Now You See Her – Director: Ruba Nadda/Writer: James Hurst
This one starts at a magic show, with the warm-up act (Ben Sellers) and his lovely assistant (Winnie Hudson) doing several tricks that wow the audience. While this is happening, the headliner (Van Zant) and his assistant/wife
Celeste are arguing in the wings. Everyone is worried about Celeste after Van Zant gives her shit for something, but she insists she’s fine and wants to go ahead with the show. Van Zant’s big trick is to put Celeste in a cabinet, shove swords through it, and have her miraculously appear at the back of the theatre. But when Celeste doesn’t appear, Van Zant opens the cabinet to reveal her body skewered by the swords.
Oswald, the proprietor of the venue (which is called the Magic Mansion) asks Frankie to look into Celeste’s death. He suspects foul play, pointing out 
that only another magician could’ve sabotaged the trick. Frankie offers to go undercover as Van Zant’s new assistant and impresses Oswald enough (by stealing his watch) that he agrees to her plan. Oswald shows Trudy around the Magic Mansion and fills her in on Celeste’s death. If she yelled for help, the music and soundproof cabinet would’ve kept anyone from hearing her. Oswald says she had no enemies, though Van Zant does. Trudy wonders if someone killed Celeste to end Van Zant’s career. Oswald introduces Frankie to Van Zant (as Emily Blake), who isn’t too welcoming (and doesn’t seem all that broken up over his wife’s grisly death). Trudy comes to talk to Van Zant and
Frankie meets Winnie, who tells her Van Zant treated Celeste like crap and mentions how he was yelling at her just before her death. Van Zant tells Trudy that Celeste was in charge of checking the equipment before the show and insists he has no idea why it failed. He suggests the two openers (Sellers and Merlini the Mesmerist) might be responsible. Neither Merlini nor Sellers like Van Zant much, but claim not to have done anything (and both seem fond of Celeste). Sellers tells Trudy he’s heard rumours that Van Zant bought his flaming swords trick from a black market magic broker named Frost. At the morgue, Flo and Mary find no signs of struggle on Celeste’s body, which seems strange for someone trapped in a cabinet. At the Magic Mansion, Detective Greyson shows up to question Van Zant; he recognizes Frankie, but plays along with 
her ruse. Frankie eavesdrops as Van Zant explains the flaming swords trick to Greyson. The cabinet has a false bottom that let Celeste down under the stage where she cut her bonds and crawled through a tunnel to emerge behind the audience. There was supposed to be a secret catch to open the cabinet door if something went wrong, but Van Zant doesn’t know why Celeste didn’t use it, or why the trap door didn’t work. When Greyson looks at the mechanism under the stage, he figures out that something was jammed into the gears to keep the trap door from opening. When Greyson leaves, Frankie looks around for whatever was used to jam the gears and finds a silver coin … exactly like the one Sellers uses in his act.
Frankie compares notes with the others and Trudy mentions she managed to arrange a secret meeting with Frost, the magic broker. Flo and Mary go to see Frost, leaving Trudy to confront Sellers with the coin. He admits he uses coins like that in his act, but says it would be rather stupid for him to use it
to sabotage the mechanism … especially as he can make the coin vanish at will. Frankie talks to Winnie again, who mentions that Sellers was supposed to be the headliner before Van Zant showed up. Mary and Flo go to the industrial district to meet Frost in a warehouse. Mary is freaked out, since she saw a magician’s rabbit get run over by a cart when she was a kid. Frost denies having invented the flaming swords (or ever meeting Van Zant), claiming he’s just a middleman and that Van Zant came 
up with the trick on his own. At the Mansion, Frankie talks to Sellers, who confirms the argument between Van Zant and Celeste and says Celeste seemed kinda out of it afterwards. Greyson shows up to bring Sellers in for questioning—having figured out it was one of his coins that jammed the mechanism—and seems a bit jealous when he overhears Sellers asking Frankie out. At the morgue, they discuss the case and Frankie wonders if Celeste’s unnatural passivity was due to her being hypnotized.
