Ray and Fraser are transporting a prisoner to hand him over to the Canadian authorities. He came forward as a witness in a mob hit, but then claimed he didn't see anything when he was in court. As a result, both the authorities and the mob want him for what he knows. The biggest problem is that he is a compulsive liar, and nobody knows whether he's lying about having witnessed the hit or about not having witnessed it.
Tropes
- Consummate Liar: The prisoner they are escorting will lie about pretty much anything, and is so exceedingly polite and charming that many folks fall for it.
- Freudian Excuse: Ian eventually explains that when he was a kid, he traveled with his dad, a traveling businessman. When he discovered that his father was having an affair, his father ordered him to lie to his mother about it. He had to lie to his mom so much about their trips that lying became second nature to him.
- Ignored Epiphany: At the end of the episode, Frasier encourages the prisoner to change for the better and become someone his mother would genuinely be proud of, and he seems to consider it...but then immediately after gets the police car escorting him away to drive around the block in circles by giving the wrong directions.
- Irony: The Consummate Liar calls it "the story of my life" that the one time he's been truthful, that he was in his apartment located near the mob hit but hadn't actually seen anything (stating that he had only because the police were eager to close the case and believed he must have seen something), is what's gotten him in trouble and will lead to a perjury charge even after the mob is dealt with.
- Moose and Maple Syrup: A group of tourists, several Canadian cops, and even the Mob hitmen play up this trope.Canadian Motorist: You folks stranded, eh?Vecchio: Canadian?Motorist: Go on, eh! How'd you know?
- One Bullet Left: And Ray has to use it on his own car.
- Shoot the Fuel Tank: Ray is forced to destroy his own car to take out the Mob hitmen.
- Status Quo Is God: After Ray is forced to destroy his mint-condition Buick Riviera, no sooner does he lament on how impossible it will be to replace than does an identical green Buick Riviera in mint condition drive by, with a "For Sale" sign in the window.
- Troll: When Ray worries that he will need snow chains in Canada, Fraser assures him that a dogsled will be standing by to pull them out of the snow, then laughs heartily when Ray (eventually) figures out he was joking.
- Unit Confusion: The Canadian mobsters mix up the conversion from Miles Per Hour to Kilometers Per Hour and get pulled over by an American cop, who politely explains the conversion and sends them on their way.
- Watch the Paint Job: Ray, as usual, is stressing over his car getting messed up. It gets taken up to eleven in this episode, with Ray forbidding Fraser from even opening the owner's manual. Inevitably, the car is doomed to be destroyed.
