History Series / DueSouth

* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw A Hawk and a Handsaw]]," Fraser says that the Inuit have over 60 words for snow. (Linguist Geoffrey Pullum estimates that [[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000405.html the actual number is around five]], roughly the same as in English (however, this might have more to do with settler colonialism and language loss [[https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/inuit-unikkaangit-kuniluusie-nutarak-1.6330149 as revealed on a recently discovered CBC archival recording of an Inuit elder]], and that linguists and native speakers don't necessarily agree on what counts as a 'word'.) The trope is somewhat averted in that this is a very widespread myth, but Fraser's character is a stickler for detail who grew up in a part of Canada with a large Inuit population; you'd think he'd have noticed the 50-some-odd missing words for snow, at some point.

* ArtisticLicenseLinguistics: in "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E12AHawkAndAHandsaw A Hawk and a Handsaw]]," Fraser says that the Inuit have over 60 words for snow. (Linguist Geoffrey Pullum estimates that [[http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000405.html the actual number is around five]], roughly the same as in English.) The trope is somewhat averted in that this is a very widespread myth, but Fraser's character is a stickler for detail who grew up in a part of Canada with a large Inuit population; you'd think he'd have noticed the 50-some-odd missing words for snow, at some point.

* MeaningfulName: A maid who accidentally throws away [[MacGuffin a matchbox central to the plot]] is named Mrs. MacGuffin. Later, we see that store security guard "Niffug, C M"[[note]]shown reversed, in a mirror, as M C GUFFIN[[/note]] pockets the same box.

* MeaningfulName: A maid who accidentally throws away [[MacGuffin a matchbox central to the plot]] is named Mrs. MacGuffin. Later, we see through a mirror that store security guard "Niffug, C M" pockets the same box.

* TakeMyHand: Fraser Sr. to the man who had him killed, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E04BirdInTheHand A Bird In The Hand]]". [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]: [[spoiler:Fraser Sr. is a ''ghost''. His hands are intangible, just like the rest of him. [[RealityEnsues You don't have to be a Mountie to deduce what happens next.]]]]

* NiceHat: Fraser's stetson, nicknamed the Stetson Of Invulnerability by the fandom. As Kowalski said, the hat is sacred.

* NarrowedItDownToTheGuyIRecognize: Actually discussed by Vecchio in "They Eat Horses Don't They" when talking about one of the suspects. Fraser is annoyed when this works.[[invoked]]

'''Ray:''' ''She shot you in the'' hat?\\
'''Fraser:''' ''I can feel air coming in through the hole.\\
'''Ray:''' ''She shot you in the hat, all right.\\
'''Fraser:''' ''We'll have to go home and get my other one.\\
'''Ray:''' ''We can do that, Fraser.\\
'''Fraser:''' ''Thanks, Ray.\\

* {{Adorkable}}: This is a big part of Fraser's charm.
** Both Rays tend to be this at times, too.

* [[BadassGrandpa Badass Grandma]]: Ruth, aka [[spoiler:Nautilus]] from "Spy Vs. Spy".

-->'''Ray''': I don't believe this, you don't remember me.
-->'''Bank robber''': Hey kid, I robbed a lot of banks.

-->'''Bush pilot''': You sure they were Americans, eh?
-->'''Fraser''': They were all wearing new boots, they were driving a Jeep Wrangler, and they carried big guns.
-->'''Bush pilot''': Americans it is.

-->'''Fraser:''' I sharpened my buckle.
-->'''Ray:''' You were anticipating cutting your way out of a rubber room?!

* DrivesLikeCrazy: Pike in "Spy Vs. Spy"

* GoodOldWays

* KnightInSourArmor: Ray Vecchio

-->Fraser: ''She shot me in the hat, Ray.''
-->Ray: ''She shot you in the'' hat?
-->Fraser: ''I can feel air coming in through the hole.''
-->Ray: ''She shot you in the hat, all right.''
-->Fraser: ''We'll have to go home and get my other one.''
-->Ray: ''We can do that, Fraser.''
-->Fraser: ''Thanks, Ray.''
-->''Due South'', "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E01FreeWillie Free Willie]]"

* PilotMovie

* RunningGag

** In ''Diefenbaker's Day Off'', we see him taking a bath, and later he walks out of communal bathroom (with his neighbours waiting for their turn) wearing only his Stetson and a towel around his waist.

** Inspector Margaret Thatcher is another beautiful Mountie who, according to Fraser, looks particularly good in red serge: in "Red, White and Blue, he uses ''semaphore'' to tell her that [[spoiler:"Red suits you"]].

A BuddyCopShow / OddCouple, where the OddCouple is an American detective and a Canadian Mountie. The series lasted from April 1994 to March 1999; a total of 67 episodes in four seasons (Canada and the rest of the world) or three seasons (US), depending on location.

** FridgeBrilliance or WildMassGuessing: Maybe the Inuit guys decided to pass the time making up words for snow to mess with the gullible white guy?

