brightknightie: Tracy at the railroad tracks with snow (Winter)
Amy ([personal profile] brightknightie) wrote2021-05-08 11:36 am

Tracy's bicycle

Did you remember that Tracy has a bicycle? It's against the white wall perpendicular to her front door in her brightly-lit apartment entryway, where some folks might put a coat rack, shoe rack, umbrella stand, small table to drop keys on, or the like.

(I had occasion to rewatch "Avenging Angel." That prop leaped out at me as if I'd never seen it before.)

Off the top of my head, I don't recall any stories ever mentioning Tracy as a bicyclist, neither as a sport, a hobby, nor just an occasional way of getting around. It could be something she used to do but doesn't anymore for some reason. Or it could be something she still does all the time off-screen.

This of course brings to mind Nick's never-used-on-screen motorcycle, and Vachon's rarely-used-on-screen motorcycle. Maybe the show couldn't afford the insurance for bicycle riding, either. But such a reference for the character could have been an excellent thing, to round her out more. We got precious few canonical indications of how she spent her time outside work, or whether she put anything aside when she became a homicide detective and gained that wrinkle in her reality.