School Ties, School Lies – Director: Ruba Nadda/Writer: Jennifer Kassabian
This one starts with Flo giving a talk to a class at Briarlane Girls’ School. She shows them some preserved bodily organs and lets them know that medicine isn’t an easy profession for women, but urges them to stick with it if that’s what they love. After class one of the girls (Roya) tells Flo about her favourite teacher at Briarlane, Miss Georgia Henning, who supposedly fell down the stairs drunk and died. But Roya says Miss Henning never drank and figures
there’s something going on, especially since nobody seems to want to scrutinize the case too closely. Flo decides to take the evidence to Frankie, Trudy, and Mary, who conclude that Georgia wasn’t drunk (since there was no alcohol in her blood) and that she was already dead when she took the tumble down the stairs (from the lack of bruising on her body). Roya sneaks into Frankie’s office to listen to the conversation and is excited to have Frankie take the case.
Frankie and Trudy go to Briarlane with Roya, who’s eager to help them crack the case. She suggests they talk to another teacher, Mabel Springs, who was Georgia’s best friend. Trudy tells Roya to go to class and try to get 
some info from her fellow students, but that’s obviously just a way to get Roya out of their hair for a while. They talk to the principal (Silas Mayfair), who says everyone loved Georgia and her progressive ways … except the religious teacher, Ebenezer Black. When they talk to Black, he admits he hated Georgia and considered her “progressive” teaching (like on evolution) to be sinful. He denies killing her, but does mention that Principal Mayfair was calling schools all over the place trying to get them to hire Georgia away from Briarlane. Frankie and Trudy talk to Mabel Springs, who tells them Georgia sometimes took some shit from the other teachers, who didn’t appreciate her single-mindedness. Mabel insists Georgia followed the rules closely, but her room tells a different story, with banned items like cosmetics and a pricey ticket to a theatre gala. Trudy finds a trophy that matches the wounds on Georgia’s head and Frankie finds the remains of a dinner (complete with wine) that seems to have been with a man. Roya asks Flo for advice on how to talk to her classmates, who usually ignore her or treat her like shit. Flo tells her to flatter them (since that’s what popular people love) and urges Roya to have
some self-confidence and adopt a kick-ass attitude. Elsewhere, Mary and a rather chubby officer named Arnie are talking to a guy about late alimony payments when a purse snatcher runs by. Mary stops him, but another officer (Scarrow) takes the credit, ignoring Mary and making fun of Arnie for not doing anything. At the office, Flo confirms the trophy is the murder weapon and Roya tells them she heard that a girl named Leona Wallace showed up for evening prayers the night of the murder, even though she was supposed to be doing private lessons with Georgia … and Leona looked scared. Trudy says she’ll go check out the gala, which leaves Frankie to find Leona … and look after Roya, which she’s not thrilled about. At the police station, the chief gives Arnie shit for being out of shape and congratulates Scarrow for catching the mugger. Arnie almost gives Mary the credit for stopping the perp, but keeps his mouth shut. At Briarlane, Frankie and Roya check out Leona’s room (with Roya picking the lock) and find it in a mess, with a half-packed suitcase and an open window.
Frankie decides to tell Mayfair that Leona is missing and that she might’ve seen something the night Georgia died. Frankie meets Edith Paltry, the head 
of the PTA, who wants Frankie to look for Leona before they call the cops. Roya overhears Frankie talking about Leona being in trouble and gets scared, so Frankie has to give her a pep talk about bravery. Roya mentions that some of the older girls (like Leona) hang out at Quon’s, so Frankie figures they should check there next. At the police station, the chief decrees a mandatory fitness test for all officers (at least all the male officers) and Scarrow gives Arnie shit, making fun of him for being chubby. Mary still gets no credit for stopping the mugger, but Arnie tells her she’s lucky she doesn’t have to do the fitness test. At Quon’s, Frankie and Roya run into Flo and find a booth with initials carved all over it from Briarlane girls. They find Leona’s initials and Roya figures out who her boyfriend is and leads Frankie to them. Leona says she
was doing her private session with Georgia when some pissed off guy came banging on the door. Georgia made her go out the window, but she’s worried that the guy might’ve known she was there and might come after her. Trudy and Flo talk to an usher at the theatre who recognizes Georgia’s photo and says she was at the gala with a rich guy named Chester Clyde. At the office, they compare notes and speculate that if Clyde was Georgia’s secret boyfriend, he might’ve killed her after an argument. Mary shows up and tells them about stopping the mugger and not getting her props for it. Roya tells her about James Barry, the British surgeon who turned to be a woman in disguise, suggesting that 
sometimes women just have to go above and beyond to do what they’re good at. Frankie and Trudy check out Chester Clyde’s workplace and find photos of him with Georgia and Mabel … which is strange, since Mabel denied knowing anything about Georgia having a boyfriend. When they go to Briarlane to talk to Mabel, they see her embracing Chester and heading inside with him.
