Life on the Line – Director: Adriana Maggs/Writer: Keri Ferencz
Frankie and Flo are hanging out, talking about Flo’s upcoming tests to become a doctor. Flo’s worried she may not handle living patients as well as she does the corpses in the morgue, but Frankie reassures her. They come across a guy who’s preparing to jump off a railway bridge and try to talk him down. He says someone’s been trying to ruin his business (and his life) and Frankie convinces him she can find out who it is. Frankie and Flo drag the guy off the bridge, but he says he’s reserving his gratitude until after they find out who’s wrecking his life.
Frankie introduces Trudy to the guy (Ernie Penny) who runs a joke and novelty shop (which Trudy apparently loves). Ernie shows them all the stuff that’s been happening lately, which Frankie thinks could just be a string of bad luck … until an exterminator comes in saying he was called to spray for
roaches. After getting rid of the exterminator, Ernie mentions that he was supposed to buy Shipman’s Toy Factory dirt cheap until someone else swooped in and bought it just yesterday. Ernie insists nobody else even knew it was for sale and figures his ex-partner (Amos Pound) might be behind everything, since Amos dissolved their partnership with no warning. Frankie talks to Shipman, who tells her someone outbid Ernie for the factory. But he has no idea who it is, since all business was done over the phone. As Trudy checks around the office, she decides to call her boyfriend Bill to let him know she can’t make their lunch date. Someone on Ernie’s party line yells at her for monopolizing the line, 
thinking she’s Ernie. Frankie and Trudy talk to Amos, who says he got tired of Ernie’s bullshit and quit (although he admits he got a better offer from another company). He denies outbidding Ernie for Shipman’s factory and suggests his ex-fiancée (Julia) might be responsible. Julia also denies having anything to do with Ernie’s troubles, saying she wouldn’t waste her time on someone who broke their engagement over the phone. (Yeah, Ernie’s kind of an asshole.) While comparing notes with Flo and Mary, Frankie realizes that someone on Ernie’s party line could be behind all his troubles. She and Trudy check at the phone company, but the manager refuses to give them the info. Trudy has some stink bombs she took from Ernie’s place and tosses one into the exchange. Everyone evacuates, giving Frankie and Trudy time to go through the files. They get what they need and Frankie finds a notebook hidden
behind a filing cabinet, but they have to use another stink bomb to get out. Back at the office, Frankie reads the notebook and realizes someone working at the telephone exchange has been keeping close tabs on Ernie and a lot of other people, even though operators aren’t supposed to listen in on calls. They find the name Margaret Robinson in the notebook, but there’s nobody by that name working at the exchange, so they figure it’s a pseudonym (or the culprit changed her name). Frankie figures they need someone inside the exchange, but since the manager has seen her and Trudy, she sends Mary and Flo to get jobs there.
Frankie and Trudy ask Bill (who’s now Records Officer at City Hall) to see if Margaret Robinson changed her name. At the exchange, Mary and Flo meet a fellow operator named Lillian, who tells them they’ll get used to the fast pace, as long as they don’t get distracted listening in on calls (which is 
officially forbidden, but apparently happens quite a bit). Bill can’t find a record of a name change, but gives Frankie and Trudy Margaret Robinson’s last known address. At the exchange, Mary returns the notebook to its hiding place and Flo meets a couple of other operators (Edna and Busy) and tries to draw them out by talking about how she screwed over a guy at her last job. Mary runs afoul of Lillian by looking over her shoulder when she’s writing something, and then by getting caught listening in on a phone call (a very romantic call between two lovers named Marcus and Diana). Margaret’s old address turns out to be a church; apparently she was a novitiate who was kicked out for banging some guy. Ernie says it wasn’t him and gives them shit for not solving his case yet. Flo and Mary find out Lillian is nearing the end of her tenure as an operator because she’s getting married (and only single gals
can be operators), so they invite her, Busy, and Edna to Wendy’s speakeasy for a few drinks. Neither Flo nor Mary are too subtle about trying to get info from the gals, but they’re interrupted when Busy’s best friend shows up to join them. Frankie and Trudy (who are at the bar to keep an eye on things) immediately recognize Busy’s bestie as Ernie’s ex, Julia.
Frankie and Trudy talk to Julia and Busy, who deny having anything to do with Ernie’s troubles. Ernie shows up and gives them shit, embarrassing 
Frankie and Trudy (who seem to believe Busy’s denials). At the exchange, Mary sees Lillian writing in the hidden notebook and figures she must be Margaret Robinson. Frankie and Trudy check out the notebook itself and trace it to a printing house that’s just down from the church where Margaret used to live. When they ask the proprietors (Haskell and Daisy Beene) about Margaret, Daisy becomes brusque and Haskell looks really shifty. At the exchange, Mary goes through Lillian’s purse and finds numerous stock tips she’s been writing down, as well as a contract for the Shipman Toy Factory, which seems to prove that Lillian is Margaret Robinson. Ernie comes by the office to give Frankie some
good news: a silent partner has approached him offering to invest in his store, which will save him from bankruptcy after all the troubles he’s had. Trudy talks to Haskell Beene, who admits he’s the guy who banged Margaret Robinson, but says he hasn’t seen her since she tried to ruin his wedding. He does give Trudy a photo of Margaret that he kept and she isn’t Lillian. Frankie goes to the exchange to confront Lillian, but she says she’s never heard of Ernie Penny or his toy company.
Lillian admits she “overheard” Shipman talking about wanting to retire and 
swooped in to buy his factory, but insists she doesn’t know Ernie and has nothing to do with his troubles, having only found the notebook hidden behind the filing cabinet yesterday. Trudy sees Ernie violently dragging Edna (who is the woman in Haskell’s photo) into his store, so she calls Flo and Mary to let them know. At the exchange, Lillian admits she’s been listening in on stock tips to save up some cash since she’ll be forced to quit her job when she gets married. Mary
and Flo tells Frankie about Trudy’s call and they head to the toy shop, arriving in time to keep Ernie from shooting Edna, who turns out to be the “silent partner” Ernie was so excited about. Edna admits she decided to get some justice by screwing over some of the people she heard being assholes on the phone. Edna says she never thought her actions would have serious consequences. Frankie forces 
Ernie and Lillian to go into partnership together, saying their alternative is her telling the cops about their various crimes. Flo advises a woman she’s been listening to on the phones to get a divorce, and Mary brings Marcus and Diana to City Hall to get married because Diana’s mother is trying to ship her off to a convent school. (Turns out Marcus is black and Diana is white, which is why her parents are so worked up about the relationship).
This is a pretty good episode, that gives Mary and Flo a chance to do some undercover work. Ernie is kind of a dick, but doesn’t deserve to be driven to suicide, so hope Edna got some kind of punishment for her actions. Seeing
Mary and Flo get absorbed in other people’s lives was cool and Mary giving Marcus and Diana a happy ending was sweet. Apparently, Canada had no laws against mixed marriages, so Diana’s parents wouldn’t have been able to do anything once the ceremony was over. There were quite a few red herrings, with Edna kinda flying under the radar for most of the episode (although there were some small clues, like her drinking ginger ale at the speakeasy).
Noticeable Things:
- Frankie makes Trudy a Bloody Mary, saying it’s a new drink from Paris she just read about. The Bloody Mary was supposedly invented in Paris around 1921, so that fits.
Favourite Quotes:
- “You are gonna kill pathology.” Frankie giving Flo a pep talk.
- “Or something.” Trudy’s reply when Ernie asks if dating a nun is illegal or something.
- “His moods make me dizzy.” Trudy when she finds out the normally angry or morose Ernie is blissfully happy.