Healing Hands – Director: Sudz Sutherland/Writer: Andrew Burrows-Trotman
This one starts with Trudy and her mom (Mildred) going to church. The pastor (Edmund Thompson) gets everyone going with his sermon, then brings out his daughter Elsie, who’s apparently a healer. Trudy seems a bit skeptical, but Mildred is a believer and wants to get her hip healed. Elsie heals a veteran in a wheelchair, impressing the hell out of the crowd (and Trudy), which is reflected in the full collection plate. Trudy notices a shifty-looking white dude (everyone else there is black), who doesn’t put anything into the collection plate. You’d think Elsie would be happy to have
a genuine healing talent, but apparently not; we see her sneaking out of the church with a suitcase. Later, Frankie is practicing her boxing technique at the office when Moses shows up. (He was supposed to fight Jack Dempsey in the States, but didn’t get the chance because he refused to take a dive.) He and Frankie are obviously still hot for each other, but before they can get to it, Mildred interrupts them to ask for help. Elsie’s mother wants Frankie and Trudy (who she thinks is in charge) to find her missing daughter.
Frankie and Trudy talk to Pastor Thompson, who says Elsie had no enemies, no friends, and no life outside the church. Frankie and Trudy search Elsie’s room and find some tobacco and matches from a jazz club called the 
Sapphire. They go to the Sapphire Club that night and notice a blue car following them. Inside the club, Trudy notices the piano player is the same guy who plays at church and Frankie points out that the singer on stage is Elsie. During a break, they hear Elsie scream backstage and find her on the floor of her dressing room. Elsie says a guy tried to grab her, but ran when she screamed. When she finds out Frankie and Trudy work for her father Elsie freaks, saying he’s probably the one who sent the guys to grab her.
Elsie says she doesn’t want to be a healer, just a singer. She and the piano player (Tickles Malone) seem to be pretty close, and both of them point out that Elsie doesn’t have to go home if she doesn’t want to. Frankie threatens
to tell Elsie’s father where she is, but Trudy decides to take Elsie home with her, both to keep her safe and to try and get the truth out of her about what’s going on. Mildred agrees to let Elsie stay at their house (and not to tell anyone she’s there), but tells Elsie she’ll have to work for her keep. (At first, Mildred thinks Trudy’s “favour” involves them getting a phone, which she’s always refused to do.) Frankie talks to Tickles, who claims he sees Elsie like a sister … but admits he wouldn’t mind cashing in if she makes it big as a singer. He also says he doesn’t know who would want to hurt her. At the office, Mary tells them 
that Pastor Thompson did five years for armed robbery, which casts a certain suspicion on him. She hasn’t been able to track the blue car yet, but Frankie asks her to check out Tickles Malone since he’s obviously a hustler. Frankie suggests Trudy might be able to get something out of Tickles, while she goes to confront Pastor Thompson about his prison record. Thompson says his congregation knows about his past and doesn’t care. Frankie tells him they found Elsie, but refuses to say where she is until they figure out who’s after her.
At the Clarke house, Elsie tries to sneak out but finds the windows nailed shut (which happened after Trudy snuck out as a teenager). She tells Trudy how Tickles convinced her to sing at the club and how she immediately fell in love with jazz. Trudy goes to the club and interrogates Tickles, who
denies doing anything to get Elsie in trouble. Trudy warns him to stop leading Elsie on, since she’s obviously smitten with him. At the Clarke place, Elsie asks Trudy’s brother Jacob (who’s also smitten) to deliver a letter from her to Tickles tomorrow. Frankie follows Pastor Thompson and finds him meeting the shady white dude (who drives the mysterious blue car) at a warehouse. Frankie takes photos of the white guy pushing Thompson around and Trudy tells her she believes Tickles isn’t behind the attack on Elsie, but she also thinks Elsie is holding something back. Mary tells Frankie that one of her fellow Morality Officers saw the blue car parked near the Sapphire Club several times, so Frankie tells her to go warn Tickles. Unfortunately, the shady white dude gets there 
first … just as Tickles is reading the letter from Elsie. At the Clarke house, Elsie heals Mildred, who starts dancing around like a maniac. Elsie admits she doesn’t know if she’s really healing people, but Trudy says giving people hope can be just as powerful. Frankie breaks into the warehouse and finds a counterfeiting operation. Mary goes to the Sapphire Club and finds Tickles with the shit kicked out of him. He says the guy who did it saw the letter, so he knows where Elsie is.
Frankie confronts Pastor Thompson about the counterfeiting and he admits the white guy (Lyle Walsh) is an old prison mate of his. Walsh threatened to
hurt Thompson’s family if he didn’t help him launder his funny money through the church collection plate. The pastor says Elsie stole some money, thinking it was the collection, but it was actually Walsh’s counterfeit money, which is why he’s after her. Mary calls to let Frankie know about Tickles, and that Walsh knows where Elsie is. Unfortunately, they can’t call Trudy to warn her, since there’s no phone at her house. At the Clarke house, Walsh pulls the master fuse to plunge the house into darkness. Trudy tries to fight him, but gets 
knocked out. Walsh terrorizes the family looking for Elsie, but Mildred refuses to tell him anything (even though he hurts her hip all over again). Walsh finds Elsie under the bed, but Trudy knocks him out before he can hurt her (and Mildred finally agrees they need a phone). Walsh is arrested and Pastor Thompson makes up with Elsie. Later at the club, Moses tells Frankie he’s heading to Europe and Trudy does a duet with Elsie.
This is a pretty good episode, where we get to know more about Trudy’s family life, especially her mom. Mildred is a bit of a Luddite, hating phones and cars, and she’s pretty strict around the house. But she’s also feisty,
opinionated, and not afraid to speak her mind … all qualities Trudy has inherited. Despite her disapproval of her career choice, I think Mildred is secretly proud of Trudy. Mildred also seems to disapprove of Frankie and Moses being an item. I assume it’s because they’re not married, not because of the race thing. We also learn that Frankie is a cynic and prefers to consider things logically, while Trudy is a bit more willing to go on faith.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Maybe he’s tickling more than just the ivories.” Mary’s comment about Tickles Malone, showing that she has a salty sense of humour.