When Frankie and Trudy confront them, Chester admits he’s gay and used both Georgia and Mabel for show. They show Frankie some threatening letters from Ebenezer Black that they found in Georgia’s room. The next morning, Frankie, Trudy, and Flo bring Roya and Leona to Georgia’s wake at Briarlane. Flo is going to take Leona around to see if she recognizes the voice of the guy she heard arguing with Georgia the night she was killed. Leona says Ebenezer’s not the guy she heard, so they keep looking (or listening, I guess). Edith rescues Frankie and Trudy from Ebenezer’s moralizing and brags about her own daughter (Gwendoline), who just got
early acceptance to Wellesley College. Flo takes Leona to the can and Roya sees some guy scowling at Georgia’s picture, so she accuses him of killing her. Frankie points out that this guy walks with a cane, so he can’t be the killer. Trudy points out that Roya has to look at all the evidence if she wants to be a detective. Leona returns and recognizes the voice she heard arguing with Georgia; it turns out to be Wilbur Paltry (Edith’s husband and Gwen’s father), who’s establishing a scholarship in Georgia’s memory. Roya says Gwen is no honours student, so they search her locker and find some discrepancies: Gwen’s tests have rather low marks, but her report cards are all A’s, so they wonder if Wilbur was paying for Gwen’s grades and killed Georgia because she wanted to back out. They talk to Wilbur, who tells them he asked Georgia to grade his 
daughter fairly and she agreed, but when Gwen’s report card came out, the grade she earned (a C) had been changed to an A, surprising Wilbur and Georgia. Wilbur insists Georgia was alive when he left and asks them to keep everything quiet, since his family doesn’t know about any of it. Frankie wonders if Principal Mayfair changed the grades. At the police station, Mary disguises herself as a man and competes in the fitness test, managing to tie Scarrow for top score. Scarrow suggests they break the tie with a rope climbing competition.
Frankie and Trudy confront Mayfair over the changed grades, but quickly realize he knew nothing about it. He says only someone with access to the original marking books could’ve changed the grades. At the station, Mary
beats Scarrow in the rope climb and reveals her real identity to the chief afterwards, telling him he shouldn’t assume female cops can’t cut it with the men. Frankie and Trudy talk to Mabel, who admits she changed the students’ grades to make some extra money, and she figured the rich kids at Briarlane didn’t need authentic grades to have a decent future. Mabel says she confessed everything to Georgia to keep her from going to the principal, but that’s the night she was killed. Frankie has a good idea who the killer is and recruits Roya to help flush her out. They go to the Paltry house and accuse Edith of killing 
Georgia, since the PTA head would have keys to the school. Roya asks Gwen to tutor her, which is obviously beyond Gwen’s capacity. Edith admits she killed Georgia after they argued about the changed grades, since she couldn’t face Gwen being expelled. Later, Roya thanks everyone for helping her and Mary gives her the medal she won in the fitness competition. Roya says she wants to be a doctor now instead of a detective.
This is a good episode, with Roya acting like a younger version of Frankie. It’s cool to see her learning things from Frankie, Trudy, and Flo, and giving something back when she inspires Mary in her cross-dressing exploits. Mary winning the competition was cool (although I can’t believe nobody
knew she was a woman) and her giving Roya the medal was a nice touch. There were more red herrings and false trails here than usual, but the resolution was pretty good, with Edith trying to keep her daughter from losing her academic placement (though I’m not sure how she thought Gwen would be able to compete at Wellesley when she was a mediocre student at best).
Favourite Quotes:
- “Not in school.” Frankie’s reply when Mabel asks where she learned to pick locks.
- “Headstrong, unruly, and pops up uninvited?” Trudy describing Roya … and Frankie.
- “Be a bearcat!” Flo’s advice to Mary to motivate her in the fitness test.
- “This one picks locks faster than I do.” Frankie lauding Roya’s abilities.