Whisper Sisters – Director: Leslie Hope/Writer: Adriana Maggs
This one starts with Frankie experimenting with various blends of homemade gin, using Trudy as the final judge of quality. Trudy points out an article in the newspaper about a mobster (Joe Perry) committing suicide in prison. Frankie is bothered by the news and we get an extended flashback to six months ago, when she and Trudy met Joe Perry. They’re hanging out at Quan’s speakeasy (and Trudy is kicking ass at mah-
jongg), when a couple of mobsters—Joe Perry and his brother Gino—start pushing Wendy Quan’s son around. Frankie and Trudy confront the thugs, but there seems to be an instant attraction between Frankie and Joe. The mobsters leave and someone outside does a drive-by, shooting up the building … and wounding Wendy’s son, who was out in the alley.
Wendy admits the Perrys were pressuring her to buy her illegal booze from them, but she says her suppliers are the Petrillo family and nobody messes 
with them. Frankie wonders if the Perrys shot up the place to intimidate Wendy, but Trudy shows her another victim of the shooting … Gino Perry, who’s dead. Trudy talks to witnesses, one of whom thinks the shooter looked like “Lena’s boyfriend”. Lena is a burlesque dancer at a club downtown, so Trudy decides to talk to her while Frankie decides to track down Joe Perry. Mary is eager to help in the investigation (since her dream is to be a real cop and being a private detective is pretty close), and she knows where to find Lena. Trudy tells her she’ll have to change out of her uniform and drop the Morality Officer stuff when they’re at the club. Frankie finds Joe, who was wounded during the
shooting. She says she knows someone who can patch him up with no questions asked. At the Krazy Kitten Club, Trudy runs into the bartender (Bobby, who she seems to know) but he refuses to talk about mob business. Trudy and Mary talk to Lena, who says her boyfriend left town three days ago, so he couldn’t have been involved in the shooting. Frankie takes Joe to the morgue so Flo can get the bullet out. Joe says his brother accidentally shot him after he got hit.
Flo gets the bullet out and sews up the wound and Joe tells Frankie that the Petrillos wouldn’t have come after him and Gino because their mother was a 
Petrillo and the Petrillos never kill family. Joe thanks Flo for saving his ass by pulling a gun and threatening to shoot her, but Frankie talks him out of it, laying on the charm and convincing him that Flo will keep quiet. At the office, Mary convinces Trudy to let her come along on the investigation by hinting that she knows something about the Petrillos. Frankie and Joe are driving around when he tells her he wants to go check out his still in the woods. When Frankie hesitates, he pulls a gun on her. Trudy has Eric Morrison (from Summer in the City) covering the phones at the office, but he’s not very good at it. When Flo tries to leave a message about Joe kidnapping Frankie, she has to
explain the whole thing to him. At Goderham & Worts (the distillery), Trudy and Mary try to scam their way in to find out who’s supplying the booze to the Krazy Kitten, but Mary’s not too good at lying and fucks things up. Trudy does manage to learn that a guy named Pete, who delivers whiskey to the club, is open to a little bribery. Frankie and Joe stop at a gas station and she talks him into buying her a soft drink, which she surreptitiously pours into the crankcase while pretending to add oil. Trudy and Mary spot Pete, the shady delivery guy, and follow him out into the countryside. Pete leads them to a still in the woods (yeah, the same one Frankie and Joe are looking for) and they sneak up to check things 
out. They notice the guys are watering down the good whiskey with their moonshine so they can stretch the supply and sell the extra. Pete catches them and Mary gets into cop mode and tries to arrest everyone. The bootleggers aren’t willing to go to jail for their illegal hooch, so Pete decides to destroy the evidence by blowing up the still and all the booze. Frankie and Joe are getting close, but when they see the explosion they keep right on going, just missing Trudy and Mary, who are fleeing the scene as fast as possible.
Frankie’s car breaks down from the soda she poured in it and Joe gets worried. He admits he has a deal with Al Capone; he’s supposed to supply some booze and Capone is going to give him something big in return. Outside Quon’s, Eric runs into some mobsters and tells them he’s looking for Joe, which is a huge coincidence because the mobsters are looking for
him too. (Naturally, Eric is so clueless he doesn’t realize they’re mobsters and spills everything to them.) Frankie and Joe head back to the gas station to find a car and Frankie says she might be able to sweet talk Capone and tells Joe how she and her dad used to run cons years ago. Joe seems to find that rather attractive, but gets distracted when Pete pulls up at the gas station with his truck full of booze. Frankie distracts Pete and they steal the truck. At the office, Trudy and Mary find Eric with Lorenzo Petrillo and realize he’s told Lorenzo everything.
Frankie and Joe end up by the waterfront waiting for Capone and Joe passes the time by hitting on her. At the office, Lorenzo says he’s looking for Joe 
and tells Trudy and Mary that Lena’s boyfriend is actually Bobby, the bartender at the club. Down by the docks, Capone shows up and talks to Frankie while the booze is being unloaded. Capone mentions that he likes Lorenzo Petrillo and is sorry to hear about Gino … who he trusted more than Joe. In exchange for the booze, Capone gives Joe a crate full of Tommy guns and Joe admits he’s getting ready to make a power play against his uncle Lorenzo. At the club, Trudy and Mary threaten Lena and she admits Bobby has been working against the Petrillos because he got impatient about not moving up in the organization. She says he went to pick up a shipment at the docks. (One guess which shipment that is.) By the waterfront, Frankie accuses Joe of setting up the hit on Gino,
since Gino didn’t want to go after Lorenzo. Bobby shows up to collect the guns and Frankie threatens to blow everything up, including them. Trudy and Mary show up with Lorenzo to take care of Joe, but Mary convinces Lorenzo to let her arrest Joe and confiscate the guns. Mary’s quite proud at getting credit for such a big case, but Frankie figures Lorenzo has someone inside prison who’ll take care of Joe for him.
That brings us back to the present, with Joe having “committed suicide” in prison. But it turns out he faked the whole thing after spilling a lot of stuff 
to the cops about the Petrillos. Frankie figures he’s there to kill her, but he just wants to say goodbye before he heads down to the States to live under a new name.
This is a pretty good episode, with everyone getting something to do. Personally, I find the sexual tension between Frankie and Joe a little weird; I wouldn’t think she’d be attracted to a scumbag like him (beyond the physical, at least). But maybe it’s the sense of danger that turns her on; we know Frankie enjoys excitement, so maybe it’s the taboo nature of the relationship that appeals to her. It was cool to see Frankie talking to a very young Al Capone, and I like Trudy and Mary’s dynamic. I hope they team up more often in the future.
Noticeable Things:
- Joe tells Frankie she can find him in Duluth under the name Ira Philpot, if she’s so inclined.
- According to Trudy and Mary, drinking in a private residence is not a violation of the Temperance Act, unlike in the United States.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Hey, I’m sort of a real cop.” Mary letting the bootleggers know just who they’re dealing with.
- “I didn’t even know what street Canada was on until I heard from Joe here.” Al Capone being a smartass, with a variation of a real-life Capone quote.
- “Lorenzo Petrillo is outside and he’s offered to paint your nails. Thing is, he likes to take them off first.” Mary letting Lena know she’d better tell them where Bobby went.