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pigtailedgirl · 1 year ago

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I still love this ramble meta so much.

If I add my probably not as good thoughts too, what I love about these thoughts re Ladies Man and Good for the Soul and the like is how Ray K and Fraser have their perspectives and define the hows and whys they both push to do something, aka this stand up for good and justice for others. Ladies Man really is the study of Ray K’s history and re-evaluating and need to make it right for Beth. It’s his big guilt episode, his call to action. It’s a small thing in he misjudged and missed the evidence being new and scared, and let a system railroad Beth, and it’s a big in what it robbed from her, in that it went unanswered for so long, that he let it go, and now he can admit he feels it, now he's angry and self sure enough to pursue, so he fixes it, fixes his perspective too but cant undo that time lost. Her forgiveness is beautiful, and so powerful in hope and sadness because it doesn't erase it for Kowalski, it's a way to grieve and go on. It’s a wonderful character piece for him.

And then you have Good for the Soul. Where I’m torn of it's characterization and lesson for Fraser. Actually really cynical of Fraser here.

Because was Warfield a bully mob boss? Is it good he’s brought down and it ends Christmas happy as they say? Yes.

There is a moral victory in Fraser’s stand, in showing the bus boy and old man not to give up and in the themes of you can't let small injustices become big ones. A cop, and a community backing, is the one to stop that.

But I’m also like very pissed at Fraser every time I watch this episode, because his need to stand up and insert himself and his view of justice overrode everyone else's needs, wants, safety. He was crusading not helping when he pursued this and the episode tries too hard to erase the difference. He put himself in that fight, put himself in danger, but worse, he put the old guy and bus boy in danger with him at one point too. Just to be right about his sense of justice, about stopping the Warfield's in small scale, he makes the weird line in sand assumption that everyone’s morals and need for justice should be like his. He's judging. Like he can no longer see the details of everyone has their limits and lines, which was not the Fraser who advocated everyone making their own moral choices or reactions of earlier seasons and who has always seemed to balance his own ethics are not everyone's.

I keep coming back to what happened here, in this moment, that changed that?

Where he wasn’t before, Fraser is leaning into rigidity of a moral like this and it comes off as desperate, as his means to control something he can’t. The safety of the big difference or standing against mattering. To me it ties back in to his experiences of himself failing, of very much not wanting to be outside on the moral line alone, in thinking it's the law's or other cops place to be frontline with him, to stand up to the small injustices because he's so scared a slippery slope to the bigger in you when you ignore it. For him or others? It's development for Fraser, in the face of he doesn't know how to deal in letting it go.

But the episode dropped owning that side of Fraser acknowledged. It's a one off here. So he lost dimension and it's ending went really pat. And I'm mad at it for that because it mattered. Because if you were gonna introduce that with Fraser and Bob's argument about it and all, don't shy away.

I'm also gonna be blunt, in I think it ties a lot to losing Ray. That there is a lack of foil to Fraser's schticks and his loss to Fraser and the others works as an undertone of the whys. In there is weird undertones in the last season about the mob or gangs and the criminal injustices of nebulous groups versus individuals, what it makes people do, and what is the line between putting yourself out there to get personal gain, people using their brothers, friends, loved ones to get ahead or gain versus standing against but the loss and sacrifice that brings too. And then how this ties into Fraser's outsider-ness in JIB, and that whole affair re the 27th and Ray dividing from him that episode re justice.

But like, it brings the question of what does Fraser feel or think on Ray being undercover? If it's worth it or gonna bring justice? For who? At what cost? The unanswered question in canon versus outside context of why it happened? And Fraser's feelings he keeps bottled up, about his personal reaction and needs versus that...it's kinda Fraser's season 3/4 back round arc in a way that isn't explored. As he makes friends with Kowalski and argues with his Dad and feels lost and looking for connection...the series ignores the big hole that this is why. It's not fish out of water anymore, it really is a lost a support story.

To get back to GFTS, it’s still off that it’s up to fake apologizing as Fraser getting his kind of justice. It just strikes me weird that Fraser wants that.

Or maybe that it's a bullying one way answer. In that the message is bully your way into to getting justice?

Please someone agree there is an offness to it.

okay, so. due south. the ladies' man. here's the essay.

the thing i liked about due south in the first place was the way it was this charming little show about people wanting to be and do good. and by 'people' i actually mean fraser, not only as a protagonist but as that *one* particular character who does not only try to do/be good, or to help others, but constantly chooses to do so. and i think the part of choosing and the importance of choices have a great deal to do with this one, particular episode. and so does anger. because, it's impossible not to get angry when it comes to this episode. and it's the kind of anger that makes you want to grab the screen and scream at it, because you can't help but to think "this isn't fair" the entire time. and, at least for me, anger goes two ways, and is this anger what actually connects with this goodness theme that's so particularly present in due south almost the entire time.

because, like, everytime i watch this i get angry because of how the system works, and i bet we all do. we all know how the system works, and we all know it's a chain of command, bureaucracy and, many times, injustice (because justice many times exists only if it benefits those with power, right?). this episode is the proof of that. it shows us how far people can go to succeed and keep their own interests/reputation/images intact —even if that means condemning others. and of course the episode ends well, because the innocent life that was condemned is saved, and the unjust system and its perpetrators are exposed, so it's a good ending, right? except that it isn't. i mean, it is, but there's something of a bitter taste in it, too.