Trudy says she’ll talk to Oswald and Frankie plans to ask Merlini about hypnotism, since it’s part of his act. Frankie snoops in Merlini’s dressing room and finds out he was banging Celeste. Oswald tells Trudy how
hypnotism works (a few sessions to plant a suggestion in the subject and set up a trigger) and Trudy notices a photo of Oswald, Van Zant, and Frost. She’s surprised, since Frost told Mary and Flo he never met Van Zant. Trudy decides to go confront Frost and takes Mary with her. Merlini catches Frankie in his dressing room and she says she wants him to mesmerize her. Trudy and Mary overhear Van Zant and Frost arguing; Van Zant gives Frost some money and Frost yells 
that he knows the truth about Van Zant. Frankie’s will power is too strong for Merlini to hypnotize her, but he does figure out she’s not really a magician’s assistant. She does get one clue from him … he taught Winnie the art of mesmerism. After comparing notes with Trudy, Frankie tries to get close to Van Zant but Merlini has warned him about her. Trudy and Mary return to Frost’s place and find him dead.
Van Zant denies knowing anything about Frost’s death and asks Winnie to look at his newest illusion. Frankie talks to Merlini and finds out he wanted Van Zant to know about him and Celeste, thinking he’d drop her so she and Merlini could be together. But Celeste dumped him instead, saying she had a
“complicated financial situation” with Van Zant. Mary finds out that Frost was arrested for theft a few years back, but the case was dropped. Frankie figures Frost stole the idea for the Flaming Swords trick from someone and sold it to Van Zant, so she, Trudy, and Mary go to Frost’s warehouse, where Mary finds a hidden room. They find a contract between Frost and the Van Zants, promising half their earnings (in perpetuity) to Frost … probably in exchange for the stolen Flaming Swords trick. They also find blueprints for the Flaming Swords apparatus and see the real inventor’s name was Martha Hudson … most likely related to Winnie. Speaking of which, Van Zant has showed Winnie his 
latest illusion—a trick guillotine—and she asks to see him do the illusion himself. But she locks him in and tells him she’s going to kill him. Trudy shows up and distracts Winnie, getting her to admit she’s avenging her mother, who invented the Flaming Swords trick that Frost stole, but couldn’t get recognition for it since women can’t be magicians. Frankie sneaks up and decks Winnie while she’s talking. Later, Van Zant admits he and Celeste bought the Flaming Swords trick and Oswald throws him out of the Magic Mansion for life. At Wendy’s, Sellers (now the headliner at the Mansion) shows up to ask Frankie out again and she accepts. Greyson’s there and is definitely jealous.
This is a really good episode; the backstabbing magicians theme is kinda like the Prestige, but with a good twist at the end. As far as I can tell, the Magic Mansion wasn’t a real Toronto venue, but stage magic was pretty respected back then, so it feels appropriate. It’s interesting that Winnie
anger isn’t just because Frost stole her mother’s invention; she’s pissed off that women aren’t allowed to be magicians in their own right, which is something that prevailed for quite a long time. Even when I was a kid (late 70s/early 80s), all the magicians I saw on TV were male. I think women have finally broken that barrier to some degree, which makes sense since being able to do magic has nothing to do with sex (or colour, for that matter … you still don’t see many non-white magicians headlining shows).
Noticeable Things:
- Besides Houdini, we also hear the names of a couple of other famous contemporary magicians mentioned: Howard Thurston and Harry Blackstone (Senior).
- The coins Sellers uses are Carson City Morgan silver dollars, which were minted between 1878 and 1893 and are highly prized by numismatists today.
Favourite Quotes:
- “You haven’t made a peep in almost fifteen minutes and that’s an eternity in Mary-time.” Flo wondering why Mary is so quiet.
- “Frankie, one of the gals at the station, she was hypnotized by Merlini and she said he made her bark like a chicken and cluck like a dog.” Mary warning Frankie about getting hypnotized.