Anastasia – Director: Cal Coons/Writer: Michelle Ricci
This one starts with Ernest Hemingway asking Frankie to take a case for a friend of his. The friend (Louisa Winchester) is a lover of Russian culture, since her father was once Ambassador to Russia. Louisa is even hosting three Cossacks (Sergei, Sasha, and Misha) at her estate because their loyalty to the Tsar—or his memory—has made them unwelcome in post-Revolution Russia. Louisa then introduces Frankie to another guest, a young girl she names as Anastasia Romanov, daughter of the last Tsar. Unfortunately, the girl is just as surprised as Frankie at Louisa’s declaration and faints dead away.
Louisa explains that she met Anastasia years ago, when she was a child and thinks Anna (as the girl is known) looks like her. Also, Anna has a ring that Louisa remembers Rasputin giving to Anastasia to protect her. Louisa wants
Frankie to prove Anna is the Princess, not just for her but for all the exiled Russian royalists out there. Frankie talks to Anna, who can’t remember anything before a few months ago when she woke up in a hospital in New York. From what she was told, she could’ve come through Ellis Island (as a stowaway, since there’s no record) and she does speak perfect Russian, as well as flawless English. Frankie is skeptical, but calls Trudy in to help investigate. They talk to the Cossacks and Sergei tells Frankie he met Anna in New York and invited her to join their carnival 
act, since she had nowhere else to go. Sasha tells her he doesn’t think Anna is Anastasia (and Sergei agrees), but Misha tells Trudy he does believe it. Frankie thinks Anna might be a con artist, so she asks her mother Nora (an expert in cons) to nose around the house a bit. Trudy takes Anna to see Flo, who says she’s around the same age as Anastasia, probably came from a well-to-do family, and bleeds easily. The Romanovs had hemophilia, but Flo mentions that taking a lot of aspirin could thin Anna’s blood too, and Anna admits she does take aspirin a lot because she gets headaches all the time. Flo shows her an x-ray that indicates she has a bullet lodged in her skull, which would explain the headaches (and the memory loss). Frankie
and Trudy go to tell Louisa about the bullet and are surprised to find Nora posing as a lifestyle coach, hired by Louisa to teach Anna how to be a proper princess. When Louisa hears about the bullet, she’s sure Anna is the real thing and tells Frankie her job is done. On the way out, Frankie and Trudy find a box addressed to Anastasia containing some caviar … and the message “All Romanovs must die.”
Louisa assumes Bolsheviks are responsible and Anna is now convinced she 
really is Anastasia. That makes Frankie and Nora a bit suspicious, wondering if Anna might’ve faked the threat. Frankie asks Mary (who’s a huge fan of Russian literature and culture) to see if she can find out anything about Anna when she was in New York. Frankie asks Hemingway for help in tracking down the caviar since he’s been researching local Russians for his story. They go to a Russian restaurant where the owner (Alexei) offers vodka and caviar … the same stuff that was sent to Anna. Alexei turns out to be a staunch Bolshevik and says if any Romanovs survived, they should be killed as soon as possible. At the Winchester mansion, Nora takes off and Trudy finds Anna has snuck out
for a tryst with Sasha, who she’s apparently been seeing for a while. But now that it looks like she’s royalty, Sasha breaks things off, leaving Anna heartbroken. Frankie tells Louisa and Anna about the local Bolsheviks wanting Anna dead. Her warning is punctuated by someone shooting at Anna through the window and an attacker coming after her in her room. But instead of killing her, he just steals the Ring of Rasputin.
