' is in the idea of a whole episode on someone recovering from heartbreak and friends making up. It is unprecedented. It is wonderful. It is simple. A transition from passive apathy and heartbreak to active participation and recovery.
O.
PS Alternatively it might all be lightweight pap from the 1990's. It's just a question of taste.
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