Victoria's Secret, Part 1 is the twentieth episode of Due South's first season.
Storyline: Fraser encounters Victoria Metcalf, the only woman he ever loved, whom he arrested for bank robbery years ago. Finding that she is in trouble with one of her former associates, he resolves to help her and set things right.
Original Air Date: May 11, 1995
Written and Directed by Paul Haggis
Synopsis[]
After borrowing $60 from Ray toward the repair of his neighbour's vacuum cleaner, Fraser promises to help him bring an antique pool table up from his basement whilst the rest of Ray's family is vacationing in Florida. As they stroll along a bustling city street, Fraser sees a woman getting out of a taxi several meters away. Thinking that he knows her very well indeed, he runs after her, but she disappears into the crowd. At home that night, he convinces himself that it wasn't her, but he nonetheless sees her face in his mind's eye: Victoria Metcalf, a woman he pursued through a white-out in the Yukon many years ago after she and two men robbed a bank in Alaska. In the dire circumstances of life or death, Fraser fell in love with her, but was nonetheless duty-bound to arrest her and turn her in; that act of betrayal has haunted him ever since.
After helping Ray bring his pool table up from the basement, Fraser goes to St. Michael's Catholic Church to confess his deed to Father Behan; later, over lunch, he converses with the ghost of Robert Fraser, who insists that he did what had to be done. After his father leaves him, Fraser sees another vision of Victoria in the street outside and rushes to follow her. This time, it proves to be Victoria in the flesh. She has been recently released from a ten-year prison sentence; since her sister's death, she has decided to leave the far north and start over. She and Fraser spend a romantic evening in Fraser's apartment, but unspoken memories still hang heavily over them. Late at night, Victoria returns to confront him about his betrayal; Fraser is desperately apologetic and takes her back in, and they make torrid love. Later still, Victoria arises to clean Fraser's kitchen and sees a chillingly familiar face watching from a window across the street.
Ray shows up first thing in the morning, believing Fraser to be seriously ill as he failed to show up for work at the consulate. Finding Fraser in an uncharacteristically happy mood, he compliments him on finally getting a woman into his apartment. When Fraser finally does go back to work the next day, his ex-supervisor, Staff Sergeant Mears, calls to notify him that his father's cabin mysteriously burnt down the week before. His growing involvement with Victoria causes him to forget about a guys' night at Ray's house, spurring Ray to come reproachfully to his door in the wee hours of the morning. Fraser gives him back his money - unaware that Victoria slipped it into his wallet the previous night - and tries to apologize, but Ray wants none of it. Fraser chases after him and tries to explain himself, but is interrupted by a gunshot from inside his building. He finds Diefenbaker severely wounded and Victoria vanished.
As Diefenbaker lies in recovery at an animal hospital, Fraser catches up with Victoria at her hotel. She explains that Jolly, one of her former partners, is also out of prison and is seeking the $500,000 they stole from the bank; she believes that he has been the one watching them at Fraser's place. Ray agrees to put her up at his house, after which he and Fraser question the neighbours and use phone records to trace Jolly to a fleabag hotel. Searching his room, Ray finds an empty cigarette box with his address written on the inside.
Fraser and Ray make haste to the zoo to meet up with Victoria, but Jolly gets there first and demands to know where the money is hidden. Victoria stabs him with a penknife and runs for it; Fraser and Ray pursue until Jolly catches up with Victoria and threatens her with a hunting knife. Fraser intervenes, but Jolly gets the best of him, shouting, "You think you know her? You don't!" Jolly returns to his car to find Victoria waiting for him; she tells him that she came to her senses "a long time ago" and then unflinchingly shoots him through the head.
Cast[]
- Melina Kanakaredes as Victoria Metcalf
- Denis Forest as Jolly
- Gordon Pinsent as Robert Fraser
- Victor Ertmanis as Staff Sgt. Mears
- Arthi Sambasivan as Jasmine
- Shay Duffin as Father Behan
- Paulina Gillis as Maria
- Vito Rezza as Tony
- Yvan Labelle as Vacuum Repairman
Memorable Quotes[]
Ray Vecchio: You know how long that pool table's been in my basement?
Benton Fraser: Fifteen years.
Ray Vecchio: My old man brought it home for Mother's Day; on Father's Day, she let him back in the house.
Benton Fraser: How long is she going away for?
Ray Vecchio: Oh, a week. For years she's been saying how much she wants to visit her sister in Florida. How hard it is to be apart, how much she misses her. Soon as I book a hotel room, she decides she's not speaking to her. I think she's just going down there to glare at her.
Fraser Sr.: I arrested your mother once.
Benton Fraser: You did not!
Fraser Sr.: Honest to God! I gave her a speeding ticket.
Benton Fraser: You knew it was her car, and you pulled her over anyway?
Fraser Sr.: No. I was right there in the passenger seat.
Benton Fraser: Get out!
Fraser Sr.: She was doing forty-five in a thirty.
Benton Fraser: Mum?!
Fraser Sr.: I kept telling her I was going to do it, and every time I did, she kept speeding up! Made absolutely no sense! Women. You ever been able to figure them out, son?
Benton Fraser: Well, actually, I'm asking you for advice, Dad.
Fraser Sr.: In my fifty-seven years of being alive and my fourteen months of being dead, I've only learned one thing about women, and that's that I haven't learned one damn thing about women.
Peddler: Hey, mister, mister! Take a look! Twenty bucks for a genuine Eskimo soapstone sculpture.
Benton Fraser: (examining the "sculpture") Actually, this isn't soapstone. It's not even stone - it's soap. And you might be curious to discover that the Inuit are not indigenous to Taiwan.
Victoria Metcalf: So, you're Ray.
Ray Vecchio: Yeah, and you're Victoria. So how'd you two meet?
Victoria Metcalf: He arrested me.
Ray Vecchio: Ah, he meets a lot of people that way. Listen, you hurt him and I'll kill ya.
Soundtrack[]
- Possession by Sarah MacLachlan (rock and piano versions), available on Due South: The Original Television Soundtrack and Sarah MacLachlan's 1993 album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy on Nettwerk Records.