Frankie wonders why the guy only wanted the ring and Louisa claims it gave Rasputin magical powers. At the office, Hemingway shows up drunk, having 
spent the day drinking with Alexei to get some info out of him. Alexei did mention that a noted Bolshevik assassin (Anton Andreyvich, who was supposedly present at the Tsar’s execution) is in Toronto. Hemingway lays a drunken smooch on Frankie (who’s totally into it), but they’re interrupted by Mary showing up with some info from New York. (Mary doesn’t know Hemingway was there, but does think Frankie looks a bit flushed.) A young woman who emigrated from Russia (Mona Gregorivich) married a guy named Simmons, who ended up shooting her. She was taken in by some nuns and then disappeared, but her description matches Anna perfectly. Nora tells Frankie and Trudy that most
of Louisa’s “Russian artifacts” are fake and the one big one that’s real (a Fabergé dog) was bought at an auction by her late husband, not gifted to her by the Tsar as she claimed. When Frankie confronts her, Louisa admits she never visited Russia, but says her father really was Ambassador and died drinking poison meant for the Tsar. She wants to protect the Tsar’s daughter the way her father protected the Tsar. She’s not to happy when Frankie informs her that Anna might be Mona Gregorivich. Frankie and Trudy still think whoever stole the ring is the assassin and zero in on the Cossacks. They discount Sasha, since he and 
Anna were lovers. Frankie talks to Sergei, who’s surprised to learn about the ring being stolen. Trudy gets flirty with Misha and finds out he’s the one who stole the ring. Misha swears he doesn’t know the assassin but stole the ring because he really believes it’s magical. Frankie shows Anna the info on Mona Gregorivich and points out that if she goes public, the assassin will leave her alone. At the office, Hemingway shows Frankie a photo of the assassin and it turns out to be Sergei. But when Frankie and Trudy get to the Winchester house, they find Sergei has been stabbed and Anna is gone.
Sergei says he’s not really Andreyvich, he just took the identity to get out of Russia. He doesn’t know who the assassin is, but Frankie and Trudy
eliminate Misha (since he only cares about the ring) and realize Sasha must secretly be a Bolshevik out to kill Anna. They find Sasha and Anna at the Bolshevik restaurant and he admits he’s really a Bolshevik and wants Anna dead. Anna says she’s willing to give it all up and be Mona Gregorivich because she loves Sasha so much. He loves her too, but Alexei isn’t so forgiving and tries to stab Anna, getting Sasha instead. Trudy kicks Alexei’s ass, but it’s too late for Sasha. Later, Sergei says they’re taking Anna to Denmark to meet Anastasia’s 
relatives, so they’ll soon know if she’s really the Grand Duchess or not. That evening, Hemingway drops by to tell Frankie he’s moving to Paris and they end up making out again (and probably banging, but we don’t get to see that part). The next day, Mary tells Frankie and the others that Mona Gregorivich actually stayed with the nuns who helped her and ended up dying of tuberculosis, so Anna could still be Anastasia.
This is a pretty good episode that gets into some Russian history with the whole “is Anastasia still alive?” thing. There were several women who
claimed to be Anastasia, the most famous being Anna Anderson, although I’m not sure if this Anna is meant to be her or not. I think recent DNA evidence has shown that the Romanovs did die in 1917, although Grand Duke Alexei and one of his sisters were buried separately, igniting speculation that they might’ve escaped the massacre (until their remains were found and identified too). I couldn’t find any 
record of an Ambassador to Russia named Winchester, so I’m assuming that was all made up for this episode. I don’t think these Winchesters are meant to be part of the famous gunmaking family. We don’t really get much insight into the regular characters in this episode, though we do see that Frankie is pretty handy with a sword.
Noticeable Things:
- Ernest Hemingway moved to Paris in late 1921, which doesn’t quite fit with the timeline of the show (it seems to be set in 1922), but maybe the creators are fudging the dates a bit for dramatic effect.
- In real life, Hemingway was already married (to Hadley Richardson) at this point, but there’s no mention of her … and he asks Frankie to come to Paris with him, so I’m not sure how he was going to explain that to his wife.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Make her sleep on a pea?” Trudy’s suggestion on how to determine whether or not Anna is a princess.
- “A princess can’t bugger up her family tree.” Nora showing how classy she is as Anna’s etiquette instructor.
- “Well, what else is there to do there?” Mary admitting she went all the way to New York just to research the case.
- “Oh, this is going to end badly.” Flo when Frankie pulls out a bottle of vodka.