Mum's Monday: Due South - Season 1 - Episode 6

Constable Benton Fraser (Played by Paul Gross) is a Royal Canadian mounted Policeman. After the murder of his father who was also a respected member of the police force, Benton gets himself exiled from Canada and ends up in Chicago, where he meets Ray Vecchio (Played by David Marciano) and becomes his partner to solve the murder of his father. Ray is a hard-core Chicago city police officer and Benton is a laid back, friendly, meticulous and gets the job done type. This slightly suggests stereotyping, on how people are in Canada compared to how people are in America.

In this episode, Benton and Ray hope to enjoy some down time on a Saturday night and have a nice Chinese meal. There is a long line of restaurants but the one they choose is empty. Benton (being observant) notices this and brings up the subject with Ray. When it comes to ordering, the restaurant owner is uncomfortable and embarrassed as there is hardly anything available. This is where Benton jumps in and cleverly saves the face of the owner by ordering the specials speaking Chinese (Leaving Ray stunned).

The night doesn’t go to plan though, while they are waiting for their meal, Benton hears breaking glass. Whether this would be the case or this is done for the purpose of the story we would have to test how far a person could hear. Benton, however, realises something is wrong but no one is coming forward with an explanation. It turns out that the owner’s son has been kidnapped by an Asian mob.

Whatever we feel about right and wrong and try to keep our morals, sometimes people find a way to get the upper hand anyway. It turns out the restaurant owner refused to pay the mob protection money, therefore his business was boycotted and his son kidnapped.

Benton gives chase and gets to a high place and listens for sounds that could indicate where the mob is taking their hostage. Whether this could be done in a noisy city, I don’t know, but for the sake of the storyline, it provides leads to finding the victim.

Ray and Benton are back at the police station, having now persuaded the owner and his wife to trust Benton in finding their son, but this doesn’t go to plan. The FBI is involved and they don’t have the same ethics as Benton in the attention to detail and getting the job done. Benton is there on the ground in the middle of it, finding clues. This shows great police work and what can be achieved when you pay attention to all the details, however minor because the minutest of clues can lead to an overall result.  

Benton and Ray persevere; they are even ridiculed for sitting in a cupboard trying to remember the sounds Benton heard. This is a funny scene, but just goes to show the lengths Benton will go to get the best result. Ray and Benton end up doing all the working out on the case, one lead is when they find one of the sounds relate to a pothole and they find mud. Benton notices that there is soap mixed in the mud, leading to one line of inquiry – a Chinese laundry. This is a clever scene and leads to other channels of inquiry. They also find low grade gunpowder as well. The FBI is not shown in a good light as they just make mistake after mistake, after not paying attention to Ray and Benton even interviewing the suspect possibly putting the victim in danger, they just end up planting a bug on them and following them around anyway, when they should be doing the job themselves.

The victim is found and reunited with his family, but Benton and Ray don’t wait around for thanks. They leave the FBI who shouts through the door to the building that they are coming in, enter said building with guns blazing. The thing is though Ray and Benton found the victim in a firework factory. The resulting firework display provides a fitting celebration scene for a job well done.