Scavenger Hunt – Director: Eleanore Lindo/Writer: Mary Pedersen
This one starts with Frankie, Mary, Trudy, and Flo tramping around the woods taking part in a scavenger hunt. We get some updates on everyone’s lives: Flo is getting ready to enter medical school, Trudy and Bill are engaged, and Frankie has a new guy in her life. Frankie’s man is supposedly rich, adventurous, and European, which makes the others think she might be lying about how great he is (or about his very existence). Frankie and Mary spot one of the items on their list (a carved wooden moose) and Frankie climbs up an escarpment to get it. From her vantage point, she sees something that’s not on the list … a dead body.
The guy was stabbed repeatedly and has been dead for a few hours, and Trudy recognizes him as a fellow contestant. He has a scavenger hunt list with four things checked off, but no sign of the items. The game organizer
(Dave Spry) shows up and identifies the dead man as Harold Luddy, a doctor. Spry asks Frankie to investigate, since they’re way out in the country and the cops won’t get there until tomorrow. Spry gives Frankie a list of the other contestants, although he says the game is supposed to be a friendly competition. The prize is $10,000, so Frankie figures a competitor might’ve been willing to kill for that kind of money. She tells the others they might as well keep looking for items while they’re talking to the other contestants about their alibis. Frankie lets Luddy’s partner (Ray Burridge) know what happened, and Burridge says that they won last year so maybe someone is trying to knock 
them out of the game this year. Burridge mentions Luddy getting into it with last year’s runner-up (Jerry Vernon), but acts weird when Frankie tries to get a look inside his tent. They’re interrupted by Frankie’s mom Nora showing up, with a guy she just met in the woods while searching for Frankie. The guy’s name is Keith and Frankie recognizes him from earlier in the game, but he’s not very chatty (though Nora seems quite taken with him). The others find a carved bear in a cave, but before Mary can grab it, Jerry Vernon shows up and literally steals it right from under her nose. Nora tells Frankie she just dumped her latest boyfriend and decided to come see Frankie after finding
the scavenger hunt brochure in the mess on her desk. When Frankie hears about Vernon poaching Mary’s bear, she goes to look for him and runs into another player (Wilbur Ellinger) in the woods. Ellinger tells her that Luddy gave him a fake map to send him on the wrong trail, but he’s shocked to hear that someone killed Luddy. As Frankie is walking through the woods, someone starts shooting arrows at her.
Frankie finds Vernon nearby with an arrow in his leg and takes him to their camp so Flo can patch him up … which she does in exchange for the bear he 
stole from them. Vernon figures Ellinger shot him (and killed Luddy) since Ellinger is a nature lover who wants to preserve the forest … and was carrying a bow and arrow. Ellinger admits he was pissed off at Luddy for giving him a fake copy of the official game map (after Ellinger lost his own), but denies killing him. He admits he went looking for Luddy, but only found his backpack, which he kept. Frankie realizes someone gave Luddy a fake map to lure him out of the designated game area (which is where his body was found), so he wasn’t trying to screw Ellinger over on purpose. Frankie and Mary go to investigate the map, while Flo (who found another item) and Trudy go to search some more. Nora brings Keith to the camp and talks him into building her a cot. He
seems very interested in Frankie’s progress on the case. Frankie and Mary talk about Trudy’s engagement and Mary says she’s surprised about it because Trudy and Bill seem so different. Frankie asks Spry about the maps and he says he left them unattended while he was setting up the items in the woods. He suggests she talk to Burridge, who Frankie is surprised to hear is still in the game (since he told her he couldn’t continue after Luddy’s death). Burridge admits he lied about quitting, saying he really needs the money. To look less mercenary, he mentions hiking out to notify the Hospital for Sick Children (where Luddy worked as a pediatrician) about Luddy’s death. When Frankie finds out 
where Luddy worked, she gets an idea. Elsewhere, Flo and Trudy stumble upon the campsite of a fortune teller, who’s just gone into labour. Frankie tells Mary about the case she just finished working on, helping a woman (Grace Patrick) and her kid escape her abusive husband. Luddy was the one who originally reported Grace’s husband (Martin) for his abusive behaviour, so Frankie figures Martin killed Luddy in revenge … and is probably after her too, which explains the arrows that almost hit her. At the campsite, Nora is stalked by an unseen assailant.
Frankie and Mary find the camp empty and a note from Martin Patrick telling them he has Nora at the ranger station. At the ranger’s cabin, Nora
tries to reason with her kidnapper, but he doesn’t say a word. Meanwhile, Flo tries to convince the pregnant seer (Bonnie) to go to hospital, but she claims the cards told her that someone would show up to help her birth the baby. At the cabin, Nora gets loose and smashes a chair over Martin’s head before taking off. She runs into Frankie and Mary outside, but Martin gets away. At the fortune teller’s camp, Flo and Trudy prepare to deliver Bonnie’s baby.
Since Frankie never met Martin Patrick, and Nora didn’t get a good look at him, they figure he could be any of the scavenger hunt contestants. Frankie 
figures Martin wants to know where his wife is and she’s the only one who can tell him. Bonnie goes into labour and tells Trudy she’s making a mistake by acting too hastily, which Trudy realizes refers to her sudden decision to marry Bill, since some part of her knows they’re not quite right for each other. Bonnie’s husband (Remmy) returns and the baby is born healthy. Back at camp, Frankie fills the others in on Martin Patrick and they narrow down the list of possibilities to Ellinger, Burridge, Vernon, Nora’s new beau Keith, and Spry. Any of them could be Martin Patrick, so Frankie decides to expose him. She gets
everyone together and explains that she wants to check their fingerprints against the one on the gun left behind by Nora’s kidnapper. Frankie eliminates Burridge and Vernon, since they played under the same names in last year’s game, while Martin Patrick is obviously operating under a pseudonym. Keith lets slip that he knows everyone’s true occupation and Frankie realizes Spry has cuts on his hands like those a chef would have, and since Martin Patrick is a chef, she knows he must be Spry. She badgers Spry until he admits his real identity and attacks her. She kicks his ass and Trudy ties him up. They turn him over to the cops and Keith admits he’s the sponsor of the game, the owner of 
Campbell Games. Keith tells the players they can finish the game if they like. Ellinger ends up winning and Nora leaves with Keith. Trudy seems disturbed about her impending marriage, but won’t admit it. Later, we see Frankie’s mystery man, Alessandro, who’s apparently some kind of Italian race car driver.
This is a good start to Season 4, showing us what’s happened since we last saw everyone. The story is a pretty standard murder mystery, with a couple of twists to make it more interesting. Trudy’s misgivings about marrying Bill don’t bode well, so I hope she figures out what she really wants before going through with it. Frankie mystery man is interesting too; why is she being so cagey about him? I get the feeling it’s a set-up for something big, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Favourite Quotes:
- “Well, I could do with a few less myself.” Nora agreeing that there are too many trees in the forest.
- “I’m fine, thanks for asking.” Nora’s response when Frankie expresses her disappointment at not getting her hands on the kidnapper.