#benton fraser and his innocence act

[sammaggs]

1x02 Diefenbaker’s Day Off | Discreet

Something I missed countless times watching this episode is now one of my favourite little pieces of early character-building in season one!

Fraser rolls his eyes at the way Ray rudely pours his coffee out in front of Hugo the Coffee Guy. Hugo, of course, delivers Fraser chamomile tea, special. He nurses it for most of the scene.

And then as soon as Hugo is out of sight, Fraser dumps the tea in the garbage too.

They really let Benny be so human in these early episodes and I love it. He’s not a robot; he also hates the tea! He just spares Hugo’s feelings about it. It’s so Fraser; only a little bitchy and more human when no one is around to see. And unerringly kind.

Him!!!!!!!!!! Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sammaggs]

Two ways to interpret this, both of which are incredible Benton’s-a-little-shit moments:

1) they’re already actively fucking and Benton is messing with him while they’re walking with his ex-wife by making him think of what he looks like while they’re fucking, or

2) they’re not fucking yet and Benton is loudly flirting with Ray while they’re walking with his ex-wife by making him thinking about what his hair would look like if they did fuck

Stella looks at Ray but Ray is STARING at Fraser and BARK BARK BARK

I’m obsessed with what @syrupmap calls the Innocence Act ughhhhhhh

Not the best place to make Ray think about that, Fraser. 

[sammaggs]

4x02 Easy Money | Caught

Extremely difficult to convince me to interpret the chain of events here as anything but the following:

- Fraser knows Ray is distracted making coffee, taking the opportunity to stare at his butt

- Fraser LICKS HIS LIPS

- Ray glances over at him to find him staring

- Fraser’s head snaps up IMMEDIATELY to look Ray in the eyes like usual

Paul Gross I just want to talk

Benton Fraser Checks Out His Boyfriend [One] [Two] [Three] [Four]

[sammaggs]

oh Fraser thinks he is absolutely HILARIOUS

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This is my interpretation of this episode as well; Fraser is on to Lady Shoes from the word go.

He knows she's interested (because everyone is interested in Fraser), and normally he would pretend not to notice or deflect, but instead—as Fraser says at the end of the episode—he's beginning to learn how to bluff. That's the theme of this entire episode:

Fraser is learning how to bluff.

Because not only is he lying to Lady Shoes, he's also lying to Ray.

There is no good reason for Fraser not to tell Ray that he suspects Lady Shoes of foul play from at least as early on as her re-capture in her apartment. In fact, not telling Ray puts Fraser in active danger: He's undercover and relying on Ray to figure out what's happening live while Fraser is already in the room with a bunch of murderers. It doesn't make sense for Fraser to not have filled Ray in on his plan. His passive-aggressive little excuse at the end of the episode ("As you had instructed me, there are certain cards that are better left hidden until they are absolutely needed.") is nonsensical.

He's taking the opportunities presented to him (Lady Shoes trusting him; Ray feeling jealous) and bluffing, running them to their conclusions. He's playing Lady Shoes; he's seeking payback on Ray.

Thematically important to due South as a whole as well is this conversation right off the top:

KOWALSKI: Please. Don't tell me you've got a thing for her. FRASER: For who? KOWALSKI: [smiling, putting on his coat] You know who. Lady Shoes. FRASER: I don't know her. KOWALSKI: Exactly, and you never will. She's a card player. You never get to know a woman like that. FRASER: If you say so.

due South has an obsession with the "love at first sight" narrative, and I think lands firmly in the camp of "love at first sight can only be true in hindsight." You cannot truly love someone until you know them.

Fraser doesn't know Victoria well enough to actually be in love with her, something he realizes with disastrous clarity only long after the fact; the spark ignited a blaze. And Fraser doesn't know Ray well enough to actually be in love with him after Burning Down the House/Eclipse, though he's certainly, deeply in limerence. It's only in Say Amen, almost a year and a half after meeting him and truly coming to know him that Fraser can say that first spark of love grew into something real and sustainable. That spark became part of a hearth.

Timestamp Roulette: Odds

Minutes 2, 14, 16, 19, 24, 29, and 41.

[sammaggs]

So I just rewatched this episode and I want to add to @inconclusionray's note that:

that is fraser at his most fucking Dom, not the bird in the hand with the boot and the chair and the bamf, THIS, because he is ANALYZING and he LIKES WHAT HE SEES.

Because they're so bang on about that, and you can see it through the entire runtime.

A Bird in the Hand is NOT Fraser in his most Dom energy, because that is a Fraser who is NOT in full control of himself. Yeah, the scene with the boot and the chair and the bamf is hot (obviously), but Fraser is also thisclose to absolutely losing it. Like he says to his father moments later, "It takes every bit of restraint I have not to walk back in that room and separate his head from his shoulders." That's Fraser just barely holding it together; the edges of the Mountie are bleeding out into Ben Fraser.

In Mountie and Soul, on the other hand, Fraser is in complete control of himself. He is in full observation mode—of the gym, of the competitors, of the coaches—but mostly of Ray. Domming means being as in control as possible at all times; you’ve got to keep your head on straight to keep your partner safe. But that’s okay, because that’s part of what does it for ya, etc.

This is the episode where Ray is thisclose to losing it, to actually having to bare-knuckle fight his way to victory in the end. But Fraser is not so emotionally invested, here, and that is what gives him the space he needs to watch.

What Fraser sees in this episode is:

A Ray who requires some element of pain in order to clear the chatter from his mind

A Ray who enjoys getting hurt, and continues to go back for more

A Ray who feels better, mentally and spiritually, after getting the shit kicked out of him for a while

And in himself, Fraser finds someone who refuses to hurt Ray, despite his bratty demands, until he makes the measured and controlled decision to give Ray exactly what he is asking for, with the associated consequences:

(Immediately, of course, followed by a check-in—and an apology, because he is still a Mountie).

Fraser watches Ray get bruised and beat up over and over again and like it.

And Fraser, also, likes it.

It's the praise at the very end for me, when he says:

Perfect.

And he means it.

[sammaggs]

Reblogging for this Extremely Important Addition that I somehow missed entirely !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4x02 Easy Money | Caught

Extremely difficult to convince me to interpret the chain of events here as anything but the following:

- Fraser knows Ray is distracted making coffee, taking the opportunity to stare at his butt

- Fraser LICKS HIS LIPS

- Ray glances over at him to find him staring

- Fraser’s head snaps up IMMEDIATELY to look Ray in the eyes like usual

Paul Gross I just want to talk