and that's when i get angry again, but not really at the system this time (even if there can be plenty of more talking about that) —but at rayk. and here's (one of) the thing(s) i find so compelling about the episode. like, the whole episode is centered around him and the fact he's the one going against the clock in order to try (and ultimately, do) the right thing. it's not fraser (who's pretty much always the one who's trying to do the right thing TM, whatever that is) but ray who's trying to do the investigation/detective work that was not done eight years ago in the remaining forty-eight hours he's got to save an innocent woman's life. and at the same time (at least to me), it's impossible not to be angry at him, too. because if only he had payed a little more attention years ago to a key piece of evidence, the entire thing would've turned out differently. so knowing how the episode goes, once you rewatch it you just want to shake the screen (again) and scream at ray not to contaminate it, and/or to pay attention to that piece of paper before the others (re: those at the top of this chain of command) take it and it's more than late (and regarding this there's a lot that can be said about the role of cops and how "good" cops aren't really allowed to exist in the system because of how it works). so it's impossible (to me, at least) not to have this mix of feelings when it comes to ray —on one hand, you want him (and need him) to succeed and to prove beth's innocence before it's too late; on the other hand, there's the anger that comes with the "why couldn't you do all this detective work eight years ago????!!!!"

and i think that what left me thinking about this episode the most on this last rewatch a few days ago was the fact it just gives you (whether that was intentional or not, maybe i'm reading too much into this but ANYWAY) a lot of stuff when it comes to ray as a character (like the flashbacks to that night eight years ago during his first big case, kneeling besides jake botrelle's body could explain his disgust every time he enters the morgue. or his confession about never having k*lled anyone. or the whole "could you pull the switch?" and the story about his dog). and also a real look (maybe not the first one but certainly there's no other like this one) at ray as a character and what does he stand up for/what are his values, but not through fraser's lanes. and i mean, not that we didn't know anything about him as a character before, but this particular episode centers on him exclusively, and we find fraser at a side (mostly as some sort of emotional support, but also as a helping hand in the entire case).

one thing i noticed that i never properly thought about during my original watch/other rewatches of the episode was beth saying that they had taken her "to the d*ath room four times" like. did ray even became aware of that? where was the entire "i've got to look her in the eye" thing? or is this entire thing happening *now* because he's actually decided to go talk to her no matter what that means to *him*? or is it because of fraser's influence/the entire reassurement that comes with the fact fraser's there not only as a helping hand but offering his support? like, fraser's entire presence and his relationship with ray being that little push he needs in order to try (and do something) in order to help someone. it's just ultimately amazing the amount of things this particular episode opens the door to (and i could write more but it's like. getting too long).

and there's this one last thing. i know this trying to do and be good is part of due south as a show (and especially of fraser as a character) but today i was rewatching good for the soul and i couldn't stop thinking about how that episode and that plot is (in a way) almost like justapoxed to the ladies' man. like, in good for the soul you get this character that has a lot of power and influences and does whatever he wants with it (slapping a waiter is just what works as conflict for the episode, but we know there's much more than that), and i just feel like there's almost a certain naivety in fraser's willingness to do something about it. because, we all know there's people like this and no one does anything about it, right? everywhere, all over the world. it seems like almost impossible to stop them. and then there's the ladies man, an episode in which we're showed the the justice system works in a determinate way, too —only it's not supposed to. and it's not that we don't know that, it's just that it still feels wrong the fact it works like that, even if we know it does. and both episodes make me extremely angry because of different (and sometimes, not so different) reasons, but the main difference, i think, it's that with good for the soul you just assume things work like that sometimes, even if we ultimately want fraser to succeed (and he does!!!!!), and i actually admire his relentless efforts in trying to do the right thing. but, at least the first time i watched this episode, i honestly didn't expect him to succeed, and i was surprised when he did. with the ladies man is, once again, a race against the clock —ray can't fail. it's not that he shouldn't, he just can't.

and there's closure, another main difference. in good for the soul, there's a sense of relief at the end of the episode, and we're all glad, and it's christmas, and it's beautiful. and i think that the thing with the ladies man is that, of course you want beth to be free and to ray to solve the entire thing and find the truth... but there's no consolation in the end. there may be some closure, but the ending it's bittersweet because it's like, good, ray did it, she's free, but at the same time, eight years were stolen from her. and she knows, we know, and ray knows (maybe that explains the crying in the end, although a million different things can explain it, including relief and some more guilt and there's another essay we could make about it).

it's honestly such a bitterweet episode and very few due south episodes get as real as this one. everytime i rewatch it i need to think about it for a while because there's so much to analize and just so many things to put together, i couldn't even write them all here... but it's just so worth it, at the same time

#love frannie's tree topper though #and ray's spacegun love lol #due south #due south meta #benton fraser #ray kowalski #im just saying it's hard contrast to the deal #or all the other times #fraser gets bullies #and that the system cant solve everything #and doesn't throw fit

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