The Last Dance – Director: Ruba Nadda/Writer: James Hurst
This one starts with Frankie, Trudy, Mary, and Flo at a dance marathon, although Mary seems to be the only one entered in the contest, with the other three just taking part in the “free dances” amidst the main competition. We meet two more couples, Sean and his fiancée Audrey (who are couple #42), and Thomas and his girlfriend Jennifer (couple #24). Thomas turns out to be the heir to Enfield Steel and the sponsor of the event, but he’s
embarrassed when the MC (a slick talking Brit named Johnny Cork) publicly thanks him. Sean starts acting weird, almost passing out, and excuses himself. He’s not back before the marathon starts again and Audrey is worried. Frankie offers to help her find Sean, but we see him in a back room (looking increasingly shaky) about to inject himself with a hypodermic needle. He’s jumped by a tall guy and Frankie and Audrey arrive just in time to see Sean tossed into a truck that immediately takes off.
Audrey agrees to let Frankie and Trudy investigate the kidnapping and tells 
them Sean worked at a factory and doesn’t have much money, which makes him a strange target for a ransom kidnapping. Frankie tells Johnny Cork what happened, but he doesn’t believe her and refuses to stop the dance marathon. (Cork owns the venue and obviously doesn’t want to lose all the money the event is bringing in.) Trudy finds a syringe at the spot Sean was grabbed, but they’re not sure if it belongs to Sean or his kidnapper, so Frankie asks Flo to analyze it. Trudy overhears Cork arguing with someone on the phone and runs into Tickles Malone (from Healing Hands), who’s part of the band. When she asks about the tall man, Tickles says it’s probably Ed, who’s the janitor at the dance hall but
also runs a little illegal booze on the side. Audrey admits to Frankie that Sean has been a bit secretive lately, like he’s been keeping something from her. Frankie and Trudy check out the back room where Ed hides his hooch and are surprised when Thomas comes in looking for a drink. They notice he’s wearing number 42 (Sean’s number) and Thomas says he and Sean must’ve accidentally switched jackets earlier …which probably means Thomas was the kidnapper’s real target.
Frankie and Trudy let everyone know what’s going on and Thomas volunteers to stay in the contest in case the kidnapper realizes his mistake and comes back to get him (which Jennifer thinks is a bad idea). Mary and 
Trudy offer to keep Thomas in sight at all times and Frankie goes to see Thomas’s mother. Mrs. Enfield has already gotten a ransom note and is glad to hear the kidnapper got the wrong guy. She disapproves of Thomas hanging around the dance hall and tells Frankie that Johnny Cork not only talked Thomas into sponsoring the contest, but also into giving him $3,000 to pay off his debts. Frankie tells Trudy what she found out and they wonder if Cork tried to kidnap Thomas to get more money to pay his debts. Trudy checks with Flo, who figures the hypodermic might’ve come from a drug trial at the university. While Mary keeps an eye on Thomas (even swapping in as his dance partner for a time), Frankie looks for Cork. A musician tells her Cork went to the
booze storage room, but he’s gone when she checks it. At the university, Trudy and Flo talk to Dr. Frederick Banting, who admits Sean is involved in a drug trial to test a new way of controlling diabetes, a drug called insulin. Banting says Sean needs insulin shots twice a day and if he misses one, he could die. Frankie looks for Cork in the woods near the dance hall and finds the truck that Ed drove when he grabbed Sean. She also finds Ed, dead on a bench below a balcony with a broken railing. Unfortunately, she’s not alone.
The newcomer is Detective Grayson (who we saw last episode) and he seems 
to suspect Frankie might’ve had something to do with Ed’s death. She gives him a fake name and bullshits him about why she’s there, not wanting him to show up at the dance hall and scare off the kidnapper. Frankie tells the others about Ed being dead and Trudy and Flo tell them about Sean needing his insulin shot. Frankie asks Flo to check out Ed’s body and takes Thomas to see his mother, hoping to convince her to go through with the ransom drop even though Thomas is safe. Mrs. Enfield refuses and gives Thomas shit for being too soft, so Frankie “borrows” some of her clothes to make the drop herself. At the dance hall, Audrey tries to deal with the fact her fiancée has diabetes. Mary
sees Grayson show up and tries to distract him, first by offering to help in his investigation, then by overwhelming him with all the morality infractions she’s seen at the dance. Frankie makes the ransom drop and grabs the guy who collects it. He says Ed gave him ten dollars to pick up the bag and put it in the bleachers at the dance hall, so Frankie tells him to go ahead.
The hours go by and nobody goes near the ransom, so Frankie takes a closer look at the ransom note. She notices several imperfections in the 
typewriting and figures she can match the note to Cork’s typewriter. At the morgue, Flo gets a look at Ed’s autopsy report. Frankie checks Cork’s typewriter and the imperfections match, so she and Trudy accuse him of being behind the kidnapping. Cork denies having anything to do with it (and is surprised to hear Ed is dead), telling them he was getting pounded by a loan shark during the kidnapping. As an alibi, Cork mentions meeting a woman in a gold dress running toward the dance hall around that time and Frankie realizes it was Jennifer. She
tries to deny it, but Frankie quickly realizes she and Thomas planned the kidnapping together. Thomas is surprised to hear about Ed and Jennifer admits she argued with him and he fell off the balcony while attacking her. Thomas and Jennifer needed money to go away and get married (since his mother disapproved of Jennifer), so she convinced Ed to help. But when they realized Ed got the wrong guy, Jennifer asked him to free Sean. Ed refused, wanting more 
money, and attacked her. She moved out of the way and he fell … something Flo confirms when she shows up. Flo also mentions a high level of arsenic in Ed’s blood and they start trying to figure out where Ed might’ve hidden Sean. They notice Ed’s hooch is in bottles from a defunct company and Flo points out that arsenic was once used to make bottles, so they head to the abandoned distillery and find Sean. Trudy gives him the insulin just in time to save his life.
Mrs. Enfield wants Frankie to prove Thomas is innocent, but Frankie refuses (since he obviously isn’t) and says she should’ve let Thomas live his own life. Detective Grayson figures out who Frankie is and gives her shit, warning her not to lie to him again. At the marathon, Sean and Audrey are allowed to re-enter the competition and give the leading couple a run for their money.
This is a pretty good episode, which focuses on another staple of the 1920s, the dance marathon. The “kidnapping yourself for the ransom” thing has been done before, but it’s pulled off pretty well here, with enough red
herrings to keep it interesting. We also get another famous face (and an moment in Canadian history), with Dr. Banting making a brief appearance to talk about insulin. Detective Grayson shows up again too, but I’m not really sure what to make of him. He seems like kind of an asshole, so he’s either going to end up being a major antagonist (a crooked cop, maybe?) or a love interest for Frankie (or maybe even Mary, although they don’t seem to have much chemistry).
Noticeable Things:
- From what I can tell, Frederick Banting discovered insulin at the University of Toronto in 1921 and started giving it to patients in early 1922 (although that was at Connaught Labs). Maybe he kept doing trials through 1922 to make sure the drug was safe, which would fit with this episode being set in late 1922 or even early 1923.
Favourite Quotes:
- “I think maybe a B or a B minus … Howard, I would like a C plus.” Mary chastising her partner for not being a good enough dancer.
- “I should hit you for making me run in heels.” Frankie giving the ransom collector shit when he begs her not to hit him.
- “Who’s got time for that?”’ Frankie reply when Trudy points out that love can make you blind to someone’s faults.