* WoodenShipsIronMen: Invoked and quoted verbatim in “Mountie on the Bounty”.

* SledDogsThroughTheSnow: In the pilot episode, the snowmobiles the modern RCMP use are all frozen up, so Fraser -to the incredulity of his coworkers- pursues a criminal through a blizzard by dog sled as part of his Establishing Character Moment as a heroic "traditional" Mountie. Yes, he gets his man.

* SisterBecky: The journalist Mackenzie King was played by two actresses; Ray's boss Lt. Welsh was re-cast after the PilotMovie.

** CrowningMomentOfFunny: Fraser confronted with the unfurnished apartment in which he and his half-wolf sleep on the floor: "Why do I live like this? Am I being punished?"

* AmbiguousSituation: At the end of "Victoria's Secret", it's unclear whether or not [[spoiler: Victoria was pointing a gun at Fraser as he tried to jump on her train]]. The scene has shots from [[RashomonStyle different character's perspectives that show it either way]].

* [[BadassGrandpa Badass Grandma]]: Ruth, aka [[spoiler: Nautilus]] from "Spy Vs. Spy".

* BashBrothers: In the series finale [[spoiler: Detectives Ray Vecchio and Ray Kowalski partner up with each other briefly.]]

* BrotherSisterIncest: A one-sided version occurs in ''Hunting Season''. [[spoiler: Fraser is very attracted to Maggie Mackenzie, to the point where he and Ray K become rivals for her affection, until he discovers that she is actually his half-sister.]]

* [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's]] ([[ItWorksBetterWithBullets Unloaded]]) [[ChekhovsGun Gun]]: In the "[[Recap/DueSouthS1E1Pilot Pilot]]," Fraser pulls out his gun in a Chicago bar, then explains that it's empty because he doesn't have a local permit. [[spoiler: Later, when his father's killer grabs the gun in a fight and tries to shoot him, it isn't loaded]].

* EveryCarIsAPinto: [[RunningGag Every]] 1971 Buick Riviera seems to be, though to be fair [[spoiler: One of them was [[ExternalCombustion rigged with a bomb]]]]

* ExternalCombustion: [[spoiler: Poor Louis]].

* FauxAffablyEvil: from "All the Queen's Horses," Randall Bolt, the psychopathic White Supremacist terrorist who captures a whole train of Mounties in order to send it into another train full of radioactive fuel rods, who is willing to [[spoiler: kill his men, including his girlfriend]], all with a broad smile across his face

* KarmaHoudini: Victoria is a borderline case. On the one hand [[spoiler: she escaped scot-free after framing Ray and Fraser for murder and theft and putting Fraser's life in danger in order to launder some of the money to get diamonds, and Fraser still tried to go with her]], on the other [[spoiler: she's now a wanted criminal for the same murder and theft, she lost all of the money and got none of the diamonds, and Fraser didn't go with her (admittedly because Ray accidentally shot him).]]

* MachiavelliWasWrong: ''The Deal'', After Zuko gives his BreakingSpeech to Fraser about how people respect him, Fraser points out that there is a difference between being ''respected'' and being ''feared''. That is to say, [[{{Foreshadowing}} fear can be overcome.]] [[spoiler: By the end of the episode, after Ray Vecchio [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beats Zuko senseless]] in his own gym, Zuko suddenly finds that he is no longer respected ''or'' feared. This has consequences in the next season of the show.]]

* NotTheFallThatKillsYou: In ''Call of the Wild'', Fraser and Ray Kowalski [[spoiler: jump and is pushed by Fraser, respectively, from an airplane without parachutes, but they are not injured because the snow is "bottomless."]]

* TheRashomon: "Seeing is Believing," where Ray K, Thatcher, and Walsh all witness an argument between two men and a woman which ends with one of the men stabbed to death. Ray K thinks the young guy did it, Thatcher thinks the young woman did it, and Walsh thinks the two conspired to kill the other man as part of a mob war. [[spoiler: it was actually a fourth man who created a distraction and then threw the knife at the victim]]
** Also, the climax of "Victoria's Secret" makes it unclear to the audience whether or not [[spoiler: Victoria is pointing a gun at Fraser. love-struck Fraser sees an open-hand, while some distance away Ray sees a gun. Camera shots from their different perspectives show either case.]]

* TakeMyHand: Fraser Sr. to the man who had him killed, in "[[Recap/DueSouthS2E04BirdInTheHand A Bird In The Hand]]". [[SubvertedTrope Subverted]]: [[spoiler: Fraser Sr. is a ''ghost''. His hands are intangible, just like the rest of him. [[RealityEnsues You don't have to be a Mountie to deduce what happens next.]]]]

** In "White Men Can't Jump To Conclusions," Fraser has to leave his boots behind in a bad part of the city in order to save a kid that's been shot--and his boots disappear. Fraser is certain that some Good Samaritan picked the boots up off the street in order to find him [[spoiler: and at the end of the episode is proven entirely right]]

* {{Yandere}}: Victoria